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Reading Romans 11:29-32 where Paul argues that God has consigned all to disobedience that He may have mercy on all, and understanding "all" to whom God is merciful. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Romans 11 .32 says that God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all, not mercy on every single person, but those on whom he will have mercy when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand the Text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to Romans chapter 11, and picking up where we left off yesterday, but I'm going to start out by reading verses 25 through 36. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches in wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. And so again, Paul is addressing the Gentiles here, and he is talking about how the Gentiles need to be humble and realize that the mercy of God that has come to them is because God will have mercy on whom he has mercy.
It's not because the Gentiles are anything great or they didn't sin as bad as the Jews did or anything like this. It's because God is merciful. To him belongs all the glory. The Jews, likewise, there is a salvation that is for them.
So it's not like the Jews have been cut off entirely from the kingdom of God, because after all, there are Jews who are Christians. As Paul is writing to this church, they're in Rome. They have Christians in their midst who are Jews.
So therefore, you would not be able to make the argument that because the Jews have been disobedient, they're cut off from the kingdom. There are Jews and Gentiles together in this church. And so the Gentiles should not become arrogant toward the Jews.
At the same time, the Jews need to humble themselves and realize the errors that they have committed in disobeying the law of God that was given to them through Moses. The Jews should have known better than anybody God's plan of salvation and his promise to bring a savior through the line of David.
But they did not realize that Christ was that savior, that he was and is the fulfilling of all the law and the prophets. They were ignorant to these things. But this does not make them worse sinners than the Gentiles, as Paul had already laid out this argument from Romans one through Romans three, 20, rather all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
And all are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus to be received by faith. So we come to our salvation by faith in Christ, not by our obedience to the law, not because of our ignorance of the law, not because one is a Jew or one is a Gentile.
And God does not show any greater favor or condemnation to one or the other. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And this is all to the praise of his glorious grace. He deserves all the glory and honor for this.
We cannot boast in ourselves for any reason at all. This is the point that Paul is making to the Gentiles. And again, this letter being read to the entire congregation there to the church in Rome, it was sure it was certainly in the hearing of the Jews as well.
The Jews have no cause for boasting. The Gentiles have no cause for boasting. But in this particular section, Paul is addressing Gentiles and saying to them, do not think too highly of yourselves. Do not think it is because you're Gentiles that you have greater favor than the Jews have.
It is those who are in Christ that receive salvation. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. That was the verse that we focused on yesterday. Verse 26. This does not mean that all Jews are inherently saved just because they are Jews, which I mentioned yesterday.
It means that those who are in Christ are truly Israel. Think back to the argument that Paul made in Romans nine. Not everyone who is descended from Israel belongs to Israel, but only those who are from the child of promise and who is ultimately the promised one.
That is Jesus Christ. So everybody who is in Christ is true Israel. And everyone who is in Christ is saved. Therefore, in this way, all Israel will be saved. The deliverer will come from Zion, Christ who came from the Jews.
He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. Who are those who are able to say that they stand in righteousness and are not condemned by their ungodliness? It is only those who are in Christ Jesus. Verse 27.
And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Who has their sins forgiven? Those who believe in Jesus, who have faith in Jesus, who are united with him by the promises of God, by his grace and his love and his mercy.
So it is those in Christ who are true Israel, the Jews who believe in Jesus. They are true Israelites. And in this way, all Israel, all who are truly of Israel will be saved. And as Paul says in verse 29, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
God has said he is going to do it. Therefore, he is going to do it. So you have the Jews who are enemies of the gospel for your sake. Again, Paul addressing the Gentiles. I'm jumping back a verse now.
I'm in verse 28. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Those Jews who have been opposed to the gospel, they are enemies of the gospel for the sake of the Gentiles, that the gospel would go to the Gentiles so that they would hear the good news of Christ, turn from their sin, believe in him as savior, and be saved.
But as regards election, Paul says, those Jews who are elect, who come to faith in Christ, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. The promises that have been given to the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those who are truly in Christ are true Israel.
The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, again, addressing Gentiles, their disobedience is in reference to Jews.
So they too have now been disobedient. The Jews have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, Gentiles, they also may now receive mercy. And again, Paul had started by saying that he magnifies his ministry so to make the Jews jealous.
They look at the Gentiles and they see that they are in fellowship with God through faith in Christ. Suddenly, they now have the law and the prophets. Wait a minute, the Jews are saying the law and the prophets belong to us.
How is it that the Gentiles have them and the Gentiles are calling them theirs? They aren't theirs, they're ours. It came to Moses, it came to us. We're the ones that have the synagogue. So all of the oracles of God belong to us.
So the Jews therefore become jealous of the Gentiles, seeing their fellowship with God through faith, seeing them read the scriptures and how they point to Christ. And so when Paul magnifies his ministry in this way, so to make Jews jealous, they repent of their sin and they come to faith in Jesus that they may now receive mercy.
Verse 32, for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. That's verse 32. I didn't include that yesterday. We didn't quite get this far. But here's how I want to look at this today.
You have heard it said that all means all and that's all all means. Have you ever heard that said before? Man, that's really common, especially in some anti-Calvinist free will Baptist denominations.
That all means all and that's all all means. And usually this this little quippy colloquialism is used in association with a passage like First Timothy chapter two, verse four, where it says that God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And then verse six, he gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony of the proper time. So they will say that these references to all means all people, all people everywhere, everyone for all time.
God desires all every single person to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And Jesus died as a ransom for all every single person, which couldn't be true because if that were the case, then everyone would be saved.
If Jesus is a ransom for all, then everyone is saved for the ransom is paid. All always has a context, and that's my my contrasting colloquialism to all means all and that's all all means. Well, my reply to that is all always has a context.
Take, for example, well, one I've quoted to you already. Romans three twenty three for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even all there has a context. You might look at that and say, well, all yeah, that's every single person.
Hang on. That's every single person but one. Jesus. So even in that verse, there's a context. It is contrasting every other person, Jew or Gentile. All they have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, because that was the argument that Paul was laying out again in Romans one, two and three.
The one who is perfect, the one who is righteous, who has not sinned by faith in him. We receive the forgiveness of sins is Jesus. So even Romans three twenty three has a context. All is all Jews and all Gentiles, because that's the context.
Jesus is the righteous one who has never sinned. So that's just to provide an example for you for how the word all always has a context. And in first Timothy two, four, God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Even there, we're talking about all kinds of people, because previously in verse two, Paul is appealing for prayers for all kinds of people, for kings and all who are in high positions that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is good and pleasing in the sight of God, our savior, who desires all people, all kinds of people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony of the proper time.
Again, context is still all kinds of people. It's not every single person, because if Jesus was a ransom for every single person, then every single person is going to heaven and universalism is heresy.
Let me use another example here. Second, Peter, chapter three, verse nine, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
That's another one that gets used by the free will Baptist mindset to say that God wants all people to reach repentance. There's a certain sense in which that's true because no one's getting into heaven without repentance.
So therefore, God wants you to be repentant. If you're not repentant, you're not going to heaven. So you might apply it in that sense, although I don't believe that's the sense in which this applies. And I'll explain that here in just a moment.
How you may not interpret this is picturing Jesus standing there with his arms wide open, begging everybody to come to him. But people are not coming to him. The majority of people are walking away from him to their own destruction, and he's powerless to do anything about it.
Like Jesus is standing there going, please come to me. I don't want anybody to perish. I want everybody to be saved. Oh, don't don't walk away. I desire that all should reach repentance. Come to me and you'll be saved.
Votie. Bacham has called this the sisified needy Jesus like he needs you to come to it. But that's not the picture that we're being given here. Let me read it again, and I'll give it to you in context.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. Who is the focus here? Who's the audience? The church that Peter is writing to. He is patient toward you, not wishing that any of you should perish, but that all of you should reach repentance.
Again, addressing the church. All always has a context. Let me give you the broader context here. I'm going to go back to verse three. Peter says, Know this. First of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation, for they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.
That's a fact, by the way, and that those who mock Christians are deliberately overlooking these facts. Peter goes on verse six, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
The global flood, my friends, is a fact. Verse seven. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved. So now Peter is addressing the church and saying they overlook the facts. But don't you overlook the facts that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
And then verse nine, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness. In other words, the judgment of the ungodly is coming and the Lord is not slow to deliver on these things. He does it in his perfect timing.
How is it that God's judgment has not yet come upon the earth? For this reason, God is patient toward you. He is patient toward the elect, not wishing that any of the elect should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
And how do we reach repentance? By the hearing of the gospel of Christ, turning from sin, believing in Jesus and so living. Peter is addressing the elect. He wants the elect to come to repentance. It's not that every single person is going to come to repentance.
Only the elect will. And so God is not yet brought his judgment on the earth because the full number of the elect have not yet come to salvation. Hence why God is patient and praise God that he is. OK, so here's my examples for the context of all.
All always has a context. Now let's come back to Romans 11 32 for God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. There's always a context. What is the context of all here? God has consigned all to disobedience, Jews and Gentiles, because that was the context of the previous verse, the previous two verses.
Let me read verses 30 and 31 again for just as you to the Gentiles were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their Jews disobedience. So they, the Jews, have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
Verse 32 for God has consigned all Jews and Gentiles to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. Just like we had it back in Romans 3 23 for all Jews and Gentiles have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but all are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption of Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
God has consigned all to disobedience. Even all those who are elect have been at one time disobedient. You were deserving of the wrath of God, but God, by his grace and mercy did not destroy you in his wrath.
He was patient toward you that you would hear the gospel. You would turn from sin. You would believe in Christ and so live. And everyone, even among the elect who has been consigned to disobedience, that's everybody.
Even the elect have been consigned to disobedience that he may have mercy on all the elect. And it is only those who are in Christ Jesus that God shows mercy to. He has not shown mercy to those who are going to perish in his judgment.
He shows mercy to those who are in Christ Jesus. God is consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all. And if you had not been disobedient, then you would not receive the mercy of God. You would never know God's grace, his love and his mercy, if not for your disobedience and therefore now God's grace and mercy and love upon you.
Though what you deserve is destruction. You have instead received unmerited favor from God because God is good, not because you have done anything good. And again, the reason for all of this, and this goes back to Romans chapter 9, is so that God can show the full range of his glory, both in his wrath and in his mercy.
It is all to the praise of God. Let me read again, verse 33 through 36. We'll close here and then we're going to look at this doxology tomorrow. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid. For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
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Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.