Today is Day 8 of our current series, blogging through the Not Ashamed of the Gospel Bible Study from HelloMornings. Thank you for joining me here. I hope you're enjoying this study as much as I am?
Our Bible passage today is Romans 11: 11 - 16 ...
Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. 12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.
13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles. God has appointed me as the apostle to the Gentiles. I stress this, 14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them. 15 For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! 16 And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
In today's devotional, Jen Stanbro says: "God, in His steadfast, merciful, loving kindness, is able to use everything - the good, the bad, and the painful - to bring about His plan for our ultimate good."
This is very much the theme of Paul's writing in today's passage of Scripture. Although His chosen nation, the Jews, had missed the mark when Jesus came to earth and died to redeem them, this was not all bad news, nor was it the end of the line for them! Only God could work such a catastrophic failure to anyone's good - and He did it in two ways in this instance.
Firstly, "their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world" (verse 15 NLT). The Jews' rejection of Jesus as the Saviour opened the way for the Gentiles to enter in to salvation. Although the saving of all nations had always been God's plan, the unbelief of the Jewish nation meant that the original intention was inverted, and God "was found by people who were not looking for Him" instead (Romans 10: 20 NLT).
But secondly, in His patience and mercy, the nation of Israel was not cast off from the Lord forever because of their rejection of Jesus. The unmerited grace that led to the salvation of the Gentiles had the effect of making the Jews jealous for what could have been theirs, which God foreknew would happen: "But He wanted His own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves" (Romans 11: 11b NLT).
The close relationship many Gentiles now enjoyed with the Father provoked many Jews to turn to Him by faith in Jesus, thus fulfilling God's desire for His people!!
This good news continues to be good news for us today, whether saved or unsaved: It's never too late, and we're never too far gone from the Lord, to turn back to Him and be reconciled to the Father!!
Thank You, Father God, that "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail"! (Lamentations 3: 22 NIV)