Disobedience and Mercy

Here, in succinct form, is the philosophy of history Paul has been laying out in Romans 9–11. Here is what God has been doing and will yet do as He goes about the great work of bringing glory and honor to His name by redeeming a people from their rebellion against Himself.

It begins in the past, when “you were once disobedient to God.” Paul speaks here of the time when the light of the knowledge of God and His promises of a Redeemer were the possession of the Jews, and gentiles were lost in sin, unable and unwilling to serve God. But now, in the time of Paul’s writing of Romans, the gentiles “have . . . obtained mercy through [the Jews’] disobedience,” and “these also have now been disobedient.” The promises of God for the redemption of His people had come to fruition with the coming of Christ, but those to whom the promises were entrusted did not accept the manner in which they were fulfilled. As Paul has expressed it, the Jews “stumbled” over Christ. They disobeyed, attempting to acquire righteousness through their own efforts to keep the law rather than submitting to God’s command that they trust Christ. And so judgment came upon the Jews for a time, and God shifted the focus of His redemptive call, sending the gospel to the gentiles. Through their acceptance of justification by faith in Christ, they “obtained mercy.” But the final chapter has not yet been written. It is God’s design that “through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.” God’s harvest among the gentiles is intended, in part, to cause the Jews to hunger for the blessings enjoyed by the gentiles. Through this living picture of God at work, they in time will obtain mercy, as well. Both classes of people, therefore, are “committed” to disobedience by God at one time (“For all have sinned,” Rom. 3:23a) in order that He might have mercy on some from every nation, tribe, and tongue. This is the one and only hope of any man to stand before the holy God.

Today’s passage completes the last of Paul’s seven arguments in Romans 9–11 to show that the rejection of the gospel by most Jews does not represent a failure of God’s redemptive purposes. It comes down to this: God’s promises to the Jews, rightly understood, are still in effect, but the fulfillment still lies ahead. That means there is no reason for anyone to doubt the great promises of the gospel.