Judgment and Salvation

Throughout the difficult but exhilarating central section of Romans (chaps. 9–11), Paul has been striving to head off objections to his teaching that might stem from the widespread failure of the Jews to believe the gospel. Thus far, he has presented five arguments to show that Jewish unbelief does not mean God’s redemptive purposes have failed: 1) All of God’s elect have been or will be saved; 2) God revealed in Scripture that He did not intend to save all Israelites but did plan to save some Gentiles; 3) the Jews’ failure to believe is not God’s fault but theirs; 4) God is still saving some Jews, such as Paul himself; 5) and it has always been the case that only a remnant of Jews has been saved. Beginning with today’s passage, Paul begins to present a sixth argument, one that should fill us with wonder over the wise ways of our God. In 11:11–24, Paul argues that God actually is going to use the influx of the gentiles to reach the Jews.

This passage also serves as a corrective. Paul seems to acknowledge that his earlier teaching that God has left the Jews in spiritual blindness and deafness (11:8) might lead his readers to conclude that there is no hope for the mass of the Jews, that most of Paul’s countrymen are without hope in the world. But such is not the case, the apostle hastens to say. As we learned last month, God’s bypassing of most of the Jews is a judgment on them for their reliance on their own efforts to keep the law and their failure to submit to Christ. But in a way only God could arrange, His very judgment upon the Jews is also a means of bringing them into the kingdom. The good news for non-Jews is that “through [the Jews’] fall . . . salvation has come to the gentiles.” But the good news for the Jews is that the divinely ordained influx of the gentiles is intended “to provoke them to jealousy,” to cause them to hunger after the spiritual blessings being enjoyed by the gentiles. This is “a case of severe judgment resulting in great blessing,” Dr. James M. Boice writes in his Romans commentary.

As Paul puts it, the Jews’ hardness is “riches for the world.” And if that is so, he declares, “their fullness” will bring even greater riches. What is this “fullness”? And what are these greater riches? Paul is offering us a tantalizing hint of future things, things he will explain in greater depth as this chapter moves along.