Calvary Road Baptist Church
“CHRISTIAN HUMILITY AND THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL’S PRESENT BLINDNESS”
Romans 11.25
It is not uncommon for even the most well-intentioned Christian to question the applicability and relevance of Bible truth to his immediate life. There is much of the pragmatist in each of us, and for that reason we are all concerned about what actually works, what immediately benefits us?
It is not so much that we are unconcerned about the things of God, the cause of Christ, the brethren, and the Church, as we find ourselves overwhelmed by the tyranny of the urgent, the immediate demands of life that so loudly cry out for our attention that we become distracted from the Bible, from prayer, and from attendance to things that are admittedly more important.
We once again turn our attention to one of the mysteries in the Bible, a matter that is not so difficult to grasp once it is explained to us, but an issue that is impossible to figure out apart from the bright light of Scriptural truth. Walk in the shoes of a Christian living in imperial Rome when the Apostle Paul was still alive. The Gospel was first brought to Rome by some Jewish Christians who had traveled to Jerusalem as unsaved religious Jews, but who did not return from Jerusalem for several years.
Just as they arrived in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. Some of the Jews from Rome were likely in the mob that yelled “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Which is precisely what the Romans proceeded to do. However, three days later that same Jesus rose from the dead, and there were so many eyewitnesses to His resurrection that denying the fact of it simply was not credible. On the Day of Pentecost, on the steps leading up to the Temple Mount and the entrance to the courtyard of the Temple, signs and wonders caught the attention of the gathered thousands in Jerusalem for the feast days, and one of the Apostles, Simon Peter, preached a sermon with such persuasive power and unction from on high that thousands were converted to Christ.
Among those immediately converted, and among those converted over the next few days, were a number of those Jewish men visiting from Rome. With their lives turned upside down because of the forgiveness of their sins and their great hunger for instruction and guidance to live this new life in Christ, they did not return to Rome as scheduled, but remained in Jerusalem where they were roomed and boarded by their hospitable Christian brethren who lived in the vicinity.
It was only after sitting under the tutelage of the Apostles for several years that intense persecution broke out, driving all but the Apostles out of the region. It was likely at this time the now Jewish Christians from Rome returned home, taking the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ with them. As Jews, and also Gentiles, responded to the Gospel and came to know Christ, the returning Jewish Christians baptized them and brought them into the new and growing Roman Church congregations.
However, there came a time when the tenuous toleration the Jews in Rome had enjoyed came to an end. The emperor, Claudius, expelled all Jews from the city of Rome, making no distinction between Jews who were Christians and Jews who were not. This is how the Jewish Christian couple, Aquila and Priscilla, arrived in Corinth, where they met and began to serve God alongside the Apostle Paul.[1] As well, this was likely how the Apostle Paul verified that his own observations and experiences with stiff Jewish resistance to the Gospel had also been the case in Rome. With all the Jews expelled from Rome, the young congregations in the city faced a sudden loss of spiritual leadership. The Jewish pastors, with their knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, were suddenly gone, leaving only Gentile Christian men to step up and begin leading the congregations.
Paul had always wanted to travel to Rome, so that he might use Rome as a jumping off point to take the Gospel to the western Mediterranean, specifically Spain. However, the Christians in Rome knew Paul only by reputation, having never met him. To address that issue, to introduce himself to them, and to cultivate them as future prayer partners and financial supporters of his ministry, he wrote a letter to them. That letter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the epistle to the Romans.
So much of Paul’s letter to the Romans becomes easier to understand when you consider it from the perspective of its human author, a missionary, who is seeking to set forth to relatively inexperienced Gentile pastors and people, the key Christian doctrines that needed clarification in their minds and which formed the factual basis upon which his ministry was grounded.
In the first portion of his letter to the Romans, Paul concentrated on this matter of justification by faith, why it is so desperately needed by individual sinners (be they Jews or Gentiles), as well as the nature of this transaction that gives the sinner standing before God.
In the last portion of his letter to the Romans, Paul concentrated on applying the doctrine of justification by faith to the daily lives of Christians, how your standing before God should affect you day by day. However, it is in the middle of Romans, in chapters 9, 10, and 11, that Paul addressed a problem that loomed very large in the minds of the Gentile Christians at Rome. What about the Jews?
To be sure, justification by faith has always been God’s way of dealing with men. Abraham was justified by faith, and his example is the prototype for all of God’s dealings with sinners on the basis of faith. As well, the Gospel was foreshadowed and alluded to in the Hebrew Scriptures, and the first Christians were obviously Jewish.
However, as the years passed, Jewish resistance to the Gospel stiffened. Opposition from Jewish people became more bitter and violent. And with the expulsion of all Jews from Rome, the question that was paramount in the minds of the Gentile Christians left in Rome was where do the Jews fit into God’s plan? What do we do about them? What do we do with them? Frankly, it was a mystery.
Examination of Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11, reveals that Paul fully dealt with the Jewish question. However, we do not have time to explore those three detailed chapters at this time. As well, my intent is to address the mystery. Therefore, turn to the verse in Paul’s consideration of that part of the Jewish question that focuses on the mystery, Romans 11.25. When you find that verse, please stand and read along with me:
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Consider this a spiritual meal with four servings to set before you in turn:
The First Serving, THE CONCERN OF THE APOSTLE PAUL
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery.”
Though it cannot be clearly seen at this point, take my word that our text is actually Paul’s rebuke of the Christians in Rome. Notice how Paul prepared his readers for the rebuke he was about to deliver to them:
First, notice that he referred to them as brethren. To refer to those Roman Christians as brethren is certainly appropriate, since they and Paul were both God’s children, members of God’s family, committed Christians who knew Jesus Christ as their Savior. They had tasted that the Lord is gracious. However, why address them as brethren here? Why remind them they are family at this point? Paul did so to somewhat soften the blow of the rebuke he was about to deliver.
As well, notice that he insisted he did not want them ignorant of this mystery. Ignorant? Ignorant? Paul thought they were ignorant? Paul did not think the Gentile Christians in Rome were ignorant of some things; he knew they were ignorant. You see, those Christians were wondering about the response of the Jews to the Gospel. What is happening to the Jew? Why are fewer and fewer of them responding to the Gospel as time passes? Is God finished with them, once and for all? Some thought so. One of the great failings of the famous theologian Augustine was his belief that God was finally and forever finished with the Jews. My friends, that is the prevailing position of the Roman Catholic Church down to this day. Paul, however, knew full well that God has a plan, and that the Jewish people and Gentile converts are a part of that plan. However, unless God reveals the particulars and details in the midst of the unfolding of the plan, no one could possibly figure it out on his own. Thus, Paul’s concern was for his brothers in Christ in Rome who did not know something he knew, and he was fearful of the consequences of their ignorance. You, too, should be fearful of the consequences of your ignorance of this mystery. It affects the way you live.
The Second Serving, THE CONCEITS OF THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS
Paul’s next phrase reads, “lest ye should be wise in your own conceits.”
This is the rebuke Paul was ramping up to at the beginning of the verse. The Gentile Christians were starting to form their own ideas about why Gentiles were coming to Christ in great numbers and Jews in ever decreasing numbers. “Paul is concerned to fix their ideas on this important point, and leave no place in their minds for vain and presumptuous speculations.”[2]
It is not so unusual for a Christian to consider his own conversion and then set his mind to a consideration of the lost state of someone else, thinking to himself that at least he turned to Christ. This is how conceit can creep into any Christian’s thinking. Let us say you are the only Christian in your family. If you are not careful, you can gradually come to view yourself as superior to your lost family members, crediting yourself for having the good sense to trust Christ. Sadly, this kind of thinking ignores the reality that Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of our faith, and that sinners are “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” John 1.13. Yet it is exactly this type of thinking that gained ground toward the unconverted Jews who were expelled from Rome.
People need to be very careful about crediting themselves, however subtly we do it, with our own salvation. Are you prone to patting yourself on the back because you are converted and someone else is not? What do you think Ephesians 2.8-9 means?
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Paul’s concern was about them becoming wise in their own conceits. This translates a Greek phrase that literally means wise in your own estimation.[3] However, what did Solomon warn us about in Proverbs 3.7?
“Be not wise in thine own eyes.”
The very nature of a mystery in the Bible is that it is “a truth or fact which can only be known by man through a communication from above, but which, after this revelation has taken place, falls into the domain of the understanding.”[4] Therefore, to try to figure a mystery out on your own only guarantees that you will be mistaken.
Thus, the combination of Scriptural ignorance and estimating yourself to be capable of judging things that are beyond you is a recipe for pride. With the Gentile Christians in Rome it centered around the mystery of Israel’s present blindness. However, you can easily see how these same ingredients applied to another situation would produce the same results; pride of position or advantage instead of humble gratitude toward God.
The Third Serving, THE MYSTERY OF ISRAEL’S BLINDNESS
After rebuking them, Paul addressed their ignorance of the mystery by informing them
“that blindness in part is happened to Israel.”
Two pieces of information directly bearing on Jewish responsiveness to the Gospel:
First, a qualitative piece of information. Paul identified what was actually the secondary cause of their resistance as blindness. The Greek word pooroosis, primarily refers to something hardening or becoming calloused. When used in the Bible or in Christian literature it is always the figurative sense in which the word is understood, which is a state or condition of complete lack of understanding, dullness, insensibility, and obstinacy.[5] Notice, however, that it happened to Israel rather than it being something Israel had done. Paul writes, “is happened to Israel.” What is unstated in this verse, but which permeates everything Paul writes in Romans chapters 9-11, is the sovereignty of God. Thus, the resistance of the Jewish people to the Gospel was brought about by spiritual blindness. However, the spiritual blindness was brought about by God.
Paul then brought to bear a quantitative piece of information:
“blindness in part is happened to Israel.”
What Paul pointed out here is no different than what he had previously written. Romans 11.1 begins, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” Romans 11.2 begins, “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.” So, though we see from verses 1 and 2 God has clearly not permanently cast away His people, He has according to our text set them aside:
“blindness in part is happened to Israel.”
Sometimes referred to as judicial blinding by theologians, Paul gets to the heart of this mystery by pointing out that God has judged His people’s sins, with that judgment being His decision to blind them, to harden them to the Gospel, to make them insensitive to spiritual truth. However, Paul explained that this happens to Israel “in part,” meaning that not all Jews were blinded, and the blinding will not be permanent. As we find in both the Old and New Testaments, God always preserves a remnant, and as there were some few saved Gentiles when He mainly dealt with the Jewish people, so there will also be some few saved Jews while He is mainly dealing with Gentiles in this Church Age. Therefore, no Gentile Christians in Rome had any right to mount up on their high horses and envision themselves as somehow spiritually superior to unsaved Jewish people. God was sovereignly judging them and bringing about the conversion of many Gentiles . . . for now. Thus, all glory must, as is always the case, go to God.
Our Final Serving, THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES
Our text concludes, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
Beloved, the Roman Christians thought themselves somewhat accomplished and considered themselves to be wise because they had no real idea what God was doing. They could not imagine that He had only judicially blinded the spiritual eyes of His chosen people temporarily, until a great purpose could be accomplished.
Additionally, they could not conceive that God had always dealt with a remnant, and so the increased resistance of most Jewish people to the Gospel did not at all mean He had cast away the people which He foreknew. He had temporarily set His chosen people aside to provoke them to jealousy, so that at the right time they would respond to the Gospel and embrace Christ as He drew them to His Son.
This is verified in Romans 11.11:
“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”
The last portion of our text is where Paul informs his readers concerning the end of this judicial blinding, when a great ingathering of Jewish converts to Christ will take place:
“until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
The question, of course, is what is the fulness of the Gentiles that must come in? Without getting into great detail, allow me to read Matthew 24.14 to you. The Lord Jesus said,
“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”
My own opinion is that when the final Gentile Christian of this dispensation has come to Christ, concurrent with the Rapture, God will remove the blindness that darkens the understanding of most Jewish people, and the Jewish people will then turn from their sins and embrace their Messiah.
Is it not sad that the Apostle Paul, in the middle of a wonderful explanation of God’s sovereign grace and mercy to both the Jewish people and the Gentile people, felt compelled to rebuke his readers for their conceit? Here is where this particularly applies to you and me.
God was doing a great work. He was unfolding His drama of redemption with meticulous care and profound wisdom, dealing with this people’s sins and showing mercy to those, when some of the recipients of God’s extraordinary grace began to look around and, noticing that more of us were responding to the Gospel than them, asked themselves why.
The problem with asking themselves why was in relying upon their own wisdom to figure out something that simply cannot be figured out unless God chooses to inform you. Do you see how that speaks to you, as I wrestle with how that speaks to me?
This matter was a mystery. It was an undiscoverable truth that could not be understood until God decided to provide the information. Simple. The reason few Jewish people are responding is twofold: First, God has chosen to judicially blind them, and not all of them, and not forever. While doing that, He saves a multitude of Gentiles, but does so in part to provoke His chosen people to jealousy. When the time comes, those who are temporarily set aside will once again be those He prominently deals with in His grand scheme of things.
How did that speak to the Roman Gentile Christians? In several ways: First, they were not any better than the Jewish people because they were presently more responsive to the Gospel. In fact, God was saving Gentiles in such numbers partly to provoke the Jewish people to jealousy. That is a bit humbling, don’t you think? Second, though in the past God primarily dealt with Jewish people instead of Gentiles, there is no place for pride at present among the Gentiles. There will come a time in the future, when the fulness of the Gentiles comes in, when the Jewish people will once again be restored to their place of prominence in God’s dealings, with Gentiles clearly being in the background.
Do you realize that anti-Semitism worldwide would be wiped out if people simply grasped that relatively simple truth? No pogroms in 19th century eastern Europe, and no Holocaust in World War Two, if only that concept had been understood. As well, what would happen to the neo-Nazis in various countries today, and to the Muslims, if they understood that someday God will restore the Jewish people to their place of spiritual prominence?
What horrible tragedies have resulted from men doing just what the Roman Christians were beginning to do, but without being rebuked and corrected by the Apostle Paul. Anyone can think himself wise and draw false conclusions about things you know nothing about, leaving you conceited and capable of doing great harm. What was the remedy Paul applied to address that problem? It was a rebuke and a revelation. He rebuked them for acting upon ignorance and then told them what was really going on. As he wrapped up Romans chapter 11, he escorted his readers to such lofty heights that they could not help but be humbled by their ignorance and puniness as they considered the majestic and lofty purpose of God.
So, how can we avoid getting into those kinds of situations? We encounter little mysteries of God’s work in our own lives frequently. Nothing so significant as the mystery of Israel’s spiritual blindness, to be sure, but situations that arise from the same mixture of ignorance and self-wisdom that Paul was combating, and which can create in us the same conceit that was found in those sincerely mistaken Roman Christians.
Of course, it is always good to be rebuked and corrected when we become conceited about anything. However, it is better to prevent such conceit developing in the first place. How is that accomplished? Humility. God gives grace to the humble.
Dr. Peter Masters has written a thoughtful and helpful article dealing with humility that I would like to make available to you. To obtain your copy send your name and mailing address to pastor@calvaryroadbaptist.church
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[1] Acts 18.2
[2] Frederic Louis Godet, Commentary On Romans, (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications), pages 409-410.
[3] Bauer, Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature, (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2000), page 1066.
[4] Godet, page 409.
[5] Bauer, page 900.
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