The Book of Romans Study Guide

Reverend Harvey Smith

• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781638853909
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The goal of the book Romans Study Guide is to help those who are seeking a deeper understanding of the Gospel of Christ and its application to daily life. The commentary, practical applications, and questions at the end of each chapter are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the teachings of Christ. As you read and meditate on the content of this book and aided by the power of the Holy Spirit, your faith and fellowship with the Christian community will grow, and your spiritual life will have greater meaning.

Chapter 11

Fulfillment of the Promise

In chapter 11, Paul continued to expound on his understanding of God’s covenantal relationship with his chosen people. In the text, Paul is explaining the fact that God has not canceled the covenant with Israel. Paul points to his personal place in the covenant as proof that God has not cast off his people, he himself being an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, a descendant of Abraham.

Paul saw his conversion on the road to Damascus as a demonstration of God’s grace in the salvation of his chosen people. In presenting further proof that God had not negated his promise to the Jews, Paul reminded them of the story of Elijah, who prophesied during a time when the prophets of God were being killed. Yet God assured Elijah that he had preserved a remnant of faithful Jews who trusted in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the one and only true God.

Paul would explain that the Old Testament remnant, like the present remnant, had not survived by chance but by God’s grace.

A remnant preserved

So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace, and if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened.

—Romans 11:5–7

Paul knew that the Jewish and Gentile believers could not rightly understand their salvation unless they understood it as a free gift of God’s grace, not as a result of their works under the Law. In other words, the remnant was not chosen on the basis of their works but by God’s love and sovereign grace.

God had assured his covenant people that he would never abandon nor forsake them. However, he also warned them of the consequences of continued disobedience to the law given unto Moses. There were many times throughout the history of Israel where God would punish the Jews for their sins by allowing other nations to defeat and oppress them. Yet in the end, God would always show mercy and deliver his people from their oppression.

The idea that God could have broken his promise and cast off his covenant people was never a possibility in the mind of Paul because Paul knew that God had preserved for himself a remnant that would respond in faith to the hearing of the Gospel and receive the gift of salvation purely on the grounds of God’s sovereign grace.

The majority of the Jewish people had failed to obtain salvation because they sought it through works of the Law rather than through the finished works of Christ. The base theme of chapter 11 is that God has not completely rejected Israel. Paul demonstrates this point by distinguishing between the “elect” and the hardened.

Paul has clearly shown that God did not condemn Israel to unbelief, but rather the hardening of unbelieving Israel was due to their own doing in holding fast to their tradition and their spiritual blindness in the rejection of Christ as their Messiah. Although there is a growing number of messianic Jews in the world today, the majority of the Jewish people still have not accepted the truth of the Gospel.

The situation of the Jews was foreseen by the Old Testament prophets who prophesied that their eyes would be darkened so that they would neither see nor hear properly. As a result, only a remnant, the elect, would pursue righteousness in the right way and be saved by faith because when the vast majority of the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, they also rejected God; and he has also rejected them except for a remnant.

A greater purpose

Again, I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous.

—Romans 11:11

Although the Jews have not been cast away, they have been set aside in order for God to pursue his greater purpose of salvation for all nations. During Old Testament time, before the coming of Christ, a common view was that Gentiles could not be saved unless they changed their nationality and adopted the Jewish religion according to the law of Moses. In other words, before the time of Christ, Gentiles had to become like the Jews in observance of the Law and in the worship of the God who created the heavens the earth—the one and only true God.

Paul had already described the sins and transgressions of the Gentiles, but now they will receive mercy because of the hardness and disobedience of Israel. The failure of the majority of the Jews to receive Christ had opened the way for believing Gentiles to enter the kingdom of God.

As we have seen, the righteousness that saves us is not based on anything that we do, and even the good works we do in the power of the Holy Spirit are solely by the grace of God. The Jews, for the most part, were conceited and boasted of their physical relationship with Abraham and felt secure in their self-righteousness.

The question is why is it a mistake to measure ourselves against the status of other human beings?

Paul understood that the Gentiles’ participation in salvation would provoke jealousy among unbelieving Jews and ultimately lead some of them to accept Christ and be saved. But it is clear from the text that Israel’s failure is not permanent and that its future salvation will bring greater blessings to the world.

God ordained the salvation of Israel, and those Jews who have accepted Christ as their Messiah are the first fruits of Israel. Paul’s exposition in verses 11–15 should help in our understanding of God’s redemptive plan for both his Old and New Testament people.

The broken branches

Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive tree were grafted in their place to share with them the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches.

—Romans 11:17, 18

In the text, Paul is explaining how Gentile Christians share the covenant blessings originally promised to Israel. During the Old Testament era, all Jews were born into covenant with God; and in Paul’s analogy of the olive tree (the tree of life), the root is identified with Abraham, the bearer of the promise of salvation in Christ Jesus. Paul refers to unbelieving Israel as natural branches that have been broken off from the olive tree.

That which remains after the dead branches have been broken off is the true Israel, the cultivated olive tree. Although Gentiles were not included in the covenant with Israel, believing Gentiles are compared to branches from a wild olive tree that have been grafted into the cultivated olive tree. As a result, believing Jews (true Israel) and believing Gentiles (the church) form one people of God with whom God is working in fulfillment of his plan and purpose for those who have responded in faith.

Regrafting of repentant Jews

Therefore, behold the kindness and severity of God; severity toward those who have fallen; but kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness; otherwise, you too will be cut off. They also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.

—Romans 11:22

In speaking to the Gentiles, Paul is warning them that the hardening of the Jews is no reason for them to boast in their pride because God will also exercise his severity toward ungrateful Gentiles. Paul has already explained that the election of Israel never meant the salvation of every physical desce...