Romans 11:28–32

God's mystery expounded

That Paul’s focus is on the elect Jews and not primarily on the Gentiles is reinforced also by the way the apostle continues. Addressing the Gentiles, Paul speaks about elect Jews when he says the following:

As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

These verses contain little that Paul hasn’t talked about previously. He is summarizing his argument as he brings this section to a close. Basically he is drawing together the main points of the mystery that has been the object of his attention and scrutiny in this section.

Paul reminds us that the vast majority of Jews have become “enemies” of the gospel. As a result, God has, generally speaking, taken his gospel from them and given it to the Gentiles. Hence Israel’s rejection of the gospel has been a tremendous blessing, a literal godsend, for the Gentiles who now find themselves enjoying the blessings of God’s New Testament Christian church. This turn of events, Paul tells his gentile Roman readers, was “on your account,” that is, for their benefit.

But Gentiles are not God’s only concern. God has not cast off his chosen people or gone back on the promises he made to them as early as his dealings with the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God has remained true to himself and his promises. Hence “as far as election is concerned, they [Jews] are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

Like the man in the parable who prepared a great banquet and then time and again sent his servants out into the highways and byways to bring in guests (Matthew 22:1-14; Luke 14:15-24), God is dedicated to receiving a response to his gracious invitation. God has a plan, and that plan includes Jews as well as Gentiles. The apostle makes that clear when he writes, “Just as you [Gentiles] who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they [Jews] too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”

As a result of Jewish “disobedience,” the gospel came to Gentile listeners, who themselves “were at one time disobedient to God.” Disobedient Gentiles were not looking for God when, almost by default, the gospel came to them. The Gentiles brought nothing; they had no inherent worth or merit. There was no reason, other than God’s boundless mercy, why they should have received the gospel. But God sent his Holy Spirit into their lives to lead them to repent of their gross sins and turn in faith to the righteousness Christ had earned also for them. In this way they received the blessings of forgiveness of sins, peace with God, and the joy of rendering loving service to God and their neighbors.

Paul personalizes these great blessings to Gentiles by speaking to his Roman readers in the second person. All of these things have come, he says, “as a result of God’s mercy to you.” God’s mercy is the sole factor for their current good fortune. That mercy, however, has a twofold effect: precious blessings for the gentile Christians, but envy among Jews who see God’s mercy in Christ going to Gentiles. As a result, Jews are being led to reconsider their foolish disobedience that is causing them to lose God’s blessings. Such reconsideration leads to a willingness to look anew at God’s gracious gifts and to think in terms of accepting them as gifts of God’s mercy, not as rewards for personal status or worth.

Such an ongoing process in the heart and mind of the Jewish nation, Paul says, is exactly what God intended all along. All of this is happening by God’s design so that “they [Jews] too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”

Mercy is the only avenue of hope for people who have no merit—and disobedient people obviously have no merit. By God’s holy law, Jews and Gentiles have both been convicted of disobedience. But a guilty verdict has been handed down for a most gracious purpose. Paul says, “God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” Such inclusiveness does not mean that all people will actually accept Christ and his merit as their hope of salvation, even though God desires that outcome (1 Timothy 2:3,4). Paul is not preaching universalism, as though all people will eventually be saved whether they accept Christ or not. Paul is rather saying that God’s good and gracious intent, his mercy, extends to all in spite of their disobedience.

On the backdrop of that great truth, one could summarize Paul’s line of argument in chapters 9 to 11 as follows: Since everything comes by God’s mercy to those who accept Christ and his merit, believing Gentiles have no basis therefore on which to boast of their favorable circumstances, and believing Jews, on the other hand, have no need to despair, as bleak as their current situation may appear.