Journeys in God's Word

Number 2

by Stephen Marine

Romans 12:1 (KJV)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

As we begin Article two we will be looking at the words beseech you therefore, brethren by the mercies of God. Beseech is the next word we read in our text. The word beseech comes from a Greek word that is a gentle command. Paul is not strongly commanding the Roman believers but gently urging them to present their bodies to God. Next we look at “therefore.” Anytime you come to the word therefore in Scripture you must go back to find out what it is there for. In this case the word therefore takes us back to chapter eleven of Romans. Chapter eleven gives us an analysis have the fact that god has set aside the children of Israel for a of time so that the Gentiles (those that are not Jews) be saved.

Romans 11:1-11 (KJV)
¹  I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
²  God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
³  Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
⁴  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
⁵  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
⁶  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
⁷  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded
⁸  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
⁹  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
¹⁰  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
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.

One of the greatest threads running through the Holy Scriptures is the unqualified declaration that God can be trusted, that He is the very source and measure of truth. God’s divine Word is absolutely trustworthy. Whatever He says is true and whatever He promises comes to pass.

Because of His covenant promises to Israel, that nation was never, and can never be, completely cast aside by the Lord. Considering that truth, Paul affirms that God's present setting aside of Israel is only partial.

The first proof that God had not rejected His chosen people was that Paul, not only a believer in Christ but also an apostle (1:1), was himself an Israelite (a Jew).

The second proof that God's setting aside of Israel is only partial is that the Lord has always preserved a remnant for Himself. From Pentecost to the present day, Christ's church has never been without believing Jews. Romans 11:7a What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it. Paul here gives a direct and emphatic answer to the rhetorical question with which he opened the chapter: God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. It is not that God has never received His people, but that He will never completely and permanently cast away those whom He foreknew from eternity past and whom He long ago received to Himself through His covenant with Abraham.

The third proof that God's setting aside of Israel is only partial is that the Lord has hardened the hearts only of those Jews who refuse to believe. Romans 7b “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” “Were blinded” is a passive Greek word, indicating that the hardening was caused by an outside power. That outside power was none other than God. Citing the Old Testament again, Paul quotes David, who said, “Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap." (Ps. 69:22). God's judicial hardening of a man's heart is never separate from that man's hardening of his own heart. During the Lord's Supper, Jesus said, "Behold, the hand of the one betraying Me is with Me on the table. One of the saddest commentaries of history is that so many people place their trust in the very thing that damns them.

First, God's temporarily setting Israel aside was not an afterthought or an outburst of emotional anger but had a definite purpose. Paul introduces his point by asking a rhetorical question and then giving the strongest negative answer possible: I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! God has not allowed His chosen people Israel to fall into such unbelief and disobedience that they are unsalvageable. He has indeed given them "a spirit of stupor," and He "let their eyes be darkened to see not" (vv. 8, 10). For a divinely appointed time, He has let them wander about in spiritual blindness and darkness. Yet their blindness is not irreversible, and their darkness was never to be permanent.

The severe stumbling of which Paul speaks is, of course, Israel's rejection of her Messiah, Jesus Christ. But Israel's rejection of God's own Son and His kingdom did not thwart God's plan. On the contrary the Lord used that terrible transgression of His people to accomplish His own divine objective.

Paul finally sums up this truth in verses 11-15. First, he tells us God’s first truth in setting aside Israel in verse 11a, “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.” Secondly in verse 11b, He tells us that God's second objective in setting Israel aside was to make her jealous of the Gentiles, “For to provoke them to jealousy.” Israel’s revival will begin during the great seven-year Tribulation. This is after the church is removed to heaven (the rapture of the church).