I woke up this morning with a thought about Paul's statement:
ROMANS 9:16
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
The meaning of the verse all hinges on what is meant by "it".
"It is not of him that willeth..."
What is not of him that willeth?
I think the answer could be that it was the plan that even a Gentile could be saved by faith and that even a Jew could miss-out because of unbelief, and that an unsaved Jew could end-up being brought to the Lord through a saved Gentile .
That plan - that outcome - was from God's mercy, not from any individual's (Jew or Gentile's) own will or works.
Even the very availability of salvation - to any individual Jew or Gentile - is not something that was made available from the individual's own will or works - it is from God - and through faith.
The background to the statement was that some believers in Rome may have been feeling confused by the apparent failure of God's promises to Israel; and some may have been at risk of taking-for-granted their new privilege with God.
So Paul sought to explain that the availability to Gentile believers of a personal experience of salvation, and also the fact that unbelieving Jews were being excluded from that experience - were both God's doing, not man's. It was consistent with both God's character and also with prophetic Scriptures, that things were turning-out that way.
In order to prevent highmindedness amongst the Gentile believers at Rome (Romans 11: 20 - "Be not highminded, but fear") Paul sought to show that it was God Himself (not man's will or work) who allowed the presentday scenario - the scenario that all who believed (even if they were Gentiles) were experiencing personal salvation (God's promises), while all who did not believe (even if they were Jews) were not experiencing personal salvation (God's promises as spoken by the Prophets).
It was God's mercy which was allowing individual Gentiles to be experiencing salvation through faith, just as as much as it was God's doing that individual Jews who did not believe were not experiencing that salvation spoken-of by the Prophets.
Both were God's doing - both were consistent with His character, and with Biblical precedent, and with Biblical prophecy - therefore none of the Gentile believers at Rome should entertain the idea that God had reneged on His promises to Jewish people (Romans 11:1,2), nor entertain the idea that their new privilege with God was due to anything special that they may have possessed other than their faith (Romans 11:20-23).
So "it" refers to the scenario - the provision - the dispensation that receiving God's promises (the prophesied salvation) all hinged on faith, irrespective of whether the person was Jew or Gentile, having nothing at all to do with man's will or work. This outcome was consistent with God's own character, with His dealings in Scripture, and with statements by the Prophets.
It was God - independent of anything man could will or do - who determined that mercy would be shown to faith while severity would be shown to unbelief - irrespective of whether the person was Jewish or Gentile.
That appears to be what "it" meant.
The above also sheds new light on the next verses, which say:
"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. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob..."
Notice it says, "and so..." not "and then...". So it's probably NOT meant to be an end-times prediction about a nationwide revival in Israel after the times of the Gentiles is up. No. It was probably a continuation of Paul's line of thought about the manner in which the Prophets were fulfilled, the manner in which both Jews and Gentiles could get saved, which is, through faith.
It probably meant in effect: "...and what I [Paul] have just finished saying to you [in previous verses and chapters (about Gentile believers experiencing salvation and unbelieving Jews missing-out, and about Jews being led to the Lord through Gentile believers] explains the manner by which any Jewish person must [and can] now be saved, the outcome that was hinted-at by the Prophets..."
If so, then the verse is not necessary a strong proof text for the type of fanstastic futurist eschatology that exists today in regard to Israel in end-times.
Instead, the whole idea was to prevent Gentile believers at Rome from settling on the lees of their own conceited misunderstanding of the Israel/Gentile issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment