God s attributes in Salvation of All

Romans 11:15-29

God’s attributes in salvation of All!

Romans 11:30-36, For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, ³¹ even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. ³² For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. ³³ Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! ³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?” 35 “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” 36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

There is no better proof of the faithfulness of God than the redemptive history of Israel. No single thing more demonstrates God's faithfulness to His promise than His unfailing love for the nation Israel!

A nation which in fact did everything to negate those promises, everything to violate that love. Still God is true to His promise and true to His love, unchangingly and unwaveringly. In spite of their sin, rejection, and unbelief, there is still a place for the nation Israel in the plan of God.

That is the reality of Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11. Paul has been dealing with the place of Israel in the saving plan of God. He has been answering the questions. Romans chapter 9 "The rejection of Israel is true but not contrary to God's plan."

Romans chapter 10 Israel's rejection was due to their own unbelief. They were set aside because they were disobedient. Romans chapter 11. Through the blindness of Israel, through the hardness of the hearts of Israel, through their rejection of Jesus Christ, God is working out a marvellous plan which will lead to the salvation of Gentiles. Ultimately to the salvation of the Jews. Finally, to the blessing of the world in the millennial kingdom.

Has God cancelled His promises to Israel? “No” is the answer.

Chapter 11 can be divided three ways to understand better.

1. Partial V 1-10

2. Temporary V 11-25

3. Purposeful V 26-36

Israel will be restored, Israel will receive fully the promises. 1. Only partial. Not all Jews are set aside. Paul gives us three indications that the setting aside of Israel is only partial.

• a) The writer.
• b) The remnant.
• c) The revelation.

2. Temporary

• a. Purpose,
• b. Forewarning,
• c. Promise.
• a) Purpose

i. Gentile salvation. God even overruled the Jewish unbelief. ii. Jewish jealousy. "To provoke the Jews to jealousy." iii. World blessing. V 12, Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

• b) Forewarning.

If one portion of the Jewish people are consecrated to the Lord, then all the rest must be also. The blindness of Israel is only temporary, and it has a definite purpose and a definite warning.

• c) Promise.

V 25, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

3. Purposeful. The surpassing purpose in everything is God's glory. Romans an outline of the doctrine of redemption and how it relates to the Jew and the Gentile. "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

Westminster Catechism. Paul wants us to glorify God. So, in order to do that he focuses on the character of God and gives us four attributes of God at the conclusion of this section. 1. God's sovereignty, 2. God's integrity,

3. God's generosity, and

4. God's incomprehensibility.

1. God's sovereignty

V 25-26, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your ownopinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel will

be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; Israel is only blind in part and temporarily. Ultimately all Israel shall be saved. A deliverer will come out of Zion, this will fulfil God's covenant.

✓ God is sovereign. ✓ God controls history. The temporary setting aside of Israel is under the control of God. Ultimately God will bring back Israel to the place of blessing. God has always had a remnant of true, believing Jews, but in the future the whole nation will come to salvation.

God is not victimized by their rejection, rather working with their hardness, their rejection, and their blindness He will accomplish His own holy purpose because He is absolutely sovereign.

Isaiah 46:10, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

Daniel 4:35, All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

Ephesians 1:11-12, In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

Psalm 135:6, Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth, In the seas and in all deep places. So, the testimony of Scripture is that God does what He wants.

2 Timothy 2:19, Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

God will redeem those in His sovereign plan, including Israel. God's sovereignly working out a master plan that will result not only in the salvation of Gentiles but finally in the salvation of His covenant people Israel to whom He gave His promise.

What an infinite mind to control history to this end.

2. God's integrity. V 27, For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” God makes a promise, He keeps it. This promise is unconditional. V 29, For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. The Jews are enemies of the gospel now.

They have been put aside because of their unbelief. ➢ On the one hand based on their response to the gospel, they are enemies. ➢ But based upon God's promise when He called them, which promise He gave to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are beloved.

If you want a good title for Israel, God's beloved enemy. God chose them and made the promise to their fathers. Now God will fulfil that. Men make covenants and break them all the time. Men make vows and violate them constantly.

God has integrity.

3. God's generosity. V 30-32, key word is "mercy." "Mercy"speaks of God's generosity. Salvation is not something we deserve but something we don't deserve.

• Mercy is simply undeserved goodness.
• Mercy is God withholding punishment when it is deserved.
• Mercy is God granting forgiveness when it is not deserved.
• Mercy is tender compassion and love.

V 30, For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, The “you” are the Gentiles. The “they” or “their” are the Jews. Romans chapter 9, Israel has been set aside is part of the plan of God, temporarily and partially.

Romans Chapter 10, Israel set aside because of their unbelief. Romans chapter 11, Israel is not set aside completely but always there was a remnant. Always!

Also, their setting aside is temporary. Their setting aside is because of their unbelief. They are not the nation of witness now. They are not the nation of blessing as a nation, though individual Jews are surely redeemed who believe in Christ.

They are not God's special people to take the gospel to the world. They have been set aside because of unbelief. The Gentile church has been brought into the place of blessing. We now are the witness people. We now are the people of blessing.

Most of the congregation in the Roman church were Gentiles. V 30, For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, The reason the gospel went to the Gentiles was because the Jews rejected it. So, in a sense we owe our salvation to Jewish unbelief!

• We have no reason to boast,
• We have no reason to be proud, and
• We have no reason to look down on a Jew.

Instead of despairing on them because of their unbelief we can be thankful because through their unbelief we were grafted into the place of blessing. By the hardness of their hearts, we were brought to the gospel. So, in time past we who didn't believe God, we who were not the people of the covenant.

Ephesians 2,

• we were strangers to the promises of God,
• we were aliens,
• we were outcasts,
• we were despised,
• we were non- believers, and
• we had none of their privileges.

But because of their unbelief we have been brought in and the gospel turned to the Gentiles. We are what we are by God's mercy. By His mercy. It's not because we were more worthy than anyone else. The only reason we have even come into the place of blessing is because of Jewish unbelief. We are no more worthy than they are.

If we did not believe, we would be cast out as well! Salvation is all of mercy. V 31, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. Jewish unbelief brought Gentile blessing.

Gentile blessing creates Jewish jealousy. Out of their jealousy they will be drawn back into the place of salvation. Mercy will be shown to them by the mercy shown to us. A day is going to come when the Jews desire to possess what the Gentiles possess. When the Jews desire the blessing that we who know Christ possess. That is going to be the attraction.

V 11, I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. V 15, For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?

They are cast aside, and we are brought in to make them jealous that they might come to salvation. As a result of their salvation comes the glorious, promised kingdom.

The Gentiles were saved out of mercy. Very humbling! Just mercy.

• In the past God's mercy that saved us because we did not believe either, verse 30 says. "In time past you have not believed,” only God's mercy saved you.
• In time present, verse 31, the Jews do not believe but only God's mercy also will save them.

Salvation is an act of mercy. Our salvation is not by merit, it is by mercy. It is not because we are worthy but rather because we are unworthy. This people make all the same or equal. It levels the Gentile, and it levels the Jew.

The Gentile would like to look down at a Jew and say, "You were set aside, you used to be God's people, but now you are set aside."We may boast in the fact that we as Gentiles have been grafted into the place of blessing.

We are not there because we were worthy, but we are there because God in mercy granted us to believe.

Day will come when God grants that in mercy to the Jew and the Jew will be grafted back into the place of blessing. The issue in both cases is mercy and nothing beyond mercy.

• It is mercy to the Gentiles.
• It is mercy to the Jew.

It is no merit in both. Salvation is based on the generosity of God, nothing more. Paul says in his own personal testimony.

1 Timothy 1:13, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. It's mercy. Like you are drawn into a court of law and the judge says you are guilty of every single count, but the court forgives you and dismisses the case. That's mercy. God's mercy is so marvellous. His mercy is forever. Psalm 136, His mercy is great.

1 Kings 3:6, And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. His mercy is abundance!

Psalm 86:5, For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. His mercy is tender.

Luke 1:78, Through the tender mercy of our God, With which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; Mercy is abundant.

1 Peter 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, His mercy is even selective.

Romans 9:15, For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So, we are the recipients of a forever, great, abundance, tender, and selective mercy.

No wonder the psalmist singing His mercy.

Psalm 59:16-17, But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defence And refuge in the day of my trouble. ¹⁷ To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defence, My God of mercy. If you ever come in your life to the point where you are smug about your salvation, then you have lost touch with this point. If you ever for one moment think there is something that commends you to God, then you have missed His mercy completely. ➢ There is nothing in the past, ➢ There is nothing in the future, and ➢ There is nothing in the present, that commends you to God other than the mercy granted to you because of Jesus Christ and your faith in Him.

God is called the Father of mercies.

2 Corinthians 1:3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Have you forgotten what it would be to spend an eternity in hell?

Have you forgot about burning in that place forever and ever without hope and escape? Have you forgotten what it would be like to be burdened down with the sinfulness of your sin forever and ever, endlessly? Have you forgotten what it would be like to have no sense of peace, no sense of forgiveness, no sense of joy, no sense of hope in life or life after death?

If you have forgotten that God help you and God help me. We ought to remember that, so we understand what it is to be mercifully delivered. Not because of anything we are or have done but it's all God's generosity. V 32, For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.

Theologians through the centuries have struggled with what is known as the problem of theodicy. The problem of the origination of sin and why God allowed it.

Do you know why God allowed sin? Because God has in His nature an attribute of mercy. Because God is a God of mercy, and God must reveal that mercy and must be glorified for that mercy.

God must exercise that mercy. The only way that mercy can be exercised is where there is sin. So, in order for God to reveal Himself as a merciful God, God must permit sin so that He can show His mercy toward the sinner.

We can ask question after question why God allowed this and that. Ultimate answer is because God must allow that to happen in order to demonstrate and reveal a characteristic that He possesses so that He may receive the full glory due His name.

V 32, "For God has committed them all to disobedience."

All? Jew and Gentile. God wrapped the whole world up in unbelief.

Romans 3:9-19, What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. ¹⁰ As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. ¹² They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” 13 “Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; 14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and

bitterness.” ¹⁵ “Their feet are swift to shed blood; ¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways; ¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.” ¹⁸ “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” ¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Why does God want the whole world guilty? Why does God want the whole world convicted of sin?

Why does God stop every mouth? So that all men may be seen to be unworthy and wherever God moves in with salvation. God is then demonstrating the attribute of mercy. God shut them up in the prison of sin. God shut them up in the prison of guilt.

God shut them up in the prison of judgment so that He might demonstrate His mercy.

Has everyone received mercy? Yes, that's right because God also needed to demonstrate His wrath. The reason there is a hell is that God may reveal His wrath and be glorified.

All that exists in terms of attitudes, thoughts, all that exists ultimately is existing for the purpose of allowing God to display His glory. So, God concludes the whole world in unbelief. The word "unbelief"is kind of an interesting word. It's not the normal word coming from the root of pisteu, it is the word apeithe and it basically means “not to allow oneself to be convinced.”

He basically has allowed man intellectually and morally to fall into a state where he does not allow himself to be convinced of the truth of God and the Scripture. So that the only way he can be saved is outside of his own power by the mercy of God.

If you are a Christian because God has been merciful to you. So that all the glory goes to Him, all the praise goes to Him. V 32, For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. He might have mercy on all.

That does not teach universalism or the salvation of the whole of mankind. It simply means all in the sense of the Gentile church and the Jewish nation.

He has concluded them all, Jew, and Gentile, in unbelief that He might have mercy on all Jew and Gentile. It is the ethnic all, Jew, and Gentile. "For in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile." God brought equal misery and unbelief to the Jew and the Gentile. So that He might save both and get the glory in both cases. Paul says, we give Him glory, for His sovereignty, for His integrity, and for His generosity.

I can't help but praise the Lord for being merciful to me!

Can you? When I think of the alternative, and when I know that there was nothing in me that I could have to save myself. There was nothing in me to draw me to Him.

• I was shut up in the prison of sin,
• unable to be persuaded of the truth by my own darkened mind,
• the God of this world having blinded the mind,
• lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto me.

The only reason I believed to this day is because God wanted to demonstrate His mercy to wretched sinners.

Why did God allow sin? He had to allow sin because if He hadn't allowed sin, He never would have been able to reveal His wrath against it and that's a part of His nature to be revealed for which He is to be glorified. If God had never allowed sin, He never would have been able to allow mercy.

If there was no mercy, He would have been therefore unable to reveal that attribute that He possesses which is cause for giving Him glory. So, God allowed sin. He is merciful to those who call upon Him. 4. God's incomprehensibility.

Finally, Paul breaks into the doxology. Doxology itself we see one other characteristic of God. We really can't spend very much time discussing it because we are out beyond our comprehension. But having completed his argument and affirmed God's sovereignty, God's integrity, God's generosity to Jew and Gentile. The plan comes all the way to completion. Ultimately the Gentile church is redeemed, and Jewish nation is redeemed.

The whole plan is going to work out marvellously and beautifully

and gloriously. Having identified God in a lofty strain of praise as the sovereign, faithful, merciful saving God who controls history, who fulfils His promise, who is merciful to undeserving sinners, he then breaks into song.

Theology becomes song. V 33, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

What a plan of God is unfolding? He sees the distinctiveness of God's plan as it culminates in the salvation of Israel. Like a mountain climber, he has climbed the peak of his argument, the peak of his thought and he stands at the summit of the Himalayas, and he looks down to survey everything that is beneath him, all that he has covered.

He is in absolute awe of this unbelievable unfolding redemptive plan, and he bursts into wonder and praise. It must have been a happy moment when you compare it with the beginning of this section.

Romans 9:1, where he talked about continual sorrow and heaviness of heart, as he thought about the present lostness of Israel.

But now as he thinks about the future salvation of that nation, he rejoices. The future salvation of the nation Israel does not act retroactively. Any Jew up to that time who lives and dies without Christ lives and dies without Christ, without a second chance. Paul has sorrow because of that.

But he has joy to realize that ultimately there will be a nation of Jews who will believe, and God's plan comes to fulfilment. Paul is filled with awe, wonder, and praise. V 33, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

O the depth, deep, inexhaustible, unfathomable fullness, inconceivable profundity, unthinkable thoughts. So profound it's beyond him.

Psalm 92:5, How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!

Very deep. You don't go even into them very far before you get the bends.

Have you experienced that? When you think of some things that you begin to think about relative to God and His person, you stop thinking about, you bail out, it's too profound for you.

Psalm 139:6, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Only the Spirit of God do that!

1 Corinthians 2:10, these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. "Of the riches,"limitless riches. Scripture talks so much about the riches of ✓ God's grace, ✓ God's mercy, ✓ God provides, that Christ who was rich became poor that we through His poverty might become rich.

These words are of feeble human words to say that God's mind is beyond anything conceivable. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom, and knowledge of God. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. God knows everything and applies it perfectly.

God has an infinite capacity to know and to apply the knowledge. God knows everything, there is nothing He doesn't know, and everything works out according to His plan. What is incomprehensible here is not what has not been revealed, but what has been revealed?

Paul is not amazed by the things he doesn't know about God. It is that the things that are revealed have a depth to them that if you follow long enough you realize you can't reach. The doxology rises out of the reality that even in looking at what has been revealed in the plan of God one is absolutely overwhelmed with the mind of God.

How could God pull it all and make it all happen?

Try to plumb the depths of all of God's thinking and all of God's planning. Paul has been giving, for eleven chapters, great examples of the infinite incomprehensible knowledge and wisdom of God. The whole scheme of salvation is so ➢ grandiose, ➢ profound, ➢ deep, ➢ filled with wonder, that he is absolutely overwhelmed by it.

How unsearchable are His judgments. Judgments has to do with decisions. A judgment rendered in a court, a verdict, with sentences given. God's decisions, God's verdicts, God's judgments, God's sentences, they are unsearchable.

God decides to do this and that, judges this way and that. We can't plumb the depths of comprehending how He could be so wise. His ways past finding out!

“Ways” has to do with God’s ✓ procedures, ✓ providences, and ✓ dealings. On the one hand, His judgments are His counsels, His plans, His purposes. His ways are how those things work out. Starts with knowledge, then the knowledge is applied in God's wisdom, as He puts together the right plan, the right procedure, the right plan, the right purpose, the right counsel and then enacts the procedure. His ways are past finding out.

"past finding out"literally means that which cannot be traced. It is an untraceable path. It is a metaphor left to us from the world of the animals by the hunters who would track an animal but lose the path. If you try to follow what God's doing, you are going to lose the path.

Psalm 77:19, Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen. Have you ever tried to follow a path in water? Have your ever tried to follow footprints in the sea?

God walks in the sea, and you can't find His footprints. We are left with faith. We can't see where God's going, His way is untraceable. To begin with, ➢ His knowledge is beyond us, ➢ His wisdom is infinitely beyond our capacity, ➢ His decisions, counsels, plans, and purposes are unsearchable to us.

➢ Even when He works them out, His path is untraceable, past finding out. So, we live in faith. We must, for our God is unfathomable. Even what has been revealed to us is unfathomable and incomprehensible as to its wisdom, knowledge, and judgment and path.

Three questions are added to reinforce this. V 34-35, “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?” ³⁵ “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”

Anybody know God's mind perfectly? The Lord knows the mind of His creatures, but the creatures don't know the mind of the Lord.

Do you think an ant understands your thought processes? Absurd. But not as absurd as to think you understand God's mind. Even when God has revealed Himself that often leaves us with more mystery than what we had before He revealed anything!

Quote from Septuagint version,

Isaiah 40:13, Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counsellor has taught Him?

The answer is nobody. Nobody could know what God was doing until it unfolded and was revealed to them. No one is witness to the infinite depth of the mind of God. That is why it's so stupid when we second guess Him instead of praising Him, when we question Him, or when we think we have got Him in a box.

Second question also taken from the Old Testament. Or who has become His counsellor?”

To whom does the Lord go for advice?

Who does He check in with? Nobody stands at God's ear giving suggestions.

Nobody is God's counsellor. God doesn't look for help in outlining the program.

Proverbs 11:14, Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. For men we need counsel.

Proverbs 24:6, For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, And in a multitude of counsellors there is safety.

Does God need a counsellor? God doesn’t need any counsellor!

Why? Because God seeks no advice.

Why? Because He knows everything there is to know. God knows how to apply everything there is to apply. God is sovereign in developing all the plans. God is powerful enough to work the plan out to absolute fulfilment.

Unquestionably God knows everything there is to know from beginning to end. Therefore, there is no purpose in seeking advice from anybody.

Job 42:3, You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Job says that he has been saying lot of things about God, and now he realizes that he confesses that I have been talking about things I don't even understand!

The message for us is to be content with what we know and realize it's very limited. The wisest of men need counsel, God needs none. Third question. Taken from Job. V 35, “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”

Who loaned something to God or gave something to God and now God is in His debt?

Who has God in debt to Him?

Anybody?

Who has God under obligation to perform?

Absurd to think that way.

Does God owe anybody anything?

Job 41:11, Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

What did anyone ever do to make God be in debt? Nothing! His Favor is never, ever, owed to anyone. Never ever earned by anyone. Never ever given as compensation from God. It is always infinite grace. Like the man in Matthew 18.

There is no merit in us to put any constraint on God for anything. God is self-sufficient, sovereign, free from any obligation. He doesn't owe the Jew anything because of merit. He doesn't owe the Gentile anything because of merit.

Why does God going to fulfil His plan? Because of His own character. Because He is a sovereign God who keeps His promise, who is gracious.

But don't for one moment imagine that you have got Him figured out, He is incomprehensible! V 36, For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. God is the source. God is the means, and through Him.

God is the goal, and to Him are all things. God made all things for Himself.

Revelation 4:11, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honour and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”

What a great climax! You can join with the apostle in that last part of verse 36 and give Him glory forever. All praise, all glory.

Jude 1:25, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, Be glory and majesty, Dominion and power, Both now and forever. Amen.