Footsteps # 371. ‘Irrevocable’ the RSV says. God is faithful to His promises. Just because the bulk of the Jewish nation had spurned His gospel offer through Jesus, does not mean that the Lord had rejected them (Rom.11:1). Those Jews who had rebuffed His offer of grace may have become His enemies, but God still loved them and wanted their best good, especially their salvation. After all, “they are loved on account of the patriarchs” (v28). He hasn’t forgotten the gifts (such as sonship, the covenants, and the law, Rom. 9:4, 5) that He gave them, nor of His call to make them His special people (Rom.11:29). God hasn’t backed away from His promises to them. And he still, as vs30-32 points out, offers them mercy. That’s grace! 

As I reflect on v31 no doubt, through the centuries, had the Christian church treated the Jews better, many more might have come to their Messiah. The great falling away in the early centuries after Christ and the apostles, and the extreme paganisation of Christianity – including the drifting from the Sabbath in favour of Sunday – certainly didn’t make it any easier on a Jew who might have been drawn to Jesus. How crucial, then, that all Christians, realizing the mercy that has been given to them in Jesus, display that mercy to others. We cannot be Christians if we do not. (see Matt. 18:23-35). 

As you reflect on Romans 10 and 11 remember the theme is still Righteousness by faith. Salvation does not come by our own efforts but through the fulfillment of the law in Christ. Paul’s desire in these chapters is that his own people would find salvation based on the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of works and self-striving. Paul had described Christ as the “end of the law for righteousness,” because He had fulfilled it. What human effort was unable to achieve, Christ has achieved for us on our behalf. The only thing left to do, as Paul articulates, is to confess with your lips and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord. (10:9.) As the great old hymn said “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus.