Questions
Prayer: Father God thank you for this moment of worship to you. Thank you for not forsaken us by leaving us your words of life which is your holy scriptures, let this moment of teaching be filled with your grace in your name Amen.
The text is filled with questions that Paul ask while writing to the church. This church was filled with Jews who are the original descendants of the promise. And Gentiles who were grafted into the promise because of their faith in Jesus Christ. These questions today will move us to a place of understanding grace is for everyone today and until the end.
What is grace?
Grace, in Christian theology, is defined as the unmerited gift of divine favour in the salvation of sinners, and the divine influence operating in individuals for their regeneration and sanctification.
Grace is the love of God shown to the unlovely; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God.
Grace can be generally defined as “God’s favor toward the unworthy” or “God’s benevolence on the undeserving.” In His grace, God is willing to forgive us and bless us, despite the fact that we fall short of living righteously.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).
"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." (Romans 5:1-2)
1- You’ve been chosen by grace
Verse 1-6
“I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
Paul lavishes the church with questions. In order to stimulate them to think or see the grace of God working for them or in their lives. Has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! Has God rejected you? Big No! God’s grace towards Paul in the text illustrates the kind of compassion God desires to show Israel as a whole. Today God desires to show compassion to you…
Paul writes and reminded the church about the scriptures written concerning the prophet Elijah according to (1 Kings 19:14-18). Basically saying there is a remnant. A mixed group of people, a combination of faithful and faithless people. Out of the remnant some of them remained faithful who like Elijah often felt alone… God reminds the remnant that they are not alone.
I want you to remain faithful, I want you to know you are not alone, you have been chosen by grace. **
2- Failure is not an option
Verse 7-10
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
Israel failed to obtain what they were seeking, who they were looking for. Relatively who are you seeking? Who are you looking for?
Will you follow in the footsteps of disobedience like pharaoh and allow your heart to be hardened?
Just as pharaohs heart was hardened because he rejected God’s command “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may show these signs of mine among them,”
Exodus 10:1 ESV
“But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go.”
Exodus 10:20 ESV
In the same way Israel’s heart was hardened because they rejected God’s son…
Bad news: Anybody who rejects Jesus Christ will be rejected and fail to obtain eternal life… that’s why I made the point that failure is not an option.
Good news: I want to encourage you to seek Christ. Works can’t be your savior… or bring salvation. Faith in Jesus brings you Salvation.
“For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””
Romans 10:13 ESV
3- It’s all apart of God’s plan
Verse 11-15
So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
Israel stumbled, salvation came to the gentiles, Israel became jealous, their trespass meant riches to the lost, their failure spurred a richness for grace, circling back to being included
4- Live a life planted through faith
Verse 16-21
If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.
When the Root is holy everything is holy
God wants all of us to be holy
He grafted us in…
5- There is hope…
Verse 22-24
Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.”
“Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off. And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree. You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.”
Romans 11:22-24 NLT