Owing to the length of this epistle we have made our remarks briefer and more condensed than usual. It will therefore be more than ever necessary to refer to the Scripture itself as you read this article.
THOUGH Israel, as a nation, has been set aside for a time, they have not been cast away forever. Some Gentiles in the conceit of their hearts thought so when Paul was writing, and not a few think so today. But God forbid that it should be so, for they are His people foreknown for a special object, and in that event His object would be defeated. The Apostle immediately cites his own case as proof. Mercy had been shown to him and he was an Israelite, a sample of that remnant which God was then calling, and a pledge of the ultimate restoration of his nation. God is still today calling a remnant just as one was preserved in the days of Elijah.
“I also am an Israelite,” says Paul. In passing let us place against these words that other declaration of Paul made to an unfriendly and critical audience of his own nation, “I am verily a man which am a Jew.” (Acts 22:33I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. (Acts 22:3).) The two statements are worthy of note in view of the widespread propaganda of British-Israelism which rests so largely upon the assumption that “Jew” always means the two tribes, who are utterly rejected; whereas “Israel” means the ten, to whom all the blessings belong, and who are identified by them with the English-speaking peoples. If that assumption be wrong the main part of their theory collapses like a bubble. Paul punctures British-Israelism.
But let us pick up the thread of the argument. When Israel was practically apostate in the days of Ahab, God reserved to Himself no less than seven thousand who were true to Himself at heart, though only Elijah was an outstanding figure in testimony. This was the fruit of His grace, and the same grace still works. The result is “a remnant according to the election of grace” (verse 5). As a nation Israel had despised grace and sought for righteousness by law-keeping, only to miss it and to be blinded (verse 7). Bowing to grace the remnant had been saved.
Verses 8-10 show us how their stumbling and consequent blindness had been anticipated by Old Testament prophets. Verse 11 indicates one great result flowing from it: thereby salvation had been presented to the Gentiles. The succeeding verses down to 15 contemplate their ultimate national restoration, and its results are strikingly contrasted with the results of their setting aside.
As a result of their stumble the Gospel of grace has been sent forth among the nations and the Gentile world greatly enriched. It has meant “the reconciling of the world;” that is, the world which was left alone and in the dark, while God was concentrating all His dealings upon Israel, has now come up for favorable consideration in the light of the Gospel. The reconciliation spoken of here is not, as in chapter 5, something vital and eternal, the fruit of the death of Christ, but something provisional and dispensational, the fruit of Israel’s stumble.
Today Israel is fallen and diminished and broken, and lo! all this has worked out in favor of the Gentiles. What then will be the result of “the receiving of them,” of “their fullness?”— that is, of God once more taking them back into favor? A further great accession of blessing in the earth, so great as to be likened to “life from the dead.” The main point of the passage, however, is that Israel having been set aside from the exclusive place they once held, the Gentiles are now being visited in blessing, whilst at the same time God is still preserving an election from amongst Israel according to His grace.
This is confirmed and amplified, in verses 16-24, by an illustration concerning an olive tree and grafting. No doubt the olive is specially chosen for the illustration, inasmuch as being the source of oil it is figurative of spiritual fatness, or blessing. Israel once had this place of blessing in the earth in connection with Abraham their ancestor. They forfeited it, as we have seen, and now Gentiles have come into it; as we read, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 3:1414That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:14).)
This transference is pictured as the breaking off of natural branches from the olive tree, and the grafting in of branches from a wild olive, so that these formerly wild branches now partake of the fatness of the good olive, drawing their supplies from its root. The grafting process suggested is “contrary to nature,” as verse 24 points out. It is nothing new however to discover that the processes of grace work on opposite lines to the processes of nature.
It is important for us Gentiles to realize what has happened, and the way in which it has happened. Israel has lost their old position through unbelief, and we hold our new position by faith. So let us beware! If Gentiles do not abide in faith what can they expect but that they too in turn shall be broken off? The grafted-in branches from the wild olive cannot expect better treatment than the original branches of the tree. Again bear in mind that the point here is not the spiritual blessing of individual believers, but the dispensational change in God’s ways, which has put rebellious Israel under His governmental displeasure and brought Gentiles into a place of favor and opportunity in connection with the Gospel.
God’s dealings in this matter illustrate the two sides of His character—goodness and severity—as verse 22 makes plain. The severity of God is tremendously discounted, if not denied, in many religious circles today. It exists nevertheless, and those who discount or deny it will have to face it in due season. The natural branches—poor scattered Israel—are going to be grafted in again, and the high-minded Gentile branches broken off. The times of the Gentiles are running to their end.
With verse 25 we drop the figure of the olive tree and resume the main theme of the chapter. The apostle very plainly predicts Israel’s blindness is only going to last until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in. Then their eyes will be opened, and Israel as a whole will be saved. This will happen when once more the Lord Jesus returns. The blindness is only “in part,” since all along God has been calling out an election from amongst them. When Jesus comes again “all Israel” will be saved: that is, Israel as a whole, or nationally. It does not mean that every individual Israelite will be, for the Scriptures show that many amongst them will worship antichrist and perish.
“The fullness of the Gentiles” refers to God’s present work of calling out an election from amongst the Gentile nations also. When that work is complete and the whole “fullness” or “complement” secured, the end will come. God’s present purposes of grace to the nations will be secured, and then He will proceed to secure His purposes in regard to Israel; for He never repents, or changes His mind, regarding His gifts or His calling. Only He will secure those purposes, not on the ground of man’s merit but of His mercy.
The rendering of verse 31 in the New Translation is “So these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that they also may be objects of mercy.” The Jews nationally rejected the Gospel just because it was mercy, sent specially to the Gentiles, (Acts 22:21, 22,21And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. 22And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live. (Acts 22:21‑22) exemplifies this) and eventually they will be profoundly humbled and receive blessing on the same ground as the Gentile dog.
As Paul concluded his survey of God’s dispensational dealings and ways, as He saw mercy ultimately flowing out even to his own countryman, once so hardened and self-righteous, his soul was filled with adoration.
He burst out in the doxology with which the chapter closes. We may call it the doxology of the wisdom of God, just as that at the end of Eph. 3 is the doxology of His love, and that in 1 Tim. 1 The doxology of His grace. The apostle glorifies that wisdom which lies behind all His ways, carrying everything finally to a glorious consummation, wherein is jointly achieved His own glory and the blessing of His creatures.
Thus chapter 11 ends very much as chapter 8 ended. In both we have the purpose of God and His electing mercy. Small wonder then that chapter 12 opens with an appeal based upon the mercies of God. In this way we commence the hortatory and practical section of the epistle. There is only one thing to do in response to the abounding compassion which has reached us in the Gospel—we present our bodies to God as a sacrifice livingly devoted to Him. This is reasonable, or intelligent, service on our part, and acceptable to Him.
In verse 13 of chapter 6 the Apostle had indicated that the way of deliverance from the service of sin was to yield ourselves unto God, and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God. We were to have the thing done, definitely and forever, as a settled thing. The exhortation here is very similar. Have we each of us had a moment in our histories when, conscious of the abounding mercies of God, perhaps overwhelmed with them, we have definitely presented our bodies as something livingly devoted to Him? Once each of us held his body as the vehicle wherein his own will would be expressed. Once we each said in effect, “I am the captain of my body and it shall serve my pleasures.” Have we now surrended it to Another, that it may serve His will and be used for His service and glory? We perform no really intelligent service for Him until we do this. We cannot be intelligent in the Gospel without seeing that such a course is the only proper response.
This will of course involve what is enjoined upon us in verse 2. Non-conformity to this world—or age will mark us, inasmuch as we shall necessarily be conformed to the will of God. But God has His own way of bringing this about. Sometimes we see conformed Christians—sadly conformed to this age, and their bodies continually bearing witness to the fact. Sometimes too we see reformed Christians, trying with a good deal of laborious effort to imitate Christ and do as He would do. What is set before us here is the transformed Christian, the transformation proceeding from the mind within to the body without.
Our verse does not speak of what God has done, or is doing, for us. It speaks of what we are to do. The responsibility is put upon us. We are not to be fashioned according to this age: we are to be transformed. Both these things, the negative and the positive, are to be worked out day by day. The renewing of our minds, and the transformation effected thereby, are not things accomplished in a moment once and for all, but something to be maintained and increased all through life.
Since the divine instructions to us are that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds, we may well inquire how we may get our minds renewed. The answer is, by getting them formed according to God’s thoughts and forsaking our own. And how shall this be? By soaking them in God’s Word, which conveys to us God’s thoughts. As we read and study the Word in prayerful dependence on the enlightening of the Spirit of God, our very thinking faculties, as well as our way of thinking, become renewed.
Here then is opened up before us the true way of Christian saintliness. We are not set to laboriously fulfill a code of morals, or even to copy the life of Christ. We are brought into contact with that which alters our whole way of thinking, and which consequently transforms our whole way of living. Thus it is that we may prove the will of God for ourselves, and discover it to be good, acceptable and perfect. What is good before God will be good to us, since our minds will have been brought into conformity to His.
The very first point where our conformity to the thoughts of God—and consequent non-conformity to the thoughts of the world —will be manifested, is in connection with self-esteem. Naturally each of us thinks no end of himself, for we have not learned to take our true measure before God. The more our minds are renewed the more we see ourselves las God sees us, and know that it is the measure of our faith that counts with Him. Faith brings God into our lives, and hence the measure of faith determines our spiritual calibre. We once heard a Christian remark of another, with gravity and a tinge of sadness, “Well, if we could buy that good brother at the price we put upon him, and sell him again at the price he places upon himself, we should make a huge profit!” God help us to learn how to think with great sobriety as to ourselves, realizing that not intellect, not social status, not money resources, not natural gifts but faith is the determining factor.
The fact is, of course, that the greatest and weightiest of us is but a tiny part of one far greater whole. This is emphasized in verse 4 and 5, where for the first time, as far as this epistle is concerned, it is intimated that though saved individually we are not to remain isolated individuals but are brought into a unity—the church of God. We are one body in Christ, each being a member of that one body. The practical outcome of this fact is that we each have our different functions, just like the members of our natural bodies have, and no one of us can absorb all the functions to himself, nor anything like all of them.
In verses 6-15 we get the practical working out of this. Each has his own gift according to the grace bestowed, so each is to recognize the part he is to play in the scheme. Each too is to take care that what he does, he does in the right way and spirit. The one who prophesies, for instance, is only to do so according to his faith. His knowledge may run beyond his faith but let him take care not to speak beyond his faith. This, if observed, would cut out a lot of unprofitable talking in the gatherings of God’s people. So too he that gives is to give with simplicity. He that shows mercy with cheerfulness, so that he does not do a kind act in an unkind way. And so on. The details of these verses hardly need remarks of ours, save that we may point out that “Not slothful in business,” is rather, “As to diligent zealousness, not slothful.” It has no reference to the keenness with which we pursue our secular callings.
The closing verses of the chapter give more general instructions as to what becomes ug according to God’s mind. Lowliness of mind; openness and honesty; a peaceable spirit; absence of the almost universal spirit of retaliation and vengeance; love, so active as to “retaliate” by kindnesses, and so overcome evil with good; these are pleasing to God, and pleasing to us in so far as our minds are transformed into conformity to His. The figure of “heaping coals of fire” on the head of one’s enemy is doubtless suggested by Psa. 140:1010Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again. (Psalm 140:10). The Psalmist prayed for it in keeping with the age of law in which he lived. Our verse shows us the Christian way of doing it.
We may say then that this twelfth chapter gives us the good and acceptable and perfect will of God for us in many of its details. Many of the features mentioned are by no means beloved by the men of the world. Some would please them well enough so long as they get the benefit of them—they will, for instance, quite like the honesty which would lead the Christian to be a prompt payer of accounts, and the absence of vengeance when they perchance take some unrighteous advantage of him. It is only the believer with his mind renewed who can see the beauty of them all.
And it is only the believer, whose renewed mind is working out a transformation in his life, that will begin to really practice them.
F. B. Hole.