Romans 11:11-15: "God's Master Plan Pt. 1"

So why did God allow the rejection of the Jews? The answer is found in this section. Paul begins, " I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they?" In other words, Paul asks a rhetorical question, "God has not allowed His chosen people to remain in unrepentance forever has He?" MacArthur writes, "For a divinely appointed time, He has let them wander about in spiritual blindness and darkness. Yet their blindness is not irreversible, and their darkness was never to be permanent". Paul emphatically answers his questions with a resounding, "May it never be!". He then explains that Israel's temporary hardening has not been meaningless. The purpose of Israel's hardening is so "by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous". Israel's loss was the Gentiles gain. God came to His chosen people and He was rejected, He then extended salvation to all who may believe. In Matthew 21:43 Jesus exclaims, "Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and be given to a nation producing the fruit of it". MacArthur goes on to explain that, "although the widespread salvation of Gentiles came about because Israel as a nation refused her Savior, that extension of grace was not an afterthought with God. From His first calling of Abraham, it was God's intent that His chosen people should be the instruments of bringing salvation to the Gentiles". God's plan has always been to save His people "to the ends of the earth" (Isa. 49:6).

We can also see from this temporary hardening of the Jews and the allowance of Gentiles into the plan of salvation, God did this in order to "make them jealous". MacArthur writes, "God's intention was for Israel's jealousy of Gentiles to be a positive stimulus to draw His people back to Himself". This would be like being next in line for a promotion and you feel like you have the positioned locked up so you sail through your current job position. Later on you find out you have not only lost the job promotion, but the co-worker you can't stand has been given the position. God's desire is for Israel to understand what they had lost to a race they felt were inferior to draw them back in repentance. MacArthur writes, "He wanted to make [Israel] face their own sin and its consequences, to sense their alienation from Jehovah and to recognize their need for the salvation that He now offered the Gentiles".

Paul, desiring to show His brethren the 'bright side' of things exclaims, "Now if their transgression be riches for the world and their failure be riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!" In God's perfect plan, He even used the seemingly horrible circumstances of the great transgressions of His chosen people to extend salvation to the rest of the world. He then points out how even more amazing it will be when Israel repents and turns back to God. If the faithlessness of Israel brought about the gift of salvation for the rest of the world, how much more will the faithfulness of Israel be a gift to the rest of the world. How much more will God be glorified. MacArthur writes, "The fruit of Israel's faithful fulfillment will be worldwide salvation. That also will go on during the kingdom, as Jews lead Gentiles to the Lord Christ".

Not to minimize the wonderful gift to the Gentiles Paul writes, "I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry" MacArthur writes, "[Paul] does not want to underplay his special calling to reach the Gentile world for Christ. He emphasized that calling whoever he ministered (see Acts 18:6, 22:21; 26:17-18; Eph. 3:8; I Tim. 3:7). But he also knew that 'salvation is from the Jews' (John 4:22), and that 'the gospel . . is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek' (Rom. 1:16)".

Although excited about the invitation to the Gentiles, and his special calling to the Gentiles through his ministry, he will "magnify" or increase his ministry if he can "move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them". It's almost like the cherry on top for Paul. He had been set apart by God to preach to the Gentiles, yet, if his converting Gentiles causes His Jewish brethren to be moved to jealousy and repent for salvation, all the better. His excitement can be seen as he says, "For if their rejection be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" This is the second time Paul has taken a seemingly horrible situation and shown how God has worked it out for good. Earlier in Rom. 5 Paul spoke of the horrible event of the fall of man into sin through Adam, yet the wonderful grace of God that is even greater than the sin. Rom. 5:17, "For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ". Paul, as in Rom. 5, is showing God's wonderful sovereignty in His plan for salvation. God takes the horrors of the world and turns them into good for those who love Him, proving Rom. 8:28 to be true.