Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Eleven
THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES
Scripture Reading: verses 22-29
BEHOLD THEREFORE THE GOODNESS AND SEVERITY OF GOD: ON THEM WHICH FELL, SEVERITY; BUT TOWARD THEE, GOODNESS, IF THOU CONTINUE IN HIS GOODNESS: OTHERWISE THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF. AND THEY ALSO, IF THEY ABIDE NOT STILL IN UNBELIEF, SHALL BE GRAFFED IN: FOR GOD IS ABLE TO GRAFF THEM IN AGAIN. FOR IF THOU WERT CUT OUT OF THE OLIVE TREE WHICH IS WILD BY NATURE, AND WERT GRAFFED CONTRARY TO NATURE INTO A GOOD OLIVE TREE: HOW MUCH MORE SHALL THESE, WHICH BE THE NATURAL BRANCHES, BE GRAFFED INTO THEIR OWN OLIVE TREE? FOR I WOULD NOT, BRETHREN, THAT YE SHOULD BE IGNORANT OF THIS MYSTERY, LEST YE SHOULD BE WISE IN YOUR OWN CONCEITS; THAT BLINDNESS IN PART IS HAPPENED TO ISRAEL, UNTIL THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES BE COME IN. AND SO ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED: AS IT IS WRITTEN, THERE SHALL COME OUT OF SION THE DELIVERER, AND SHALL TURN AWAY UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB: FOR THIS IS MY COVENANT UNTO THEM, WHEN I SHALL TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS. AS CONCERNING THE GOSPEL, THEY ARE ENEMIES FOR YOUR SAKES: BUT AS TOUCHING THE ELECTION, THEY ARE BELOVED FOR THE FATHERS’ SAKES. FOR THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD ARE WITHOUT REPENTANCE.
This passage covers a wide scope of divine truth. Jew and Gentile are on trial. In the early chapters, the individual Jew and individual Gentile have been declared guilty and brought in together unprofitable before the One whom they failed to serve. Condemned, the sentence of death has been pronounced on them for the wages of sin is death. Then God’s magnanimous grace has been presented so that every individual, Jew or Gentile, may find salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. But chapters nine, ten, and eleven of the Roman Epistle take up the national claims on the basis of promise and as attorney for the defense, Paul is showing that Israel nationally has been set aside in a temporary way. In the meantime the Gentiles have come into the ascendancy – These are the times of the Gentiles. No guess work is necessary to arrive at this conclusion. The Israel nation is largely lost to view – the ten tribes are like a hidden treasure. Only a small part of Israel, known as the Jews, is in evidence today. But although they are a small part they are a significant part of God’s national dealings.
The sin question is paramount in this courtroom scene. It is the guilt not only of transgression of the law, which we had in the early chapters, but it is also the guilt of rejection of the Messiah, brought home to the door of Israel. Because of their unfaithfulness to Jehovah, and because they refused the Deliverer who came into their midst centuries ago, the branches of the natural olive tree have been taken away and Gentile branches of the wild olive tree grafted in.
The tide of empire in the Gentile world began in the east and has gradually and increasingly swept westward. It really began in Babylon, as outlined in the book of Daniel. But the kingdom was taken from Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar and passed to Darius of the Medo-Persian Empire. Then decay set and the Grecian Empire arose, still moving westward. Under Alexander the Great and his four sons the Grecian Empire flourished, but it too went into decadence, and the mighty empire of Rome came to the front. The Roman Empire received a grievous wound and went into eclipse. The glamorous days of the Spanish conquerors came and went. Then, for a time, the Gentile ascendancy was in the balance between Napoleonic France and the rising British Empire. Napoleon went down in defeat and the tide of empire crossed the narrow English Channel to become a world-wide dominion of great power.
During the last few centuries we have seen the British Empire reach its zenith and decline, and now the tide of empire has rolled across the great Atlantic Ocean. Today the United States of America holds the supremacy. Then even in our own country we can see how the march of development and ascendancy has been westward. Not too long ago California was almost an uninhabited desert and inaccessible woodland. Now it is the land of promise, a term that might be applied to all the Pacific Coast. In traveling up and down this coast one is astonished at the tremendous developments of resources, from British Columbia to the Mexican border. The Pacific Coast is an economic and industrial center of the nation, and of the entire civilized world. Where will the tide of empire go next? It has now reached the western ramparts of the world. To go farther west brings us once again to the Far East where the earliest civilizations started. Has the tide of empire made its complete circuit? Are we about to see the fulness of the Gentiles? Is this an indication that the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ is near?
