Nuggets
- The Jews thought the Gentiles were their enemies. At a minimum, they thought the Gentiles were so far beneath them.
- Gentiles were not second-class citizens as they were also loved by the God of love.
- God gives was a lot of gifts.
- Election is God’s plan to bring that salvation to His creation, a gift of His grace because of His mercy.
Devotions in the What I Believe series
Devotions in The Purpose of Grace category
Is Election Really Mercy?
Wrapping Up Election
We’ve been talking about election being where God chose us because of His grace. But what part does mercy play in it? This devotion discusses God’s mercy to both the Jews and the Gentiles.
Let's Put It into Context #1
We are looking at election through the lens of grace. Grace is a free and unmerited gift from Heavenly Father given through His Son, Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers. The purpose of the gift of grace is to restore God’s relationships with man and eliminate sin.
The Holman Bible Dictionary defines election as “God’s plan to bring salvation to His people and His world.”
Let's Put It into Context #2
“I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, The Deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (Rom. 11: 25-27 CSB)
If we are going to start at Romans 11: 28, then we start with a dangling pronoun. If we back up to Romans 11: 25, then we start with a mystery.
Part of the mystery is the wrath and mercy of God. We talked some about this when we were walking through Ephesians.
At times, it does seem like there are two different sides of God. I think it is more, though, that God is the God of love — until we get on His last nerve.
Then, God isn’t going to put up with it.
God is not going to tolerate our thoughts of entitlement. He is going to shut down our abusing His blessings.
We just never forget God is Sovereign Lord. And God is love.
The bulk of the mystery is the conversion of the Jews. “Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness toward you — if you remain in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these — the natural branches — be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Rom. 11: 22-24 CSB).
Even though we fell from His grace, God still loved us enough to design the plan of salvation. We just need to believe on Him to be grafted in again (Rom. 11: 23).
This started out with the Jew. However, when they didn’t believe, the plan of salvation was offered to the Gentiles (i.e., everyone else).
Once those Gentiles who will be saved are, God will restore the Jews. Parr wrote, “The end of the world shall not be till the Jews are called, and how long after that none yet can tell.”
We have to remember that the election of the Jews is permanent.
Enemies for Your Advantage
“Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs” (Rom. 11: 28 CSB)
Oh, yes. The Jews thought the Gentiles were their enemies. At a minimum, they thought the Gentiles were so far beneath them.
McNeile had some good points. The early church was formed by Jews who had converted to Christianity. The Gentiles were then taken into the fellowship. The Gentiles did not start the church and incorporate the Jews.
Paul is making the point here that, even though they were the ones incorporated in, the Gentiles were not second-class citizens. They were also loved by the God of love.
This was because the converted Gentiles were, well, converted and different from regular Gentiles. Just as those in the Jewish remnant were converted and different from the Jewish nation.
What was the difference? Truth be known, the difference was now a similarity. Both the converted Jews and converted Gentiles were to imitate the character of God.
The difference was gone.
Oh, God was still calling the Jews — His people — to be converted. Election incorporated more than them. If election was to bring salvation to His world, that included Gentiles.
A Shower of Gifts
“since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable” (Rom. 11: 29 CSB)
God gives was a lot of gifts.
- “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2: 8 ESV emphasis added).
- “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6: 23 ESV emphasis added).
- “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Ac. 2: 38 ESV emphasis added).
- “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom. 5: 15 ESV emphasis added).
Grace, salvation, faith, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ sacrifice. Shouldn’t that be a draw to people?
Satan wants to convince us that our independence of God should mean more than all of these gifts. He is wrong.
God doesn’t give the gifts and then take them back. He doesn’t change His mind. “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” (Num. 23: 19 NLT).
Gifts Because of God’s Mercy
“As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all” (Rom. 11: 30-32 CSB)
Mercy is the unexpected way God responds in love to our needs. We sure didn’t expect Him to respond to our disobedience with designing the plan of salvation.
We really didn’t expect God to show His mercy to us by designing the plan of salvation before He even created us — before Adam and Eve committed the original sin.
Did you catch what Paul was saying here?
- You/Jews disobeyed
- You/Jews received mercy through their/Gentiles’ disobedience
- They/Gentiles disobeyed
- Resulting in mercy to you/Jews
- They/Gentiles received mercy
Hmmm. I followed until Paul threw in the you received mercy for their disobedience before they disobeyed. Yep, Paul lost me right away.
Parr wrote, “The impiety of the Gentiles was no impediment to their mercy, neither shall the infidelity of the Jews to theirs.”
Okay. I think I can get that. The Jews — for the most part — didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah. Because they didn’t, the gospel spread to the Gentiles. “… They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles …” (Rom. 11: 11 CSB).
Being Gentile did not preclude them from gaining God’s mercy. Instead, the world was blessed because of the Jew’s disobedience/unbelief.
But that is going to make the Jews jealous. (Oh, yeah. That is so human — don’t want what you have until someone else wants it.)
So, eventually, the Jews will get it. They will believe Jesus is Messiah and Savior.
Making the Connections
Election is God’s plan to bring that salvation to His creation. That means Jews. That means Gentiles. That means all of the Toms, Sallys , and Elaines.
We didn’t do anything to earn this election. God is giving us the gift of grace because of His mercy.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
We can’t do anything to earn salvation, so there is no tie to self-discipline there.
The tie is to growing in faith and knowledge so we can witness.
We’ve been asking these questions all along so we can prepare for when we are asked. Here is the worksheet again. What would you say about election to the Jews and Gentiles?
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
Robinson gave us a good list of how to apply this. His take was our past should impact our future in these ways.
1. “Promote humility.
2. “Awaken gratitude.
3. “Soften our censures.
4. “Strengthen our hopes of others.”
But let’s apply that to election.
1. Humility — We don’t deserve election. We get it only through God’s grace.
2. Gratitude — If we don’t deserve it, we should be grateful God gives it to us.
3. Censures — Everyone is provided the opportunity to gain salvation. That levels the playing field, so we shouldn’t be censorious.
4. Hope — We should not only hope that people go from election to being one of the Elect. But we should also witness to others as God directs to help that become a reality.
Lord. Each one of Your creation is important to You. Help make them important to us, too, so that we can tell them of Your live for them. Amen.
What do you think?
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