Romans 11:11-16

Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

V11-12 – Paul offers another glimpse into the eternal plan of God. Here we are told that God’s plan to save the Gentiles is first and foremost gracious. He has no obligation to save or even to offer salvation to anyone. God hardens in order that He can reveal His mercy. And God has designed the hardening of a majority of the Jews in order to bring the full number of Gentiles into His Kingdom. So there is a purpose beyond anything we can really even understand to why most Jews reject the Gospel – that the Gentiles could be included in God’s salvation. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 8:5-13 and in the parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-46). We just don’t always recognize that this was God’s plan from the beginning.

Paul is doing two things in v11. First, he is denying that God’s hardening of Israel so that the Jews reject the Gospel is intended to cause them to fall beyond recovery (commit eternal apostasy). That’s not what God has purposed with Israel’s hardening. And second, he is denying that God is done with Israel. God has something more in store for Israel. By their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Paul says that God used the unbelief of Israel to result in the salvation of Gentiles all around the world. But that’s not where Paul stops. He adds that this was to make the Jews jealous. And that sounds strange, but Jesus displayed how this works in His parable of the prodigal sons. Remember the jealousy of the elder son. He was jealous that the younger son was inheriting the party and his father’s favor. He was just as welcome to come into the party as the repentant younger son. The point is this: The conversion of the Gentiles is for the evangelism, for the benefit, of the Jews. So the hardening of the Jews is for the evangelism of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the Gentiles is for the evangelism of the Jews. Paul sets forth a plan of salvation in which the salvation of the Gentile is for the benefit of the Jew, and the salvation of the Jew is for the benefit of the Gentile. They can still be distinguished, but God’s plan of redemption is designed to work for their mutual blessing so that the Jew is for the Gentile and the Gentile for the Jew. God is always at work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. He really does work all things in accordance with His will and pleasure. And this, even though perhaps difficult to understand, should give us great assurance and hope and peace.

Now in v12, and its parallel in v15, Paul is saying that if blessing resulted to Gentile Christians all over the world because Jews rejected the Messiah, how much greater blessing is going to result for the Gentiles when Israel embraces the Messiah! Their rejection of the gospel brought blessing to the whole Gentile world. Their acceptance is going to do even more. Paul is saying that God’s works of grace in the present and future are going to be greater than His works of grace in the past.

V13-16 – Paul is teaching Gentiles to have a heart of love for the Jewish people, including a longing to see them converted. That was not an easy thing to do for Paul’s Gentile audience, and it’s not necessarily an easy thing to do in our day. At the same time, many Jews, both in Paul’s day and in our own, see Paul and other Jewish Christians as turning their backs on the truth by embracing Jesus Christ. But Paul saw his ministry to the Gentiles as a way to bless Israel. In v13-14 he’s saying, “Look, this is how I think of my ministry to the Gentiles, you Gentile Christians in Rome, and this is how I want you to think about your ministry to the Jews.” He says, “If I seek to move my fellow countrymen to jealousy and to save some of them, I am magnifying my ministry to the Gentiles. There is no conflict of interest. When I try to move Gentiles to trust in God, I’m not doing that to the exclusion of the salvation of my fellow countrymen. In fact, in God’s plan, the blessing of salvation for the Gentiles is designed to bring Israel to saving faith. Every time I witness to a Gentile, I’m praying that God will bring in the Israelites. And you Gentile Christians in Rome, you ought to be thinking the same way.”

At the beginning of Israel’s history God chose and set apart for Himself Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are the “dough offered as first fruits” and “the root.” If the dough or the root is holy, meaning dedicated as a special possession of God and set apart from the nations, then the present enmity and hardening and stumbling does not nullify God’s original intention with Israel. God has a future for Israel. The whole lump of dough and all the branches of an entire generation will be holy. It could also be said that Jesus Christ is the “dough offered as first fruits” and “the root.” Paul will get more into this is v28, so we’ll save it for then.