Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Romans 11

By grace, Israel was the chosen nation. They were not selected to be a chosen people as a result of their works, but by God's will. But now through their disobedience, they have lost their privileges and these blessings have gone to the gentiles. God has not abandoned Israel, but has adopted the gentiles into the chosen nation of Israel. Paul uses the analogy of grafting wild branches into a tame tree to nourish and save the tree. The convert gentiles (grafted branches) did not change the ultimate destiny of Israel (tree). Israel is still the chosen people and the nation that will be bear the sacred covenants, the ordinances, the promises of Abraham.

1 comment:

Sue and Rich said...

I just listened to any interesting thought on foreordination. Paul is trying to teach us that it is much deeper in meaning. The greatest, the highest, the most profound type of foreordination is the foreordination of lineage and family. God is in the business of family salvation, and His salvation of human kind is through a system of family salvation: He is going to send people to earth through certain lineages to bring about those purposes.