Dave's Diary

Daily Readings: Romans 11 and Psalm 107

Personally, I find it more edifying to consider Romans 11 from a birds-eye point of view than to place it under a magnifying glass.

Paul’s arguments might feel very convoluted to us, but his two over-riding concerns in this chapter are to encourage Jewish Christians in Rome not to utterly despair for their fellow Jews who had refused to believe and accept Jesus as Lord; and to exhort the Gentile Christians not to despise those Jews who had refused to believe. The key to both parts of this exhortation is really the mercy of God.

In Romans 11 we learn that God mercifully saved those Jews (like Paul himself) who received Jesus as Saviour and Lord. These people are a holy “remnant” and a wonderful sign of future hope that every Jew who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will always be saved by God’s mercy. Jewish Christians ought to trust in the mercy of God and to pray that God will make a way for their entire Jewish community to experience the saving mercy of God, as they themselves have done.

At the same time, Romans 11 serves to remind Gentile believers never to arrogantly assume that they are somehow better than those Jews who have not yet believed. We Gentiles have been added to the people of God purely by God’s supreme mercy and not by any good of our own. How can someone who is rescued from danger by the kindness and mercy of another ever be arrogant about having been rescued? We did nothing to deserve our rescue. We need to be humble and extremely grateful, and to pray that others who are still in need of rescue will be rescued too.

Ultimately, Romans 11 invites us to marvel at the mercy of God – the One Who is at work in every circumstance to draw people into the arms of His mercy and Who remains faithful even when people are unfaithful.

Life application: Do you have any non-Christian Jewish friends? Pray for them to come to know the mercy of God in Jesus Christ so that they may be saved. If not, think of the Jewish people in your City and pray for many of them to come to Christ. Remember the moment of your own salvation through faith in Jesus … and be profoundly grateful for His mercy towards you.