Mystery Revealed.

Mystery Revealed. Romans 11:25-36.

For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Romans 11:25 (NKJV)

The concepts that God uses in His work transcends our logic; for if we were God, I do not think that we would do things the same way. Where people love to say "God works in mysterious ways," often times I hear a person saying that indirectly declaring that they do not want to try to understand. Yet God had His work scribed in detail for us to understand. So in our scriptures, where there are shadows of mystery, God would have us try to understand and not give up so easily.

The mystery we look at today is very important; for from it, we must shift our attitudes away from becoming upset with God's ways and with Jewish manors.

God put Jesus into a time in history that would get His only son killed. His death became a perfect sacrifice for the sins of mankind. If that concept is not hard enough to understand, the rest of our subject is.

Not only was He sent to die, Jesus was sent to God's people who would reject Him. In the first chapter of John we are told they rejected Him because the light He brought revealed the sin in their lives. Never the less, God's plan was to use the Jewish rejection of saving grace as the reason to offer salvation to the Gentiles. God was provoking His people to jealousy.

Jesus caused them to stumble and as Paul wants us to understand, God blinded their eyes so that the fullness of the gentiles can be accomplished.

What is the fullness of the Gentiles? It is the dispensation of grace; a time offered for people to find salvation from their sin. This is a time that all can be forgiven and any sin committed can be placed upon the His Son, whose death will suffice the penalty for sin.

Living in this time of grace, many people still step on holiness, crushing the opportunity that is offered by God. The fullness of the Gentiles is a reference to that very last second of God's offer to forgive sin and tells us that it will one day end.

Once this time of grace is over, no longer can people be saved from sin and each person will have to pay the penalty for their sin by themselves. Could you imagine standing before God with a debt to pay and watching others freely walk away because they let Christ pay their debt, but you were going to pay by having your eternity in heaven ripped away? The heaven you longed for cannot be attained and the realization of this becomes an on setting remorse like you never experienced.

Not only did it cost the life of His son, it cost Him a large interruption in dealing with Israel, His people. God had to allow their eyes to be blinded while He offered to open yours. During this time, the Jews live without a relationship where God leads them. There are no prophets to guide them; there is no revelation or understanding for their direction. There is only survival and a clinging to the past that they hold tightly to.

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins." Romans 11:26-27 (NKJV)

To the Jew it would seen wrong for God to turn His back and blind their eyes; yet because of the actions, attitudes, and faith of their ancestors they can find that God promised this to them in the covenant recorded in Deuteronomy 29 and 30.

In that covenant, God swore to the Children of Israel that He would be lead and guide them unless they were unfaithful to follow Him. Some would be cursed; some would be blessed and foretold was a scattering of the Jews into all nations.

However, in this covenant there was also a promise to bring them back together as a nation and again, where God would be their God and this will come at the end of the time of the Gentiles, the end of the dispensation of grace.

"Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. Deuteronomy 30:1-3 (NKJV)

The fulfillments of this prophesy has occurred. In 1947 the nation of Israel was re-birthed and Jews from around the planet flocked back to their land. According to this scripture and compared to other prophesies about this time, the time of the Gentiles is coming to a near end.

Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Romans 11:28-32 (NKJV)

During the time of the first church and at the time of this writing of Paul, Jews were adversarial towards Christians. They treated them with contempt and aligned themselves against all who would preach salvation through grace. Christians disliked them very much and yet Paul wanted Christians to see that they are indebted to them for the work of God in their life which brings salvation to Gentiles.

They suffer separation from God so that we might find grace. Therefore, Christians need to give honor to the Jew and respect the Jew in every opportunity.

No matter how they act, how you are treated, or what is said, the Jew is to be highly thought of, prayed for, and respected; for if it were us, we might not feel that God has treated us fair.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?" "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36 (NKJV)

God's dealing with man, His plan for the ages, and building the kingdom is a work of complexity that we will one day understand. Until then, we must have faith in God that He knows what is fair and every action He takes is an action of purpose.

Though lofty are His actions; yet they are recorded for us to seek. Understanding of God is the key to eternal life and this life is in His son. Therefore, we are to accept God's ways in faith and in knowledge piece the puzzle together to understand it better. Through it all, God is just and man a sinner; were it not for His grace we would all be lost.