Romans | Reading Plan + Study QuestionsSample

ROMANS 11

GOD WILL REDEEM BOTH THE JEWISH + GENTILE PEOPLE

Now that non-Jewish people are adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus, Paul speaks to those who have historically been God’s chosen people. Paul states that by no means has God rejected the people of Israel, reminding them that he was also a descendant of Abraham himself, from the tribe of Benjamin. Despite his Hebrew heritage, Paul has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus, not through his own works.

Although some of the Jewish people rejected Jesus as the Savior, God used their stubbornness as a means to include other nations into God’s family. Although Paul does not share the exact time or details in which this will occur, Paul believes that God’s promises to His people are irrevocable and that the Jewish people will one day be restored to God (11:15). Although God has leveraged the temporary disbelief of the Jewish people to further the gospel, He has not forgotten His covenant to them, and they will be saved (11:25-27).

It is heavily debated among Christian theologians the meaning of “all Israel will be saved” (11:27). Some believe that all ethnically Jewish people will be saved, while others believe there is a large remnant of Jewish people who eventually trust Jesus as the Savior. Despite these varying beliefs, Paul articulates God’s unique relationship with His chosen people now that faith is the only requirement for salvation.

Paul emphasizes both the kindness and the severity of God, explaining how he will both bring people to know him and cut off those who are without faith. For those in unbelief, God has the power to restore them and graft them once again. God both requires and provides faithfulness to believers.

Paul contemplates the depth and richness of God’s wisdom, describing his knowledge as unsearchable and inscrutable. No one, not even Paul, can understand the depth of the mind of God.

Romans 11:6 - But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

STUDY QUESTIONS

In Romans 11, what does it mean that some branches were cut off and others were grafted in?

Read Romans 11:22. How is God both kind and stern?