Romans 9-11

Paul bases his arguments in Romans upon the history of salvation that acknowledges the continuity of God’s plan to create a people for Himself that originated in the Old Testament, culminates with the coming of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Paul, in Romans Chapters 9-11, tries to explain to these myopic Jews that God’s original plan of salvation always included Gentiles and that the God’s election is based on grace not race. These chapters were essential in Romans in order to maintain the integrity of God within Paul’s argument. Paul was trying to explain to the Jews of his day, how the election of Israel as God’s remnant, transfers to the church as God’s remnant in the earth.
Paul attempts to erode the age old belief that God promised all of physical Israel salvation based upon their ethnicity thereby excluding every Gentile from salvation. The central problem with the Jewish people in Paul’s day was that they could not understand how God could embrace and save the Gentiles without disenfranchising the Jews. These chapters were intended to get the Jews to recognize the continuity of God’s salvation throughout the History of the Old Testament. Paul lets them know that with Jesus Christ a new era was upon them and the old era was passed away. Christ was the culmination of the torah; by fulfilling the righteous requirement of the law, and that through belief in Him anyone could be saved. Chapter 11 in particular explains how God blinded the eyes of Israel from receiving the gospel of Jesus Christ in order that the Gentiles would be saved. Ultimately the salvation of Gentiles will spark jealousy within the hearts of the Jewish people leading to their embracing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Romans 11:26 says that eventually all of Israel will be saved.










Bibliography
Moo, Douglas J. Encountering the Book of Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.
Schreiner, Thomas R. Romans. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.