“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise also you will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree.”
Romans 11:22-24

PAUL is still speaking to the Gentile Christians to make sure that their attitude to the Jews was not one of superiority since the Jews had lost their special relationship to God as a nation. It was so easy for the Gentiles to fall into the same trap and sin as the Jews had fallen into when they had their special relationship with God throughout the Old Testament time. All down the history of the Old Testament the Jews enjoyed, as a nation, this special relationship with God as God's chosen people. Because of this the Jews despised the Gentiles and looked down on them. In this state of superiority over the Gentiles the Jews became lax in their living. They took the grace of God for granted. They felt that their special relationship with God meant that they were secure in God's favour. They felt that because they outwardly kept their Jewish ritual of worship and sacrifice, it did not matter how they lived. Because of this they lived without regard for God, and would not listen to God when he spoke to them by his prophets.

The fact is that when the favour of God is taken for granted, or there is the idea that God's favour is secure, there is a tendency to become lax in living, and live without much regard for God. Paul did not want this to happen in the church. Because of this Paul calls on the Gentile Christians to consider the kindness and sternness of God. In other words Paul is calling believers amongst the Gentiles to consider truly and deeply the truth about God's working amongst them and in the world.

As we consider this we can see that Paul has no purpose of prophesying some future purpose of God for the Jews or the nation of the Jews, but is rather addressing a problem in the church of his time, and which continues to be a problem down the ages of time.

CONSIDER.

One of the results of complacency in our relationship with God is that we fail to consider the revelation of God that he gives us in his word. The Jews of the Old Testament refused to heed the word of God to them by the prophets, and if they did listen they never considered deeply what God was saying to them by his prophets.

Through Paul, God is speaking his word just as he spoke his word through the prophets of old. God is revealing that there are two sides to his ways and dealings with his people. There is sternness and there is kindness. Kindness is analogous to grace. The fact is that we like to hear about the kindness of God, but we do not like to hear about the sternness of God. In fact there is a tendency even to deny the sternness of God altogether, and to say that it is an unworthy perception of God. It is asserted a great deal today that sternness on the part of God is incompatible with his revelation of himself as love. Yet here, not only does God speak through Paul and tell us that he can act sternly, but also we are given an example of his sternness.

The example of God's sternness is recorded here. The nation of Israel fell. They fell out of favour with God. God rejected his specially relationship with the nation of the Jews. This was an act of God sternness towards sin, and particularly against unbelief. The unbelief specially emphasized in this sternness can only be the unbelief of the Jews that God is a stern God, and reacts with just anger against presuming on his love. The Jews did not consider the word of God to them. They did not believe it. The word of God is plain. It is clear in the 2nd commandment which says “You shall not make to yourself any idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Here is the sternness and kindness of God spoken of clearly. The Jews did not consider this word of God, and all it implied.

People are setting up idols all the time. An idol is not simply a graven image made out of wood or stone. An idol is anything that puts God in second place in our life, and when this happens we are in fact worshiping this person, thing or activity which supersedes God in our mind and affections. An idol also is what we put our trust in, whether it is in ourselves and our abilities, or our achievements, or the strength and wisdom of other human beings.

When we consider the depth of meaning bound up in the idea of God's sternness, it causes us to stop and bow down in repentance, and to turn back to God in reliance on his kindness.

We need also to consider the kindness of God. So easily do we find ourselves putting our faith in God and at the same time persevering in faith in ourselves and our own decision and strength. We pride ourselves on our wisdom in turning to Christ, and putting our trust in him. We pride ourselves on our perseverance in the Christian faith, and our perceived success in faith and continuation in faith. The truth of the matter, which we come to understand, when we consider the kindness of God, is that even our knowledge of our sin, and the grace of repentance, is due to God's kindness, and that even when we repent, this does not merit God's favour of itself. As we consider the kindness of God we realize that it is his kindness that caused us to repent, and then it is of his kindness that we have been grafted into the true olive of his church. No action of ours can get ourselves back into the favour and acceptance of God. We are entirely dependent on the kindness of God. It is the kindness of God in giving his Son to become wholly human and then to die in our place that opens the way out of God's sternness and into God's kindness. It is God's kindness that implants the gift of faith to believe that his kindness in Christ is specially for us, and so gives us a faith that rests wholly upon Jesus. It is God's kindness that we are kept grafted into the true olive tree.

THE IMPLICATION OF GOD'S STERNNESS AND KINDNESS.

God's word through Paul in the verses before us take us further in our considering.

We are told even though the Jewish nation was in God's favour for so long a time, yet this did not prevent the execution of God's sternness when in the end the Jews persisted in unbelief. The Jews felt that their unique position of the chosen nation before God was irrevocable. They felt that God would never cast them off whatever they did, and whatever was their way of life and living. Because they felt like this, the Jews never believed the warnings Jesus gave them, or his prophecy concerning God's coming judgement on them. Because of this they were taken by surprise when God's judgement fell in AD 70, and even today the Jewish nation presumes of the special relationship with God they had, and will not face that it has been renounced by God 2000 years in the past.

The same blindness is seen in the church today. Just because we have a busy organization, and well ordered church activity, and are busy doing good as we see it, the church refuses to believe that God's favour can be removed, and are blind to see that in many cases his favour has been removed. The church refuses to believe in the sternness of God, and its understanding of God's kindness is nothing but superficial.

The Gentile Christians of Paul's day must have had a tendency to complacency, and presuming on the favour of God. We must never do this. Paul warns us that if a person or a people do not continue in the kindness of God, then they can be cut off from the true olive tree, the true church of the faithful.

Paul also tells us that the kindness of God reaches out to those who have been cut of. If they turn from their unbelief and believe again, God in his kindness and grace will graft them back in to the true olive tree. Paul also indicates, for Gentile consideration, that it is a much easier grafting of Jews back into the true olive tree which was theirs before they presumed on God's kindness.

All this is told by Paul to warn the Gentile believers that only in continuing in God's kindness would their favour with God be maintained. This is a warning to us also.

CONTINUING IN GOD'S KINDNESS.

In closing we need to consider what Paul means when he talks of continuing in God's kindness.

The first thing we need to assert is the fact that this warning to continue in faith in no way denies the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. When God chooses a soul unto eternal life, it is a choosing which continues to glorification. Paul is not denying what he has said in chapter 8:30 “And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” What Paul is doing here is calling all believers to make sure of their calling and election, and the only way that assurance can be found is if we continue in the kindness of God.

Continuing in the kindness of God is when we continue to live in the light of the fact that it is to God's kindness that we owe our whole gift of faith and eternal life. It is living in the light of the fact that in ourselves there dwells no good thing, and so we are humble before God, and always seeking to trust only in Christ, and show our love and thankfulness in seeking to live to the glory of God.

The warning of continuing in the kindness of God is directed to all those who perhaps have embraced the Gospel, but in a superficial way. Jesus illustrated this in the parable of the sower in the seed which fell on rocky soil which has no root or depth of soil, and in the seed which is choked by the weeds of the cares and attractions of the world. The fact is that in times of revival many embrace Christ superficially, and when persecution comes they fall away. It is only those whose hearts are truly prepared by deep conviction of sin, and so see Christ as the only answer to their need, who truly rejoice in Christ as a Saviour who is our only hope of salvation.

CONCLUSION.