THESE verses constitute a long passage but they must be taken together because they are an explanation of one thing which is the mystery of the way God has worked his purpose of grace amongst both the Jews and the Gentiles. Unless we look at the whole passage we shall not see the mystery of God which Paul is declaring, and so get caught up in the many wrong and unhelpful interpretations concerning the future of the Jews which have found credence in the past and still find credence.

In order to tackle the meaning of these verses and understand Paul's argument I propose to, as it were, read the passage with you, making explanatory notes.

THE MYSTERY.

The first thing we need to ask is “what is the mystery that Paul is referring to”. The answer is simple and straight forward when we see these verses in the context of all of chapter 11 and indeed of chapters 9-11.

The mystery has two parts. The first part is the mystery why God chose the Jews and singled them out for his special kindness all through the Old Testament period, and left the Gentiles alone. The fact that God did not altogether leave the Gentiles out of his kindness in the Old Testament does not alter the mystery of why mostly they were left out. God indicated from the very beginning in his revelation to Abraham that the Gentiles were included in his blessing through the Messiah, the seed of Abraham, and during the history there are examples of blessing given to Gentiles as we see in the revival that took place in Nineveh through the ministry of Jonah; but the fact is that mostly God's grace and kindness was poured out on one nation, the nation of the Jews.

The second part of the mystery is why God forsook the Jews, and renounced the special relationship with the Jewish nation, during the immediate time after the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Ghost, and then seemed to concentrate his grace and kindness on all the rest of mankind except the Jews.

It has to be said, when we think deeply about this way of God's working in the world, that it all seems very strange and inexplicable, and it is to answer this problem that these verse before us give explanation. So we find Paul commencing these verses with the words “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers.” Paul must have pondered over this mystery long and hard over a very long time. He was a Jew, but God had sent him to minister to the Gentiles. While he was ministering to the Gentiles, he also sought to minister to the Jews scattered about the civilized world of his time. In fact we read in the Acts that he first went to minister to the Jews by taking the message of the Gospel to the Jews by teaching and preaching in their synagogues. However in ministering to the Jews he found them antagonistic to the Gospel, and angry at his preaching. He found an almost total rejection of the message. However when Paul then took the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles there was quite a different response to the Gospel. The Gentiles received the Gospel with gladness. This must have troubled and puzzled Paul because he had a tremendous burden for the salvation of his fellow Jews. It must have been in this pondering over this problem that God opened Paul's understanding, in as far as he and others can understand the ways of God, and Paul gives us this revelation into this mystery.

THE PASSAGE.

Paul tells us he is going to explain this mystery. The reason he gives is because he saw that the Gentile Christians were becoming conceited about the favour God was showing to them. Conceit always looks down on others, and in this case the Gentile believers were being tempted to look down on the Jews and despise them. This may have been understandable seeing how the Jews had for centuries looked down on the Gentiles, but such conceit is not the mind and way of Christ, and is injurious to true Christlike growth.

Paul explains that the reason the Jews, which he calls Israel in verse 25, were experiencing a hardening, was because God was using this hardening to bring his kindness and grace to the Gentiles.

There are several things we need to notice here and take to heart. The first is that Paul speaks of a hardening being experienced by the Jews. This tells us that God was in this hardening. Here we have something that is at the very heart of true spiritual understanding.

The fact is that God is the total author of either the softening or hardening of the heart towards the saving message of the Gospel. The fact is every heart and mind of human beings are hardened towards God in their natural state. The fall of mankind into sin and corruption through the sin of Adam has caused an enmity to exist between God and mankind. This state of heart can only be changed by a sovereign act and movement of God in grace towards a soul. No one ever turns to God of themselves. No one finds his or her heart softened to receive the grace of God in Christ unless God in sovereign grace chooses to bestow his grace.

Here we have what is described as the doctrine of election, which runs through the whole of the revelation of God in the Bible. This doctrine is that God of his own sovereign choice and purpose, with no consideration of anything in the life of the human being who is being saved, choose to bestow his grace in salvation. This is the foreknowing of God which causes God to predestine a person to life. The 'foreknowing' is simply the act of God setting his love upon a body of humanity before the foundation of the world. Salvation is bestowed by God's choice and his choice alone. We have only to read Ephesians chapter one, as just one example of Scripture, to see this doctrine taught clearly.

Such doctrine is very humbling and offensive to natural humanity, but the truth is that not a single person would be saved, and all humanity would end in everlasting perdition, without this sovereign grace of God. All of humanity deserve everlasting perdition. God is not unjust when he leaves people in their lost condition. It is of his wondrous grace and love alone that God chose to save some, and then went to such infinite cost to allow him to be just in the saving of them.

We must leave this amazing, though difficult, subject here. I have only introduced it because God hardening of peoples hearts can only be understood properly in the light of God's sovereign grace. When God hardens he leaves a soul in their natural condition of sin and rebellion against him.

The next thing we see in verse 25 is that the hardening of the Jews in New Testament times, and later, was never a complete hardening. They were hardened in part only. This is seen in history. The first converts to faith in Christ as Saviour were Jews. Even after that Jews have always had a place in the purpose of God in the salvation of individuals. The Gospel is still for Jews, even though the nation of the Jews ceased to be in a special relationship with God. Jews received God's grace in the same way as the Gentiles, that is by faith.

The last thing that we must notice in verse 25 is that the hardening amongst the Jews was for a purpose. The purpose was that God's elect amongst the Gentiles should also be brought in.

This is so evident in the history of the early church recorded in the book of the Acts. Because the Jews were hardened towards the Gospel, they began to persecute those of their number who turned to Christ. The result of this persecution was that the Christians, who were mainly Jews at this early stage, were scattered over all the civilized world of that time, and so the Gospel was spread amongst the rest of the world, that is to the Gentiles.

This is the mystery of God. The hardening of the Jews, in part only, brought about, under the hand and purpose of God, the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles. Without the hardening of the Jews, the Gospel would have remained almost exclusively among the Jews. No doubt a few Gentiles would have been saved, just as a few Gentiles became Jewish proselytes, but there would have been no reason for the Gospel to be preached elsewhere. All the early Christians were Jews who had been conditioned by their upbringing to feel that God's blessing was exclusively for the Jews. We see in the Acts how this Jewish cultural condition was a problem at first, and was hard to overcome. The Council of Jerusalem was recorded for us in Acts 15 and was convened because of this very problem.

We could argue that God could have chosen some other means for the Gospel to be spread amongst the Gentiles, rather than the hardening of the Jews against Christ. We know that Jesus commanded his disciples to go into all the world and preach, to go to Jerusalem, Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth, but at first this command was not being implemented, and unless God had thrust the early Christians out amongst the Gentiles, there is every indication that the evangelisation of the Gentiles would have taken a very long time before it took place in any degree. However because of the hardening of the Jews, and the persecution of the church which resulted, the church was dispersed over all the civilized world of the time, and took the Gospel with them.