11:22
“The kindness and sternness of God”. We have a tendency to focus on one or other of these. Most of the church in the West now looks at what it thinks of as the kindness of God, ignoring the sternness. When we do this we get nothing but a sentimental view of God which bears little relation to God’s actual kindness. On the other hand there are some churches that will focus too much on the sternness of God, producing a harsh religion that equally bears little relation to the truth. We need to take both together. If we ignore or rebel against God’s ways we can expect judgement, that is the consistent teaching of the Bible, Old and New Testament. If we repent and believe then we will receive unlimited kindness from God, that too is the consistent teaching of all of the Bible.
11:23
Moreover, while the Gentile believers should consider their own position, they should also consider that of the Jews. The Jews were cut off because of their unbelief, but what if they stop their unbelief and begin to believe? In that case they will be grafted in again. So we see here a principle and it is no matter how far you have fallen, if you put your faith in Christ you can be restored. We need to believe this, both for ourselves and for others. There is no person and no situation that cannot be redeemed by putting our trust in Christ. “For God is able ..” This is the basis of faith. We often face situations where it seems impossible, we may lose all hope in ourselves, we may think someone else is totally beyond the pale, but then we need to take account of what God is able to do. And He can redeem all, and the means of acquiring this redemption is through faith. We may look at our society and lose hope but we should not. It is possible for God to redeem our nation, if only they will repent and believe.
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