December 10, 2025 | Romans 11-13
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Introduction and Christmas Updates
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Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello everybody. We are glad that you're joining us again. It is Wednesday, December 10th, and we are in the swing of things as far as Christmas season is concerned. In fact, this Sunday is our Kids' Christmas choir, which should be a great event.
We're hoping, we're praying, we're trusting. We've got Christmas outreach going on on Saturday this Saturday and next Saturday.
Reflections on Recent Events
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We had one this past weekend at the Salina, or not the Salina, the Prosper rather Town Hall, which was actually, we didn't know what to expect. It was a pretty good event, I would say.
Wouldn't you pastor around? I was surprised at how many people were there. I was thankfully surprised that there was lots of people there, and I was even more surprised that it was effective as it was. I think we handed out a lot of invitations. We're optimistic and hopeful that we'll see some people there, but I was delighted.
I can't wait to do that one again. Yeah, it was awesome and special shout out. So many people were there. Huge in Rush was there. She played a huge hand in getting that all prepped and set up. And then Allie and Angelo Trinidad were there with their family the whole time, which was about [00:01:00] one to, I don't know, eight, something like that.
It went for quite a while. There was a drone show, I guess afterwards. So they were there. They were doing a great job for us as well as we had other people that were there passing out invitations, the axle sins. We had so many people there that were, scott Welch was there. Just those are just the people I saw while I was at the event myself.
So we're praying that God will bear some fruit from that and yeah, I'm with you. I'm looking forward to doing that one again next year. Yeah. And now that we know what to expect, I think we'll have some opportunities to do some different things, hand out some stuff. They were really enjoying the hot chocolate, which worked out well because it was a really cold day.
But maybe next year we have some more stuff to offer. I saw some people brought some gospel tracks from way the master. That was really cool. Yep. I'm looking forward to just imagining what we can do with an event like this in the future. Yeah, yeah. Ramin was there. Yeah, he was there too. With the, those gospel tracks.
That's right. Ramin and Scott. Scott. Yep. Yep.
Diving into Romans 11: Israel and the Church
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All right, well, let's dive in to our text for today. We're in Ro Romans 11 through 13, and chapter 11 is finishing up really his addressing the subject of Israel and the [00:02:00] church's relationship to Israel and what do we do with Israel now. And really it's summed up pretty well at the very beginning of chapter 11 when he says, has God rejected his people?
And then he answers this again, emphatically, no, by no means has God rejected his people and. In chapter 11, he goes on to, to use a metaphor of a tree, and he talks about how Israel was removed, the branches were broken off. In order that the Gentiles might be grafted in. But then he goes on to say to us as the Gentiles, he says, don't become so arrogant and prideful as to think that you might not be broken off if you end up rejecting Christ.
And he goes on and he says, 'cause even the, those Jews that were. Rejecting Christ originally. If God's people, Israel will repent from that. They being the natural branches will be grafted back into the root, who is, who's Christ and the promises of God in Christ. So I think one of the things that a lot of people stumble over when we talk about God as a future for Israel is they look at Israel today and they would say, well, they're not following the [00:03:00] Lord.
And we would say, yeah, we agree. They're not following the Lord. And. Us as Dispensationalist. Our position is not that all of a sudden God's gonna just wave a magic wand, and just because people are genetically derived from the people of Israel, that somehow they're gonna be brought back into his plans.
Rather, what Paul argues here at the end in verse 24, if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted in contrary to nature, into a cultivated one, how much more will these ones be grafted back in? Implying that, that they're going to be grafted back in through faith the same way that we as the church are grafted into the root, grafted into Christ, grafted into the promises of God.
So as dispensationalist we're not sitting here saying, God's gonna overlook the. Disbelief and disobedience of Israel and just all of a sudden save them and bring them back in. No, he's gonna save them through the gospel. And again, Zechariah, I think, lays that out beautifully. As we've talked previously in the Daily Bible Podcast in chapter 12 into chapter 13 of Zechariah, about how that's gonna happen through them [00:04:00] realizing their error in crucifying Christ and repenting and putting their trust in him.
Understanding Salvation and Perseverance
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It sounds like in verse 21 that you might be able to lose your salvation. It says here in verse 21, 4, if God did not spare the natural branches, that is the Israelites through the line of Abraham, neither will he spare you. And then he says, note the kindness, then the kindness and severity of God severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness.
Okay? And then he says, otherwise you too will be cut off. How can we understand this if we believe and you and I do both believe that God does save and he's saved to the other most if he does save you. In life, he will save you through life and that will continue and carry on all the way through to the end.
And we would point out Romans chapter eight to defend that. So how do we understand this section in light of what we know at the end of Romans chapter eight. I think there's similarities here and with the writer of Hebrews who issues some pretty stern warnings to the [00:05:00] church that he's writing to.
And we're gonna get there shortly in our daily Bible reading. These are, we have to remember, these letters are written to a church that would be like any church, and that is, this church is gonna be made up of those that are saved and those that are not saved. And so just like in we, in the end of second Corinthians, when we read, when Paul said, Hey, examine yourself to see whether or not you're in the faith.
Here, it's the same idea, the same heart behind it from Paul, which is, Hey, make sure that you truly are saved. And one of the things that's a component, a characteristic of a genuine believer is what we refer to as the perseverance of the saints. That is, that our faith will continue to endure and yet.
And that is something that we have to give attention to. We have to make sure that we're not drifting, like the writer of Hebrews is gonna say. We have to make sure that we are holding fast to Christ, like the writer of Hebrews is gonna say, and here Paul is saying, don't just trust your identity as part of the church.
Likewise, Israel had people that were just simply trusting in their identity as Israelites and saying, well, I'm part of Israel, so thereby I'm okay. Paul's saying, don't just think that you're, well, I'm part of the church, so thereby I'm okay. No. [00:06:00] If you drift, if you reject, if you end up falling away, you're going to be cut off.
So I would say that warning it is for both the believer and the unbeliever, but the actual carrying out of the breaking off of the person in the church from Christ is really only a valid threat for the unbeliever there. So Paul's writing to a mixed group of those that are part of the church that are both saved and some that.
Probably are not saved at this point. And he's issuing the warning saying, make sure that you're gonna hold fast to Christ. Because if Israel is broken off for trusting in the wrong thing, you can be broken off for trusting in the wrong thing too. So we'd have to say then theologically that these people that are broken off are never truly right with God to begin with.
This is first John two 19. They went out from us because they were never of us. And I think you see some of that here when he says. That, as you just mentioned here, you stand fast through faith and I think that's what you're fearing at the end of verse 20. He says, do not become proud, but fear, and I think the fear is in reference to what he just said, that is that you [00:07:00] like the unbelieving Jewish population.
You are broken off because of your unbelief. So fear not standing fast through faith. For those who receive this encouragement or this exhortation, they'll heed that. They will persevere through faith. God uses the very real, and I would say that they are real warnings of scripture to keep us on the right path.
In theory, I guess hypothetically this could happen. It could happen. I think it's a real legitimate, I don't wanna call it a threat, but an exhortation that if you don't do this particular thing, this will be the result. You fall off because of your unbelief. But God uses warnings like this to keep us trusting him and following him because a believer will heed these instructions.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent agree with you.
The Future of Israel and the Church
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Chapter 11, the rest of it, he goes on to explain then, then what is happening right now with Israel and why is Israel rejecting Christ and why are they not following him? And what he goes on to, to explain here is that there's this, what he calls a partial hardening that has come upon Israel.
He says in verse 25, there until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. [00:08:00] So in other words, if we remember back in John's gospel, John, Jesus said in John chapter 10 that he has sheep that are not part of this fold, that he also has to bring in. That's what he's doing right now. He's bringing. In the flock that are not part of the fold of Israel.
He's bringing in the church, he's bringing in the Gentiles, and that's the time of the fullness of the Gentiles. Eventually there will be the last. non-Jew that's gonna be saved, the last member of the church that's gonna be saved. And we believe that's when Christ is gonna come back, rapture the church and take the church to be with him.
And that's when God will turn back to Israel and there will be the faithful remnant that does emerge during the tribulation period from Israel and then also the millennial kingdom inhabitants, citizens. There will be part of the Israelites as well that are gonna be grafted back into the root of Christ.
Not all of them, but many of them will be grafted back into the root of Christ during that time. So when he says in verse 26, then in this way all Israel will be saved. What would you understand the all to be a reference point to? Is that just as in most of them? Is that a sense of all different kinds of Jewish people [00:09:00] from every tribe?
I know you've talked about that before. All without distinction, not all with that exception, right? Or vice versa. I said that backward, right? Or no, I did say it right. Anyway. How do you understand the all functioning in that sentence? It's interesting because we read about during the time of the tribulation that the false prophet, the beast, the antichrist, they will be allowed to deceive even to try to deceived and here's the term that's used, God's elect, if that were possible.
And it's also said there that God is gonna bring an end to the suffering of the tribulation for the sake of the elect. So I think the. Th all Israel will be saved here. I believe is God's elect that this is Israel. If we go back to chapter nine, at the very beginning of Paul's argumentation here in verse six, he says, it's not as though the word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.
So this is a, a. This is all Israel as far as all believing Israel, not just all National Israel, but all we could put it spiritual Israel. And that's dangerous because the covenant theologian will take [00:10:00] that and say, well, the church is now spiritual Israel. But that's where we have to hold things in tension here.
And look at the fact that God is still distinguishing. He's not replace. He's talking about the unnatural branches and the natural branches, even what we just talked about earlier in chapter 12. So the distinction is still there. And so God is not in any other place here in chapters nine through 12 saying the church is taking the place of Israel.
But I think the point that Paul is making is the same point that he was making. From the very word go, which is you can't just trust in your lineage. You can't just trust in the fact that you descend from one of the tribes of Israel. That's not good enough. You ultimately are going to have to get right with God through Jesus Christ, and that is the sense that all Israel will be saved, his elect, that he is gonna save through that tribulation period.
Okay. Follow up question to that just a few verses later in verse 20. Eight. He says as regards to the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards to election, they're beloved for the sake of their forefather. So let's talk about that first part. Are Israelites [00:11:00] enemies for our sake, and in that sense, what does that mean?
Are we anti-Semites? We're not antisemites. And I think some of this is contextually based as well. For this time in church history God was even using the opposition of Israel and the opposition of the Jewish people to the church to scatter, to spread the church, to grow the church, to get the gospel out there further and wider than it ever had been before.
So. I think some of that is contextual. If we look now, we would say that really anybody who doesn't bow the need of Jesus Christ at this point in time is an enemy of the gospel in that sense. And so we would say, yeah, the Jewish people right now today are enemies of the gospel. We would say the Buddhist and the Hindu and the Muslim are also enemies of the gospel, as is the atheist.
But the difference here is that as regards to election, they're beloved for the sake of their forefathers, that there's a future for them where God is going to show them a special mercy. When really for anyone else it's going to be beyond the pale. The church has gone off the scene at that point, but God is still gonna deal with Israel during that tribulation period.
Okay, so it's maybe that, that, not that [00:12:00] they're our enemies they're God's enemies. Correct. They're God's enemies and that's be, it's because of their hardening against God that now God goes to the Gentiles, which is all the rest of us, myself accepted, and God now shows us favor. Because of that.
But he also says, and this is where I love our theology here, I think it fits nicely. He says in verse 29, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Yeah. That is God's commitment to the Jewish people, which is to say he's going to fulfill the promises that he gave to them in their fullness. We should expect a literal fulfillment.
And that's why I think that's a helpful place for us to look when we're trying to defend our position, at least when it comes to the doctrine of our place in the church in Israel's place. Yeah, for sure. In verses 30 and 31 too. Again, salvation is going to come to Israel the same way it came to us, and that's what he says here.
He says, for just as you were at one time, disobedient to God, but you've now received mercy because of their disobedience. So they too have been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, meaning to the church, they also may now [00:13:00] receive mercy again. This is Zechariah 12 through 13. They're going to be saved through the gospel.
It's going to be the same gospel that saves them. That saved you and saved me. So, their disobedience, what Paul's arguing here is part of God's plan. That ultimately the Gentiles would be saved and then God would bring them in a rest restorative sense to be saved as well in the tribulation period there.
Living as a Christian: Romans 12
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Chapter 12 he shifts focus. Now he's returning back to the church now and he's going to really talk a lot about body life in chapter 12. That, that this is for you, church for you believers. This is how you should live. This is how you should treat each other. He starts off with the well-known verses about how we need to present ourselves as living sacrifices, that we need to not be conformed to the pattern of the world, but be transformed this call out of conformity to the world system and to live differently.
And then he talks about the gifts, which. Is very similar to what we looked at in one Corinthians, that it's for the good of the body of Christ and the building up of the body of Christ that these are given to the church. And then the way that the church should treat one [00:14:00] another in Romans 12, nine through the end of the chapter here, verse 21, are, is really a great passage written to believers as far as this is how you should treat one another.
This is how should you should interact with each other. By the way, church, this is how you should respond to persecution when it takes place. And this is I think a sense of community that is. It's the target. It's what we hope for. It's what we long for. But this is the sense of, this is why we stress things like community groups and involvement and consistency in church attendance and things, because you don't get this community, this sense of community if you're not involved in each other's lives that way, if you're just casually showing up, you're never gonna be able to truly weep with those who weep.
You won't. You won't care enough to do that. You may be moved to go, oh man, I'm so sorry. That's really hard. But you're not gonna have that love for one another unless you're all in living life in, in, in community with each other.
Yeah. I would also say, don't forget where Chapter 12 sits as you've just been reading through the last 11 chapters. Paul starts this whole section with, I Appeal to You [00:15:00] therefore Brothers. I think he's looking back at everything that he wrote, not only chapter 11 in the most immediate verses that preceded, but everything he's saying, look at what God has done.
And now because of that, live this way. If you jump to chapter 12, skipping everything else that you read, chapter twelve's gonna be behaviorism at best. Mm. Act this way. Do these things show honor. Don't persecute, don't return. Evil for evil, those kinds of things. And those are fine. Those are true.
Those are things that you should do, but they don't make sense unless you have the foundation of the gospel providing the impetus by which all these other acts are done. So don't skip verses or chapters one through 11 and jump to chapter 12 and say, here's all the fun stuff. This is all the application.
That's good. It's helpful, it's necessary, but it's in response to everything God has done. Right, right. Absolutely.
Submission to Authorities: Romans 13
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Chapter 13, then he's continuing instructions there to the church and he's gonna talk about authorities. And this is the church in Rome. This is the church in the backyard of the emperor.
And he's gonna encourage them, much like we read in one Peter to be subject to the governing authorities. He adds the wrinkle here of saying, 'cause author [00:16:00] is from God and they've been instituted by God. Verse for verse, sorry. Verse three, similar to one Peter two 14. He says, would you have no fear the one who is in authority?
Then do what's good and you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your good. Peter says in two 14 that they're there to punish evil and to praise those who do good, and then he. Finishes this section by even referring to taxes. And he tells us very plainly here, and this was during a time when taxes were going to the coliseum and they were going to putting on the events, the gladiatorial games, things like that, evil, wicked things during this time as well.
And yet Paul says, Hey, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes. To whom taxes are owed, revenue, to whom revenue is owed, and respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. So difficult concepts, difficult, especially when we see Godless leaders and we have to reckon with this concept that all authorities from God.
And yet I think if we go back to. The area of Daniel we see God had put, and Daniel makes it very clear, you put kings in [00:17:00] place, you remove kings you change times and seasons. God put some pretty wicked people in office, in, in various areas during that time as well. So the caveat here, again, like we talked about in one Peter, is if you're being asked to sin, then you submit to God, not to the government, but outside of that, there, there's a call to submit to the authority that's there because the authority is there from God.
I love that you referenced Daniel, because I think Daniel shows us both, yes. Not only how to submit, but also how to resist. And I think that's an important facet of this whole conversation when you think about your submission to the people that God has put over you. I wanna point your attention to verse three.
It says here that rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. And so what Paul is pointing to is the common grace of a human government, assuming of course, that that human government is upholding good and punishing bad, and that today is honestly a bigger assumption than what you initially realized.
So I think you have to point to the fact that. Government is good when it upholds, what God says is good. Good is not a [00:18:00] principle that stands in the middle of the air. It is something informed by God. So when government upholds what God says is good, we ought to submit to that and surrender to that. In fact, we ought to do it to the point that Paul says in verse four, you should be afraid to not do that because he doesn't bear the sword in vain, which is of course speaks to capital punishment.
This tells us that government, in fact, legitimately. Holds a sword, they can legitimately take a human life because God has endowed them with that authority. Now, that doesn't mean their authority is unlimited or unmitigated by anything. It, of course, is subject to God's word. So that doesn't change the fact that they have the sword.
They can still kill you if they deem that what you're doing is contrary to what they've legislated. Christians are. In a difficult spot in that we're called to submit to them insofar as they uphold God's good intentions. But we're also called to resist when they stand against God's intentions, and that means we have to also be willing to accept as the case may be, whatever consequences come with that.
And there's other forms of resistance that are kind of interim between, being [00:19:00] jailed or being executed and, not doing anything at all. And so, for example, we talk about he's God's servant for your good. We would say we, for example, something like abortion is not good.
Same sex marriage is not good. And yet when our tax bill comes, we're still gonna pay taxes right now. But I think there's other ways for us to. Resist, especially here in this country, in this nation. And we talked a little bit about that, but protesting casting our votes, getting involved in politics, those are all different ways that a Christian can get involved in trying to push things back.
And I would say at minimum, all of us need to be casting a vote. That that needs to happen. We need to be exercising our responsibility, our rights as citizens. We need to be out there. We need to be casting a vote. That's at minimum, the things beyond that is our. Probably more of a matter of conviction than anything else.
But there are stages between not doing anything and being jailed or fined or executed for your resistance. 100% true and so helpful that you bring up taxes because this is what it says here in verse seven. You'd have to argue with that. If you say, well, I'm not gonna pay [00:20:00] any of my taxes because the government misuses them.
That's true. They do misuse them, and there's lots of pork in the bills that are signed, but scripture tells us to pay taxes. It says, pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed. Now, I've said on the podcast before, it doesn't mean I think that you should aspire to give more taxes, right?
But you should try to pay more than what is owed or what is due. And even then today the question about what you actually owe. Is not a firm answer. It's not black and white. It depends on a lot of different factors, and I know that depending on who your tax guy or tax guy is, that answer's different. And I think Christian, Christian stewardship requires us to at least do the best we can with regard to that, to not break the law, but to use the law to allow ourselves to say, okay I'm gonna pay less taxes this year because I'm using the legal means that the government has given me to take advantage of some tax shelters or to take advantage of pre-tax this or post-tax that.
So you should still do that. But scripture does give us the clear command. We should pay taxes to whom taxes erode. Yeah. Rest of chapter 13. Then he turns back to relationships with one another, and he says something [00:21:00] pretty amazing here. He says, oh, no one anything except to love each other. For loving one another is fulfilling the law.
And the reason being there is if we love each other, that's gonna cover all the other horizontal commands, like do not envy, do not murder, do not covet, do not all these. If you're loving people, you're gonna have all of those things really thrown in. And then he lands the plane here by saying, Hey, we need to be ready for the return of Christ.
That's his hunger here. He says in verse 14, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires because he says the time and hour has come for you back, right above that to wake from your sleep. Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed that we know for sure.
We know for sure that we are now one day closer to seeing Jesus than we were yesterday. Maybe one hour closer to seeing Jesus than we were an hour ago. We know that to be sure. We don't know exactly when that's gonna come, but we know we're closer now than we were, and that should cause in us this desire to say, I wanna be ready for the return of Christ.
And that's kind of the takeaway there from the end of chapter 13. The section is so good. It's really helpful because Paul just got done [00:22:00] giving us all this theology, and now he's just saying, practically speaking. Now, here's what you should do. You should live in light of all these truths by living as a sacrifice to God by using your gifts of grace to serve other Christians, and not returning evil for evil, but submitting to the authorities and fulfilling your obligation by loving people.
It's so simple, and yet if we were to follow these broad brushstroke principles, I think we'd have a lot better time on Earth. We'd have a lot healthier churches if we all did this. So simple and yet so profoundly difficult, but we're not left alone. He's given us a spirit. We have everything that we need to walk this path, but not by ourselves.
We do it within the context of the body, which is also super important. He's assuming a Christian community and not just a solo Christian at this point. He's assuming all these people working together to see Christ formed in one another as they go about this task. For sure, for sure.
Final Thoughts and Prayer
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Well, it's probably, and we'll be done with this episode, God helps us to live, faithful to you. Help us to live this out. Help us to live in a way that we are living in light of the gospel and in response to the gospel Lord, such that we are different. And even just this last part here of loving one [00:23:00] another. Thinking back to chapter 12 and the marks of a true Christian as the ESV title to here that we would be a church that really does love, genuinely and love each other so much that we would rejo.
For one another that we would weep with one another. Lord we want to be a type of church that loves one another, that well, and I pray that we would, that you'd create that sense of community here within us at this church, and that we would be that type of a lampstand for Christ, that we make a bigger impact here.
While we await his return. We know we're one day closer. We're one hour closer, one minute closer. 23, 25 minutes closer after listening to this podcast. But we thank you so much for the guaranteed reality that Christ is coming back for us. We wanna be ready for him. In Jesus' name, amen. Keep reading Bibles Tune again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.
See ya. Bye.
Bernard: ​Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a [00:24:00] review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.
PJ: Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said