Romans: Spiritual Blindness

A Mystery: Blindness in Israel

This month we are looking at what Paul shared regarding spiritual blindness. Specifically, the spiritual blindness of Israel. But take note: we, too, can have areas in our lives that have spiritual blindness to God’s truth or to His calling on our life. While we may look down on Israel for their blindness, we better beware of our own! God is a God of mercy, and upon His mercy we ought to depend.

Romans: 11:25-32:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Spiritual Blindness

One of the worst things that can happen to a person, a family, a community, or a nation is spiritual blindness.

Causes of Spiritual Blindness

Romans 2:8 (bold added): “But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.”

2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (bold added): “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (bold added): “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

Revelation 3:17 (bold added): “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:”

Acts 28:26-27 (bold added): “Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

1 Corinthians 2:14 (bold added): “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

2 Peter 3:3 (bold added): “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,”

1 Corinthians 1:18 (bold added): “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

John 12:37-40 (bold added): “But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

To be spiritually blind is to not see Christ, and to not see Christ is to not see God (Colossians 1:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:6).

Israel’s Spiritual Blindness

Verse 25 Notes: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”

Paul is again talking to the church at Rome and, as a mentor, wanting to add to their deeper understanding about the blindness that appears to cover the then nation of Israel, and remains in large part today.

Paul knows that ignorance leads to speculation which often tends to feed our own pride as we seek answers that tickle our ears. Therefore, Paul intends to unveil what to them is a mystery; something they can’t understand in their own wisdom based on their pride.

By the way, we are also in danger of looking down on others who do not believe, especially the Jewish people, for they had so much and special favor from God.

Notice that blindness is in part. Paul is talking at the national/ethnic level. Not all Jews are blinded. Indeed, the church at Rome is a mixed group. The apostles were all Jews. The first and early church was all Jewish.

Luke 21:24: “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Verse 26 Notes: “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:”

Remember that Israel is often a symbol for a spiritual nation/people, and Jacob is a symbol for a secular/lost people.

Isaiah 59:20: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.”

Isaiah 11:12: “And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”

The day is coming when the Messiah will turn carnal Jacob into spiritual Israel. So not just a remnant of Jews will be saved, but the nation will believe and be saved.

Verse 27 Notes: “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.“

Isaiah 59:21: “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and forever.”

Jeremiah 31:33-34: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israell; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Know that God’s covenant will be fulfilled.

Verse 28 Notes: “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.”

The Jewish nation (not the individuals) has set itself as an enemy/foe/adversary to the gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ and His purchase of our salvation. It smacks against their belief in salvation in the law of Moses. Centuries of tradition turned on its head by salvation by grace through faith.

So, they take aim at Christians, whether they be Jew of Gentile. Look how Paul persecuted the early church (then only Jews), and he had writs from the Jewish leadership.

But Paul reminds the church at Rome that Jacob is in a covenant relationship with God and, even though blinded, they are still beloved of the Lord. Even though Jesus declared their blindness on Palm Sunday, He still loves them and intends to redeem the entire nation as promised.

Luke 19:42: “Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.”

Verse 29 Notes: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”

Jeremiah 31:30-34:

But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man is brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

2 Corinthians 1:20: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

Verse 30 Notes: “For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have not obtained mercy through their unbelief:”

Just in case they forgot, Paul is reminding them that they, too, were unbelieving, blinded, and estranged from God. Also, it was Israel’s rejection of the gospel that released God to extend the gospel to the Gentiles. Therefore, we need to be thankful that God all along had a plan for us knowing that the Jewish nation would reject their suffering Messiah.

Verse 31 Notes: “Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”

So now, peradventure, by the grace they see in the believing church (both Jew and Gentile), they may also be attracted to the gospel and believe. Individuals will always come to believe as God always reserves for Himself a remnant, but one day all of Israel will believe.

Verse 32 Notes: “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.”

Concluded is the Greek word for shut together, shut up, enclosed (Strong’s G4788). God locked them in blindness for now because of their unbelief and because they did not understand that day when Jesus had presented Himself to them.

And they are held in that state until God extends to them mercy. Though they would stay that way left on their own, but with mercy He will one day redeem them as a people.

Beware Our Spiritual Blindness

Blindness need not be total, but it may be partial.

Myopia: (nearsightedness) is a form of blindness when we are focus only on ourselves.

Strabismus: crossed-eyes is like one who has a double focus, two masters.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration: growing cold

Presbyopia: hardening of the lens/heart towards God

Astigmatism: (distorted vision at all distances because of a distorted warped lens) as in a warped view of filter for reading and obeying God’s Word.

Matthew 24:44-50:

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,

Revelation 2:5: “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.”

With these last admonishments, go forth and serve the Lord with your whole heart, mind, and spirit!

May God Bless you!

Maranatha!

Bro. Joe

References

Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)

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