SERIES: The Book of Romans
The Kindness and Severity of God
Introduction: I want to speak to you today from Romans 11, verse 22: “Consider therefore the kindness and severity (sternness in NIV) of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” When Paul speaks of the kindness and severity of God, he clearly does so within the context of God’s dealings with the Jewish people.
This text comes near the end of a three-chapter parenthesis in the book of Romans in which Paul examines in detail “the Jewish Problem,” i.e., the extent, the purpose, and the duration of Israel’s unbelief and its resulting decline as a nation. The Apostle teaches that despite the many special advantages of the Jews, they failed miserably on the spiritual level, with the result that they suffered greatly. Yet there is a splendid hope for them in the future, for God is not through with them.
However, I believe there is a wider application of the Kindness and Severity of God that every believer must understand. God is kind not only to Israel, and He is severe not only to Israel. These twin attributes are exercised toward God’s entire creation. I suggest, however, that we must begin with Paul’s illustration before we move toward application. So let’s read the entire portion from Romans 11:11-24.
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. {12} But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
{13} I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry {14} in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. {15} For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? {16} If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
{17} If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, {18} do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. {19} You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” {20} Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. {21} For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.
{22} 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, you also will be cut off. {23} And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. {24} 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!
People love to contemplate the kindness or the goodness of God. In fact, in thousands of pulpits across North America it is just about the only attribute of God which is ever emphasized. I cut an article out of the newspaper several years ago about the fact that a main-line denomination was beginning a national TV broadcast of Sunday morning services as a balance to the evangelical services that were dominating the airwaves. Now I would readily admit that some of the current television preachers could use a little balance, but listen to the rationale for this effort. Speaking is the pastor of one of the churches participating in this project:
“Right now, we feel that if someone went by television to understand what Christianity is about, they’d only get one approach,” said the Rev. Jim Moore, co-pastor of First Methodist Church in Shreveport, La., which is organizing the project along with Mother Angelica and her Eternal Word Network in Birmingham, Ala. “Our approach is a bit different. We believe in a loving, gracious, forgiving father who loves all his children, and not an angry God who must be appeased.”
Now how does that fit with Rom. 11:22? “Consider therefore the kindness and severity of God.” How is it possible to believe in a God of love but not a God of wrath, and still be a Christian, by any biblical definition?
On the other hand, there are those who preach so much hellfire and brimstone and preach such a negative Gospel that people come away with the distinct impression that God is a heavenly kill-joy eagerly waiting for people to slip up so He can zap them into everlasting oblivion. To them also these same words should be a wake-up call, “Consider therefore the kindness, as well as the severity, of God.” Let’s begin, then by defining our terms:
God’s kindness and severity defined
The kindness of God is in no way equal to the liberal doctrine of the Celestial Santa Claus, whose only job is to hand out goodies from His gift-bag. In Santa Claus theology sin is no problem and atonement is unnecessary. No, biblically the kindness or goodness of God is “His disposition to deal graciously and generously with His creatures despite what the recipients deserve.” In fact, His goodness is completely undeserved—all of grace.
God is kind to all people, a fact which is often referred to in Reformed Theology as “common grace.” Psalm 15:9 reads, “The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.” God is, however, particularly good to those who are His children by faith in Christ. This is called “special” grace and is taught in many passages such as Ephesians 1:3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Both common grace and special grace are biblical facts. God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways. A favorite Gospel song we used to sing goes like this:
Count your many blessings, name them one by one.
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
If you want to meditate on the kindness or goodness of God, do so from Psalm 107. It opens, “O give thanks to the Lord for He is good.” While we don’t have time to expound or even read that rather lengthy chapter, I would just mention that the Psalmist gives four major examples of God’s goodness in which people in various distresses cried out to the Lord and He delivered them. Each example ends with the phrase: “O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.”
I suspect most of us have little problem believing in the kindness of God. But what about His severity? We don’t dwell on God’s severity as much as on His goodness, but it’s just as true and just as important. The Greek word Paul uses for “severity” or “sternness” literally means “cutting off.” It denotes “God’s decisive withdrawal of His kindness from those who have spurned it.” This attribute of God reminds us of a fact about God which He Himself declared when He proclaimed His name “Yahweh” to Moses in Ex. 34:6,7:
The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generations.
You see, God’s severity, like His kindness, is of two varieties: common and special. All people experience His severity in the form of the consequences of sin. But there is a special severity that comes to believers in the form of discipline and to unbelievers in the form of punishment. God disciplines His children; He punishes those who are not. Punishment may come as a tragedy to get the person’s attention but, if that doesn’t work, it results ultimately in eternal condemnation for their refusal to respond to His grace.
Now it is essential for us to realize that God is not impatient in His severity. In fact, just the opposite is true—He is slow to anger, the Scriptures tell us on at least ten occasions. Constantly God is presented as longsuffering, patiently postponing merited judgments in order to extend the day of grace and give more opportunity for repentance. God waited 120 years in the days of Noah before executing deserved judgment. God gave Judah an extra 130 years after the northern ten tribes were taken into captivity before He allowed the Babylonians to take them captive. In fact, Rom. 9:22 tells us that throughout human history God has “endured with patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” However, when God’s patience runs out, His severity can be stunning. “Consider, therefore, the kindness and severity of God.”
Do you see the word “then” or “therefore” in our key verse, verse 22? That word indicates that verse 22 is an inference, a principle drawn from the preceding material. So let’s back up and examine the facts which Paul uses to illustrate His conclusion that God is both kind and severe.
God’s kindness and severity illustrated (11-24)
The illustration the Apostle gives us here in the context of Rom. 11 concerns:
God’s treatment of the Jews and Gentiles as groups. The fundamental presupposition of this whole passage is the fact that God is currently showing kindness to the Gentiles but severity to the Jews. For anyone to challenge those facts he would have to bury his head in the sand and ignore the past 2,500 years of history. Ever since Judah went into captivity in 586 B.C., the history of the Jews has been a history filled with anti-Semitism, exile, war, persecution, torture, inquisition, terrorism, and attempted genocide. Particularly has this been true since the destruction of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.
On the other hand, God has dealt kindly with many Gentile nations, particularly those where Christianity has flourished. Some of the riches we have experienced are freedom, wealth, culture and education, relative peace, prosperity, etc. But this disparity raises a critical theological question: Why has this reversal of the kindness and severity of God occurred? After all, the Jews are God’s chosen people, not the Gentiles, and at one time God was very kind to Israel and very severe in His treatment of Gentiles!
Well, Paul has an explanation.
1. The cause of God’s kindness to the Gentiles and severity to the Jews is transgression on the part of the Jews. God didn’t set His chosen people on the shelf because of any fickleness in Himself, or because He didn’t love them anymore, or because He wanted to try out some other nation as His chosen people. Rather God set them aside and showed them severity because of their SIN. The NIV catches the point of verse 11 excellently: “Again I ask, ‘Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?’ Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” Both the severity of God to the Jews and the resultant kindness of God to the Gentiles can be attributed to the sin and rebellion of God’s chosen people, the Jews.
2. The purpose of God’s kindness to the Gentiles, and especially His severity to the Jews, is not just punitive; it is, at heart, redemptive. God is trying to wake the Jews up and get their attention. The end of verse 11 puts it this way: “to make Israel envious.” It is God’s intention that the Jews will notice the kindness of God to the Gentiles, that they will see what faith in Christ has done for “those pagans,” and they will get jealous enough to return to God’s most-favored-nation status.
You who are parents have undoubtedly had the experience of offering something to your child only to have it refused, but as soon as you offer it to another child and that child accepts it, the first child changes his mind and begs for it. That is something of the scenario played out by Israel. God offered them the Messiah; they turned Him down. So God offered His Messiah to the Gentiles and they accepted. Eventually Israel will change their minds and embrace what the Gentiles have rejected.
But in this case God has employed not just kindness to the newcomers on the block, the Gentiles. He has also employed severity to His own people. I mentioned the other day C. S. Lewis’s observation to the effect that “Pain is the megaphone God uses to get our attention,” and that is true nationally as well as individually.
It’s tragic to think that God could put the Jews through all the pain they have experienced as a nation and still not get their attention, but He is getting the attention of some of them, and one day He will get the attention of all of them. One of these days, as I see it in the Scriptures, they won’t have any friends left and will have to call on their Messiah for deliverance, and that will lead to national revival.
3. The result of God’s kindness and severity. (12, 15) Verse 12: “But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!” Now look at verse 15: “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Paul doesn’t assert that Israel will accept their Messiah in these verses, but he does say that in verses 25-26: “all Israel will be saved.” National revival of the Jews will be the eventual result of the kindness and severity which God has exercised over two and a half millennia.
So what does the Apostle see as our personal responsibility in light of God’s kindness and severity?
4. Our personal responsibility. (13-14) Verse 13: “I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.” Paul saw it is his personal responsibility to do everything possible to capitalize on God’s kindness to the Gentiles by evangelizing them, and at the same time to cooperate with God’s severity to the Jews by being ready to harvest those who are willing to hoist the white flag of surrender. It’s as though he were saying, “While God is smiling on the Gentiles, let’s go get them, but let’s not forget the Jews—the megaphone of pain may be getting through to some of them!”
There is one more part to Paul’s illustration of God’s kindness and severity to the Gentiles and Jews, respectively.
5. The allegory of the olive trees. The thrust of this allegory seems to be this: No one should take God’s kindness for granted and act presumptuously on the mistaken notion that those who have been showered with kindness are guaranteed similar treatment in the future, regardless of how they live.
But let’s consider the details a little more closely. While there is some difference of opinion as to what the various elements of the allegory stand for, there is no doubt as to the opening point: if something is true of the roots of a tree, it is also true of the branches. The roots of the tree probably represent Abraham or the patriarchs. Since they were set apart unto God, so was the rest of the nation.
But something tragic happened—some of the Jewish branches (not all, for there was always a faithful remnant), but some of the Jewish branches were broken off, and in their place the branches of a wild olive tree were grafted in. These branches clearly represent the Gentiles. The grafting process refers to the evangelization of the Gentiles, which Paul was particularly commissioned to carry out. Gentiles were granted participation in the rich heritage of the Jews and were allowed to be treated as the people of God in place of the disbelieving Jews.
If you are a Gentile believer today you are a graft, and you get your life from the roots just like the natural branches of a tree. There would be no Christianity if there had been no Judaism first. C. S. Lewis once wrote, “The converted Jew is the only normal human being in the world.” Everyone else is an add-on. Strangely, however, some Gentile believers seem to find it easy to act in a spiritually arrogant way toward the Jews. There’s no basis for that, for the only reason the Jews are currently out of favor with God, and therefore experiencing His severity, is their unbelief. And by the same token, the only reason the Gentiles are currently in favor and experiencing His kindness is their faith. There’s no room for arrogance.
Now from all this discussion of God’s treatment of the Jews and Gentiles comes the principle, “Consider therefore the kindness and severity of God.” Consider it; think about it; ponder it in your heart. And while we are doing that, let me ask, “Are there other illustrations of the kindness and severity of God?”
Other illustrations of the kindness and severity of God. Of course, there are! We could probably find examples in every book of the Bible. In Genesis it is first seen in the Garden of Eden. “Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat.” There’s God’s kindness. “But of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” There’s God’s severity.
In the days of Noah the kindness of God was demonstrated to Noah and his family as they were provided a way of salvation, while His severity was poured out, literally, on the rest of mankind.
In the case of Joseph’s ten brothers, the severity of God got their attention in the form of a severe famine, and then later they experienced the kindness of God in deliverance through their brother, once presumed dead.
In the wilderness wanderings God’s kindness was experienced by the Israelites as God gave them manna from heaven and water from the rock, but severity became their portion when they complained and longed for the leeks, garlic, onions, etc. back in Egypt. The result was 38 years of wandering in the desert. Then the kindness of the Lord was once again demonstrated as He brought them into the Promised Land.
We could go on and on with biblical examples. Furthermore, no doubt every one of us could cite examples of the kindness and severity of God in our own lives. Quickly, however, there are two other issues we want to examine regarding the kindness and severity of God.
God’s kindness and severity realized (22-23)
What, exactly, is the determining factor as to whether we experience the kindness of God or His severity? Look again at verses 22-23: “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, you also will be cut off.” Do you see the two conditional concepts inherent in these verses?
If you continue in His kindness, then you will experience further kindness.
If you continue in your unbelief, then you can expect God’s severity.
Would that we would learn these lessons! I can think back to times in my life during which I was growing and obedient and God was blessing my socks off. Then for some reason I would allow sinful actions and sinful thoughts to creep in, my relationship with God would grow cold, and I would begin to experience the chastisement of the Lord. And like an idiot I would scratch my head and wonder, “What’s wrong? Why does God seem so far away?” The answer is clear:
If you continue in His kindness, then you will experience further kindness.
If you continue in your unbelief, then you can expect God’s severity.
Did you notice the rather significant threat here in verse 22? “Otherwise, you also will be cut off.” I think we need to be careful not to make too much or too little of this threat. Some want to see it as the loss of one’s salvation, but that seems to be going further than the passage, especially in view of the strong emphasis on the security of the true believer, as presented in chapter 8.
But let’s also be careful not to make too little of the threat here either. It is a dire warning, and there is no room for complacency, only humble trust. As John Murray, a Five-point Calvinist and a strong advocate of the security of the believer, writes, “… there is no security in the bond of the Gospel apart from perseverance. There is no such thing as continuance in the favor of God in spite of apostasy; God’s saving embrace and endurance are correlative.”[i]
The true doctrine of security is not that salvation is certain if we have once believed, but that perseverance in the faith is certain if we have truly believed. On the other hand, the inference from verse 23 is that the one who does not believe and continues in his unbelief will also continue to experience the severity of God, even for eternity.
As I see it, it is up to us as to which aspect of God’s nature we will experience—His kindness or His severity. If we come to Him needy and repentant, acknowledging that we need help, we will always find Him to be a loving, gracious, open-armed Savior, ready to help, ready to forgive, ready to provide all we need. But if we come to God complaining, excusing ourselves, justifying what we’ve been doing and trying to make it look good in His sight, then we will find that God is as hard as iron, as merciless as fire, as stern as a judge.
God’s kindness and severity applied (20-24)
The present recipients of God’s kindness must not act presumptuously or arrogantly.(18-21) In verse 20 the Apostle says, “Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” The principle is the same as found in 1 Corinthians 10:12: “Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.” It’s easy to point the finger and gloat over the person who is obviously suffering the judgment of God. But it’s a very dangerous thing to do.
I know a Christian who gloated over a fellow-believer when he went down the tubes morally. He openly rebuked his brother, taking every opportunity to rub the dirt in his face, all the time portraying himself as far above such a gross sin. You probably can anticipate the outcome of the story. Yes, the self-righteous one ended up committing the same act of immorality. But there’s a word of encouragement here also.
The present recipients of God’s severity must not lose hope. (23,24) There is no hope, of course, after death, so those who have experienced the ultimate Severity which consists of eternal separation from God are not in view here. But those who are still alive and are suffering God’s severity, who have heard His megaphone—they have HOPE! Verse 23-24:
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!
Paul’s point here, of course, is that someday the Jewish people as a nation will once again enjoy the kindness of God, but there is also a personal application. It has to do with how we respond to the suffering God allows in our lives. Again I refer to Romans 5:
We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
The same sun that hardens the clay softens the wax. Which will it be for us?
Consider, therefore, the kindness and severity of God.
Prayer: Father, yesterday we saw how you sometimes allow pain in the lives of your servants even when they are faithful, in order to accomplish your purposes. This morning we have seen that you allow pain in our lives when we are unfaithful. I am reminded of what Peter said, namely that it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Lord, help us to strive for holiness in our lives so that we might experience more of your kindness and less of your severity.
DATE: June 11, 1995
Tags:
Kindness
Severity
Chastisement
Jews
Hope
[i] John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, Vol 2, 88.