Question: Please explain Romans 11:29. Does this mean that if God calls a person into the ministry or for any other phase of the work of God and endows him with gifts suitable to his call; if that person backslides his gifts and calling still continue on even after he has backslidden?
Answer: The answer to this question is a resounding “NO.” The text in the question has no reference at all to Divine calls and gifts of the Spirit in the operation of the New Testament Church. But this text refers to God’s purposes and plans concerning Israel and the covenant and promises made with their fathers. The full text reads: “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Verse 28 says of the Jews that “…they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” “The fathers” in this text refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To these men God gave a covenant incorporating some broad, sweeping promises; first to Abraham and then confirming them with Isaac and Jacob, heirs together with him of the same promises.
The covenant and promise made to these men have a far-reaching importance, so let us look at them a little. In Genesis 12:1, we have the call of Abraham to separate himself from his father’s house and his kindred and go to a land that He would show him. In Genesis 12:2 He promised to make of him a great nation and bless him and make him a blessing and to make his name great. Then Genesis 12:3 is the all-important promise, “…In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” This is very far-reaching. In Genesis 18:18 is another reference to this same promise but this text uses the term “all nations” instead of “all families” as in Genesis 12:3. In Genesis 17:19 God said to Abraham that his wife, Sarah, would bear him a son and he should call his name “Isaac.” He further said He would establish His covenant with him and with his seed after and it would be an everlasting covenant. And in Genesis 21:12 God told Abraham that “…In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” And again in Genesis 22:18 God said to Abraham “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”
Now it must be evident from these statements that it was God’s original plan and purpose to bless and provide the blessing of salvation to the whole world (Gentiles all nations the same as the Jews) and this was to be brought about through Abraham’s seed. Now a reference to Galatians 3:16 will throw a bright light on all of this. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”
It must be clear, then, that the ultimate end of the covenant with Abraham and all its promises transcended centuries and ages and cut right straight through to Jesus Christ and terminated in Him.
So let us back up a little now to the call of Abraham to leave his father’s house and be separated from his kindred (Genesis 12:1). There was a distinct reason for this. The people where Abraham grew up, including Abraham’s father and his household, were all idolaters. It may be assumed that Abraham himself worshiped idol gods and served them, too. We read in Joshua 24:2 “…Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham,…and they served other gods.” Verse 3 continues and says “And I took your father Abraham from the other side of the flood,…” We see here that God was not pleased to establish His covenant of salvation and grace with a people serving and worshipping idol gods. So He separated Abraham from them and revealed Himself to him until he knew and recognized Him as the true and living God and accepted Him as his God. Because he obeyed His voice and went out from his people as he was instructed to do and forsook his idol gods, God established His covenant with him and made him the head and beginning of a new race separated from all others. This was the Israelites and speaking of them in I Kings 8:53 Solomon said, “For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance,…” Again in Deuteronomy 26:18 we read, “And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments.” And finally in II Samuel 7:24 we read, “For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, Lord, art become their God.”
It was through this line, this separated, distinctive, holy, peculiar, separated unto the Lord line, that the Messiah was to come; the SEED of Abraham in whom all the nations of the world were to be blessed. God chose and separated Israel unto Himself for this particular, specific purpose. Several times Israel was in severe crisis and threatened with extinction, but God most miraculously and in most unexpected ways intervened and preserved and sustained them until time for Christ to be born and presented to the world. God’s Word said in Genesis 49:10, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” Even though they were a conquered and subjected people under the Romans when Christ was born, yet their political system and religious system were still pretty much intact and they were permitted a measure of freedom to operate their system among themselves. To this extent Genesis 49:10 was fulfilled and God had succeeded in bringing this line through intact and accomplishing His purpose for getting His Son into the world.
Soon after the life and ministry of Christ (70 A.D.) the Jewish nation with their capitol city, Jerusalem, and the Jewish polity was totally and most miserably destroyed but not until He had carried out His plan and accomplished His purpose through them. But in all of this there was no repenting, withdrawing, or changing of plan or purpose on God’s part. He accomplished what He had in mind to accomplish in them. Neither was there any breaking of any of God’s promises to them in forsaking them and permitting them to be so miserably destroyed without His aid. True, God had promised to be with them and not forsake them. In Hebrews 13:5 a reference is made to this promise “…I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” But right along with that promise He also said, “If you forsake me, I will forsake you.” (II Chronicles 15:2, 24:20; Deuteronomy 31:16-17.) When the Jews filled up their cup of iniquity in rejecting God’s Son and crucifying Him and had utterly forsaken God; then He abandoned and forsook them as a people and let them miserably perish. But He had faithfully warned them of this several times and was thoroughly justified in abandoning them. They ceased to be a special people unto God at that time and will never be such again.
