The Goodness and Severity of God

Romans 11:15-22
"For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
You will say then, "Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in."
Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.
But if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God; on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off."

The greatest tragedy of history is the rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah by the nation of Israel!
"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11-12)
Although Christ created the world, the people He created did not recognize Him. He was denied the general acknowledgment that should have been His as Creator. And even more tragic...His very own people, the Jews, rejected Him and finally participated in His death on a cross! Those who should have been most eager to welcome Him were the first to turn away.
One day, Jesus gave a parable concerning His rejection by the nation of Israel: "Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower.
And he leased it to vinedressers,

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and went into a far country.
Now when vintage-time drew near, he sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit.
And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another.
Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.
Then last of all he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’
But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.
So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vinedressers?
They said to him, "He will destroy those wicked men miserably, and lease his vineyard to other vinedressers, who will render to him the fruits in their seasons."
Jesus said, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes."
Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruit of it.
And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder." (Matthew 21:33-34)
Listen to the words of Jesus, weeping over the city of Jerusalem: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:37-38)
The parable which we read was concerning the nation of Israel, its rejection of the Son of God, and the judgment...the kingdom of God taken from her!
In the passage we read in Romans 11, the branches which were broken off were the people of Israel, and the branches that were grafted in were the Gentiles!
Romans 10 concluded with these words:
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
But I say, have they not heard, Yes, indeed: ‘Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy by

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those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation."
But Isaiah is very bold and says: ‘I was found by those who did not seek Me, I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me."
But to Israel He says: "All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people." (Romans 10:17-21)
It was this disobedient and contrary nation of Israel that rejected Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. "Because of unbelief they were broken off...God did not spare the natural branches."
Isaiah, the ancient prophet, anguished over the nation of Israel:
"Hear O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken:
"I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me;
The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider."
Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward." (Isaiah 1:2-4)
Again, the prophet Isaiah, speaking of the house of Israel as a vineyard, says:
"Now let me sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard: My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it: so he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.
"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard. What more could have been done by My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes? And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; and break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned or dug, there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it."
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry for help." (Isaiah 5:1-7)

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Remember the passage in Romans 11..."For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.
Therefore consider the goodness and the severity of God; on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness...
In Romans 9, Paul lists the many aspects of God’s goodness to His people, the nation of Israel.
"I tell you the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen." (Romans 9:1-5)
In this passage, Paul lists eight things God did for Israel to show His eternal goodness toward them.
(1) They are sons of God by adoption.
"Israel is my firstborn son" (Exodus 4:22)
"Yet the Israelites will be like the sand of the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called, ‘sons of the living God’" (Hosea 1:10).
(2) They had the divine glory, or visible presence of God, dwelling among them.
"By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people" (Exodus 40:34-35).
(3) They were given the divine covenants.
The Old Testament records five covenants:
(a) THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land" (Genesis 15:18).
(b) THE MOSAIC COVENANT
The Ten Commandments recorded in Exodus 20:1-17.
(c) THE REESTABLISHED COVENANT
"I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today" (Deuteronomy 29:14-15).
(d) THE DAVIDIC COVENANT
"Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me;

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your throne will be established forever" (2 Samuel 7:16).
(e) THE NEW COVENANT THROUGH JEREMIAH
"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the Lord. ‘I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).
(4) The nation of Israel received the law. God gave His law to Israel (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5:1-22). Israel was the only nation God specifically dealt with in this manner.
(5) They worshiped in the temple. Israel also was given the worship ceremonies prescribed for the tabernacle and the temple. God told them how they were to worship Him!
(6) THEY WERE GIVEN GOD’S PROMISES. This refers especially to the promised Messiah--promises of His arrival are found throughout the Old Testament.
(7) Last in this list of blessings is the patriarchs---Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons. From the patriarchs is traced the human ancestry of Christ, thus all Israel is in line to receive God’s promises. And it is in Christ that all God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled.
(8) They have Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! For some, Christ is really not a separate benefit, but the reason behind all the other benefits. Everything that God had given the Jews prepared the way for Christ.
Oh! The goodness of God wonderfully poured out upon a nation! Goodness, in God as in human beings, means something admirable, attractive, and praiseworthy. When the biblical writers call God good, they are thinking in general of all those moral qualities which prompt His people to call Him perfect, and in particular of the generosity which moves them to call Him merciful, and gracious and to speak of His love. When God stood with Moses on Sinai and "proclaimed the name [that is, the revealed character] of the Lord [that is, God as His people’s Jehovah, the sovereign Savior who says of Himself, "I am that I am" in the covenant of grace]," what He said was this, "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" (Exodus 34:6-7).
And this proclaiming of God’s moral perfection was carried out as the fulfillment of His promise to make all His goodness pass

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before Moses (Exodus 33:19).
All the particular perfections that are mentioned here, and all that go with them--God’s truthfulness and trustworthiness, His unfailing justice and wisdom, His tenderness, forbearance and entire adequacy to all who penitently seek His help, His noble kindness in offering believers the exalted destiny of fellowship with Him in holiness and love these things together make up God’s goodness in the overall sense of the sum total of His revealed excellences.
The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval. In this definition we find a situation similar to the one we face in defining God as the true God. Here, "good" can be understood to mean "worthy of approval," but we have not answered the question, approval by whom? In one sense, we can say that anything that is truly good should be worthy of approval by us. But in a more ultimate sense, we are not free to decide by ourselves what is worthy of approval and what is not. Ultimately, therefore, God’s being and actions are perfectly worthy of His own approval. He is therefore the final standard of good. Jesus implies this when He says, "No one is good but God alone" (Luke 18:19). The Psalms frequently affirm that "the Lord is good." (Psalm 100:5); or exclaim, "0 give thanks to the Lord, for He is good" (Psalm 106:1; 107:1).
Our definition also states that all God does is worthy of approval. The Psalmist connects the goodness of God with the goodness of His actions: "You are good and You do good; teach me your statutes" (Psalm 119:68).
Scripture also tells us that God is the source of all good in the world. "Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17)
God does only good things for His children. "No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 83:11). In the same context in which Paul assures us that "in everything God works for good with those who love Him" (Romans 8:28), he also says, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him." (Romans 8:32)
This knowledge of God’s goodness should encourage us to give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
God’s mercy is His goodness toward those in distress; His grace is His goodness toward those who deserve punishment, and His patience is His goodness toward those who continue to sin over a period of time.

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We have spoken of God’s goodness to the nation of Israel, but all men are the objects of His goodness! The sending of His Son to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross of Calvary is a marvelous act of God’s goodness and grace. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
The thought of God’s love and goodness is so much a part of the gospel of Jesus that to speak of God’s severity is almost a forgotten or neglected aspect of God’s character.
Remember our text: "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God..." The crucial word here is AND! In our text, the apostle is explaining the relation between Jew and Gentile in the plan of God. He has just reminded his Gentile readers that God rejected the great mass of their Jewish contemporaries for unbelief, while at the same time bringing many pagans like themselves to saving faith. Now He invites them to take note of two sides of God’s character which appeared in this transaction. Paul is stating that the Christians at Rome are not to dwell on God’s goodness alone, nor on His severity alone, but to contemplate both together. Both are attributes of God--aspects, that is, of His revealed character. Both appear alongside each other in the economy of grace and both must be acknowledged together if God is to be truly known.
Let’s think of this very serious matter....The severity of God.
If we reject the gospel of Jesus Christ which is the power of God unto salvation, there are eternal consequences. "...when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ...these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9) The word Paul uses in Romans 11:22 means literally "cutting off"; it denotes God’s decisive withdrawal of His goodness from those who have spurned it. It reminds us of a fact about God which He Himself declared when He proclaimed His name to Moses: namely that though He is "abounding in love and faithfulness," He does not leave the guilty unpunished---that is, the obstinate and impenitent guilty (Exodus 34:6-7).

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The principle which Paul is applying here is that behind every display of divine goodness stands a threat of severity in judgment if that goodness is scorned. If we do not let it draw us to God in gratitude and responsive love, we have only ourselves to blame when God turns against us!
"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the Godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness." (Romans 1:18)
"But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." (Romans 2:8)
"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient." (Ephesians 5:6)
But God is not impatient in His severity; just the reverse. He is slow to anger. Nehemiah assures us: "They refused to obey, and they were not mindful of Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage. But you are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them. (Nehemiah 9:17)
"The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities." (Psalm 103:8-10).
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." (Psalm 145:8-9)
"For You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You." (Psalm 86:5)
The Bible makes much of the patience and forbearance of God in postponing merited judgments in order to extend the day of grace and give more opportunity for repentance.
But those who decline to respond to God’s goodness by repentance, and faith, and trust, and submission to His will, cannot wonder or complain if sooner or later the tokens of His goodness are withdrawn, the opportunity of benefiting from them ends, and retribution supervenes.
"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36)