Romans: Exposition of Chapter 11: To God's Glory by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Author:D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones [Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Biblical Commentary, Religion, Biblical Studies, New Testament, Christianity, Catholic, Romans
ISBN: 9780851517483
Google: KeAKAAAACAAJ
Amazon: B00N4H8OJK
Barnesnoble: B00N4H8OJK
Publisher: Banner of Truth, The
Published: 1998-02-14T22:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, ana thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Romans 11:18-22

We come now to the fourth division of our consideration of these verses. This is by way of application of all this to us and our present situation. We should always apply the truth. The Bible and its teaching are never to be approached in a detached or a theoretical manner, which is the besetting sin of commentators. They are interested in the words and meanings and shades of meanings and arguments and disputations, and they tend to leave it at that. I know that a case can be made for the commentator as such, but that is all that he is called upon to do and we do not look to him so much for application.

Exactly the same is true about historians. It is a very interesting and peculiar thing, and something against which we should all guard ourselves. I have noticed throughout the years that, speaking generally, historians seem to have a strange capacity, or propensity, almost, to be entirely uninfluenced by the very history about which they write and to which they give their lives in study. For example, I have known many men, and some of them I have known very well indeed, who have been particularly interested in the eighteenth century, and I can say about some of them quite truthfully that I have never known men who are further removed from the Methodist Fathers of the eighteenth century in whom they are so interested. They merely have a kind of antiquarian interest.

Now it is a terrible thing, it seems to me, that we should approach truth either in the form of didactic teaching or in the form of history, or in any other form, without realizing that it is meant to speak to us, to do something for us. There is nothing against which we should guard ourselves so much as a detached academic and theoretical interest. We should always have a living interest, and that is why it is especially the part of the preacher always to be applying the truth. I have never called myself a Bible lecturer for that reason. The Bible is to be preached, it is always to be applied.

Now the Apostle, you see, leads us to say this very thing. He is dealing primarily with an actual fact of history that the Jews had rejected the gospel and were outside the church, outside the kingdom; whereas the Gentiles had come in. But the Apostle cannot merely handle this as a fact of history, he is concerned with its meaning, with its relevance, with what it has to say to the Gentile Christians who are in the church.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.