Commentaries:
Near the end of his doctrinal exposition to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul writes about God's mercy in calling Gentiles into His church while at the same time rejecting His own people, Israel—for a while.
Paul employs a merism in verse 22, "the goodness and the severity of God." A merism is a rhetorical device made up of two opposite elements, with the inference of totality. "I looked high and low" means "I looked everywhere." Or, "I put up with that barking dog day and night," means "I put up with that barking dog all the time." The first merism in the Bible, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1), means that God created everything.
In Romans 11:22, Paul uses opposites: goodness and severity. In doing so, the apostle is saying that God's character runs the gamut from overt compassion to utter harshness. This merism provides us a shorthand guide to God's character: He "put away" the brutal sin of David (II Samuel 12:13), while he slew Uzzah on the spot for touching the Ark of the Covenant (II Samuel 6:7). Before the twins were even born to Rebekah, before they had done good or evil, God elected to love Jacob and to hate Esau (Romans 9:11-13).
It is fair to say that this merism, the opposites expressed in God's goodness and His severity, articulate a central, if not the pivotal, theme of God's Word—from its beginning to its end. We see these opposites in narrative after narrative in God's Word. We see examples of them historically and prophetically. Here are just six illustrations:
-
The goodness of God toward Noah and his family, that is, His protection of them through the cataclysm that destroyed the world that then was. Compare Genesis 8:1 with II Peter 3:5-6.
-
The goodness of God as He delivered "righteous Lot" from the cities of the plain, which He promptly burned to ashes. See II Peter 2:6-7.
-
The severity He displayed to Job to teach him an important lesson, and the goodness He showed as He ultimately "blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning" (Job 42:12).
-
The severity He exhibited toward Joseph, a cocky 17-year-old lad who basked in his father's favor. He soon found himself a slave in Egypt and after that, a prisoner. Psalm 105:18 tells us that his "feet hurt in his shackles; his neck was in an iron collar" (Common English Bible). Relatively soon, however, Joseph had risen as high as he could go in Egyptian society, becoming Pharaoh's vizier.
-
The harshness God has promised to display to His modern-day Israelites for their sins, and the compassion He will quickly show them as He returns them to their land. Isaiah 54:7 reads: "I abandoned you for one brief moment, but I will bring you back with unlimited compassion" (God's Word Translation).
-
The kindness God demonstrated by healing multitudes of sick with the mere shadow of Peter passing over them (Acts 5:15-16) opposed to the harshness He showed Ananias and Sapphira, as they fell dead at Peter's feet (Acts 5:1-10).
Paul takes the occasion of God's magnanimity to the Gentiles to issue a stern warning to us in Romans 11:22: If we do not continue in God's kindness, we, too, will feel the sting of His severity. We dare not take His kindness for granted.
Paul's language in verse 22 echoes that of Colossians 1:22-23, where he tells the Colossian church that Christ has reconciled them "in the body of His flesh through death." His gracious gift of reconciliation is wonderful! However, there is an important "if" in verse 23: "if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard." This is sobering.
Hebrews 10:38-39 illustrates the kindness and severity of God as it pertains to us:
"But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him." Surely we are not going to be men who cower back and are lost, but men who maintain their faith for the salvation of their souls! (J.B. Phillips' paraphrase)
We must always be aware that we are under judgment (I Peter 4:17). God desires us to continue moving forward in faith toward His Kingdom, where we will enjoy the ultimate expression of His goodness toward us. But if "we neglect so great a salvation" (Hebrews 2:3), we will not escape His severity, designed to shake us to our marrow and move us to repentance.
Charles Whitaker
God's Goodness and Severity
Paul directs this passage toward Gentiles as part of an admonition he wanted them to consider regarding their calling into the church. We, too, must seriously consider God's goodness and severity. God is not only what we commonly think of as love. His character is perfectly balanced by a sense of justice for all concerned and for His purpose too. To be just is to be fair, evenhanded, and impartial. God will always be fair because even His justice is executed in love and is an act of love.
God is not only supreme in power and authority, but He is also supreme in judgment. His mind pierces through all of the justifications we make to excuse our bad attitudes and conduct as measured against His righteous standard. So, if we desire to live by faith, we must seriously consider His sense of justice because what we may think is a small matter, an event of no great magnitude, may trigger God to react with terrible swiftness and severe consequences that leave us wondering why. Scripture records a number of these sudden, violent reactions.
We must begin by understanding that we do not see the entire picture as God does. The reality of God's justice helps us to perceive three important factors to living by faith: 1) The wages of sin is indeed death (Romans 6:23); 2) we are headed toward death and do not know its time; and 3) God means exactly what He says.
Jesus declares an important principle in Luke 12:48: "But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more." We need to think about the seriousness of our calling, knowing that human nature contains a strong strain of self-deception. This verse should remind us that because we have been given so much, our judgment will be sterner.
God states in Romans 1:18-20 that mankind is without excuse regarding His existence, but it is easily seen in the immoral conduct committed throughout the world that people are paying little or no attention to their responsibilities to God. As people go about their daily activities, they ignore Him; a relationship with Him is not perceived as a vital, everyday necessity to life.
Some may talk of Him on occasion and even pray, but they are not seriously committed to true devotion to Him. They are neither learning more of His truth nor further broadening and deepening obedience to Him. Besides those folks, some are openly and aggressively antagonistic toward Him and His laws.
However, in the face of these attitudes, we cannot allow ourselves to disregard the fact that God is very serious about His intentions to fulfill His purposes for His creation and most especially in the lives of His children. His purpose has been revealed to us, and we are more responsible than others.
Though by our reckoning of time God's justice often seems long delayed, the prophecies will be fulfilled and His Kingdom established under Jesus Christ. God commands that we must live by faith, so we cannot let down. We must push on in faith.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Living by Faith and God's Justice
In his letter to the Christians residing at Rome, the apostle Paul is characteristically astute in his statement of dichotomies. To him, God's penchant to follow destruction quickly with restoration is summed up in the merism, “the goodness and severity of God.” He sees these traits, in essence polar opposites, as definitive of God's character, the operational definition of His interface with mankind. Not that God is bipolar, exhibiting radical mood swings. Rather, God is love, intrinsically so, unchangeably so, but He responds rigorously to sin because He understands how hurtful it is.
Furthermore, implicit in the merism, to Paul's way of thinking, is a stern warning not to abuse God's mercy, lest we incur His severity. The context is the mercy that God has shown some Gentiles by calling them into His church, and at the same time, His rejection of His (physical) people Israel—at least for a while:
If God didn't think twice about taking pruning shears to the natural branches [that is, physical Israel of old], why would He hesitate over you? He wouldn't give it a second thought. Make sure you stay alert to these qualities of gentle kindness and ruthless severity that exist side by side in God—ruthless with the deadwood, gentle with the grafted shoot. But don't presume on this gentleness. (Romans 11:21-22, The Message)
Here is the same dichotomy—punishment and restoration, stated in a New Testament context. Two translations of this same passage, quoted below, make it clear that God's severity and His goodness combine to make up two sides of a single personality. J.B. Phillips' paraphrase puts it this way:
You must try to appreciate both the kindness and the strict justice of God. Those who fell experienced His justice, while you are experiencing His kindness, and will continue to do so as long as you do not abuse that kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. . . .
The Voice is quite clear. Notice the translator's turn, “simultaneous balance”:
Witness the simultaneous balance of the kindness and severity of our God. Severity is directed at the fallen branches withering without faith. Yet kindness is directed at you. So live in the kindness of God or else prepare to be cut off yourselves.
It is fair to say that this merism—the opposites expressed in God's goodness and His severity—articulate a central, informing theme of God's Word—from its beginning to its end. We see these opposites in narrative after narrative in the Old Testament. Here are just four examples:
1. The goodness of God toward Noah and his family, His protection of them through the cataclysm that destroyed the world that then was (compare Genesis 8:1 and II Peter 3:5-6).
2. The goodness of God as He delivered “righteous Lot” from the cities of the plain, which He promptly burned to ashes (see II Peter 2:6-7).
3. The severity He displayed to Job in order to teach him an important lesson, and the goodness He showed as He ultimately “blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12).
4. The severity He exhibited toward Joseph, a bit of a cocky 17-year-old lad, who basked in his father's favor. He found himself a slave in Egypt. Psalm 105:18 (Common English Bible) tells us that his “feet hurt in his shackles; his neck was in an iron collar. . . .” Relatively soon, however, Joseph became Pharaoh's vizier.
Charles Whitaker
The Goodness and Severity of God (Part Two)
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Romans 11:21:
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
Deuteronomy 30:1-3
Matthew 10:5-7
John 15:1-8
Romans 11:21-22
