Rom. 11:16-27, Natural Israel and other things!

Let’s conclude our study of “nature.”

phusis (fem. noun): nature

·       Rom 1:26: women exchange natural use of body for what is against nature.  (We will see with this word that the NT not only condemns those who reduce themselves to animals; it also recognizes there is a true and valid way to speak of nature.  That is the case here.  Homosexuality violates the natural way our bodies were made by the Creator.  This natural way even extends to animals.  To deny this is to reject what is natural all over creation, or ‘nature.’)

·       Rom 2:14: when Gentiles w/o law do by nature things in law it's a law to them.  (A conscience is part of the base nature of human beings.  True, it may be defective in some way because of sin, but that does not mean that average human beings cannot understand right-and-wrong through their consciences.)

·       Rom 2:27: one not circumcised physically who obeys will judge disobed. Jew.

·       Rom 11:21,24abc: if God didn't spare natural branches he won't spare Gentiles. If Gents. are wild olive by nature, contrary to nature were grafted in to cultivated olive tree, so much more will natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree.  (In these passages what is “natural” is “physical.  In Col. 2 Paul speaks of a spiritual circumcision; but here it is the natural meaning.  That is important when you read Rom. 11.  There is a natural Israel, and it still has a place in God’s future.  We might call them “biological” Israelites.  There are “spiritual” descendents of Abraham which includes all who have come to God by the faith of Abraham.  Thus, when all Israel is saved, those Israelites will be biological Israelites who have exercised the faith of Abraham.  They are not Gentiles, people with any other national background, who have believed.  See Gal. 2:15 below.)

·       1 Cor 11:14: very nature of things teaches that a woman prays with her head covered, has long hair.

·       Gal 2:15: Paul, a Jew by birth knows no justification by keeping law.

·       Gal 4:8: unbelievers are slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

·       Eph 2:3: like all unbelievers we were by nature objects of wrath.

·       Jas 3:7ab: all kinds of animals/birds, etc. are tamed & have been tamed by man.

·       2 Pet 1:4: by precious promises we participate in divine nature.  (Meditate deeply on this truth.  We were created in God’s image.  In Christ, we share in God’s “nature.”  But what is His nature?  God is spirit (John 4:24).

phusiosis (fem. noun): a puffing up of the soul, loftiness, pride

·       2Co 12:20 Paul fears that when he comes to Corinth he will find … backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults.