ROMANS 11
11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his own people?—Paul answers the question by using the expression so often employed in this epistle, Of course notGod forbid (actually, “may it never come to pass”). Jesus did indeed announce that the kingdom of God would be taken from Israel (Matthew 21:41). And when he was asked by the Eleven at his resurrection if he would at that time “restore the kingdom to Israel,” his reply was a virtual admission that Israel was in some sense already out of the covenant (Acts 1:6-9). Yet, here the apostle teaches that in two respects Israel was not cast away. First, she was not cast away totally. Second, she was not cast away finally. The apostle gives his initial attention to the fact that Israel was not wholly and completely cast away. He proves this by indicating that he himself is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.—cf. Philippians 3:5. Paul was living proof of the fact that not all Jews have been cast aside. Inasmuch as he was a descendant of Abraham, he was of pure descent from the father of the faithful. The apostle notes that he belonged to the “tribe of Benjamin,” that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted along with Judah the one faithful kingdom of God (1 Kings 12:21). Following the captivity, Benjamin, along with Judah, provided the kernel of the returned Jewish nation (Ezra 4:1; 10:9). Therefore, Paul uses himself as an illustration of the fact that there remains among the Jews a believing remnant. What better proof could he offer!
11:2-4 No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning—On the word “whom he chose from the very beginning (or foreknew KJ)” see the comments on 8:29. The apostle then turns to the case of Elijah and uses the ancient prophet as an illustration. (Cf. 1 Kings 19.) Elijah had every good reason to condemn Israel for turning away from God, but God reminded the prophet that he still had a remnant among Israel. Although his people proved exceedingly stubborn, rebellious, and disobedient, the prophet was reminded that God had has 7,000 others who have never bowed down to Baal!”*
11:5 It is the same today, for a few of the people of Israel* have remained faithful because of God’s grace—The apostasy of Israel was not so universal as it seemed to be in Elijah’s time, or as the prophet in his despondency concluded it to be; so now the rejection of Christ by Israel is not so appalling as one would be apt to think. There is now, as there was then, a faithful remnant. This remnant did not consist of persons naturally better than the unbelieving mass, but rather it consisted of people graciously chosen to salvation (see 1 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:13). This substantiates Paul’s argument on election in chapter 9 as being an election not of Gentiles in place of the Jews, but a sovereign choice of some of Israel itself to believe and to be saved, along with many Gentiles.
1:6 Paul points out that this is an act of grace: election is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace is no more grace. The general position here laid down is of vital importance: that there are two possible sources of salvation—men’s works and God’s grace; and that these are so essentially distinct and opposite that salvation cannot be of any combination or mixture of both but must be wholly either of the one or of the other.
11:7-10 What then?—How stands the fact? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened [hardened]—What Israel was attempting to find—justification, or acceptance with God—she found not. But the election (the elect remnant of Israel) found it, and the rest were hardened or judicially given over to the hardness of their hearts. The apostle again returns to Isaiah (29:10) and Deuteronomy (29:4) for OT support of his position. The quotation “God has put them into a deep sleep”. [stupor or torpor] means that the people were possessed of spiritual insensibility (cf. the Isaiah 29:10 reference). The apostle also quotes David (Psalms69:22), saying,“Let their bountiful table [feast] become a snare, a trap i.e., let their very blessings prove a curse to them and their enjoyments only sting and take vengeance on them. Let their eyes go blind so they cannot see, and let their backs be bent forever.”—This is expressive of the decreptitude or of the servile condition to come on the nation through the just judgment of God. The apostle’s object in employing these particular quotations is to show that what he had been compelled to say of their present condition and the prospects of his nation was more than substantiated by the Scriptures on which Israel relied.
11:11Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery?—Davidson and Martin translate the verse in this manner, “Was it the purpose of God to make the Jews stumble in order that they might fall?” Did God cause this irretrievable tragedy? Of course not! God forbid—is the apostle’s answer. This is the same expression he has used repeatedly and may also be translated, “May it never come to pass” (11:1). They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves.—Here, as also in 10:19 (quoting from Deuteronomy 32:21), we see that emulation is a legitimate stimulus to what is good.
11:12 Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it.?—Paul here shows God’s providential activities in reaching all men. The Jews’ trespass (in failing to accept Jesus as the Messiah, and even more so in crucifying him) brought about a diminishing—i.e., the true Israel was reduced to a remnant. But whereas the Jews trespassed the will of God, their trespass meant riches for the world, riches for the Gentiles. The term “fullness” means “their full recovery” and the “making up of them to their full numbers.” If an event so significant as Israel’s fall was the occasion of such unspeakable good to the Gentile world, how much greater good may the world expect from an event so blessed as their full recovery!
11:13 I am saying all this especially for you Gentiles—This is additional proof that this epistle was addressed to Gentile believers. (See 1:13.)I stress this, [ministry]—Paul wanted his readers to understand that one reason for his emphasis upon the commission God gave him as an apostle to the Gentiles was to provoke his own people to jealousy and to subsequently turn them to Christ.
11:14 for I want somehow to make the people of Israeljealous [i.e., the Jews] so I might save some of them.might—Even here Paul is speaking in terms of the “remnant” because he does not speak of the salvation of “all Jews,” but “some of them.”
11:15For since their rejection. . . —In 11:2 the apostle had denied that they were rejected (or, “pushed away” according to the Gk.); here he affirms it. But both are true; they were cast away, though neither totally nor finally, and it is of this partial and temporary rejection that the apostle here speaks.their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead!—The reception of the whole family of Israel, scattered as they are among all nations under heaven and the most inveterate enemies of the Lord Jesus, will be such a stupendous manifestation of the power of God upon the spirits of men as will not only kindle devout astonishment far and wide, but so change the dormant mode of thinking and feeling on all spiritual things as to seem like a resurrection from the dead. However, it is unlikely that Paul is suggesting that every Jew will receive Christ; it seems rather he is suggesting that a “large portion” of the Jews will be saved.
11:16 -just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.—The Israelites were required to offer to God the firstfruits of the earth, both in their raw state (in a sheaf of newly reaped grain, Leviticus 23:10, 11), and in their prepared state (made into cakes of dough, Numbers 15:19, 21). Therefore, the whole produce of that season was regarded as holy. The latter of these offerings is here intended, since the term “lump” (lit., “a mingling”—of flour and water, etc.) was used by Paul. The apostle’s argument is that the separation unto God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the patriarchs) from the rest of mankind was as real an offering of firstfruits as that which hallowed the rest of the produce. So in the divine estimation it counted for the sanctification of the entire nation to God. The figure of the “root” and its “branches” is of like import—the consecration of the one extending to the other. If the “root” is set apart to God, so also are the “branches.” In both illustrations, Paul asserts the principle that the source characterizes the whole. Thus, all of Israel must be holy because its source is holy.
11:17-18 But some of these branches . . . —The mass of the unbelieving and rejected Israelites are here called “some,” not as before to pacify Jewish prejudice (see comments on 3:3, and on “not all” in 10:16), but with the opposite view of checking Gentile pride. you Gentiles, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing God has promised Abraham and his children, sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God’s special olive tree.—Though it is more usual to graft a superior cutting into an inferior stem (see 11:24), the opposite method intended here is not without example. The figure of the “olive tree” warns the Gentiles against any tendency toward boastful pride and also substantiates the apostle’s optimism about the Jews. By “a wild olive shoot” the apostle means Gentile Christians who have been placed into God’s NT economy. The Gentiles grafted into God’s organic economy partake of the riches along with the remnant of Jews who believe (see Ephesians 3:6).
11:18 But the apostle warns the Gentiles: But you must not brag about being grafted in to replace the branches that were broken off. You are just a branch, not the root.thebranch does not support the root but the root supports the branch —The Gentile has no reason to boast against the rejected branches. If the branches may not boast over the root that bears them, then the Gentile may not boast over the seed of Abraham; for what is the Gentile’s standing in relation to Israel but that of a branch in relation to the root? From Israel has come all that the Gentiles are and possess in the family of God, for “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22).
11:19 “Well,” you may say, “those branches were broken off to make room for me.” To be grafted in—Though the Gentile has a tendency to despise the disobedient and faithless Jew, he should remember that he is taking the place of the Jew and that if one can be broken off, the other branch may also be broken off.
11:20 Yes, but remember—those branches were broken off because they didn’t believe in Christ, and you are there because you do believe. So don’t think highly of yourself, but fear what could happen.—This reminds us of Hebrews 4:2. Despite God’s relationship to the “natural branches,” he did not spare them. Why should the Gentile believe that he will be spared if he conducts himself as did the Jew?
11:22-23 Notice how God is both kind and severe. He is severe toward those who disobeyed, but kind to you if you continue to trust in his kindness. But if you stop trusting, you also will be cut off.—God was good and kind to admit the Gentiles (who before were strangers to the covenant’s promise—Ephesians 2:12-20) into his household and economy. If the Gentile “continue in his kindness” means if the Gentile remains in believing dependence on that pure goodness that made the Gentile a Christian in the first place. Paul continues to employ the figure of the olive branches in the expression “otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Branches may be grafted into trees, but they also may be removed from trees. And if the people of Israel turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again, for God has the power to graft them back into the tree.—Here a repeated emphasis is placed upon unbelief and God’s ability to graft in “the branches.” If the Jew does not persist in unbelief, then he will be grafted into the branches. This appeal to the power of God to effect the recovery of his ancient people implies the vast difficulty of such a recovery, which all who have ever labored for the conversion of the Jews have depressingly felt. Some expositors believe that Paul is referring to the Jewish nation as a group; others that Paul is referring to individual Jews, reintroduced from time to time in the family of God on their believing in Jesus Christ. Either way, “Paul implies a spiritual, if not a horticultural, reality; the original branches are more akin to the tree than the wild shoots and should therefore be easier to graft into the stock from which they were originally taken” (Davidson and Martin).
11:24 You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong.—In using the phrase “contrary to nature,” Paul may be “thought to disarm criticism in advance by showing that he is aware of the unnaturalness of the particular kind of grafting here described. But he need mean no more than that the process of grafting is itself ‘contrary to nature’—a view which was commonly taken by the ancients” (Bruce). Emphasis must be placed upon the “how much more.” If God is able to do that which is “contrary to nature,” then by what greater token will these natural branches be grafted back into their olive tree. The apostle is arguing that it is more natural and more conceivable for one to restore his own people than it is for one to restore those who are not his own.
11:25 I want you to understand this mystery—The term “mystery” (Gk., musterion) so often used by Paul, does not mean something incomprehensible, but “something before kept secret, either wholly, or for the most part, and now only fully disclosed” (cf. 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7-10; Ephesians 1:9, 10; 3:3-6, 9, 10). In Paul’s cultural and religious environment the term was often used with reference to the mystery religions. As these peoples used the term, the word referred to a secret known only to the initiated ones. However, Paul uses the term to mean a secret that is openly revealed. Paul wishes his readers to know that the current spiritual state of Israel is not their final condition. They are to be grafted in again because God will bring about the restoration of his people. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts,—i.e., part of Israel has become hardened. but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ.—The word “blindness” in the KJV should be “hardness” or “hardening.” The Greek word indicates callousness, dullness. Paul does not mention the agent involved in the hardening. The suggestion in the expression “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” does not refer to an exact, predetermined number as such, but to the full strength, the complete totality of the Gentiles who will come to Christ. The bringing in of the full complement (pleroma) of the Gentiles is to be followed by the bringing in of the fullness of the Jews (11:12).
11:26-27 And so all Israel will be saved.—The crux of the problem involved in the interpretation of this verse is the particle houtos (here translated “so”). Those who consider this a temporal particle wish to translate the expression, “and then all Israel will be saved.” However, this is not a temporal article but is rather a modal concept and should be translated “in like manner all Israel will be saved,” or “in this manner all Israel will be saved.” What does Paul mean by the expression “all Israel”? Some interpreters understand the expression to refer to the true spiritual Israel, while others seem to interpret this as a reference to the people taken as a race. Remembering 9:6-8, where Paul stresses the spiritual nature of the true Israel, some interpreters see the words here as referring to the true and eternal seed of Abraham, which includes, of course, both Jews and Gentiles (cf. Galatians 6:10). Calvin also interprets the expression to refer to spiritual Israel. Bruce reminds us that “all Israel” is a recurring expression in the Jewish literature, where it surely does not mean “every Jew with no exception” but rather “Israel as a whole.” Therefore, “all Israel” has a portion in the age to come, says the Mishnah Tractate, Sanhedrin (10.1). Other commentators say that these words should not be all-embracing, because the phrase has the same meaning in relation to the Jews as do the terms “fullness of the Gentiles” in relationship to the Gentiles, that is, all means “all those who will turn in faith to Christ.” Davidson and Martin point out that interpreting the expression as a reference to universal salvation conferred upon all men in view of their physical birth irrespective of their belief would contradict all else that Paul has taught (see 2:28, 29). However, some interpreters do insist upon the meaning of the ultimate ingathering of Israel as a nation in contrast to the present “remnant.” These interpreters note three confirmations of this interpretation, two from the prophets and a third from the Abrahamic covenant itself. “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.—The apostle, having drawn his illustrations of man’s sinfulness chiefly from Psalms14 and Isaiah 59, now seems to combine the language of the two places regarding Israel’s salvation from it (Bengel). In the one place the psalmist longs to see the “salvation of Israel coming out of Zion” (Psalms14:7, RSV); in the other, the prophet announces that “the redeemer shall come to Zion” (Isaiah 59:20, RSV). But as all the glorious manifestations of Israel’s God were regarded as issuing out of Zion, as the seat of his manifested glory (Psalms20:2; 110:2; Isaiah 31:9), the term that the apostle gives to the words merely adds to them that familiar idea. And whereas the prophet announces that “he shall come to them that turn from transgression in Jacob,” Paul has him say that he shall come “to turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” This is taken from the Septuagint and seems to indicate a different reading of the original text. The sense, however, is substantially the same in both.
11:27 And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins.—This is rather a brief summary of Jeremiah 31:31-34, than the express words of any prediction. (See also Isaiah 27:9.)
11:28-29 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News , and this benefits you Gentiles.—i.e., they are regarded and treated as enemies (in a state of exclusion through unbelief, excluded from the family of God) for the benefit of you Gentiles; this is in the sense of 11:11, 15.Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. [irrevocable]—The gifts of God are not to be recalled nor to be altered. The “calling of God” in this case means the sovereign act by which God, in the exercise of his free choice, called Abraham to be the father of a peculiar people; while “the gifts . . . of God” here denote the articles of the covenant God made with Abraham, which constituted the real distinction between his and all other families of the earth. Both of these are irrevocable. And since he refers this to the final destiny of the Israelite nation, it is clear that the perpetuity through all time of the Abrahamic covenant is the thing here affirmed. The apostle is pointing out that God is immutable and changeless, that he never regrets his promises nor does he alter his purpose. This fact is corroborated from Isaiah 59:20, 21 and 27:9, and in Romans 11:26, 27. Paul reminds us that the Jews are God’s enemies because they have rejected the gospel, but from the standpoint of election they are his beloved. In their activities of that time the Jews were aligned against Christ and therefore characterized by disobedience to God and to God’s purpose. Paul indicates that this situation existed so that the Father could have mercy on both Jew and Gentile alike. The idea of their obtaining “mercy” is an entirely new idea. The apostle has hitherto emphasized the unbelief of the Jew and the making way for the faith of the Gentiles—the exclusion of the one occasioning the reception of the other. Then, opening a more cheerful prospect, Paul speaks of the mercy shown to the Gentiles as a means of Israel’s recovery. It seems to mean that it will be by the instrumentality of believing Gentiles that Israel will at length turn to the One whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10).
11:32 For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.—The apostle here is referring to the “all” of whom he has been speaking. Salvation then is of the Gentiles first and after them the Jews. The apostle here is dealing universally, not individually. He seems to be dealing with those great divisions of mankind, Jew and Gentile, and what he says here is that God’s purpose was to shut up each of these people to the experience, first, of a humbled, condemned fate, without Christ, and then to the experience of his mercy in Christ. Barrett, at this point, reminds us that the only double predestination found in Paul’s writing is that all men have been shut up under condemnation in order that salvation may be offered all. Were they not predestined to wrath, they could not be predestined to mercy.
11:33 God’s way is described in the expression Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! The apostle now yields himself to admiring and contemplating the grandeur of that divine plan he has just sketched. The expression impossible or how unsearchable means that God’s ways are beyond tracing out! “Riches . . . of God” is a rare expression used only by the apostle. And the words immediately following limit our attention to the unsearchableness of God’s judgments (his decisions and his ways!), which probably means his decrees or plans (Psalms119:75). his ways—indicate the method by which he carried these plans into effect (Luther, Calvin, Hodge). All that follows to the end of the chapter seems to show that while the grace of God to guilty men in Christ Jesus is presupposed to be the theme of this chapter, that which called forth the special admiration of the apostle, after sketching at some length the divine purposes and methods in the bestowment of God’s grace, was the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God in these purposes and methods. The “knowledge” probably points to the vast sweep of divine comprehension here displayed; the “wisdom” of that fitness to accomplish the ends intended, which is stamped on all this procedure.
11:34-35 For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice?Who knows enough to give him advice?—See Job 15:8; Jeremiah 23:18; Isaiah 40:13, 14. Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?—See Job 35:7 and 41:11. These questions are simply quotations from the OT, employed by the apostle as if to show how familiar to God’s ancient people was the great truth the apostle himself had just uttered, namely, that God’s plans and methods in the dispensation of grace have a reach of comprehension and wisdom stamped upon them that finite minds cannot fathom, much less ever imagine before they are disclosed!
11:36 For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen.—In a brief but worthy manner equalled only by its sublimity, the apostle here sums up this whole matter. “From him . . . are all things” refers to their eternal source; “through him . . . are all things” inasmuch as he brings all to pass that in his eternal counsels he purposed; “to him are all things,” as being his own last end. The manifestation of the glory of his own perfections are the very ultimate because they are the highest possible design of all his procedure from first to last.