Romans 11

Ro 11:1-36.

SAME

SUBJECT

CONTINUED AND

CONCLUDED--THE

ULTIMATE

INBRINGING OF

ALL

ISRAEL, TO

BE, WITH THE

GENTILES,

ONE

KINGDOM OF

GOD ON THE

EARTH.

1. I say then, Hath--"Did"

God cast away his people? God forbid--Our Lord did indeed announce

that "the kingdom of God should be taken from Israel"

(Mt 21:41);

and when asked by the Eleven, after His resurrection, if He would at

that time "restore the kingdom to Israel," His reply is a virtual

admission that Israel was in some sense already out of covenant

(Ac 1:9).

Yet here the apostle teaches that, in two respects, Israel was

not "cast away"; First, Not totally; Second, Not

finally. FIRST, Israel is not wholly

cast away.

for I also am an Israelite--See

Php 3:5,

and so a living witness to the contrary.

of the seed of Abraham--of pure descent from the father of the

faithful.

of the tribe of Benjamin--

(Php 3:5),

that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted, with

Judah, the one faithful kingdom of God

(1Ki 12:21),

and after the captivity was, along with Judah, the kernel of the Jewish

nation

(Ezr 4:1; 10:9).

2-4. God hath--"did"

not cast away his people--that is, wholly

which he foreknew--On the word "foreknew," see on

Ro 8:29.

Wot--that is, "Know"

ye not that the scripture saith of--literally, "in," that is, in the

section which relates to

Elias? how he maketh intercession--"pleadeth"

against Israel--(The word "saying," which follows, as also the particle

"and" before "digged down," should be omitted, as without manuscript

authority).

3. and I am left alone--"I only am left."

4. seven thousand, that have not bowed the knee to Baal--not "the image

of Baal," according to the supplement of our version.

5. Even so at this present time--"in this present season"; this

period of Israel's rejection. (See

Ac 1:7,

Greek).

there is--"there obtains," or "hath remained"

a remnant according to the election of grace--"As in Elijah's time

the apostasy of Israel was not so universal as it seemed to be, and as

he in his despondency concluded it to be, so now, the rejection of

Christ by Israel is not so appalling in extent as one would be apt to

think: There is now, as there was then, a faithful remnant; not however

of persons naturally better than the unbelieving mass, but of persons

graciously chosen to salvation." (See

1Co 4:7;

2Th 2:13).

This establishes our view of the argument on Election in

Ro 9:1-29,

as not being an election of Gentiles in the place of Jews, and merely

to religious advantages, but a sovereign choice of some of Israel

itself, from among others, to believe and be saved. (See on

Ro 9:6.)

6. And, &c.--better, "Now if it (the election) be by grace, it

is no more of works; for [then] grace becomes no more grace: but if it

be of works," &c. (The authority of ancient manuscripts against this

latter clause, as superfluous and not originally in the text, though

strong, is not sufficient, we think, to justify its exclusion. Such

seeming redundancies are not unusual with our apostle). The general

position here laid down is of vital importance: That there are but 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. (See on

Ro 4:3,

Note 3.)

7-10. What then?--How stands the fact?

Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for--better,

"What Israel is in search of (that is, Justification, or acceptance

with God--see on

Ro 9:31);

this he 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 own hearts."

8. as it is written--

(Isa 29:10;

De 29:4).

God hath given--"gave"

them the spirit of slumber--"stupor"

unto this day--"this present day."

9. And David saith--

(Ps 69:23),

which in such a Messianic psalm must be meant of the rejecters of

Christ.

Let their table, &c.--that is, Let their very blessings prove a curse

to them, and their enjoyments only sting and take vengeance on them.

10. Let their eyes be darkened . . . and bow down their

back alway--expressive either of the decrepitude, or of the

servile condition, to come on the nation through the just

judgment of God. The apostle's object in making these quotations is to

show that what he had been compelled to say of the then condition and

prospects of his nation was more than borne out by their own

Scriptures. But, SECONDLY, God has not cast away

His people finally. The illustration of this point extends,

Ro 11:11-31.

11. I say then, Have they stumbled--"Did they stumble"

that they should fall? God forbid; but--the supplement "rather" is

better omitted.

through their fall--literally, "trespass," but here best rendered

"false step" [DE

WETTE]; not "fall," as in our version.

salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy--Here,

as also in

Ro 10:19

(quoted from

De 32:21),

we see that emulation is a legitimate stimulus to what is good.

12. Now if the fall of them--"But if their trespass," or "false step"

be the riches of the--Gentile

world--as being the occasion of their accession to Christ.

and the diminishing of them--that is, the reduction of the true Israel to so small a remnant.

the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness!--that

is, their full recovery (see on

Ro 11:26);

that is, "If an event so untoward as Israel's fall was the occasion of

such unspeakable good to the Gentile world, of how much greater good

may we expect an event so blessed as their full recovery to be

productive?"

13, 14. I speak--"am speaking"

to you Gentiles--another proof that this Epistle was addressed

to Gentile believers. (See on

Ro 1:13).

I magnify--"glorify"

mine office--The clause beginning with "inasmuch" should be read as

a parenthesis.

14. If . . . I may provoke, &c. (See on

Ro 11:11.)

my flesh--Compare

Isa 58:7.

15. For if the casting away of them--The apostle had denied that they

were east away

(Ro 11:1);

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.

be the reconciling of the--Gentile

world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the 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, and of His glorious presence with the heralds of the

Cross, as will not only kindle devout astonishment far and wide, but so

change the dominant mode of thinking and feeling on all spiritual things

as to seem like a resurrection from the dead.

16. For--"But"

if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root

. . . so the branches--The Israelites were required to

offer to God the first-fruits of the earth--both in their raw state, in

a sheaf of newly reaped grain

(Le 23:10, 11),

and in their prepared state, made into cakes of dough

(Nu 15:19-21)

hallowed. It is probable that the latter of these offerings is

here intended, as to it the word "lump" best applies; and the argument

of the apostle is, that as the separation unto God of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob, from the rest of mankind, as the parent stem of their race,

was as real an offering of first-fruits as that which hallowed the

produce of the earth, so, in the divine estimation, it was as real a

separation of the mass or "lump" of that nation in all time to God. The

figure of the "root" and its "branches" is of like import--the

consecration of the one of them extending to the other.

17, 18. And if--rather, "But if"; that is, "If notwithstanding this

consecration of Abraham's race to God.

some of the branches--The mass of the unbelieving and rejected

Israelites are here called "some," not, as before, to meet Jewish

prejudice (see on

Ro 3:3,

and on "not all" in

Ro 10:16),

but with the opposite view of checking Gentile pride.

and thou, being a wild olive, wert--"wast"

grafted in among them--Though it is more usual to graft the superior

cutting upon the inferior stem, the opposite method, which is intended

here, is not without example.

and with them partakest--"wast made partaker," along with the branches

left, the believing remnant.

of the root and fatness of the olive tree--the rich grace secured by

covenant to the true seed of Abraham.

18. Boast not against the--rejected

branches. But if thou--"do"

boast--remember that

thou bearest not--"it is not thou that bearest"

the root, but the root thee--"If the branches may not boast over the

root that bears them, then may not the Gentile boast over the seed of

Abraham; for what is thy standing, O Gentile, in relation to Israel, but

that of a branch in relation to the root? From Israel hath come all that

thou art and hast in the family of God; for "salvation is of the Jews"

(Joh 4:22).

19-21. Thou wilt say then--as a plea for boasting.

The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

20. Well--"Be it so, but remember that"

because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest--not as

a Gentile, but solely

up"

(Hab 2:4).

Be not high-minded, but fear--

(Pr 28:14;

Php 2:12):

21. For if God spared not the natural branches--sprung from the parent

stem.

take heed lest he also spare not thee--a mere wild graft. The former

might, beforehand, have been thought very improbable; but, after that,

no one can wonder at the latter.

22, 23. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them that

fell, severity--in rejecting the chosen seed.

but toward thee, goodness--"God's goodness" is the true reading, that

is, His sovereign goodness in admitting thee to a covenant standing who

before wert a "stranger to the covenants of promise"

(Eph 2:12-20).

if thou continue in his goodness--in believing dependence on that pure

goodness which made thee what thou art.

23. And they also--"Yea, and they"

if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is

able to graft them in again--This appeal to the power of God to

effect the recovery of His ancient people implies the vast difficulty of

it--which all who have ever labored for the conversion of the Jews are

made depressingly to feel. That intelligent expositors should think that

this was meant of individual Jews, reintroduced from time to time

into the family of God on their believing on the Lord Jesus, is

surprising; and yet those who deny the national recovery of Israel

must and do so interpret the apostle. But this is to confound the two

things which the apostle carefully distinguishes. Individual Jews have

been at all times admissible, and have been admitted, to the Church

through the gate of faith in the Lord Jesus. This is the "remnant,

even at this present time, according to the election of grace," of

which the apostle, in the first part of the chapter, had cited himself

as one. But here he manifestly speaks of something not then

existing, but to be looked forward to as a great future event in the

economy of God, the reingrafting of the nation as such, when they

"abide not in unbelief." And though this is here spoken of merely as a

supposition (if their unbelief shall cease)--in order to set it over

against the other supposition, of what will happen to the Gentiles if

they shall not abide in the faith--the supposition is turned into an

explicit prediction in the verses following.

24. For if thou wert cut--"wert cut off"

from the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and wast grafted contrary

to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, &c.--This

is just the converse of

Ro 11:21:

"As the excision of the merely engrafted Gentiles through

unbelief is a thing much more to be expected than was the excision of

the natural Israel, before it happened; so the restoration of

Israel, when they shall be brought to believe in Jesus, is a thing far

more in the line of what we should expect, than the admission of the

Gentiles to a standing which they never before enjoyed."

25. For I would not . . . that ye should be ignorant of this mystery--The word "mystery," so often used by our

apostle, does not mean (as with

us) something incomprehensible, but "something before kept secret,

either wholly or for the most part, and now only fully disclosed"

(compare

Ro 16:25;

1Co 2:7-10;

Eph 1:9, 10; 3:3-6, 9, 10).

lest ye should be wise in your own conceits--as if ye alone were in

all time coming to be the family of God.

that blindness--"hardness"

in part is happened to--"hath come upon"

Israel--that is, hath come partially, or upon a portion of Israel.

until the fulness of the Gentiles be--"have"

come in--that is, not the general conversion of the world to Christ,

as many take it; for this would seem to contradict the latter part of

this chapter, and throw the national recovery of Israel too far into the

future: besides, in

Ro 11:15,

the apostle seems to speak of the receiving of Israel, not as

following, but as contributing largely to bring about the general

conversion of the world--but, "until the Gentiles have had their

full time of the visible Church all to themselves while the Jews

are out, which the Jews had till the Gentiles were brought in." (See

Lu 21:24).

26, 27. And so all Israel shall be saved--To understand this great

statement, as some still do, merely of such a gradual inbringing of

individual Jews, that there shall at length remain none in unbelief,

is to do manifest violence both to it and to the whole context. It can

only mean the ultimate ingathering of Israel as a nation, in

contrast with the present "remnant." (So THOLUCK,

MEYER,

DE

WETTE,

PHILIPPI,

ALFORD,

HODGE). Three confirmations of this now follow: two

from the prophets, and a third from the Abrahamic covenant itself.

First,

as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and

shall--or, according to what seems the true reading, without the

"and"--"He shall"

turn away ungodliness from Jacob--The apostle, having drawn his

illustrations of man's sinfulness chiefly from

Ps 14:1-7

and Isa 59:1-21,

now seems to combine the language of the same 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"

(Ps 14:7);

in the other, the prophet announces that "the Redeemer (or,

'Deliverer') shall come to (or 'for') Zion"

(Isa 59:20).

But as all the glorious manifestations of Israel's God were regarded as

issuing out of Zion, as the seat of His manifested glory

(Ps 20:2; 110:2;

Isa 31:9),

the turn which the apostle gives to the words merely adds to them that

familiar idea. And whereas the prophet announces that He "shall come

to (or, 'for') them that turn from transgression in

Jacob," while the apostle makes Him say that He shall come "to turn

away ungodliness from Jacob," this is taken from the

Septuagint version, and seems to indicate a different reading of

the original text. The sense, however, is substantially the same in

both. Second,

27. For--rather, "and" (again); introducing a new quotation.

this is my covenant with them--literally, "this is the covenant from

me unto them."

when I shall take away their sins--This, we believe, is rather a brief

summary of

Jer 31:31-34

than the express words of any prediction, Those who believe that there

are no predictions regarding the literal Israel in the Old Testament,

that stretch beyond the end of the Jewish economy, are obliged to view

these quotations by the apostle as mere adaptations of Old Testament

language to express his own predictions [ALEXANDER

on Isaiah, &c.]. But how forced this is, we shall presently see.

28, 29. As concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sakes--that

is, they are regarded and treated as enemies (in a state of exclusion

through unbelief, from the family of God) for the benefit of you

Gentiles; in the sense of

Ro 11:11, 15.

but as touching, the election--of Abraham and his seed.

they are beloved--even in their state of exclusion

for the fathers' sakes.

29. For the gifts and calling--"and the calling"

of God are without repentance--"not to be," or "cannot be repented of."

the father of a peculiar people; while "the gifts of God" here

denote the articles of the covenant which God made with Abraham, and

which constituted the real distinction between his and all other

families of the earth. Both these, says the apostle, are irrevocable;

and as the point for which he refers to this at all is the

final destiny of the Israelitish nation, it is clear that

the perpetuity through all time of the Abrahamic covenant is the

thing here affirmed. And lest any should say that though Israel,

as a nation, has no destiny at all under the Gospel, but as a people

disappeared from the stage when the middle wall of partition was broken

down, yet the Abrahamic covenant still endures in the spiritual seed

of Abraham, made up of Jews and Gentiles in one undistinguished mass of

redeemed men under the Gospel--the apostle, as if to preclude that

supposition, expressly states that the very Israel who, as concerning

the Gospel, are regarded as "enemies for the Gentiles' sakes," are

"beloved for the fathers' sakes"; and it is in proof of this that he

adds, "For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." But

in what sense are the now unbelieving and excluded children of Israel

"beloved for the fathers' sakes?" Not merely from ancestral

recollections, as one looks with fond interest on the child of a

dear friend for that friend's sake [DR.

ARNOLD]--a beautiful thought,

and not foreign to Scripture, in this very matter (see

2Ch 20:7;

Isa 41:8)

--but it is from ancestral connections and obligations,

or their lineal descent from and oneness in covenant with the fathers

with whom God originally established it. In other words, the natural

Israel--not "the remnant of them according to the election of

grace," but THE NATION, sprung from Abraham

according to the flesh--are still an elect people, and as such,

"beloved." The very same love which chose the fathers, and rested on

the fathers as a parent stem of the nation, still rests on their

descendants at large, and will yet recover them from unbelief, and

reinstate them in the family of God.

30, 31. For as ye in times past have not believed--or, "obeyed"

God--that is, yielded not to God "the obedience of faith," while

strangers to Christ.

yet now have obtained mercy through--by occasion of

their unbelief--(See on

Ro 11:11;

Ro 11:15;

Ro 11:28).

31. Even so have these--the Jews.

now not believed--or, "now been disobedient"

that through your mercy--the mercy shown to you.

they also may obtain mercy--Here is an entirely new idea. The apostle

has hitherto dwelt upon the unbelief of the Jews as making way for the

faith of the Gentiles--the exclusion of the one occasioning the

reception of the other; a truth yielding to generous, believing Gentiles

but mingled satisfaction. Now, opening a more cheering prospect, he

speaks of the mercy shown to the Gentiles as a means of Israel's

recovery; which seems to mean that it will be by the instrumentality of

believing Gentiles that Israel as a nation is at length to "look on Him

whom they have pierced and mourn for Him," and so to "obtain mercy."

(See

2Co 3:15, 16).

32. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief--"hath shut them all

up to unbelief"

that he might have mercy upon all--that is, those "all" of whom he had

been discoursing; the Gentiles first, and after them the Jews

[FRITZSCHE,

THOLUCK,

OLSHAUSEN,

DE

WETTE,

PHILIPPI,

STUART,

HODGE].

Certainly it is not "all mankind individually" [MEYER,

ALFORD]; for the

apostle is not here dealing with individuals, but with those great

divisions of mankind, Jew and Gentile. And what he here says is that

God's purpose was to shut each of these divisions of men to the

experience first of an humbled, condemned state, without Christ, and

then to the experience of His mercy in Christ.

33. Oh, the depth, &c.--The apostle now yields himself up to the

admiring contemplation of the grandeur of that divine plan which he had

sketched out.

of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God--Many able

expositors render this, "of the riches and wisdom and knowledge," &c.

[ERASMUS,

GROTIUS,

BENGEL,

MEYER,

DE

WETTE,

THOLUCK,

OLSHAUSEN,

FRITZSCHE,

PHILIPPI,

ALFORD,

Revised Version]. The words will certainly

bear this sense, "the depth of God's riches." But "the riches of God" is

a much rarer expression with our apostle than the riches of this or that

perfection of God; and the words immediately following limit our

attention to the unsearchableness of God's "judgments," which

probably means His decrees or plans

(Ps 119:75),

and of "His ways," or the method by which He carries these into

effect. (So LUTHER, CALVIN,

BEZA, HODGE, &c.). Besides,

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 whole 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 this grace, was "the depth of

the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge" in these purposes and

methods. The "knowledge," then, points probably to the vast sweep of

divine comprehension herein displayed; the "wisdom" to that fitness to

accomplish the ends intended, which is stamped on all this

procedure.

34, 35. For who hath known the mind of the Lord?--See

Job 15:8;

Jer 23:18.

or who hath been his counsellor--See

Isa 40:13, 14.

35. Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to

him--"and shall have recompense made to him"

again--see

Job 35:7; 41:11.

These questions, it will thus be seen, are just quotations from the Old

Testament, as if to show how familiar to God's ancient people was the

great truth which the apostle himself had just uttered, that God's

plans and methods in the dispensation of His Grace have a reach of

comprehension and wisdom stamped upon them which finite mortals cannot

fathom, much less could ever have imagined, before they were

disclosed.

36. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom--"to Him"

be glory for ever. Amen--Thus worthily--with a brevity only equalled

"OF

Him are all things," as their eternal Source: "THROUGH

HIM are all

things," inasmuch as He brings all to pass which 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 being the ultimate,

because the highest possible, design of all His procedure from first to

last.

On this rich chapter, Note, (1) It is an unspeakable consolation

to know that in times of deepest religious declension and most extensive

defection from the truth, the lamp of God has never been permitted to go

out, and that a faithful remnant has ever existed--a remnant larger than

their own drooping spirits could easily believe

(Ro 11:1-5).

(2) The preservation of this remnant, even as their separation at the

first, is all of mere grace

(Ro 11:5, 6).

(3) When individuals and communities, after many fruitless warnings,

are abandoned of God, they go from bad to worse

(Ro 11:7-10).

(4) God has so ordered His dealings with the great divisions of

mankind, "that no flesh should glory in His presence." Gentile and Jew

have each in turn been "shut up to unbelief," that each in turn may

experience the "mercy" which saves the chief of sinners

(Ro 11:11-32).

(5) As we are "justified by faith," so are we "kept by the power of God

through faith"--faith alone--unto salvation

(Ro 11:20-32).

(6) God's covenant with Abraham and his natural seed is a perpetual

covenant, in equal force under the Gospel as before it. Therefore it

is, that the Jews as a nation still survive, in spite of all the laws

which, in similar circumstances, have either extinguished or destroyed

the identity of other nations. And therefore it is that the Jews as a

nation will yet be restored to the family of God, through the

subjection of their proud hearts to Him whom they have pierced. And as

believing Gentiles will be honored to be the instruments of this

stupendous change, so shall the vast Gentile world reap such benefit

from it, that it shall be like the communication of life to them from

the dead. (7) Thus has the Christian Church the highest motive to the

establishment and vigorous prosecution of missions to the Jews;

God having not only promised that there shall be a remnant of them

gathered in every age, but pledged Himself to the final ingathering of

the whole nation assigned the honor of that ingathering to the Gentile

Church, and assured them that the event, when it does arrive, shall

have a life-giving effect upon the whole world

(Ro 11:12-16, 26-31).

(8) Those who think that in all the evangelical prophecies of the Old

Testament the terms "Jacob," "Israel," &c., are to be understood solely

of the Christian Church, would appear to read the Old Testament

differently from the apostle, who, from the use of those very terms in

Old Testament prophecy, draws arguments to prove that God has mercy in

store for the natural Israel

(Ro 11:26, 27).

(9) Mere intellectual investigations into divine truth in general, and

the sense of the living oracles in particular, as they have a hardening

effect, so they are a great contrast to the spirit of our apostle,

whose lengthened sketch of God's majestic procedure towards men in

Christ Jesus ends here in a burst of admiration, which loses

itself in the still loftier frame of adoration

(Ro 11:33-36).