Romans 11:1-5 God’s People Who He Foreknew
“The key facts which Paul had already established regarding Israel are: (1) they are not all Israel who are of Israel (Romans 9:6), making it clear that there are, and always have been, TWO Israels: (a) the external Israel, the state, the nation, the visible Jewry on earth, and (b) true Israel, called ‘His people,’ that is God's people, children of the promise, the seed of Abraham, the people whom he foreknew, etc.; (2) the external Israel God had rejected and hardened, as extensively prophesied by their own prophets, and as just punishment for their rejection of God, climaxed by their stumbling on Christ; and (3) the true Israel are now the redeemed in Christ, but such a fact excludes no one; ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Romans 10:13). These three important facts about Israel should be kept in view. For centuries the two Israels had been almost indistinguishable, there being no sharp separation between them, but Paul showed in the beginning of this chapter that the separation had been made, with the true Israel continuing as Christianity, and the ‘rest’ (Romans 11:7) hardened, the latter being the whole of external Judaism.“ (Coffman) Likewise, a denomination church contrasts with the true universal church.
They were to be dispersed or dissolved as a nation and the temple- the center of religion— was left not one stone upon another. “Has God so renounced them that they cannot be any longer his people?—God forbid - Literally, it may not or cannot be. This is an expression strongly denying that this could take place; and means that Paul did not intend to advance such a doctrine; Luke 20:16; Romans 3:4, Romans 3:6,Romans 3:31; Romans 6:2, Romans 6:15; Romans 7:7, Romans 7:13. ‘For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.’ - To show them that he did not mean to affirm that all Jews must of necessity be cast off (or damned), he adduces his own case. He was a Jew; and yet he looked for the favor of God, and for eternal life.” (Albert Barnes)’ "’Hath God cast away his people?’ The jews would say, what else can we infer? If the gentiles are now become the Israel of God, and if we are rejected for not embracing what Paul calls the righteousness of God? St. Paul denies this, for he himself, and the thousands which believed in Judea, as well as the thousands dispersed on Stephen’s persecution, were all jews, and afforded proof to the contrary. Though God had denationalized them, and sentenced them to dispersion; and though no nation was so inveterate against the christians; yet the door of hope was ever open for their conversion [before their first deaths].” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“‘God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.’-This question regards the true Israel— which certainly had been cast off, there being then ‘no distinction’ (Romans 9:12) in the sight of God between either Jews or Gentiles. Paul guarded against confusing the people here mentioned with external Israel by saying immediately that it was ‘the people whom he foreknew’ (Romans 11:2) who were not cast off…. The thought that God ever had any covenant with the ancient kingdom of Israel, in the sense of their state, through any of their kings, is repugnant. The very existence of their line of kings was contrary to God's will, existing with his permission, but not with his approval, as a glance at 1 Samuel 8:7 proves. It was precisely in the events there recorded that Israel ‘rejected God’ from reigning over them; and the great historical rejection of God by the fleshly Israel, in their irrevocable repudiation of God as their king and the elevation of one of themselves to rule over them, was the pivot upon which all their later apostasy turned.”” (Coffman Commentary)
“LORD, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars.” Built upon extraordinary occasions by special dispensation, and with the authority of the Lord’s prophets; altars which pious people attended who could not go up to Jerusalem, and would not worship the calves, nor Baal; these separate altars, though breaking in upon the unity of the church, yet being erected and attended by those that sincerely aimed at the glory of God, and served him faithfully, God was pleased to own for his altars, as well as that at Jerusalem; and the pulling of them down is mentioned and charged upon Israel by Elijah as a heinous sin.” (Joseph Benson)— “‘And I am left alone’—To withstand and reform the common corruptions.” (John Trapp)— “And they seek my life.” (Rom 11:3)— “Was such a nation the people of God? God forbid. The people of God were that pitiful remnant with Elijah, and God had not cast them off.” (Coffman Commentary)— “But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ (1 Kings 19:18) Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Rom 11:4-5) “In Elijah’s time, when the prophets were murdered, there was a remnant of seven thousand men, for whose sakes the nation was spared. When king Ahaz had lost the whole of his kingdom, except Jerusalem, there was a small remnant that saved them from being destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. (Isa 1:9). In Paul’s time the remnant obtained mercy for their city; but when they fled, the Romans burned it.” (Joseph Sutcliffe)
“Significantly, the separation between the two Israels, the true and the fleshly, was not the result of some whimsical ‘eternal decree’ of God, choosing some and rejecting others; but it was based solidly in fundamental and profound differences between the true and the false. Paul stated the basis here as the fact that the true Israel ‘had not bowed the knee to Baal.’ God's election is always based upon qualities in people themselves, but in no sense of such qualities actually meriting or earning God's favor. Of those who will obey God's gospel, or refrain from bowing the knee to Baal, as in those days, it is God's ‘eternal decree’ that SUCH PERSONS are his ‘people whom he foreknew.’ Lard explained it thus: ‘Obedience is man's own free act, to which he is never moved by any prior election of God. Choosing, on the other hand, is God's free act, prompted by favor and conditioned upon obedience. This obedience, it is true, God seeks to elicit by the proper motives; but to this he is led solely by the love of man, and never by previous choice. True scriptural election, therefore, is a simple, intelligible thing, when suffered to remain unperplexed by the subtleties of men.’[Moses E. Lard, op. cit., p. 346.]…” (Coffman Commentary)
“And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.” (Rom 11:6) The remnant according to the election of grace found the mercy seat and laid hold of the horns of the altar. “For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Rom 10:4) “Christ is that which brings the functions of the Law to an end by superseding it. The Law pursues a man until he takes refuge in Christ; then it says, ‘Thou hast found thine asylum; I shall trouble thee no more, now thou art wise; now thou art safe.’” (Bengel).” (C. J. Ellicott)
Romans 11:7-10 What God Also Foreknew
“What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it and the rest were blinded just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.’ (Isa 29:10; Rom 11:7-8) Isaiah spoke of the Judgment of blindness or hardening of heart: Pause and wonder! Blind yourselves and be blind! They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with intoxicating drink. [They are drunk with bad doctrine.] For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets; and He has covered your heads, namely, the seers. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed." Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, "Read this, please." And he says, "I am not literate." Therefore the LORD said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men. Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden." (Isaiah 29:9-14) There are no prophets or sears in the nation of Israel. But they do exist in the universal church.
“The few seek and find, because they stoop to seek in God’s predetermined way and along His lines. But when men set themselves against these, they become hardened and overwhelmed by a ‘spirit of stupor,’ Romans 11:8 … “ (F. B. Meyer) “For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes, namely, the prophets'— “As they had wilfully closed their eyes against the light, so God has, in judgment, given them up to the spirit of slumber. The very word and revelation of God, which should have awakened their consciences, and opened their eyes and ears, have had a very different effect; and because they did not receive the truth in the love thereof, that which would otherwise have been the savour of life unto life, has become the savour of death unto death; and this continues to the present day.” (Adam Clarke) Thus : “The blinding here is plainly judicial - God Himself having given them sightless eyes and unhearing ears. But why is this? It is no arbitrary judgment. Matthew 13:13-15 shows clearly that Israel's willful blindness preceded their judicial blindness. The willful blindness of the nation rose to its full head following the resurrection of Christ and in the martyrdom of Stephen.” (L. M. Grant) Then the Message of the Gospel went out the the Gentiles.
“And David says— “the words written by David, but issuing actually from the lips of the Lord Jesus.” (L. M. Grant): ”Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; And for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalm 69:20-21)
Then came the Judgment on the nation of Israel: “Let their table become a snare before them, and their well-being a trap. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see; and make their loins shake continually. Pour out Your indignation upon them, and let Your wrathful anger take hold of them. Let their dwelling place be desolate; let no one live in their tents. For they persecute the ones You have struck, and talk of the grief of those You have wounded. Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.” (Psalm 69:22-28) These are solemn words of retribution. — But the last verse sets the tone for Jesus words on the cross: “But I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high.” (Psalm 69:29) “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) “But the forgiveness could only apply to the remnant who would receive it - as many did...” (L. M. Grant)
“Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them.” (Ps 69:22; Rom 11:9) They were supposed to invite guests to the table to learn of their Yahweh God. “A snare is that by which birds or wild beasts were taken. They are decoyed into it, or walk or fly carelessly into it, and it is sprung suddenly on them. So of the Jews. The petition is, that while they were seeking refreshment and joy, and anticipating at their table no danger, it might be made the means of their ruin.” (Albert Barnes) — “Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always.’” (Ps 69:23; Rom 11:10) "In the Apostle’s sense, ‘Let them be spiritually blinded, incapable of discerning or receiving the truth, and let their backs be bowed with the yoke of spiritual thraldom!’ The Hebrew is, ‘Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake.’ On which Perowne remarks: ‘The darkening of the eyes denotes weakness and perplexity, as the enlightening of the eyes denotes renewed vigour and strength. Similarly, the shaking of the loins is expressive of terror and dismay and feebleness.’”( C. J. Ellicott)
“All these words are declarative, and not imprecatory. God declares what will be the case of such obstinate unbelievers; their table, their common providential blessings, will become a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and the means of their punishment. Their eyes will be more and more darkened as they persist in their unbelief, and their back shall be bowed down always.” (Adam Clarke) They need only to turn to Jesus and the veil will be removed.
Roman’s 11:11-36 All Israel Will Be Saved
I say then, has the believing remnant of the Jewish nation of that generation stumbled that they should fall? "Certainly not! But 'God sent them the spirit of slumber', Isaiah 30:10, which the LXX read, a spirit of grief, compunction, or sorrow.” (Joseph Sutcliffe) By that coming spirit of stupor, Jesus knew that Peter would deny Him thrice before the rooster crowed, and that in fact all of the disciples would flee in stead of associating themselves with Him. “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered (Zech 13:7).’” (Matt 26:31)
“But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” (Rom 11:11b) “You must not restrict the sense of jealousy to a grudge, as if [the nation of] Israel would envy the (Gentile)nations because grace was offered to them. The sense is, it would cause [citizens of] Israel to long for the salvation that was offered to the nations.” (G. de Koning)
Now if the fall of the Jewish remnant of that generation "is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness.” (Rom 11:12) Thus Jesus showed Himself unto some of the Jewish remnant after the crucifixion. And He told Peter thrice to feed His Sheep with the spiritual bread. There were others. —> “After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor 15:6) The conversion of the apostles and Stephen and others gives us a firm foundation “built on the the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.” (Eph 2:20) “For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Rom 11:13-16)
Life from the dead. “The recovery of the Jews from the apostasy will be as a resurrection. It is a very palpable violation of rational exegesis, by Alford and others, to make the apostle say that the reconversion of the Jews would be [by] an actual bodily resurrection. Their conversion must really be the reversal of their apostasy. As the former was a fall of their souls from grace by unbelief, so the latter must be a recovery of their souls to grace by faith. Nor is there any proof from Scripture that the conversion of the Jews will be forthwith followed by the resurrection.” (Daniel Whedon) They will not get another chance after the first death appointed to all men. “He refers to the recovery of the nations from the death of sin which shall take place when Jews shall be converted to the Christian faith.” (Albert Barnes)
"God desires to have a people on earth to give testimony of Him and proclaim His virtues. In the past, Israel failed to give a testimony of the only true God, and even today they don’t do so. At the present time, this testimony should be given by Christians. But is Christianity doing a better job? The portion from Romans 11:16 onwards, is very important. It teaches you to understand something of God’s dealing with Christianity. Both from Israel and from Christianity, God expected a testimony to be given of Him in this world. With the image of the olive tree and its branches, Paul shows the degree in which they have succeeded. In Romans 11:16 we first read about... or ‘first fruit’ and the ‘lump’.” (G. de Koning)
“For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.” (Rom 11:l6) Firstfruit was the first of the annual harvest that was waived on the third day after Passover to be accepted on our behalf. It was waived at the third hour of daylight which could have been when Jesus was presented alive in heaven and the sacrifice of His perfect life was presented before the throne of God to be accepted on our behalf. We are the lump. If Christ is holy; we who believe are holy. This is a reference to bread. At Passover there is the LORD’s feast of unleavened bread to ensure that we understand no sin will be in heaven. We will be presented alive on the day that Jesus comes to get His church. However, in the feast of Pentecost, the Israelites were commanded to make two loafs of bread, perhaps representing the the remnant of the nation of Israel and the other nations. In contrast, these are to be “baked with leaven.” Holiness is only by sanctification through God's Word and Spirit.
“And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches." (Rom 11:17)For a wild olive tree to bear fruit, it must be nurtured. So, many Gentile believers have been grafted in among the remnant becoming “partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” "They must go back to Torah to get a biblical understanding of their heritage. They must learn how to think like a Hebrew for new insights into the apostolic writings and the teachings of Jesus the Messiah.” (Pari) "But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.' It is the foundation of the prophets. "But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.' (Rom 11:18)
“You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” “The branches are a secondary part of the trunk. All get their nourishment from the root. In Paul's analogy, some of the original branches— individual Jewish non-believers, not the nation— were broken off of the cultivated tree because of their unbelief.” (Pari) “For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these (the Jewish remnant), who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Rom 9:19-24) Think it no strange thing when individual Jews convert to the faith of their fathers.
And so all Israel will be saved. “All the Jews. It was a maxim among the Jews that ‘every Israelite should have part in the future age.’ (Grotius.) The apostle applies that maxim to his own purpose; and declares the sense in which it would be true. He does not mean to say that every Jew of every age would be saved; for he had proved that a large portion of them would be, in his time, rejected and lost. But the time would come when, as a people, they would be recovered; when the nation would turn to God; and when it could be said of them that, as a nation, they were restored to the divine favor.” (Albert Barnes) I am not a political Zionist for it will happen not by striving as children of the flesh, but by promise— “as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” (Isa 59:20-21)— Rom 11:25-27.
Paul stopped but Isaiah continued: “Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; the coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him. [But for the sake of the rememant of each and every generation:] ‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,’ says the LORD. ‘As for Me,’ says the LORD, ‘this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants,’ says the LORD, ‘from this time and forevermore.’” (Isa 59:14-21)
“Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” “This does not refer to man, but to God. It does not mean that God confers his favors on man without his exercising repentance, but that God does not repent, or change, in his purposes of bestowing his gifts on man.” (Albert Barnes) "Many are called but few are chosen"- as in the call of Jacob for firstborn. Easu sold it and it was given to Jacob. The tears of Easu would not avail. (Heb 12:17; Gen 27:30)The call for some is ineffective by their refusal to answer it.
“‘For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him (Isa 40:13-14)?”— Rom 11:28-36 “Behold," continues Isaiah- "the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.” (Isa 40:15-17) Jesus is seeking out recruits for a spiritual Kingdom. Jesus' Kingdom is not of the world or else His disciples would fight for Him. But He will return to a restored city of Zion and will sit on throne of His father, David, forever.