Romans 11:1

Romans 11:1-10. Meanwhile the rejection of Israel never was, nor is, total: a remnant believes, and so abides in covenant

1. I say then I say therefore. Thus far St Paul has stated the adverse side of the case of Israel. He has shewn (1) that the Divine Promise never pledged eternal light and life to allAbraham's descendants; (2) that God is sovereign in His grants of mercy; (3) that the true work of the elder Dispensation was to prepare for the later; (4) that both Gentile faith and Jewish unbelief were distinctly foretold in the Law and the Prophets. And now, true to his main purpose throughout this argument, he turns to state the happier side; and this in two main aspects. First he reiterates the truth of the Divine Election, but now in its positiveaspect the existence always of a believing Israel within the unbelieving mass. Secondly, he predicts a time when even in the mass Israel should turn to the true Messiah, be restored to the Church, and become thus an influence of vast good for the world. "Therefore:" i.e. as the practical result from my previous account of sin and judgment in the case of Israel. Q. d., "I have given that account in orderthe better to give an account of present and coming mercy; which thereforeI now do."

Hath God cast away Lit. and better, Did God thrust away? i.e. when He welcomed the Gentiles into His covenant. (So too Romans 11:2) For the expression cp. 2 Samuel 12:22; where LXX. uses the same verb and noun.

his people Here, obviously, the bodily descendants of Jacob. St Paul asks whether all these as suchwere now excluded from the covenant. So immense was the apparent revolution of the admission of Gentiles as such to full covenant, that this fact (along with the fact of the unbelief of millions of Jews) might prompt the thought that the Gentiles were now the privilegedand the Jews the aliens.

God forbid See on Romans 3:4. The phrase rejects with indignation the suggested thought. In this intense feeling are combined deep love for his kinsmen, jealousy for his own place in the covenant, and jealousy too for the great principle of the irreversibility of "gifts and calling." See Romans 11:29.

For I also, &c. Q. d., "I am a living proof to the contrary; an Israelite in the strongest and strictest sense of bodily descent; yet a Christian, a child of God, a messenger of His word."

an Israelite See on Romans 9:4.

Benjamin Cp. Philippians 3:5, where St Paul, for a different purpose, dwells on his pedigree. See Bp. Lightfoot's interesting note on Philippians 3:5, for the historic dignity and pride of the tribe of Benjamin. (Here, however, such ideas are less clearly in question than there.)

The Olive Tree; the Root, Branches, and Graftings

1. The Olive Tree is the true Israel (cp. Jeremiah 11:16,) as the Church, the People of God. Its Root is Abraham and the Patriarchs. Its Stem is the Church of the Old Testament, when in a certain sense (that of external privilege) the Church coincided with the Nation of Israel, and when at least the vast majority of true believers were also physically children of Abraham. Its branches (by a slight modification of metaphor) are potential believers, whether Jewish or Gentile. If Jewish, their faith in Jesus as Messiah is viewed as retainingthem in the Church; if Gentile, their faith "grafts" them into the stem of the covenant-congregation. If, being Jews, they reject the offers of the Gospel, they are thereby "cut off" from the stem. If they repent and believe, their faith "grafts" them into it again;and this process, says St Paul, is, by the nature of the case, a more likely and naturalone than the "grafting" of the alien branches which yet is graciously effected.