TWENTY-THIRD PASSAGE (CHAP. 11). GOD'S PLAN IN ISRAEL'S REJECTION. The apostle has proved in chap. 9 that when God elected Israel, He did not lose the _right_ one day to take the severest course against them, if if it should be necessary. Then he has showed in chap. 10 that _in fact_ there was a re... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I say, then, Hath God cast away His people? Let it not be! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin._ ” From all that preceded, chaps. 9 and 10, the reader might have concluded that God had completely and finally broken with all that bore the name of Israel; h... [ Continue Reading ]
The _partial_ character of the rejection of God's people is proved, first by the conversion of St. Paul himself (Romans 11:1); then by the existence of a whole Judeo-Christian church (Romans 11:2-6). And if this church does not contain the entire Jewish people, it is the effect of a judgment of a pa... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Or wot ye not what the Scripture saith in the passage about Elijah; how he maketh intercession to God against Israel:Lord, they have killed Thy prophets_, _they have digged down Thine altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life._ ” The f... [ Continue Reading ]
In the Hebrew text the second clause of the verse is put first; it is needless to seek an intention for this inversion. Mention is made of “ _altars_ of God,” though according to the law there was, properly speaking, only one legitimate altar, that of the sanctuary. But the law itself authorized, b... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace._ ” Χρηματισμός : the direction of a matter, and hence: a decision of authori... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse applies the case of the seven thousand to present circumstances. The _remnant_, of whom the apostle speaks, evidently denotes the small portion of the Jewish people who in Jesus have recognized the Messiah. The term λεῖμμα, _remnant_, is related to the preceding verb κατέλιπον, _I have re... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now, if it is by grace, then is it no more of works; since grace would be no more grace._ ” The apostle wishes to express the idea, that if Israel possess this privilege of always preserving within their bosom a faithful remnant, it is not because of any particular merit they have acquired before... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for_, _while the election hath obtained it; but the rest were hardened. According as it is written, God hath given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day._ ” By the questio... [ Continue Reading ]
Holy Scripture had already either witnessed to an operation of God in this direction in certain cases, or had raised the foreboding of it in regard to the Jews. So when Moses said to the people after their exodus from Egypt, Deuteronomy 29:4: “The Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and ey... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And David saith, Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling-block, and [so] a just recompense unto them! Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see; and bow down their back alway!_ ” Paul ascribes this psalm to David, according to the title and Jewish tradition; he does not... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? Let it not be! But by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more will be their ful... [ Continue Reading ]
God has not then, absolutely speaking, rejected His people; but it is perfectly true that He has hardened and rejected a portion of them. Yet there are two restrictions to be noted here: This chastisement is only _partial;_ and, besides, it is only _temporary._ It is this second idea which is develo... [ Continue Reading ]
The δέ is that of gradation: _well then._ It is a new and more joyous perspective still which the apostle opens up. If the exclusion of the Jews, by allowing the gospel to be presented to the world freed from every legal form, has opened for it a large entrance among the Gentiles, what will be the r... [ Continue Reading ]
are a more particular application to St. Paul's ministry of the ideas expounded Romans 11:11-12; for this ministry had a decisive part to play in accomplishing the plan of God sketched in these two last verses; and the feelings with which Paul discharged his apostleship must be in harmony with the c... [ Continue Reading ]
He would try _if in any way_ (εἰπως; comp. Php 3:11) he may reach the end, by dint of success, of awakening his people, whom he loves as _his own flesh_, from their torpor, should it only be by jealousy? Here, as in Romans 11:11, he uses the expression which Moses had employed (Romans 10:19). No dou... [ Continue Reading ]
In truth, it will not be till the national conversion of Israel take place, that the work of God shall reach its perfection among the Gentiles themselves, and that the fruit of his labor as their apostle will break forth in all its beauty. Such is the explanation of the words of Romans 11:13: “inasm... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches._ ” The Jewish people are _consecrated to God_ by their very origin that is to say, by the call of Abraham, which included theirs (Romans 11:29). According to Numbers 15:18-21, every time the Isra... [ Continue Reading ]
The apostle proves in this passage the perfect congruity, from the viewpoint of Israelitish antecedents, of the event which he has just announced as the consummation of Israel's history. Their future restoration is in conformity with the holy character impressed on them from the first; it is therefo... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now, if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in their place, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches; and if thou boast, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee._ ” We might g... [ Continue Reading ]
If it is so, Christians of Gentile origin have no cause to indulge pride as against the natural branches. The true translation would perhaps be: “ _Do not despise the branches._ But if, nevertheless, _thou despisest_ ”...Must we understand by _the branches_ those _broken off?_ Certainly, for it is o... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well! because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith; be not high-minded_, _but fear! For if God spared not the natural branches, [it may be] that neither will He spare thee._ ” The objection Paul put... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul grants the fact; but he denies the inference drawn from it. There is no arbitrary favor in God. If the Jews have been rejected, it is in consequence of their unbelief; and if thou fillest their place for the present, it is a consequence of faith that is to say, of divine grace. For there is no... [ Continue Reading ]
May not what has happened to the natural branches, happen to the engrafted branches? There is even here an _a fortiori:_ For the engrafted branches being less homogeneous with the trunk than the natural branches, their rejection may take place more easily still, in case of unbelief. The Alex. readin... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity;but toward thee, goodness_, _if thou continue in this goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off._ ” The readers have just been contemplating two examples, the one of severity, the other of grace; the first, in... [ Continue Reading ]
derive for believers of Gentile origin the practical application of all they have been reminded of in Romans 11:17-21.... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches... [ Continue Reading ]
There is, in fact, between the Jewish nation and the kingdom of God an essential affinity, a sort of pre-established harmony, so that when the hour has come, their restoration will be accomplished still more easily than the incorporation of the Gentiles. The words: _how much more_, seem to us to sig... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 25, 26 a. “ _For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in own your conceits:that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved._ ” The form of expression: “I would not... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 25 contains the announcement of the fact; Romans 11:26-27 quote some prophecies bearing on it; Romans 11:28-29 conclude as to Israel; finally, Romans 11:30-32 sum up the whole divine plan in relation to Israel and to the Gentiles.... [ Continue Reading ]
The first proposition of this verse belongs also to the first of the two passages quoted; but, singular to say, it is almost identical with the clause with which Isaiah begins the second saying used here (Isaiah 27:9): “And this is the blessing which I shall put on them when”...This is no doubt what... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As touching the gospel, they are, it is true, enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake; for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable._ ” To sum up, Israel are in a two-fold relation to God, at once enemies and beloved; but the latter charact... [ Continue Reading ]
The Gentiles first had their time of disobedience. The expression _in time past_ carries the reader back to the contents of chap. 1, to those times of idolatry when the Gentiles voluntarily extinguished the light of natural revelation, to abandon themselves more freely to their evil propensities. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For as ye also in time past disobeyed God, but have now obtained mercy by their disobedience; even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may obtain mercy._ ” The entire course of the religious history of the world is determined by the antagonism create... [ Continue Reading ]
The word νῦν, _now_, strongly contrasts the present period (since the coming of Christ) with the former, Romans 11:30. Now it is the Jews who are passing through their time of disobedience, while the Gentiles enjoy the sun of grace. But to what end? That by the grace which is now granted to the latt... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For God hath included all in disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all._ ” Here we have, as it were, the full period put to all that precedes the last word in explanation of the whole plan of God, the principal phases of which have just been sketched (_for_). The term συγκλείειν, _to shut u... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!_ ” Like a traveller who has reached the summit of an Alpine ascent, the apostle turns and contemplates. Depths are at his feet; but waves of light illumine them,... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again?_ ” Here is the Scripture proof that God's designs are impenetrable until He reveal them Himself to His apostles and prophets, and by them to His p... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things: To whom be glory for ever! Amen._ ” God's absolute independence, man's total dependence in everything which might be a matter of glory to him: such is the thought of this verse, the termination of this vast survey of the plan of God. The fir... [ Continue Reading ]