The LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. … Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you (1 Sam. 12.22, 24)
INTRODUCTION
It is a wise person who takes particular care when he undertakes the study Paul’s gospel, for there is no other book of Scripture that has so radically influenced the church, and through the church, the world. Martin Luther was most certainly right when he said of it: “The epistle [to the Romans] is really the chief part of the New Testament, and is truly the purest gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but also that he should occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 35, p. 365). In this undistilled gospel one discovers what every Christian should know: namely, the relationship between the Mosaic law and the righteousness of Christ, the pervasiveness of sin and its deadly consequence, the wonder of grace and its appropriation by faith, the sovereignty of God in salvation, the centrality of the cross to the gospel, plus practical commentary on good works, love, hope and Christian conduct.
With this larger perspective in mind we return to the closing paragraphs of chapters 9-11 wherein Paul defends his premise that the word of God has not failed (9.6). As we have already observed, God’s word has not failed because God’s promise of salvation is for the faithful remnant of Israel, not simply those of ethnic Israel. Those who were called and elect of God are the objects of his salvific promises (9.8, 11). The promises of salvation are for those who comprise believing Israel. Secondly, as Paul clearly explains, the Gentiles are also a part of God’s covenant plan of salvation (9.24, 30; 10.4). Finally, as we will discover in chapter 11, God is not done with Israel: Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins” (11.25-27).
REJECTION IS NOT GOD’S PLAN (11.1-6)
Once again, Paul uses a rhetorical question to introduce a section of his epistle: I ask, then, has God rejected his people? (e.g., 9.14; 7.7; 6.15). Most certainly not! How can God reject the very people he foreknew? (11.2a; 11.32; cp. 8.28). It is not in God’s plan to call out a people to be his very own only for the purpose of later rejecting them: You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19.4-6; cp. Titus 2.11-14). However, Paul does separate Israel into two groups: “a ‘remnant,’ enjoying the blessings of salvation and existing by virtue of God’s gracious election (vv. 5-6; cf. 9:6b-13; 15-16, 18a, 22-23, 27-29), and ‘the rest,’ hardened by God in spiritual obduracy (vv.3, 7b-10; cf. 9.13b, 16-17, 18b, 22-23). … Despite the refusal of most Jews to recognize in Christ the culmination of salvation history (9:2-3; 9:30-10:21) – a refusal that mirrors God’s own act of hardening — God continues, in faithfulness to his word (9:4-5, 6a), to treat Israel as a whole as his people, manifesting his continuing concern for them in the preservation of a remnant of true believers” (Douglas Moo, Romans, pp. 671-72).
Though Paul sharpens his focus on the future of Israel in Romans 11, the careful reader will note the stylistic connection between 11.1 and the preceding verses: But I ask, have they not heard? (10.18); But I ask, did Israel not understand? (10.19) and finally, I ask, then, has God rejected his people? (11.1). Once again Paul emphatically denies the implications of his rhetorical question: “By no means!” This question sets the stage for the remaining portion (11.1-32) of the middle section (chapters 9-11) of Romans. Given Israel’s unbelieving obstinacy to the gospel, the question of God’s rejection is a natural one. But God has not rejected Israel in toto, because, as Paul explains, he is himself an Israelite a member of the tribe Benjamin. Of course, Paul was not the only Jewish convert to Christianity. The earliest believers were Jews who had responded in faith to the either Jesus himself (John 10.42) or to the apostolic preaching (Acts 2.37-41). Israel’s disobedience could not be grounds for God to disown her because from the beginning God’s relationship with Israel was grounded on a suzerain covenant made with Abraham (cp. Genesis 15), not a covenant of works.
Moreover, it does not makes sense for God to reject a people whom he foreknew. As in Romans 8.29, so too here foreknowledge is a reference to God’s election (1 Samuel 12.22; Psalm 94.14; Amos 3.2). As in the case of the twin sons of Rebecca (Esau and Jacob), God’s choice took place before there was any action on their part. This being the case, it is not possible for God to reject those whom he has chosen, since he chose them without respect to their behavior. As with the individual’s election to salvation, so it is with those of the nation of Israel: the people whom God has chosen (Deuteronomy 7.6) will one day be saved (11.26). This is not to say that every individual Israelite will be saved; nevertheless, the nation will in some manner be saved (11.26; cp. Isaiah 59.20-21). “Paul reflects the common Old Testament and Jewish corporate sense of election, according to which God’s choosing of the nation Israel guarantees blessings and benefits … to the people as a whole but does not guarantee salvation for every single Israelite” (Douglas Moo, Romans, p. 675). The example of Elijah is illustrative of Paul’s point: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Of the twenty kings that reigned over the ten northern tribes of Israel not a one is recorded as being faithful to the Lord and Ahab, Elijah’s contemporary, was among the worst of them. Yet, even under the wicked influence of Ahab and Jezebel, the Lord preserved for himself 7,000 faithful prophets besides Elijah. This long history of God’s faithfulness to Israel is sufficient reason for every believer to be assured of God’s continued and future faithfulness.
Just as in the days of Elijah when God preserved a remnant of believers, so in Paul’s day there was a remnant chosen by grace. God’s purposes in salvation cannot be denied. God’s faithfulness in preserving a faithful remnant throughout the course of Israel’s history is evident in the Old Testament (e.g., Noah, Genesis 6.1-8; Lot, Genesis 19.29; post-exilic Jews, Nehemiah 1.3). These generational groups of believers exist because they have been chosen by God’s grace. “After a long absence xa What practical implication is there to the doctrines of election and rejection? How does one pray in a meaningful way when it is God who is the master of my fate? Dr. Ortlund gives an answer in his prayer based on Romans 11.1-6: O Lord, how clever and persistent I am in my attempts to intrude myself into the equation of grace. I would even argue that it was something in me that you foresaw which prompted you to choose me. I would argue my faith, my repentance, my yearning for you, as possible grounds for your choice of me. But I now repudiate it all. Why did I, a hardened rebel, surrender my sword to you, my rightful King? How did I, a lost wanderer, find my way to your doorstep? Did I reason my way into your grace? Did I believe my way there? Did I lift myself, fatally maimed, into your arms, my Great Physician? No. It was your grace, and therefore your choice. You alone framed the gracious plan according to which I have come to be yours. You chose me for yourself, and now you are preserving me for yourself. I yield fully to you, omnipotent Savior. Only keep me faithful to yourself amid the filthy idols of this present evil age. O God, preserve me from sin. Lead me in the paths of righteousness, for your name’s sake, all the way home. In the holy name of Christ. (Raymond Ortlund, Jr., A Passion for God, p. 152) THE BLIND AND THE DEAF (11.7-10) Paul’s rhetorical question: What then?, introduces the last section of Paul’s theme of the remnant of God’s people and provides a summary statement of Israel’s status outlined thus far in chapters 9-11. As a whole, Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking (cp. 9.30-31). The elect among Israel did obtain a righteousness by faith; however, the rest of the Jews were hardened. Paul attributes this hardening to God and substantiates it with a composite reference to Isaiah (the prophets), Moses (the “law”), and David (the “writings”): God gave them a spirit of stupor [Isaiah 29.10], eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day [Deuteronomy 29.4]. Such people are dead to the things of God. They cannot respond to the prompting of the Spirit. The drunk may claim he is not responsible for his actions, but he is responsible for his drunken stupor. An unbelieving Israel rejected Paul’s message of a righteousness obtainable by faith in Jesus and in the process excluded the Gentiles from the synagogues. This act helped give birth to the Gentile church. The conversion of so many Gentiles ought to have provoked their own faith, but it did not. Their failure to respond is damming evidence of the hardness of their hearts. As it was with Israel poised to enter the promised land, so it was with Israel that witnessed the spawning of the church: only a remnant would be saved. Paul’s reference to the imprecatory aspects of Psalm 69 might initially be a putoff to the casual reader. However, a second glance reveals that the psalmist’s tormentors harbor an implacable hatred toward him, at least in part, because of the close fellowship that exists between God and himself. In this messianic psalm the psalmist’s enemies will not go unpunished, neither will the unbelieving Jews to whom Paul is referring. All those who hate God will, in due course, receive what they rightfully deserve. The Christian should keep in mind the words of Hebrews: But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. … Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12.22-24, 28-29).
