Romans 11:1

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).

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

ROMANS Chapter 11

Verse 1. I say then. This expression is to be regarded as conveying the sense of an objection. Paul, in the previous chapters, had declared the doctrine that all the Jews were to be rejected. To this a Jew might naturally reply, Is it to be believed, that God would cast off his people whom he had once chosen; to whom pertained the adoption, and the promises, and the covenant, and the numer- ous blessings conferred on a favourite people? It was natural for a Jew to make such objections. And it was important for the apostle to show that his doctrine was consistent with all the promises which God had made to his people. The objection, as will be seen by the answer which Paul makes, is formed on the supposition that God had rejected all his people, or cast them off entirely. This objection he answers by showing,

(1.) that God had saved him, a Jew, and therefore that he could not mean that God had east off all Jews, (Rom 11:1)

(2.) that now, as in former times of great declension, God had reserved a remnant, (Rom 11:2-5)

(3.) that it accorded with the Scriptures, that a part should be hardened, (Rom 11:6-10)

(4.) that the design of the rejection was not final, but was to admit the Gentiles to the privileges of Christianity, (Rom 11:11-24;)

(5.) that the Jews should yet return to God, and be reinstated in his favour: so that it could not be objected that God had finally and totally cast off his people, or that he had violated his promises. At the same time, however, the doctrine which Paul had maintained was true, that God had taken away their exclusive and peculiar privileges, and had rejected a large part of the nation.

Cast away. Rejected, or put off. Has God so renounced them that they cannot be any longer his people?

His people. Those who have been long in the covenant relation to him; that is, the Jews.

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, Lk 20:16; Rom 3:4,6,31, 6:2,15, 7:7,13.

For I also am an Israelite. To show them that he did not mean to affirm that all Jews must of necessity be cast off, he adduces his own case. He was a Jew; and yet he looked for the favour of God, and for eternal life. That favour he hoped now to obtain by being a Christian; and if he might obtain it, others might also. "If I should say that all Jews must be excluded from the favour of God, then I also must be without hope of salvation, for I am a Jew."

Of the seed of Abraham. Descended from Abraham. The apostle mentions this to show that he was a Jew in every respect; that he had a title to all the privileges of a Jew, and must be exposed to all their liabilities and dangers. If the seed of Abraham must of necessity be cut off, he must be himself rejected. The Jews valued themselves much on having been descended from so illustrious an ancestor as Abraham, (Mt 3:9) and Paul shows them that he was entitled to all the privileges of such a descent. Comp. Php 3:4,5.

Of the tribe of Benjamin. This tribe was one that was originally located near Jerusalem. The temple was built on the line that divided the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. It is not improbable that it was regarded as a peculiar honour to have belonged to one of those tribes. Paul mentions it here in accordance with their custom; for they regarded it as of great importance to preserve their genealogy, and to be able to state not only that they were Jews, but to designate the tribe and family to which they belonged.

(c) "Hath God cast away" 1Sam 12:22, Ps 77:7,8, 89:31,37.

Albert Barnes, 1834 · public domain

Introduction

God has not universally nor finally rejected Israel; nor are they all at present rejecters of the Gospel, for there is a remnant of true believers now, as there was in the days of the Prophet Elijah, Rom 11:1-5. These have embraced the Gospel, and are saved by grace, and not by the works of the law, Rom 11:6. The body of the Israelites, having rejected this, are blinded, according to the prophetic declaration of David, Rom 11:7-10. But they have not stumbled, so as to be finally rejected; but through their fall, salvation is come to the Gentiles, Rom 11:11-14. There is hope of their restoration, and that the nation shall yet become a holy people, Rom 11:15, Rom 11:16. The converted Gentiles must not exult over the fallen Jews; the latter having fallen by unbelief, the former stand by faith, Rom 11:17-20. The Jews, the natural branches, were broken off from the true olive, and the Gentiles having been grafted in, in their place, must walk uprightly, else they also shall be cut off, Rom 11:21, Rom 11:22. The Jews, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be again grafted in; and when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, the great Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, according to the covenant of God, Rom 11:23-27. For the sake of their forefathers God loves them, and will again call them, and communicate His gifts to them, Rom 11:28, Rom 11:29. The Gospel shall he again sent to them, as it has now been sent to the Gentiles, Rom 11:30-32. This procedure is according to the immensity of the wisdom, knowledge, and unsearchable judgments of God, who is the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and to whom all adoration is due, Rom 11:33-36. This chapter is of the prophetic kind. It was by the spirit of prophecy that the apostle foresaw the rejection of the Jews, which he supposes in the two preceding chapters; for when he wrote the epistle they were not in fact, rejected, seeing their polity and Church were then standing. But the event has proved that he was a true prophet; for we know that in about ten or eleven years after the writing of this letter the temple was destroyed, the Jewish polity overthrown, and the Jews expelled out of the promised land, which they have never been able to recover to the present day. This, 1. confirms the arguments which the apostle had advanced to establish the calling of the Gentiles. For the Jews are, in fact, rejected; consequently, our calling is, in fact, not invalidated by any thing they suggested, relative to the perpetuity of the Mosaic dispensation. But that dispensation being wholly subverted, our title to the privileges of God's Church and people stands clear and strong; the Jewish constitution only could furnish objections against our claim; and the event has silenced every objection from that quarter. 2. The actual rejection of the Jews proves Paul to be a true apostle of Jesus Christ, and that he spoke by the Spirit of God; otherwise, he could not have argued so fully upon a case which was yet to come, and of which there was no appearance in the state of things when he wrote this epistle. And this very circumstance should induce us to pay great attention to this chapter, in which he discourses concerning the extent and duration of the rejection of his countrymen, to prevent their being insulted and despised by the Gentile Christians. (1) As to the extent of this rejection, it is not absolutely universal; some of the Jews have embraced the Gospel, and are incorporated into the Christian Church with the believing Gentiles. Upon the case of these believing Jews he comments, Rom 11:1-7. (2) As to the duration of it, it is not final and perpetual, for all Israel, or the nation of the Jews, which is now blinded, shall one day be saved or brought again into the kingdom or covenant of God. Upon the state of these blinded Jews he comments, Rom 11:7 to the end of the chapter. His design, in discoursing upon this subject, was not only to make the thing itself known, but partly to engage the attention of the unbelieving Jew; to conciliate his favor, and, if possible, to induce him to come into the Gospel scheme; and partly to dispose the Gentile Christians not to treat the Jews with contempt; (considering that they derived all their present blessings from the patriarchs, the ancestors of the Jewish nation, and were engrafted into the good olive tree, whence the Jews had been broken); and to admonish them to take warning by the fall of the Jews; to make a good improvement of their religious privileges, lest, through unbelief, any of them should relapse into heathenism, or perish finally at the last day. The thread of his discourse leads him into a general survey and comparison of the several dispensations of God towards the Gentiles and Jews; and he concludes this survey with adoration of the depths of the Divine knowledge and wisdom exercised in the various constitutions erected in the world, Rom 11:30-36. Verse 1 I say then, hath God cast away his people? - Has he utterly and finally rejected them? for this is necessarily the apostle's meaning, and is the import of the Greek word απωσατο, which signifies to thrust or drive away, from απο, from, and ωθεω, to thrust or drive; has he thrust them off, and driven them eternally from him? God forbid - by no means. This rejection is neither universal nor final. For I also am an Israelite - I am a regular descendant from Abraham, through Israel or Jacob, and by his son Benjamin. And I stand in the Church of God, and in the peculiar covenant; for the rejection is only of the obstinate and disobedient; for those who believe on Christ, as I have done, are continued in the Church.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Psa 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain