I say then, has God rejected His people? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” 4 But what does the divine response say to him? “I have left for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 In this way then, at the present time, a remnant according to God’s gracious choice has also come to be. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but the chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; 8 just as it is written,
“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes to see not and ears to hear not,
Down to this very day.”
9 And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
And a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened to see not,
And bend their backs forever.” Romans 11: 1-10 LSB
Romans 11: 1
Throughout the book of Romans Paul has made the case against men that all are under the curse through Adam, and that all have proven that out in that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." He has also made the case that salvation is available in Christ, but it is through faith, which is a gift, and this faith comes by hearing, and the hearing is to be the Word of Christ.
…23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.… Romans 3: 23-25
…27Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith. 28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. 29Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,… Romans 3: 27-29
…8But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him! 10For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!… Romans 5: 8-10
Paul goes on to answer the question of why the nation of Israel as a whole did not receive the Messiah, Who was promised to them and predicted throughout the Old Testament. He himself did not believe at first, but this makes it all the more of grace, and in Romans 8 and 9 we are taught about predestination, of God's choosing men from eternity, before they were ever born. We come to find that it isn't about being related to Abraham that saves you, for we see Abraham try to make another way through Ishmael, but God chooses His own way and raises Isaac from the barren womb. After that we see twins come from Isaac and God chooses Jacob, who becomes Israel. Salvation also didn't come through circumcision, and this was no new teaching, that God looked not for the outward, but for the inner circumcision of the heart.
…10Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. 11Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, 12not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”…
…13So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! 15For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”…
Romans 9: 10-15
…28A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical. 29No, a man is a Jew because he is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise does not come from men, but from God. Romans 2: 28-29
…3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns. 4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.” Jeremiah 4: 3-4
V. 11 I say then, has God rejected His people - Sadly, regardless of the simple reading of the OT prophets, like Isaiah, who speak to a coming restoration of Israel from a remnant, and also about the vast majority of Israel rejecting Christ along with then nations, many of todays evangelicals cannot interpret Isaiah 2 the same as they would Isaiah 53, in a literal sense. Replacement theology arose in the early church though Paul is so eloquently battling it here. The problem with many reformers today though is that they only reform so far as their favorite early reform teachers, and not back to the simple meaning of Holy Scripture. That which can be grasped by a child they reject for formulas, and rather than relying on the Holy Spirit they fall into the errors of those who thought the nation too far gone, the people too dispersed, as though God could not bring them into the land again. Yet He has, and the salvation of Israel will be no different then ours, they must also be born of the Spirit.
1This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.… Isaiah 2: 1-3
10Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. 11On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.… Zechariah 12: 10-11
…25I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. 26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.… Ezekiel 36: 25-27
Barry Horner has the following discussion of how the respected preacher C H Spurgeon approached the problem of the Jews and the Nation of Israel…
C. H. Spurgeon like Andrew Bonar, his contemporary, held Augustine and Calvin in high esteem, but this pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London did not embrace their essentially (replacement) eschatology. Rather, Spurgeon maintained a fervent interest in the Jewish people and particularly their being reached with the gospel. Preaching on Ezek 24:26 in 1855, just prior to the rise of modern Zionism, he plainly declared,
Not long shall it be ere they [the Jews] shall come—shall come from distant lands, where'er they rest or roam; and she who has been the off-scouring of all things, whose name has been a proverb and a bye-word, shall become the glory of all lands. Dejected Zion shall raise her head, shaking herself from dust, and darkness, and the dead. Then shall the Lord feed his people, and make them and the places round about his hill a blessing. I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough of it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. "Thither they shall go up; they shall come with weeping unto Zion, and with supplications unto Jerusalem." May that happy day soon come! For when the Jews are restored, then the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in; and as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion to reign with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of the Millennium shall then dawn; we shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend; Christ shall rule with universal sway.
Speaking on Ezek 37:1-10 in 1864 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in aid of funds for the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Jews, Spurgeon declared,
This vision has been used, from the time of Jerome onwards, as a description of the resurrection, and certainly it may be so accommodated with much effect… But while this interpretation of the vision may be very proper as an accommodation, it must be quite evident to any thinking person that this is not the meaning of the passage. There is no allusion made by Ezekiel to the resurrection, and such topic would have been quite apart from the design of the prophet's speech. I believe he was no more thinking of the resurrection of the dead than of the building of St. Peter's at Rome, or the emigration of the Pilgrim Fathers…
The meaning of our text, as opened up by the context, is most evidently, if words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality; and then, secondly, there is in the text, and in the context, a most plain declaration, that there shall be a spiritual restoration, a conversion in fact, of the tribes of Israel… Her sons, though they can never forget the sacred dust of Palestine, yet die at a hopeless distance from her consecrated shores. But it shall not be so forever… They shall again walk upon her mountains, shall once more sit under her vines and rejoice under her fig-trees. And they are also to be re-united. There shall not be two, nor ten, nor twelve, but one-one Israel praising one God, serving one king, and that one king the Son of David, the descended Messiah. They are to have a national prosperity which shall make them famous; nay, so glorious shall they be that Egypt, and Tyre, and Greece, and Rome, shall all forget their glory in the greater splendor of the throne of David…
If there be meaning in words this must be the meaning of this chapter. I wish never to learn the art of tearing God's meaning out of his own words. If there be anything clear and plain, the literal sense and meaning of this passage—a meaning not to be spirited or spiritualized away—must be evident that both the two and the ten tribes of Israel are to be restored to their own land, and that a king is to rule over them. - Barry Horner quoting C. H. Spurgeon Via PA
V. 11b May it never be - J Mac points out that Paul uses the strongest form of negation in the Greek. The same repudiation he uses against those who would think that grace is a license to sin, refuting the antinomian argument. We also see that whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and His love for Israel is not based upon her perfect keeping of the law, not even in the remnant, for no one was ever saved by the law, it pointed out the trespass. God punished Israel, but will not abandon His remnant. He will restore them for the sake of His own glory, and as stated in Ezekiel, this will not be against His holiness or justice, for He will give them a new heart and cause them to walk in His statutes.
1What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? 3Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?… Romans 6: 1-3
…21Do not turn aside after worthless things that cannot profit you or deliver you, for they are empty. 22Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own. 23As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.… 1 Samuel 12: 21-23
6“On that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted. 7And I will make the lame into a remnant, and the outcast into a strong nation. Then the LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever.… Micah 4: 6-7
…11On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will no longer envy Judah, nor will Judah harass Ephraim.… Isaiah 11: 11-13
V. 11c For I too am an Israelite, a seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin - Paul's first argument is himself, look, I am not permanently cast off, and I am a Jew. Paul mourns for his brothers and sisters after the flesh and prays that they too will be saved and believes that some will because of what God says. He understands that it doesn't rest in the will of those who are lost, but in the power of God to save, to have them will anew.
An Israelite is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) and thus an heir of the promises God gave to that nation.
Paul is also a physical descendant of Abraham (Covenant: Abrahamic), the one to whom God gave the covenant promises.Tribe of Benjamin
In Acts Paul defends himself before the Jews testifying…
"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. (Acts 22:3)
"(before Agrippa) So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem (Acts 26:4) - Precept Austin
…2I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.… Romans 9: 2-4
Paul is clearly an Israelite descended from Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin and if God saved him, He could save other Jews.
This chapter gives a beautiful illustration of the interweaving of God’s providential arrangements. The circumstances under consideration are seen to be to one another as cause and effect:
(1) Israel’s downfall has resulted in the carrying of the gospel to the Gentiles (Ro 11:11, 12, 15, 30)
(3) the mercy thus shown in the restoration of Israel will result in universal blessing (Ro 11:15)
Scofield summarizes Romans 11 as follows…
Israel has not been forever set aside is the theme of this chapter.
(1) The salvation of Paul proves that there is still a remnant of Israel (Ro 11:1).
(2) The doctrine of the remnant proves it (Ro 11:2- 6).
(3) The present national unbelief was foreseen (Ro 11:7-10).
(4) Israel's unbelief is the Gentile opportunity (Ro 11:11-25).
(5) Israel is judicially broken off from the good olive tree, Christ (Ro 11:17-22).
(7) the promised Deliverer will come out of Zion and the nation will be saved (Ro 11:25-29).
That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham (Ge15:5,v6 Ga3:29) and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant (Ge 12:2, note); but Israel as a nation always has its own place and is yet to have its greatest exaltation as the earthly people of God. - Precept Austin
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