Has God rejected Israel forever?
11
📚I say then, Has God cast away his people? Absolutely not! For I myself am an Israelite, of the descendants of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 📚God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah? This is how he pleads with God against Israel and says,3 📚Lord, they have killed your prophets
and torn down your altars,
and I alone am left, and they seek
my life.
4 📚But what does the answer of God
say to him?
I have reserved for myself
seven thousand men who have
not bowed the knee to Baal.
5 📚So also at this present time there is a remnant according to the choice of grace.
11:5 On the basis of grace alone God chose those who believed from the whole nation. His choice had nothing to do with their merit and worthiness or the lack of them – Rom 3:24.⚜
6 📚And if by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. But if it is by works, then it is no longer by grace. Otherwise work would no longer be work.
7 📚What then? Israel did not obtain what it sought, but the chosen ones obtained it. And the rest were blinded.
11:7 See Rom 9:30-32. Many in Israel were “blinded”. First, they refused the light God gave. Then God punished them by making it so that they would not see the light. See Isa 6:9-10.⚜
8 📚As it is written,
God has given them a spirit of apathy,
eyes so that they would not see,
and ears so that they would not hear,
to this 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 so they cannot see, and permanently bend down their backs.
11:1-10 Chapters 9,10, and 11 form a unit. The subject is the fall of the nation Israel. Paul shows in chapter 10 that their fall was their own fault, not God’s. In chapter 11 he shows that in spite of their unbelief and hardness of heart, God still has a gracious purpose toward them and will eventually bring the nation back to Himself.
This whole chapter is an answer to the question asked in this first verse – “has God cast away his people?” Paul says “no”. He, a Jew, was evidence that God had not. He might have said also that all the original apostles and those who made up the first church in Jerusalem were Jews. And many other churches throughout the Roman Empire had believing Jews as members, even though the nation as a whole was hardened and disobedient. There were some who believed and obeyed God. The situation was similar to that in Elijah’s day (more than 850 years before Christ). See 1 Kings 19:14-18.⚜
11 📚I say then, Have they stumbled so that they should utterly fall? Absolutely not! Rather, through their failure salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
11:11 From here to v 32 Paul speaks of the large part of the nation Israel which was hardened and stumbled and fell (Rom 9:32-33). Has the nation fallen forever with no hope of recovery? Will it rise no more? Is God finished with Israel as a people now that He is working in and with the Church of the New Testament? Paul answers clearly – God is not finished with the nation Israel. He still has purposes regarding it and will bring it back to Himself (compare Acts 1:6-7). He begins by saying that God had a good purpose even in their fall. They were disobedient and hardened and so they rejected and crucified God’s Son. But this all resulted in good for the world as a whole (Acts 2:22-24). God worked through their evil actions to provide the gospel to everyone. And when they later rejected the gospel God turned to other nations, here called “Gentiles” (compare Rom 1:16; Acts 13:46; Matt 21:42-43).⚜
12 📚Now if their failure means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches their fulness will bring!
11:12 Paul’s logic is plain. Through their sin the riches of the Gospel have come to the whole world, so their “fullness” will surely mean greater riches. Paul does not say “if” they receive fullness it will mean greater riches. He simply states the fact of their future fullness. Their “fullness” means that they as a nation will fully turn to God and God will fully fulfill His promises to them (Isa 2:1-5; 11:1-9; Jer 23:5-8; Ezek 37:21-28; Zech 14:9, 16, 21).
13 📚For I am speaking to you Gentiles. Since I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I honour my ministry, 14 📚 📖if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are of my flesh and blood, and save some of them.
15 📚For if their rejection means reconciliation for the world, what will their reception mean but life from the dead?
11:15 Verse 12. Paul speaks of the time when God will accept the nation as a whole. That will be “life from the dead”. Some scholars think this refers to the literal resurrection of the dead (John 5:28-29). Others think it means that the conversion of Israel will result in a time of wonderful spiritual life and blessing to the whole world (see Rom 8:20-23; Acts 3:21; Matt 19:28). Perhaps it means both.⚜
16 📚For if what is offered as firstfruits 📖 is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
The illustration of the olive tree
17 📚And if some of the branches have been broken off, and you, being from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in among the branches, and share with them in the root and fatness of the olive tree, 18 📚do not boast against the branches. But if you boast remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 📚You will say then, The branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. 20 📚Well yes, but because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but have fear. 21 📚For if God did not spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either.
22 📚See, therefore, the goodness and severity of God; severity on those who failed, but goodness toward you, if you continue in his goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 📚And they, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in also. For God is able to graft them in again. 24 📚For if you were cut from an olive tree which is wild by nature, and, contrary to nature, were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more easily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
11:17-24 The “olive tree” before the Jews rejected Christ was the nation Israel, grown out of the “root” Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. “Some” branches of the nation (in fact, most of the nation) were broken off because of unbelief (vs 17,20). In their place Gentile Christians have been “grafted in” (v 17,19; Matt 21:43). Gentiles were like a “wild” olive tree (v 24). By nature they had no connection with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or with the “olive tree” that sprung from them. Now through Christ they have been brought into a relationship with Abraham (grafted into the “cultivated” tree – v 24).
Paul gives a warning to these Gentile Christians (v 13). They must not boast against fallen Israel (v 18), must fear rather than be arrogant (v 20). If God broke off Israelite branches and grafted in Gentile ones, He can also break off Gentile ones and graft in Israelite ones.
Does this “breaking off” suggest that saved individuals may lose their salvation? No. That is not Paul’s subject at all. The “olive tree” is not the spiritual body of Christ. In the Old Testament and in Christ’s days on earth the olive tree was the whole nation of Israel including both believers and unbelievers. Only unbelievers were broken off, and the bulk of the nation remains to this day in that condition. God has laid them aside for this age, grafted Gentiles into His tree and works through them to fulfill His purposes in the earth. But Gentile churches may fall into arrogance and unbelief just as the Jews did. Paul says they should be “afraid”, for if they follow the way of fallen Israel God will treat them as He did fallen Israel (vs 21,22). And if Israel turns in faith to Christ they will be grafted back into their own olive tree (v 24. See note at Acts 1:6).⚜
The nation of Israel will be saved
25 📚For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brethren, so that you may not be wise in your own opinion: Partial blindness has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles comes in.
11:25 Paul did not want Gentile Christians to be ignorant or conceited. He knew they could become so if they persuaded themselves that God is finished with Israel and that all His promises made to Israel now belong to the Church of the New Testament. Paul tries to prevent this by making some very clear statements about Israel. He calls this teaching a “mystery” – something men cannot know unless God reveals it to them. Israel is “blinded” only “until the fullness (of full number) of Gentiles has come in”. Paul implies that then this blindness of heart and mind will be taken away.⚜
26 📚And so all Israel 📖 will be saved. As it is written,
The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
and will turn ungodliness away from Jacob.
27 📚For this is my covenant with them,
when I take away their sins.
28 📚Concerning the gospel, they are enemies 📖 for your sakes, but concerning the choice of God, they are loved 📖 for the sake of the fathers. 29 📚For the gifts and calling of God are not to be withdrawn.
30 📚For just as you in time past were not obedient to God, yet now have obtained mercy because of their disobedience, 31 📚even so now these also have been disobedient, so that through the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
11:30-31 The Gentile believers were once unbelieving and lost, just as unbelieving Jews are now. But as God had mercy on the Gentiles so will He have mercy on His own fallen nation.⚜
32 📚For God has confined them all in disobedience, so that he might have mercy on all.
11:32 Compare Gal 3:23-24. God in just judgment gave the Gentiles up to the wickedness of their own hearts (Rom 1:24-32). And God punished the Jews by hardening them, and they in their disobedient condition crucified His Son (Rom 11:7-8). All were locked up in sin and disobedience. In this way He revealed that His mercy was the only hope for anyone, Jew or Gentile. And we see in this verse that all of God’s mysterious dealings with the nation was with a loving, gracious purpose in mind – to show mercy to all. He is not the kind of God who delights to harden and punish men. Mercy is His delight (Micah 7:18-19; Lam 3:31-33).
But we should not misunderstand this verse. The Bible does not teach that all individuals will finally be saved. Those who reject Christ and die in their sins will be lost forever (Rom 2:5-6; 6:23; John 3:36; Rev 21:8). “Mercy on all” here may mean all nations whether Jew or Gentile. In showing mercy God does not distinguish between them, and the salvation of both Gentiles and Jews is intimately connected in the plan of God.⚜
God’s unsearchable wisdom
33 📚Oh, the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his ways past finding out!
11:33 The more we learn God’s Word and understand the revelation of Himself He has given, the more we will see that He is infinitely above us in wisdom as in everything else. He knows all that He is doing in the world. We can know only the little He has revealed. Instead of criticizing His ways and complaining about His dealings with us and others (as many do), we must learn to trust and praise Him and to submit our puny minds to His eternal wisdom. Compare Job 40:3-5; 42:1-6.⚜
34 📚For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counsellor?
11:34 Isa 40:13. See the context of this quotation (Isa 40:12-26). It gives us a beautiful picture of the greatness of God. In creation and in the administration of the world God has not needed the advice of any man.⚜
35 📚Or who has first given to him,
that it should be repaid to the giver?
11:35 Job 41:11. God is not a debtor to men. He does not owe salvation or anything else to anyone. His dealings with men are all on the basis of grace and mercy. Because all are disobedient to Him He could justly withhold all the necessities of life from all men and send them into hell.⚜
36 📚For of him 📖 and through him 📖
and to him 📖 are all things;
to whom be glory forever. Amen.
11:33-36 Paul has concluded his presentation of the meaning of the gospel and God’s dealings with the Jews and the Gentiles. He well knows he has not explained everything. There are mysteries beyond his understanding, and depths in God’s wisdom no human mind can fathom. So now he lets God be God, and praises Him.⚜