Below is the beginning of my comments on Romans 11. I have decided to split this into two parts.
Romans 11
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." 4 But what is God’s reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
And after such a scathing discourse, Paul anticipates the most natural question, “Well then, has God rejected His people?” This is the expected question, because the disciples and all those who believed Christ were astonished that the Jews as a whole, did not believe. And in the strongest of terms, similar to those words with which he had spoken to the Galatians, NO, God has not rejected them! But we must ascertain what it means that He has not rejected them, that they are still, in some way under His consideration. Paul began to address this issue by noting that he, an Israelite, had not been rejected by God for he (even once disobedient and contrary—having persecuted Christ) was then preaching the very gospel he once despised, that same gospel that was preached unto Abraham and Elijah, the gospel of the righteousness of faith, and in that way, Israelites are not rejected when God saves them and they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To answer the question, has God rejected His people because many of them do not believe, and He did not restore the kingdom as they had expected, but rather, the gospel is now also going to the gentiles, Paul does not refer his hypothetical objector to the promise of land to Abraham and the possibility that that promise might be fulfilled in a literal way in the future, but instead, Paul appeals to the cry of Elijah against Israel when he thought God had forsaken His people because he thought he was alone, the child of Abraham at the time. But in order for God to show Elijah back then and Paul, in order to show the believing Jews in his day, reminds us that God has kept a remnant for Himself; a people who are characterized by obedience instead of disobedience; a transformed people, not a people conformed to the world. In other words, Paul appeals to Elijah when believing Jews question whether or not God has rejected their people, he says, Elijah thought the same thing, but God assured him that He had set aside a number of people for His Kingdom and that number will never, in any age, dwindle to zero, so in essence, when the Jews in his day ask if God has rejected His people, Paul answers, “No, I am an Israelite and I believe; God has kept for Himself a number of men who have not bowed the knee to Caesar. It is by grace that you are saved, and if by grace, then no longer by circumcision.”
7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day." 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever." 11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!
The question Paul anticipates after this is quite similar to the question he asks in verse 11, but different in that it is a consequence of his answer to the question in verse 1. Israel did not obtain son-ship and retain a place in the Kingdom by fulfilling the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant, and Paul answers his own question in verse 7 by declaring Israel’s failure. They sought after God in the sense that they had been brought as a nation into covenant relationship with God, through Moses, and in all the ceremonial, civil and moral Laws of that covenant, they rehearsed these things, ad infinitum. Nevertheless, their hearts were far from Him and their burnt offerings were a stench in God’s nostrils because they were a disobedient and contrary people. And obviously, their ritualistic practice of these things did not protect them as a whole from unbelief; in fact, God used some of their own religiosity and piety to harden them for the purpose of bringing the gentiles into the Kingdom through promise and not through circumcision, which was a very mysterious thing to the Jews that eschatological idea came from the mouths of the Old Testament prophets. In the later part of verse 7, Paul reflects on the judgment of the unbelieving nation as he replaces the term, remnant with the term elect. As he continues, Paul draws on the judgment of Is. 29:10 with Deut. 29:4 also in mind. Isaiah 29: “10 For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers).” And in Deut. 29: 4 “But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.” The Holy Spirit seems to have brought these two verses to Paul’s mind as he considers Israel’s unbelief. After quoting David, Paul reasons through the reality of the inclusion of the gentiles. He concludes, probably based on his quotation of Moses in verse 19 back in chapter 10, that God had not simply ordained that the Jews would fall, just for the sake of falling, but their fall had a greater purpose…to bring in the gentiles (thus fulfilling the mystery) and as a consequence of that, the Jews would be made jealous and “full inclusion” would result, which in Paul’s statement at the end of verse 12 indicates that their inclusion will produce revival among the nations.
I will try to finish the rest of Romans 11 and post it soon; I'm sure there are multitudes of people awaiting my comments with abated breath.
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