I say then, Has God cast away his people? Far be the thought. For *I* also am an Israelite, of [the] seed of Abraham, of [the] tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11 opens with a question about a nation that had just rejected its own Messiah. The answer comes back at once and with force. Paul's first proof is himself — a living Israelite standing inside the grace he preached.
The question comes at a set point in Paul's argument. He has finished with the gospel itself and turned to God's dealings with nations.
We have, in Romans 11:1, this question put by the apostle about Israel: "Has God cast away His people?" Up to Romans 8 he has been telling the history of us all as men, whether Jews or Gentiles. He has fully stated the gospel of the grace of God — that is, the reconciliation of man by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After establishing this point, he begins in Romans 9 the history of God's dealings through the ages. He shows the way God has acted towards the Jews and the Gentiles.
Everything depends on what Paul is asking. He does not ask whether individual Jews can be saved. He asks whether God has dropped a whole nation for good. (Older translations read "cast away" where the ESV reads "rejected.")
By casting them off, the apostle clearly means this: God has rejected them as a nation for ever, never to take them up again. This part of Scripture is not asking about individual salvation. It speaks of them as a nation. Has He then cast them off? The answer is most distinct.
Paul's answer rests on one word in the next verse: God foreknew this people.
Note the word "foreknew," for it covers everything. It explains all God's dealings with Israel from first to last. He "foreknew" His people. So when He pledged Himself to Abraham, He already knew how ungrateful and evil Abraham's descendants would be. Yet He gave the father of the faithful both His word and His oath (Heb. 6:13; Gal. 3:15-18). So His purposes are delayed, but they are not abandoned. Israel must yet possess every inch of the land promised to Abraham. They must yet enjoy every promised blessing in that land, and for ever. God's own character makes this absolutely sure.
Gaebelein names what would be at stake if the answer went the other way.
If it were so, God's gifts and calling would be subject to change and He would not be the faithful, covenant-keeping God.
Paul answers by pointing at himself. Each part of how he describes himself carries weight.
He has not done so, as Paul's own case proved. Paul was no small example. He had shared in the nation's guiltiest prejudices, its bitterest unbelief, and its rejection of Jesus. Yet God had called him. His love lingered over His poor unworthy people even now... Yet he was also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Abraham recalls the ancient promises; Benjamin recalls the sin that came later. And Paul himself was God's electing mercy at work in the present — a pledge of the future grace that would save the people fully. If the shutting out were total, God could never have brought Paul into His favour.
The choice of witness is deliberate: the worst possible case makes the strongest possible proof.
There can be no question that Paul by birth was an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, and that there had been no greater opponent of the gospel than himself; nevertheless he is chosen for blessing.
Paul's case is more than a happy exception. Commentators see in it a picture of what is coming for his people.
God had shown him mercy, and he was an Israelite. He was a sample of the remnant God was calling then, and a pledge that his nation would be restored in the end. God is still calling a remnant today, just as He kept one in the days of Elijah.
Gaebelein goes a step further. He sees in Paul's conversion the pattern of one still to come:
We must see his unique conversion as a prophetic picture of the conversion of the remnant of Israel when the Lord comes. Saul of Tarsus saw Him in the glory-light. In the same way, the Israel living at the second coming of Christ will see Him (Zechariah 12:10; Revelation 1:7).
Verse 1 opens a case that Paul builds in three stages.
The apostle gives three proofs of this truth. First, there was a remnant according to election. Next, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make the Jews jealous. Third, the Deliverer will come out of Zion to turn away the ungodliness of Israel.
- Question. Has God dropped Israel as a nation for good? That is Paul's question — not whether single Jews can be saved.
- Foreknowledge. God knew His people's whole history before He pledged Himself to Abraham. So His purposes are delayed, not dropped.
- Proof. Paul offers himself. The gospel's fiercest opponent, an Israelite of Abraham's line and Benjamin's tribe, was brought into God's favour.
- Pledge. He is a sample of the remnant God calls now. His meeting with Christ in the glory-light previews what the nation will see when Christ comes.
- Certainty. The chapter proves it in three steps: a remnant now, salvation reaching the Gentiles to stir Israel's jealousy, then the Deliverer coming out of Zion.
God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Know ye not what the scripture says in [the history of] Elias, how he pleads with God against Israel?
At first sight God seems finished with Israel: the nation rejected its Messiah, and God set it aside. Paul denies this flatly, then proves it twice — from his own conversion, and from a page of Israel's history where a faithful prophet misread what God was doing.
The whole verse rests on one word. God knew His people in advance. Nothing they did later could surprise Him or change His mind about them.
"God," he says, "has not rejected His people whom He foreknew." That foreknowledge took in the whole history of the people He chose. He at least could not be disappointed, and the evil in them could not change Him. He could never be deceived.
The question is not whether individual Jews can be saved. It is whether the nation has been dropped for good.
When the apostle speaks of casting them off, he clearly means this: God rejecting them as a nation once and for all, and never taking them up again. This part of Scripture is not dealing with individual salvation. It speaks of them as a nation.
Paul is his own first proof. If the rejection were total, God could never have brought in the man who fought Christ hardest.
God foreknew His people when He chose and called them. He knew all their evil beforehand, and He will not cast them off. He has not done so, as Paul's own case proved. Paul was a fitting example: he had shared in the nation's worst prejudices, its most bitter unbelief, and its rejection of Jesus. Yet God called him... If the exclusion were total, God could never have brought Paul into His favour.
Paul's wording sounds odd today. He is naming a section of Scripture, not a person's speech.
Back then the books were not divided into chapters and verses as they are now. That explains several unusual expressions. As in Mark 2:26, a quotation is from '[the section] of Abiathar the high priest.' 1 Sam. 21:1-6. In Luke 20:37, 'Moses showed in [the section on] the bush.' Ex. 3. In Rom. 11:2, 'the scripture says in [the history of] Elijah.' 1 Kings 17 - 1 Kings 19.
Elijah pleads against his own nation. The facts he reported were real. The judgment he drew from them was not God's.
The contrast between the prophet's plea against the nation and God's reply is as instructive as it is wonderful. Man looks at what he can see. The plain facts move his heart and lead his mind to a verdict. Even when his heart is true to God, that verdict always falls short of God's will. God's purposes are wider and deeper than human action can express or human thought can grasp.
Elijah's plea against Israel brought a result he did not ask for. God's answer named his successor.
Elijah's plea to God against Israel (Rom. 11:2) led to the anointing of Elisha as prophet in his place... In his remarkable claim, "I, even I only, am left," the prophet seems to have made the mistake of thinking that not one other loyal heart was left in the land.
At Horeb God gave Elijah a number. The lesson reaches far beyond one prophet.
The main lesson he learned at Horeb was that the LORD had seven thousand in Israel who were still true to Him and refused Baal. Elijah had seen the terrible evils that covered the land, but somehow he had overlooked the good that was there... Being taken up with yourself ruins you spiritually, whatever form it takes. It is especially bad when it leads any servant of God to imagine that he is the last true man on earth! The testimony of God has never yet depended on the slender thread of a human life, and it never will.
Israel's condition has changed many times. Their standing with God has not.
"God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew." (Rom. 11:2) They are His people still, whether they obey or disobey, whether gathered together or scattered abroad, whether visible to the nations or hidden from their sight. They are His people, and He is their God.
- Foreknew — God chose Israel knowing every failure ahead. Their sin could not surprise Him, so it cannot change Him.
- Nation — The question is about the nation, not about one person's salvation. Paul denies that God has dropped Israel for good.
- Pattern — Mercy called Paul, the fiercest enemy Jesus had in the nation. If God reached him, the door is not shut.
- Elijah — A true servant read the facts right and God's mind wrong. Human judgment always falls short of God's purposes.
- Remnant — God had seven thousand the prophet never saw. His testimony never hangs on one man's life, and He is still their God.