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.
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have dug down thine altars; and *I* have been left alone, and they seek my life.
Paul has just insisted that God has not thrown away His people. To prove it he goes back to a dark hour in Israel's history: Elijah at Horeb, sure he is the last believer alive. The startling thing is what Paul calls this speech: not a prayer for Israel, but a plea against them.
The words themselves are a list of real grievances. But Paul's name for the act is severe. One writer sets Elijah beside Moses:
Elijah was taken up with himself, and that gave him very wrong feelings about the failing people of God around him. Prayer against Israel! Speaking well of himself and ill of God's people! Is this the right role for a witness of God? Did this language truly express the feelings of that heart which is patient with His people, and never gives them up despite all their waywardness and sin? Moses was very different. It is moving to listen to him pleading with God for Israel after they worshipped the golden calf. He felt the insult to the Lord deeply, yet in His presence not one bad word about them escaped his lips.
This is the same prophet who defended God on Mount Carmel. Now the subject of his speech has changed from God to himself:
His reply to God's question shows us the real state of the prophet's soul... How different this language is from what he said on Mount Carmel! There he defended God; here he defends himself. There he tried to win his brothers back by setting God's truth before them. Here he accuses them and lists their sins before God.
The failure was not in his facts about the nation. It was in the words "I alone am left":
Elijah fled from Jezebel's threat and came at last to Horeb, to plead with God against Israel (1 Kings 19:14). So much of this was true. But Elijah was wholly taken up with his own faithfulness to God, so he could not take account of what was not hidden from the eye of God. Obadiah, and the hundred prophets of the Lord he had rescued from Jezebel, were plainly not men of the same kind as Elijah. They did not have his zeal for God, or his energy in testimony. Still, they did not belong among those who had thrown down the Lord's altars.
God's reply does not argue about the nation's sin. It tells Elijah of seven thousand he never met — a remnant God had kept for Himself. His accusation ends up serving the opposite purpose:
Elijah pleaded against Israel, but it only drew God out on their side. It brought to light a whole remnant, hidden until then, whom the prophet had failed to see.
The answer also puts the credit in the right place. Seven thousand men did not hold out on their own:
God does not say they have reserved, or preserved, themselves; no, He says, "I have reserved."
The story is not an aside about a discouraged prophet. It is the pattern Paul needs, because the same thing was happening in his own day:
In the days of Ahab, Israel had all but abandoned God. Even then He reserved for Himself no fewer than seven thousand who were true to Him at heart, though only Elijah stood out as a public witness. This was the fruit of His grace, and the same grace still works. The result is "a remnant according to the election of grace" (v. 5).
Elijah's mistake is one any believer can repeat. One writer turns it into a warning for us:
Elijah failed in this, and in failing he failed God, because these people were very precious to God. Elijah had not seen one of them, did not know one of them, did not suspect that one existed. If Elijah had not thought so much about himself he would have seen some of these seven thousand before, and so too with ourselves... we must not forget that there are others we do not see, do not meet, and never deal with. We must leave room for them in our hearts and in our faith. We must carry them on our souls before God.
- Against. Paul calls Elijah's prayer a plea against his own people. Moses had pleaded for the same people after they worshipped the golden calf.
- Alone. "I alone am left" was the one false line in an otherwise true complaint. Elijah was so taken up with himself that he never saw the hundred prophets Obadiah had rescued.
- Reserved. God's answer credits Himself, not the seven thousand. He kept them; they did not keep themselves.
- Reversed. The plea against Israel only drew God out on Israel's side. It uncovered a remnant the prophet had failed to see.
- Remnant. That is Paul's point. The same grace still works today, so a remnant chosen by grace proves God has not cast off His people.
But what says the divine answer to him? I have left to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed knee to Baal.
Elijah told God he was the last loyal man left in Israel, and this verse is God's reply. Paul uses that reply to answer a larger question: has God finished with His people?
Paul sets the prophet's plea and God's reply side by side.
The prophet pleaded against the nation, and God answered. The contrast is as instructive as it is wonderful. Man looks at what he can see, and the facts move his heart. They guide his mind to a judgment. Even when his heart is true to God, that judgment always falls short of the will of God. God's counsels are wider and deeper than human action can express or human thought can grasp.
Elijah asked God to act against Israel. What came back was news of mercy already at work.
But when a man pleads against his fellow man, it brings out the deep response of God's power and grace: "I have reserved." God had been acting while He made it look as though He was not acting... Yet God had a remnant of mercy then. It was a large and fine band next to the one man who had filled the prophet's whole view — "I alone am left." Still they were only a few among the many thousands of Israel.
The weight of the sentence falls on the first word. God claims the keeping as His own work.
"But what does God's answer say to him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." God does not say that they reserved or preserved themselves. No — He says, "I have reserved."
What was true in Elijah's day was true in Paul's own:
The apostle quotes the case of Elijah. Israel was in such a state that even Elijah pleaded against them. Yet God had still not rejected them. He had reserved for Himself seven thousand men. This was the election of sovereign grace. It was the same now. But it was by grace, and not by works.
Elijah was not lying when he said he stood alone. He was mistaken. He had read the nation in one direction only.
Elijah had indeed been very jealous for God, but he had not been able to find God's seven thousand hidden ones. He could see the evil in the mass of the people. He could see what God was doing in judgment. But he could not see what God was doing in grace.
The verse lists no achievements. One refusal names them. In a land where everyone else bowed, that refusal was everything.
A great thing in God's sight is not calling down fire from heaven, as Elijah did. It is being faithful while everyone around is unfaithful. So it did not seem to say much for the seven thousand who refused to join the gross act of worshipping Baal, to say only that they had "not bowed the knee to Baal." But in truth it said everything for them. All the people around them did bow the knee to Baal.
Paul is arguing one case: God has not cast away His people. The seven thousand are his proof.
The apostle illustrates the remnant of his own day by pointing back to Elijah's day. Elijah was the most energetic of faithful men in Israel, yet he knew of no one but himself who acknowledged the Lord. But that was lack of faith. God knew 7,000, and their existence proved God's love and faithful care. Elijah pleaded against Israel, and his plea only drew out God for them. It brought to light a complete though hidden remnant that the prophet had failed to see.
God keeps people we cannot see. So writing off everyone outside our own circle repeats the error He corrected in Elijah.
Elijah failed there, and in failing he failed God. These seven thousand were certainly very precious to God. Elijah had not seen one of them, did not know one of them, and never suspected that one existed. If Elijah had not thought so much about himself, he would have seen some of these seven thousand before... We must not forget that there are people we do not see, do not meet, and are not used to dealing with. We must leave room for them in our hearts and in our faith. We must carry them on our souls before God.
- The complaint. Elijah's plea against Israel was sincere but short-sighted. He read the nation's evil, but not what God was doing in grace.
- The answer. God's reply did not back the prophet's verdict. It uncovered mercy already at work, while He looked as if He was doing nothing.
- The keeping. The seven thousand did not preserve themselves. God says, "I have kept for myself." So the remnant stands by grace, not by works.
- The mark. One refusal names them: they never bowed to Baal. God prizes faithfulness while everyone around is unfaithful.
- The lesson. Their existence proved God had not cast off Israel. It warns us to leave room in our hearts for the hidden ones we have never met.
Thus, then, in the present time also there has been a remnant according to election of grace.
Is God finished with Israel? Paul answers by pointing away from the nation as a whole to a few who are left — and to the ground those few stand on.
Paul does not give one answer to that question but three. The remnant is the first.
The apostle gives three proofs that God has not rejected His people. First, he is himself an Israelite. There is a remnant whom God has reserved, as in the days of Elijah. That is proof of the constant favour of the Lord, and of the interest He takes in His people, even when they are unfaithful. Second, the call of the Gentiles, and their taking Israel's place, was not God's final rejection of Israel in His purposes. He did it to make Israel jealous. Third, the Lord would come out of Zion and turn away the sins of Jacob.
Kelly presses the question from the other side. Why is anyone left at all?
He points out that there is a remnant of grace in the worst of times. If God had completely cast away His people, would there be such mercy? There would be no remnant if justice took its course. So the remnant proves that even under judgment the rejection of Israel is not complete. It is a pledge of future favour.
Who keeps a remnant in existence when a whole nation turns away?
If there is a remnant preserved among them at all, it is an election of grace, and so it does not rest on works — on works of any kind. Grace, he adds, stops being grace if works are mixed with it. All through their history there was always a remnant, even when the nation had turned away from God most completely... God had still reserved for Himself 7,000 men who had not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. That was His work, so no power of the enemy could overthrow it. The prophet says the remnant in Israel is the sap of the tree. Even when the tree is cut down, the sap shows there is life in it.
Stanley applies this to the reader, and to Gentiles as well as Jews.
Just as in the days of Elijah, there was then an election of grace — of the free, unearned favour of God. Dear young believer, you will be strongly tempted to reject this abounding, electing, free favour of God... Is it not clear that both Israel and we Gentiles are so bad, and reject the grace of God so completely, that no one would have been saved apart from His election, His free favour, His grace? All would have been like Sodom. Yes, the total ruin of man, and the election of God, stand or fall together.
The nation's failure and the remnant's preservation rest on two different footings.
The nation as a whole is scattered today because they rejected Christ. Yet God still has a remnant "chosen by grace." On the ground of works they had completely broken down, and God had rejected them. On the ground of grace He reserved a remnant in whom the nation will be restored.
Is this small number all that God intends for Israel?
He is also saving now a remnant chosen by grace. That is in contrast to the saving of all Israel later on.
Those saved in this way do not stay where they were.
This remnant, chosen by grace and called out from the mass of the Jews, exists today. Yet the very fact of its calling cuts it off from Judaism and its hopes on earth... We have to read Ephesians 2, especially the last part of it, to learn the new position of heavenly favour and blessing they are brought into, together with those called from among the Gentiles by the gospel that is being preached today.
Elijah never saw the seven thousand. Kelly turns that into a warning for us.
If Elijah had not thought so much about himself, he would have seen some of these seven thousand before, and it is the same with us... We must not forget that there are those we do not see, and those we never meet. We must leave room for them in our hearts, in our faith. We must carry them on our souls before God. If we do not, the Lord has a complaint against us, as He had against Elijah then.
- Question — Has God cast away His people? The remnant is the first of three answers, The call of the Gentiles and the Lord coming out of Zion follow.
- Grace — God keeps the few by free, unearned favour, not by works. Mix works in and grace stops being grace.
- Reserved — Elijah's seven thousand were God's own work. No enemy power can overturn what He keeps.
- Now — "At the present time" means believing Jews today, cut off from hopes on earth and joined with Gentile believers in heavenly blessing.
- Pledge — Like sap in a felled tree, the remnant proves life remains. On this ground of grace God will yet restore the nation.