For I speak to you, the nations, inasmuch as *I* am apostle of nations, I glorify my ministry;
Here Paul turns and speaks straight to the nations. Two questions follow. What is this office that he makes so much of? And why would a man who aches for Israel take pride in a ministry aimed away from her?
The words mark a shift in audience. One writer notes that the group in view is not the same thing as the assembly of believers:
The apostle starts his subject of the olive tree by writing, "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles." He does not speak to the Church as such, although his teaching is for the Church. He has in view the present period, in which God is dealing with the Gentiles.
Paul did not appoint himself apostle to the nations. His commission traces back to the moment the risen Christ stopped him on the road, and the order of the words spoken to him then is itself instructive:
Notice that bearing Christ's name before Gentiles comes first. The sons of Israel come last, with "kings" between them. He was to be "apostle of Gentiles" (Rom. 11:13). For this, the call of the Lord from heaven was most fitting. On earth He had sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When He sends from heaven, Israel ceases to have any such place. Before this, all mankind had joined together and been lost in one common guilt. The Jews had even led the Gentiles to crucify Him. So Israel's superiority in the flesh was completely gone. Sovereign grace alone governs from now on. If anyone is to be named prominently, it is those who are most needy.
To magnify the ministry is to hold it up high. And the work Paul holds up was the clearest sign that his own nation stood rejected:
He magnifies his office as the apostle of the Gentiles. His heart always longs for his own people. So he seeks comfort in the very work that witnessed most clearly to the nation's rejection. Some, he hoped, might still be saved this way... Meanwhile he knew that Israel was rejected in fact. But she was not forgotten in God's purposes, which from long ago were faithfulness and truth.
The blessing of the nations was never meant to be the end of the story. God arranged it so that Israel would see what she had refused and want it back — which is exactly why Paul threw his weight behind the work:
This is the second proof that God had no final purpose to cast them off. He arranged it to provoke them to jealousy — that is, not to cast them off. And so the apostle laboured. He magnified his service to the Gentiles as tending to this; so far was he from thinking little of Israel.
The same words that lift up the office also humble the reader. Gentile believers learn what their blessing rests on, and it is not themselves:
The apostle magnifies his office of apostle to the Gentiles by showing how it bears on the Jews. In this way he puts the Gentiles in their place and guards them against the pride of supposed superiority in the flesh. And here comes the solemn warning to them. The stock of promise began with Abraham and ran on naturally in this world through the Jews. The root bore the branches, and the Gentiles had no ground for pride.
Making much of a ministry is not the same as making much of yourself. Paul held both together:
Such strangely perverse creatures are we, that unless the flesh is kept under, service, instead of making us humble, tends to puff us up. The publicity, which to a great extent cannot be separated from service, the position it gives the servant, and the many things that tempt the servant to think something of himself, arising from the very nature of the work — all these may tend to self-exaltation... Humility in the apostle did not mean weakness — when the occasion called for it, he knew how to magnify his office, and he could write to another and say, "Let no man despise thy youth"; but of himself as a worker he could say, "Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given."
- Sent — the office began with a call from heaven, and that call named the nations first. On earth Christ had sent only to Israel. Now sovereign grace governs, not natural descent.
- Addressed — "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles" marks out the place the Gentiles hold in God's dealings, not the Church as such.
- Magnified — Paul holds his ministry high, yet the man stays low. He calls himself the very least of all the saints.
- Aimed — he magnified it because it worked back toward Israel. It stirred his own people to want what they had refused, and some might yet be saved.
- Levelling — the honour of this ministry leaves no room for Gentile boasting. The root carries the branches, so there is no ground for pride.
if by any means I shall provoke to jealousy [them which are] my flesh, and shall save some from among them.
Paul has just told the Christians at Rome that Israel's stumble opened the door to the nations. Now he explains why he makes so much of his work among the Gentiles. His eye has never left his own people. Blessing for one is meant to bring back the other.
Paul does not praise his own work for its own sake. He makes much of it because of what it may do back home in Israel.
This is the second proof that God's purpose was never to cast them off for good. It was arranged to provoke them to jealousy — that is, not to cast them off. And so the apostle worked. He made much of his service to the Gentiles because it worked toward this. He was far from thinking little of Israel.
This is also why Paul brings the Gentiles into a discussion about Israel's future at all.
He was speaking to the believers at Rome: "Now I am speaking to you Gentiles." He then adds, "Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry." So how or why should he forget God's mercy to them? That mercy hangs on God's ways with Israel, which were his subject here.
The plan goes back to Moses, long before Paul.
Moses speaks of the Lord provoking Israel to jealousy by their seeing Gentiles coming into blessing. Paul also sought to do the same, that they might be saved. Deuteronomy 32:21; Romans 10:19; Romans 11:11, 14.
There is a reason this method works on the heart.
One discovery stirred up the fierce anger of the Jews. The riches of the gospel, which in their insane folly they had despised, were now going to the Gentiles. If they had truly thought the gospel a worthless fable, they would not have minded it going out to the nations. When a man rejects something and then grows jealous because another receives it, his jealousy is a powerful witness. Deep down he feels that it is of real value.
Paul is not talking about strangers. He works among Gentiles, but his heart stays with his own people.
He magnifies his office as the apostle of the Gentiles. His desire is to stir to jealousy those who are his own flesh. His heart always longs for his own people. So he finds comfort in the very work that showed most plainly that the nation had been set aside. He hoped some of them might still be saved this way. The Spirit of God was bearing witness among the Gentiles, backed by signs and mighty wonders of apostolic power. That witness might work on the conscience and the heart of an individual Israelite.
Paul's hope here is limited: some saved out of the nation, not the whole nation at once. A far greater day still lies ahead.
Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he magnified his office as such. But he would not have the Gentiles think for a moment that he had lost his interest in Israel. He wanted to see them stirred to jealousy, so that many of them might be saved as they watched the grace of God go out to the Gentiles… Think what that means. They wander among all the nations, a disappointed and weary people, under the judgment of the God of their fathers. Meanwhile the message of grace goes out to the Gentiles, and a chosen number of them receive it. What will it mean for the whole world when Israel as a nation turns back to the Lord?
Paul aims these words at Gentile readers, and they carry a caution.
Peter may have had a Gentile danger in view here, the very danger Paul warns Gentiles against in Romans 11:13 to 29. If Gentiles misunderstand and misuse God's truth, and so become wise in their own eyes, they are very near destruction.
- Office — Paul magnifies his work among the nations because it aims at Israel. It proves he thought much of them, not little.
- Method — Jealousy is God's own plan. Moses announced it in Deuteronomy 32:21, and Paul now works it out.
- Motive — "My flesh" means his own countrymen. His heart still longs for them, and he finds comfort in the very work that marked their rejection.
- Measure — His hope now is "some," saved out of the nation. The greater day comes when Israel as a nation turns back to the Lord.
- Caution — Paul speaks to Gentiles. The mercy they enjoy warns them not to grow wise in their own eyes.
For if their casting away [be the] world's reconciliation, what [their] reception but life from among [the] dead?
Paul has just said that Israel's stumbling brought salvation to the Gentiles. Now he presses further. If the loss of one nation enriched the world, what will their return bring? Two phrases carry the verse: "the reconciliation of the world" and "life from the dead."
God once dealt with one nation while the rest of the world stood outside. Setting Israel aside changed who God now addresses.
"World" here clearly means the Gentile world as distinct from Israel. God brought this reconciling about by changing His dealings. That change led Him to set Israel aside from their special place of national favour. It also led Him to bring the Gentile world before Him for blessing. Before, the Gentiles had turned their faces away from God on purpose, and He had turned His face from them. Now He has turned toward them; and as Paul said elsewhere, "this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen" (Acts 28:28). This change in God's dealings has taken place. Paul was the chosen servant sent to offer salvation to the Gentile world.
Some read this verse to mean that God Himself was reconciled to the world. One writer rejects that and gives the phrase a different sense.
There is no such idea in the Bible as "God being reconciled to the world." The Church, or the saints, are said to be reconciled to God — never the world... The true meaning of the phrase in Romans 11 I take to be that God is now turning the fall of Israel into blessing for the Gentiles, and instead of overlooking the times of heathen ignorance, He is now dealing with the world by the word of reconciliation.
The change is one of position before God. He now speaks to a world that once stood outside every relationship with Him.
The Jews had been in an ordered relationship with God, though unfaithful to it; the world was out of all relationship. Men were completely without God in the world. They were shut out from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, with no hope and without God in the world. When Israel fell, this state of things ended. God now called everyone everywhere to repent. God took up the world again, no longer overlooking the ignorance.
The phrase pictures Israel as a nation now dead and waiting to rise. Ezekiel saw a valley of dry bones, and God Himself explained what the vision meant.
Ezekiel saw the bones live, and the men stand on their feet. But then God gives us the real meaning and proper use of it... Here the same God uses resurrection as a picture of the blessing He is going to give the people of Israel. Luke 15 uses the picture in the same way for the conversion of the prodigal son: "this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found." Paul uses the same picture for the blessing that will come to the world one day through the restoration of Israel.
Some read the phrase as the literal resurrection of believers at that same moment. One writer expects both risings in that period, yet keeps them apart.
When God receives Israel back into His favour, it will be an event of a resurrection character, as Ezekiel 37 has shown us. We fully believe that in the short "end of the age" period there will be both the literal resurrection of saints and the figurative resurrection of Israel.
The verse rests on a comparison. That comparison rules out the idea that all nations are won before Israel returns.
The coming in of the fullness of the Gentiles cannot mean the conversion of all the Gentiles. The earlier part of the chapter itself speaks of fuller blessing to the Gentiles — to the world — through the reception of Israel than through its fall.
The blessing now reaching the world is not the last word.
If the casting away of the nation leads to the gospel of reconciliation going out to the world, then indeed, when they are received back into blessing as a nation, it will be life for the world. All the prophecies of millennial blessing for a world under the curse await the restoration of Israel as the centre of blessing for the earth.
- Cause — God set Israel aside from their place of national favour, and that opened His dealings to the wider world.
- Gift — the reconciling of the world is a change in God's dealings, not the world's conversion. Scripture never says God was reconciled to the world.
- Reach — God now calls a world once outside all relationship with Him to repent, and the gospel goes out to all.
- Result — "life from the dead" is the language of Ezekiel's dry bones: Israel raised as a nation, told in picture form.
- Reversal — today one nation's fall enriches the many. Later, that nation's restoration will bring blessing to the whole earth.
Now if the first-fruit [be] holy, the lump also; and if the root [be] holy, the branches also.
Paul is arguing that God has not finished with Israel. He proves it with two pictures — a first portion of dough, and a tree with its root — and both raise the same questions: who is the first-fruit, who is the root, and what does "holy" mean here?
Paul reasons from the smallest part to the whole nation.
The godly remnant of Israel at the present time is the first-fruit of the restored nation. If the firstfruit is holy, so will the lump be — the nation as a whole. If the fruit of the tree is holy, so are the branches. Israel is thus likened to an olive tree planted to produce fruit.
Commentators differ. Others read the first-fruit as the nation's beginning:
By the words "first-fruit" I understand the apostle to mean the nation of Israel in its first calling and honour... So the apostle's argument is that the nation's final destiny will be worthy of that first calling.
The second picture turns on the root. One writer tests the options:
Is it Christ? How could that be? No one was ever joined to Him by natural birth... Again, if any are cut off who seemed on the outside to be joined to Christ... there is no hint, no suggestion that they are ever grafted in again. On the contrary, we are told that nothing but final ruin awaits them. Christ, then, is not the root of the olive tree. He is the Vine. Can it be Abraham?... What, then, can the root be but Abraham? God made the promises to him (Gal. 3:16), and Israel belonged to him by natural birth, as his descendants.
The word "holy" here does not describe an inner state. It describes a position.
There seems no doubt that "the firstfruit" and "the root" in verse 16 refer to Abraham. He was the father of all Israel, the first man God openly chose to bless and to make a blessing to others (Gen. 12:2). Israel are then the natural branches, and for this reason they are "holy" — not in themselves, of course, but in their outward position, just as the children of believers are. Compare 1 Cor. 7:14.
Why an olive tree? One writer names what the picture stands for, and where it can fail:
The olive naturally speaks of what the Spirit is found in, for oil is a picture of the Spirit. But it carries the same responsibility. What is looked for may not be there in fact. The branches are broken off for lack of a faith they never had. A person can share the richness of the olive tree and still not have it... When the apostle speaks of the lump being holy as the firstfruit was, he means Abraham, who was set apart to God. Israel had the same setting apart, but it was not necessarily more than outward.
The next verses speak of branches broken off. So what does the tree stand for?
It is astonishing that people who believe in the eternal life of the believer can apply the olive-tree, of which we next hear (Rom. 11:16-24), to salvation or the Church... Take these branches as the Jews, the natural heirs of the promise to Abraham, and all is plain. They have been broken off in part... The unbelieving Jews were in the olive-tree: who will say that they were ever in the Church?
If "holy" means position, not possession, the warning that follows makes sense.
God had promised Abraham, "In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." So that this promise should not fail, the branches of the wild olive tree — the Gentiles — were grafted in among the remnant of Israel. Believing Jews and Gentiles now share the root and richness of the olive tree together. But the grave danger is that the Gentile rests on outward privileges alone. He is linked with the children of the promise, yet may fail to value the gospel of God for himself, and so prove unreal.
The warning is sharper than it looks, because the two sides are not treated alike:
Now to Gentiles, if cut off, remember, no restoration is promised. For Israel there is a hope held out, on the condition stated with it.
- Root — the root is Abraham, the man God gave the promises to. It cannot be Christ, since branches in Him are never broken off and grafted back.
- Firstfruit — a first portion given to God stands for the whole. Some take it as the believing remnant now, some as the nation in its first calling. Either way it guarantees the rest.
- Lump — God set the first portion apart, so the whole nation has a future. Israel's end will be worthy of its beginning.
- Branches — "holy" here means outward position, not inward reality, like the children of believers. A branch can share the tree's richness and still lack faith.
- Warning — the tree is the line of privilege, not the church. Those grafted in are told to fear, not boast. Privilege with nothing real behind it does not last. Gentiles cut off have no promise of return; Israel does.
Now if some of the branches have been broken out, and *thou*, being a wild olive tree, hast been grafted in amongst them, and hast become a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree,
The apostle turns from argument to picture. An olive tree loses some of its branches, and a wild shoot from outside comes in among the rest. What is the tree? Who is the root? And on what terms does a Gentile stand where Israel once stood?
Many read this image as a picture of salvation or of the church. Then comes the worry: can a believer be lost? Commentators here say the subject is something else.
Some argue that the olive tree is the Church, the natural branches are Jews, and the wild ones Gentiles. But notice how such handling of God's word obscures all true understanding of Scripture. Are true members of the body of Christ broken off? And do others keep their place only as long as they stay faithful?... But how simple it all is when we see not the Church, but the privileges of grace. The olive tree is the line of privilege throughout the world's history. It began with Abraham. It carried on in those who came after him, though they were "broken off" because of their unbelief. It has now passed on to Christendom, where crowds of Gentiles enjoy privileges they had never known before... The Church is not touched, but profession and responsibility are. Unfaithful Christendom will be "broken off," and repentant Israel restored again.
Where the ESV says "the nourishing root," older translations say "the root and the fatness" of the olive tree. Two things are in view: where the tree starts, and what flows up through it.
The olive tree represents the line of promise and testimony ("by nature" Israel, the descendants of promise who came from Abraham)... If we take Israel at the root, we must take it in Abraham, for before him there was no question of Israel. The nation began in the person of Abraham himself. So the root of the promises is Abraham. The fatness is the sap that springs from the root and flows through the tree. It answers to the promises that God placed, as it were, in Abraham.
Commentators differ on how far back the root reaches. One writer traces it past Abraham:
In the fullest sense the root is Christ Himself. Abraham got his blessing from Christ, though unknown to him on earth, for the Son of God had not been revealed... The fatness, that is, spiritual enrichment, did not come to a man because he was descended from Abraham as a Jew. It came because he shared Abraham's faith, and shared in the blessing Abraham enjoyed. This is open to Gentiles as well.
Two small words guard against overstatement. Paul does not say all the branches went, and he does not say the wild shoot took an empty tree.
On the one hand some, not all of the branches, have remained, and do remain in connection with the root. Naturally they were part of the tree. Other natural branches have been broken off and cut away from the tree. Yet if God pleased to do it, He could graft them back into their own olive tree. Meanwhile something else has happened. A wild olive tree has been grafted in among the natural branches. So together with the branches that have always stayed joined to the stem, it shares in the root and fatness of the olive tree.
In gardening the procedure runs the other way, and the apostle knows it.
But in nature the graft is good and the root is wild. The sapling is a crab apple — wild and sour, and the fruit small. The gardener grafts in a cultivated variety, and there you have an apple that is large and sweet. But here the graft is wild and the root cultivated — "contrary to nature," as the apostle is careful to point out. So the branches do not bear the root, but the root bears the branches, and the only thing that will cause the branches to remain and prosper is belief.
Being grafted in is a place of privilege, and the verses that follow show that privilege can be forfeited — which is why the tree must not be read as the body of Christ.
No doubt those who make up the church, Christ's body, come in as branches. They stand through faith in the place of the broken-off Jewish ones. But others come in too, who only profess to be Christ's. They do not value God's goodness. They abandon it for forms, or scepticism, or open evil... This is no question of saving grace, but of earthly responsibility, according to the testimony given first to Israel and then to Christendom.
- Root — the tree begins with Abraham, the man God gave the promises to. Some writers trace the root deeper still, to Christ Himself.
- Fatness — the sap rising from the root stands for those promises. A branch shares that richness; no branch owns it.
- Break — only some branches came off. Others stayed in place, so the tree was thinned, not felled.
- Graft — the wild shoot went in "contrary to nature." The branch does not carry the root; the root carries the branch.
- Terms — this line of privilege is not the church and not personal salvation. It is responsibility. Faith puts a branch there, and faith alone keeps it there.
boast not against the branches; but if thou boast, [it is] not *thou* bearest the root, but the root thee.
Paul has just told his Gentile readers that they stand in a tree that was never theirs by nature. Now he bans the pride such a place breeds — a branch cannot feed the tree that feeds it, so who is the root, and what is the tree?
Everything hangs on who the root is. One writer tests the options by watching what Paul says about the branches. Some branches belong to the tree by nature; others get cut out, and cut branches can go back in. That rules out one answer and points to another:
What, then, is this root? Is it Christ? How could that be? No one was naturally connected to Him... Christ, then, is not the root of the olive tree. He is the Vine. Can it be Abraham?... So what can the root be but Abraham? God made the promises to him, and Israel was naturally connected to him as his physical descendants.
In ordinary gardening the point of grafting is to improve a poor stock with a good shoot. Paul reverses it, and that reversal is exactly why the branch has nothing to boast about:
In nature the graft is good and the root is wild. The sapling is a crab apple, as we say — wild and sour, with small fruit. The gardener grafts in a good variety, say a Cox's orange pippin, and the tree then bears a cultivated apple, large and sweet. But here the graft is wild and the root cultivated — "contrary to nature," as the apostle is careful to point out. So the branches do not bear the root; the root bears the branches. And only one thing will keep the branches there and make them prosper: belief.
Some read the olive tree as the church. Commentators here reject that reading. One of them shows why the text will not allow it: branches in this tree can be cut out.
It is argued that the olive tree is the Church, the natural branches are Jews, and the wild ones Gentiles. But see how such handling of God's word blocks all true understanding of Scripture. Are true members of the body of Christ broken off? And does the standing of others depend only on their faithfulness?... The olive tree is the line of privilege running through the world's history. It began with Abraham and continued in those who came after him. They, however, were "broken off" because of their unbelief, and the line has now passed on to Christendom.
Another writer agrees. He adds how far this tree reaches in time, and what it never erases:
It is the tree of testimony on earth, God's separated witness that carries responsibility. It reaches into the millennium, the thousand-year age to come, when all Israel will be saved. It does not wipe out the difference between Jew and Gentile. It keeps the Jews as the natural branches, though Gentiles may be grafted in for a time.
The warning was not theoretical. One writer sees the boast Paul forbade in how Christendom — the professing Christian world — has spoken about the Jewish people:
The natural branches of the olive tree were broken off, and the wild olive, or Gentile, grafted into the old stock of profession. And here is the warning: "Then you will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.'" Has this not been exactly the feeling of Christendom? Contempt for the Jews. Shock at their wickedness. And total blindness about their own condition.
The ban on boasting rests on a plain fact: the Gentile did not earn his place.
The reason why Israel lost its position for a time, as a nation, was its unbelief and pride. The Gentile has been brought in only as a favour from God; not because he is any better than the other. If therefore he develops the same pride and unbelief that marked the Israelite, shall he not also be cut off? Indeed he will.
Israel's failure and the Gentiles' entrance belong together. So do the reversals of both:
The Gentiles' admission to privilege is linked with the failure of Israel. In the same way, the taking up of the Jews again for blessing is linked with the falling away of the Gentiles. A solemn fact for Christendom!
The two cases are not equal, though. One writer marks where the hope stops:
Remember this: if Gentiles are cut off, no restoration is promised to them. For Israel a hope is held out, on the condition stated with it.
- Root. The root is Abraham, the man who received the promises. It is not Christ, since no one was ever naturally joined to Him.
- Reversal. Normal grafting puts a good shoot into a wild stock. Here a wild shoot goes into a cultivated root, so life flows one way only.
- Reach. The tree is the line of privilege and testimony on earth from Abraham onward. It is not the body of Christ, which is why branches in it can be cut out.
- Restraint. Contempt for the Jewish people, with no look at oneself, is the boast Paul banned. The Gentile stands there by God's favour, not by merit.
- Result. Israel's fall opened the door to the Gentiles. Gentile unfaithfulness will open it again to Israel.
Thou wilt say then, The branches have been broken out in order that *I* might be grafted in.
Paul imagines a Gentile answering back: God removed Israel to make room for me, so surely I count for more. Paul states that boast plainly here, and then answers it — everything turns on why the old branches fell, and on what the new branch stands on.
Paul says the boast out loud before anyone can make it. One writer traces the same attitude through the later history of Christendom.
The Jews are meant by the natural branches. They had held the promises of old, and so they had the responsible place of witness for God on the earth. That is why they were the original branches of the olive tree, the line of promise and witness on earth which began with Abraham. And here is the warning: "Then you will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.'" Has this not been exactly the feeling of Christendom? It has shown contempt for the Jews, shock at their wickedness, and complete unconcern about its own condition.
Paul answers by naming the cause on each side.
Unbelief had broken off the natural branches. Faith was the means that brought the foreign shoot in. Faith is the condition of their standing. Just naming it silences the self-congratulating boast he had just warned them against.
Faith looks to God, not to self.
Faith makes everything of God. So let the Gentiles beware of pride that makes something of self. They too may fall into unbelief.
Which tree does Paul mean? It is the tree of promise and witness on earth, and its branches change over time.
The reference to the grafting of trees in Romans 11 shows that the practice existed then. It speaks of Gentiles, the wild olive branches, grafted into the good olive tree. Scripture calls this "contrary to nature." Gentiles have now been grafted into the tree of witness on earth, and of promise. But later the natural branches, Israel, will be grafted again into "their own olive tree." It does not refer to individual salvation.
The two must not be mixed up. Branches come and go on the olive tree; the body of Christ is another thing entirely.
It is very important not to confuse two things. One is the continuous line of the inheritance of the promise on earth, the olive tree. The other is the mystery of Christ and the church, where everything is new and above nature. No member is ever broken off the body, and the Jew is no more a natural limb of it than the Gentile.
The warning falls on Gentile Christianity as a whole. It is not a threat to an individual believer's salvation.
All such stand by faith, or not at all. He did not spare the natural branches, so we cannot expect Him to spare the grafts if they do not value His goodness. So comes the threat in verse 22: "you also will be cut off." This is not a question of individual salvation, which the failure of an age cannot touch. The point is that God will reject Gentile profession as a whole, just as He rejected Israel in an earlier age, if it is not faithful.
This danger did not end with Paul's first readers.
Paul anticipates such an attitude in Romans 11:19 and 25. There is the danger of being wise in our own eyes, as if all our resources are in our own hands. That would despise the lessons of Israel's history and failure, which are there to instruct and warn us.
- Boast. The Gentile reads Israel's fall as proof of his own importance. Christendom later showed the same attitude.
- Cause. Paul corrects the reason. Unbelief broke Israel off; faith brought the Gentile in; and faith leaves nothing to boast about.
- Tree. The olive tree is the line of promise and witness on earth that began with Abraham. It is not the body of Christ, and grafting into it is not the same as being saved.
- Standing. The grafted branch keeps its place only by faith. If it does not value God's goodness, it is cut off too.
- Hope. Israel is not finished. The natural branches will be grafted again into their own olive tree.
Right they have been broken out through unbelief, and *thou* standest through faith. Be not high-minded, but fear
Paul is writing to Gentile believers who boast over Israel's fall, and his answer is a warning: the old branches fell through unbelief, and the new branch holds its place only by faith. That raises two questions — what does God break off, and why must someone who stands by faith also fear?
The cutting off was not a decision made over Israel's head. One writer keeps the cause where the verse puts it:
But the Gentile must not boast. He says, "you do not support the root, but the root supports you." And note this: it was because of unbelief they were broken off. It was not because God willed to break them off, but because of their own unbelief. And the Gentile stands by faith.
That one fact ruins the boast. If unbelief emptied the place, the newcomer did nothing to earn it.
Standing "through faith" tells us how the place is held, not only how the Gentile got it. One commentator reads it as the terms of a lease:
The place of the Gentile Church as a branch grafted into the olive root has already been stated. Now we are told the only terms on which that place is kept. Unbelief had broken off the natural branches. Faith was the way the foreign shoot came in. Faith is the condition of their standing, and the very mention of it silences the self-congratulating boast he had just warned them against.
Another writer widens the principle to the whole Christian life:
We receive the gospel on the basis of faith. The believer's whole life from that moment on rests on faith too. What we receive by faith produces faith. This principle of faith rules out all efforts of the flesh.
Paul's command is not "be less confident" but "do not become proud." Faith and pride look in opposite directions:
Let the Gentile then beware. Israel was cut off because of unbelief. The Gentiles come into blessing only through faith in God. Faith makes everything of God. Let the Gentiles beware of the pride that makes something of self, in case they too fall into unbelief.
Faith does not compete with the fear Paul commands. Faith produces it:
Over-confident claims and a self-righteous spirit are no evidence of faith, and where faith is missing we should expect the cutting off. Faith gives the spirit of godly fear — a healthy reverence for God's just rule.
Many readers hear a threat to a believer's salvation here. Commentators answer with care. The olive tree, they argue, is the line of privilege on earth, not the body of Christ:
But how simple it all is when we see not the Church, but the privileges of grace. The olive tree is the line of privilege throughout the world's history. It began with Abraham and continued in his successors. They were "broken off" because of their unbelief. The line has now passed on to Christendom, where great numbers of Gentiles enjoy privileges they once had no share in. All is clear. The Church is not touched, but profession and responsibility are.
Another writer makes the same distinction from the other side. Real believers stand as branches. So do others who only profess Christ:
No doubt those who make up the church, Christ's body, come in as branches standing through faith in the place of the Jewish ones broken off. But so do others who only profess Christ. They do not value God's goodness. They abandon it for religious forms, or scepticism, or open evil. This is no question of saving grace. It is a question of responsibility on earth, according to the testimony given — first to Israel, then to Christendom.
The verse is not a general caution. One writer turns it into a question that Christian profession must answer:
So the Gentile gets a full warning. He is shown the principle of God's dealings — the goodness and severity of God toward those who fell, the Israelite branches cut off. "Toward you goodness, if you continue in His goodness." Otherwise the Gentile branches would be broken off, as the Jewish ones were. Have they so continued? Has Gentile profession continued in the faith and walk once delivered to the saints?
- Cause: the natural branches fell through their own unbelief, not by a bare decree. The empty place says nothing good about whoever fills it.
- Tenure: faith is not only how the wild branch got in. It is the condition on which it stays. What faith receives, faith carries on.
- Posture: faith makes everything of God; pride makes something of self. That is why the warning against pride ends in a call to fear.
- Limit: the olive tree is the line of privilege on earth, not the body of Christ. Profession and responsibility can be cut off. Saving grace is not the subject here.
- Question: the warning ends in a test. Has Christian profession continued in God's goodness? Fear, not boasting, is the fitting reply.
if God indeed has not spared the natural branches; lest it might be he spare not thee either.
When God turned to the nations, He did not promote them above Israel. Paul argues from what God has already done to what He may yet do. God cut out branches that belonged to the tree by birth. So no grafted branch can claim a safer place.
The phrase "natural branches" names one people, marked out by birth.
The Greek phrase kata phusin means "according to nature." The name natural branches belongs to the Israelites, branches of the olive tree which God planted on earth. Rom. 11:21, 24.
Their removal was not random. The root set a standard, and the branches failed to match it.
The Jew came from Abraham, the man first chosen and called out so that the promises would run in his line (though their effects reached everyone else). So the Jew had been the natural trunk, or branches, of the olive tree. The Gentile grew wild outside. But God must have branches that match the root, and because the Jews did not, judgment went out against them. It was clear, then, that the Gentiles had the most reason to fear. If God had dealt with the failure of Abraham's descendants, no one could imagine that He would tolerate Gentile wickedness.
Older English Bibles soften the ending into a caution — take heed, in case He does not spare you either. One commentator reads it as a flat statement instead:
"For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you" — this is most likely how we should read the clause.
Much confusion clears once we see which tree is in view. It is not the church.
The unbelieving Jews were broken off because of unbelief. Now in no sense could anyone say that the Jews were broken off from the church, for they were never in it. The apostle also speaks of breaking off the Gentile branches. That cannot be the church either, because in no sense can anyone say that the church of the living God, in its true sense, is broken off. The whole wording of the chapter proves that the olive tree refers to the line and channel through which God administers His promises on the earth.
A place of blessing is not the same as new life. It still brings real responsibility.
Notice another important principle here. Enjoying privileges because of your position makes you responsible for them, though it does not mean the person was born again. The Jewish branch stood in the tree of promise and was broken off; the same holds for the Gentiles. There was nothing living or real in them, but they stood in the place of blessing.
What decides the matter is unbelief on one side and faith on the other.
Israel was cut off because of unbelief, and only through faith in God do the Gentiles come into blessing. Faith makes everything of God. So let the Gentiles beware of the pride that makes something of self, in case they too fall into unbelief.
Fear here is a mark of real faith, not its opposite.
Proud claims and a self-righteous spirit are no evidence of faith. Where faith is missing, expect the cutting off. Faith gives the spirit of godly fear — a healthy reverence for the just government of God.
The address is corporate. It reaches the whole body of people who bear the Christian name.
It is impossible to apply this to the believer as such. The apostle is speaking of the general professing body. This is the danger facing what people commonly call Christendom — everyone baptized to the name of the Trinity. God warns them here that He will cut them off if they do not continue in the goodness He is now displaying.
So the verse leaves the security of the individual Christian untouched.
This does not touch the question of individual salvation, which Christ secures forever. It is a matter of responsibility in God's present dealings on earth. Who will pretend that Christendom has continued in the goodness of God?
Severity is not the end of the story. Removing the unfruitful Gentile branches opens the way for the first branches to return.
Should we not take warning? The time is near when the unfruitful branches will be torn out of the olive tree, and the natural branches, turning back to God at last, will be grafted in again to their own olive tree.
- Root — God planted the tree and set its standard. He removed the branches that did not match it. Birth alone shielded no one.
- Graft — Gentiles came in with no natural claim. They stand by faith alone, and faith makes everything of God and nothing of self.
- Place, not life — the tree is the line of God's promises on earth, not the church. You can hold a place of privilege without being born again.
- Fear — the right response to a place you did not earn is reverent fear. Boasting takes its place, and that is the first sign of the cutting off.
- Return — the severity that removes faithless branches also clears room. Israel will be grafted back into their own olive tree.
Behold then [the] goodness and severity of God upon them who have fallen, severity; upon thee goodness of God, if thou shalt abide in goodness, since [otherwise] *thou* also wilt be cut away.
The verse sets severity and kindness side by side, then adds a condition. Commentators press hard on two questions: who is the "you" here, and what does "continue" mean? (Older translations render the word here as "goodness" where the ESV has "kindness"; the quotes below use "goodness.")
Both halves of the verse come from one unchanging character in God.
Look at both the goodness and the severity of God. He shows us His unchangeable character as the God of judgment, and with it the riches of His kindness. He cut off those who had fallen in order to maintain His own glory as the righteous avenger of His name. That same line of righteousness applies to the professed people of His name — Gentiles who hold the title of Christ as their own. It would condemn, with equal impartiality, whatever failed to meet the one condition of continuance.
The subject of the whole chapter decides who the warning speaks to.
Who is addressed here? It is either one person who professes Christ, or a whole body of people that the apostle pictures as one person and speaks to in that way. The context shows it is not the first, but the second. The grand subject of the chapter is the partial, temporary setting aside of Israel. In their place God brings in the present body that professes His name, mainly Gentile, to carry the responsibilities of God's people on the earth… But what has taken their place? The body that professes His name — Christendom. That is the body the apostle addresses here.
Does the warning mean a believer can lose salvation? The tree in view is not the church, Christ's body.
It is very important not to confuse two things. One is the continuous line of the promised inheritance on earth: the olive tree. The other is the mystery of Christ and the church, where everything is new and above nature. Members are never broken off from the body… No doubt those who make up the church, Christ's body, come in as branches. They stand through faith in the place of the broken-off Jewish ones. But so do others who only profess the name of Christ. They do not value God's goodness. They give it up for forms, or scepticism, or open evil… The question here is not saving grace. It is responsibility on earth, according to the testimony entrusted first to Israel and then to Christendom.
So what is this goodness, and what does continuing in it look like?
The goodness of God now revealed in the gospel is Christ. He is the propitiation for human sin and the display, in grace, of the righteousness of God… Who then continues in the goodness of God? Only those who once received the knowledge of that goodness by faith and have never moved away from Christ, the true and only hope of the gospel. Putting works in the place of grace. Letting justification by faith alone decay into self-righteousness and outward forms. Keeping the name of Christ and the letter of the gospel, while denying or never knowing the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. All of these are departures from the goodness of God, which He expresses and gives in Christ alone.
This passage attacks one assumption: that the present order of things is bound to last.
Romans 11 calls it a fatal presumption to think that the church, as God's present order on earth, cannot fall away. That presumption leads the Gentile Church to its ruin. The Holy Spirit condemns those who think this way as wise in their own eyes. He teaches us instead that God would act toward the present order as He did toward the one before it.
The verse offers no way back for a profession that has already failed.
Scripture says nothing about being restored. That will not do: what is needed is to "continue." It is like a man who has broken the law saying, "I will do right from now on." That does not meet the law's claims.
The cutting off is not the end of the story. It opens the way for the branches removed first.
When the true Church has been caught up to be with the Lord, judgment will fall on unfaithful Christendom. Then God will turn back in grace to Israel, if they do not continue in unbelief, and He will graft them back into their own olive tree, according to the power of God.
- Note. God shows both sides at once. The same righteousness that cut off the fallen branches will judge whatever fails the one condition.
- Goodness. The goodness is Christ Himself, given as the propitiation for sin and as the display of God's righteousness.
- You. The "you" is not one believer. It is the professing body, mainly Gentile, standing where Israel stood. What is at risk is a place on earth, not saving grace.
- Continue. Continuing means never moving away from Christ to works, to outward forms, or to a gospel that keeps the letter and denies the Spirit's power. Thinking this order of things cannot fall is the very presumption that ruins it.
- Otherwise. Scripture promises no repair for a failed profession — only cutting off. That cutting off opens the way for God to graft Israel back into their own olive tree.
And *they* too, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able again to graft them in.
God's warning to the Gentile in the previous verses is not the end of the story for the branches He cut off. Paul now turns to them. He gives one condition for their return, and one reason it can happen at all. Both raise the question of what this tree is, and who stands in it today.
Everything in this verse depends on identifying the tree correctly. Commentators here insist it is not the church. God can break its branches off and graft them back in. Scripture never says that of members of Christ's body.
Some argue that the olive tree is the Church, the natural branches are Jews, and the wild ones Gentiles. But see how such handling of God's word blocks all true understanding of Scripture. Are true members of the body of Christ broken off? And does the position of others depend only on their faithfulness? ... The olive tree is the line of privilege throughout the world's history. It began with Abraham and continued in those who came after him. But they were "broken off" because of their unbelief, and the line has now passed on to Christendom.
One thing put Israel out, and the same thing keeps them out: unbelief. The choice was theirs, not God's.
And note this: unbelief is what broke them off. It was not because God chose to break them off, but because of their own unbelief. And the Gentile stands by faith.
If unbelief is what excludes them, then the end of unbelief is what restores them. Kelly ties that turn to repentance, and places it outside the present gospel age.
The Jews will not continue in unbelief. They will truly repent and bless Him who is coming in the name of Jehovah. Then, in sovereign mercy, God will graft them once more into their own olive tree. This will not happen under the gospel. As far as the gospel goes, they are enemies for our sakes.
Paul does not point to anything in Israel. He points to God's power. One writer traces how that argument builds from this verse into the two that follow. (Older translations read "God is able to graft them in again," where the ESV has "God has the power to graft them in again.")
They were cut out of the olive tree because they turned away, but they will be brought in once again. Verse 23 shows that this is possible: "God is able to graft them in again." Verse 24 shows that it is probable: "How much more will these … be grafted into their own olive tree?" Then the apostle rises higher still and shows it to be certain: "Blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."
The word "again" matters. They return to the place they once held, not to some new position.
But the tree of promise remains. The Jewish branches will be grafted in again into their own olive tree — the original place of the promise made to Abraham, "for God is able to graft them in again." They will not be grafted into the church. Far from being in it, they were broken off when the church was founded.
Yet they will not come back the way they left. They will come back the way the Gentiles came in — by grace alone.
When God restores Israel, He will lift them from a condition much like the one the Gentiles were in when His grace took them up as His chosen ones. Yet the tree He grafts them into will be their own (verse 24). They will never be removed from it again, but will flourish in everlasting righteousness.
Paul writes this to Gentiles, not to Jews, and it carries a sharp edge. Unbelief cost Israel its place. The same failure will cost Christendom its place.
And I ask, Has the church continued in God's goodness? Is what we now see in Christendom what God set up in His church at the beginning, or anything like it? ... They have not continued in God's goodness. You can see that most plainly. We are conscious of it ourselves. But if they do not continue in God's goodness, the apostle says, the whole of Christendom will be cut off, and the Jews will be grafted in again. ... As soon as the Lord has gathered the real church of God and taken them up to heaven, He sets up the Jews again.
- Tree — the olive tree is the line of privilege on earth that began with Abraham. It is not the church. So this verse is about a place of privilege, not about whether a believer can lose salvation.
- Cause — unbelief broke the branches off. God did not simply decide to remove them. Take away the unbelief, and the removal ends.
- Power — the reason given is not Israel's worth but God's ability. Verse 23 calls it possible, verse 24 probable, verse 25 certain.
- Place — "again" means back into their own tree of promise, not into the church. This time they will never be removed.
- Warning — what cut Israel off now hangs over Christendom. God cuts off the unfaithful Gentile profession, and that makes room for Israel's return.
For if *thou* hast been cut out of the olive tree wild by nature, and, contrary to nature, hast been grafted into the good olive tree, how much rather shall they, who are according to nature be grafted into their own olive tree?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the nations be come in;
Has God finished with Israel? Paul answers by letting his Gentile readers in on a secret: the hardening is partial, it has an end point, and the nation is still on God's books.
Paul shares this so that his Gentile readers will not think too highly of themselves. Darby says the professing church made that very mistake.
It is precisely through being wise in its own conceit that the professing church has fallen. It has looked on the Jews as entirely set aside, forgetting that "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (older translations: "without repentance") — that He never changes His mind.
Older translations read "blindness in part" where the ESV has "a partial hardening." Hughes explains how strong that word is.
Note carefully that "blindness in part" has happened to Israel. "Blindness" is a very strong word. It means being hardened like a stone. The noun in verse 25 is a medical term, "callus" — the hardening of skin. This then is the moral state of God's earthly people. And it is not limited to Israel. Ephesians 4:18 uses the same word for the state of the Gentiles.
Two words keep this from being a death notice: "in part."
The blindness that has come upon Israel is only blindness in part. The nation is not blinded nevermore to see, nor fallen never to be restored, nor cast off never to be received. The time of their casting off will end when the fulness of the Gentiles has been brought into blessing.
Some readers mix this phrase up with "the times of the Gentiles." Snell says the two are not the same.
"The fulness of the Gentiles" is a very different thing. Israel, as a people, are now set aside, though a remnant is saved by the gospel, according to the election of grace. God is filling up the number of Gentiles He intends to save. The word "fulness" might be rendered "complement." In this way He is calling out of the Gentiles a people for His name. He is gathering to Himself the allotted number out of every nation, tribe, people and tongue. When that number is complete, the fulness of the Gentiles will have come in — come in to God. So "the times of the Gentiles" and "the fulness of the Gentiles" are two very different things.
Some read this verse as a promise that the whole world will turn to Christ first, and Israel later. Kelly says the chapter itself rules that out. He weighs two small words: "in part" and "until."
"In part" strictly means in part. It is not just a softening of a severe statement. And "until" marks the point in time when the great change takes place. Calvin said that "until" does not mark this, and means no more than "that." That shows the strong prejudice of a good man whose knowledge of the language was imperfect… "The fulness of the Gentiles" cannot mean the general conversion of the world to Christ. The apostle's earlier reasoning in this chapter makes that certain. He asks: if the slips of the Jews were the world's riches, how much more their fulness?
The gospel is open to Jewish people right now. So why call the present gathering "Gentile" at all?
It is because the apostle is speaking here of the Church as a stage in God's dealings. It came in through Israel's blindness, and it cannot go together with Israel's national blessing. Seen that way, the Church is Gentile, and it does not stop being Gentile when individual Israelites come into it. When they do, they take the same ground as the Gentiles… and they become detached from the nation as pictured here.
So the count has an end. Gaebelein traces what follows it.
The fulness of the Gentiles means the full number of the saved, gathered out from among the Gentiles. They make up the church, the body of Christ. And when the body is joined to the Head in glory… the Lord will turn again to Israel. All Israel — that is, all Israel living in that day — will be saved, when the Deliverer comes out of Zion.
- Mystery — Paul tells the secret so that no Gentile believer grows proud. Treating Israel as finished for good is the error that ruined the professing church.
- Hardening — the word means a callus, a stone-like hardness, not weak eyesight. The same word describes Gentiles, so no one may boast.
- Partial — the blindness is only "in part." Israel is not blinded never to see, nor cast off never to be received.
- Until — a fixed point, not a vague hope. God is filling up a set number of Gentiles, not converting the whole world first.
- Then — when that number is full, God turns back to Israel. The Deliverer comes out of Zion for a nation He never stopped calling His own.
and so all Israel shall be saved. According as it is written, The deliverer shall come out of Zion; he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.
Paul ends his long argument about Israel with a promise of national salvation. Three questions follow: who is "all Israel," when does this happen, and who is the Deliverer who comes out of Zion?
This verse is the last step in an argument Paul builds across the whole chapter. One question drives it: has God finished with His ancient people?
Israel is the subject of God's plans. God does not cast away what He has foreknown and appointed to blessing. This rests on positive grace. God does not change His plans, even though Israel has no righteousness... The apostle gives three proofs of this truth. First, there was a remnant chosen by God. 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.
Commentators agree that "Israel" here means what it means everywhere else in the chapter. The test is simple: see who the chapter sets against whom.
It is the future national restoration and salvation of Israel. They will be restored to their place in the line of God's testimony and promises on earth; heavenly hopes do not come into view here... Plainly it is the Jews, the literal Jews, who are meant here. The chapter distinguishes them from the Gentiles, and contrasts them with the Gentiles, from verse 11 on, and very clearly in this verse 26. "The fullness of the Gentiles" means the complete number of Gentiles who believe — all the Gentiles who share in the blessing while Israel stays stubborn.
So the nation is saved through a remnant.
A chosen remnant of Israel is spared. God will bring them to believe and graft them back into their own olive tree — not into the Christian church, which was never their own olive tree. They will become the nation — the "all Israel."
The word "until" in the previous verse sets the order. Nothing here is happening yet.
As the Spirit interprets the prophecy there, we are not to look for it to be fulfilled in the salvation of all Israel until after the full number of the Gentiles has come in. That is only going on now, so it is not complete. So the moment has not even arrived to begin applying it to Israel. But faith can profit by it at any time.
The promise turns on a place: Zion. Christ has come, but not from there.
But what will bring this about? "The coming of the Deliverer out of Zion," replies the apostle. But is not Christ the Deliverer? And has He not come? Yes; but not out of Zion. He has come out of Bethlehem, and out of Nazareth, and, thank God, out of the grave also. But not yet out of Zion. Zion is the royal city, David's city; and when the King of kings reigns there, then Israel's deliverance will be complete.
The prophecy Paul quotes has the Redeemer coming to Zion; Paul has Him coming out of Zion. (Older translations read "out of Zion" where the ESV reads "from Zion.")
The apostle cites the prophecy of the Redeemer coming to Zion as His coming out of Zion. Both are true, and each fits its place. The Redeemer must come to that mountain of royalty in the Holy Land so that He can come out from there. He will come to the righteous remnant, to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, and He will also turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Their hearts will be converted before Jehovah appears at the worst of their distress and destroys their enemies. But that appearing will deepen all their feelings toward Himself, and bring them into peace and blessing fully and for ever.
The title changes too: Redeemer in the prophecy, Deliverer here. One Person, two comings.
The Redeemer is now called the Deliverer, for He will prove to be both. When He came as the humbled Servant of the Lord He did redemption's mighty work. When He comes to Zion in His glory, He will bring the deliverance that redemption made righteously possible.
Paul wrote this chapter against Gentile pride. Handing Israel's promises to the church feeds the conceit he attacks.
Some try to read the church into every Scripture. They do not see that the glory of Christ will have an object of His love on earth as well as in the heavens. They have fallen into the Gentile conceit that Romans 11 denounces and corrects.
- Not cast away. Israel's salvation is the third and final proof that God has not discarded the people He foreknew.
- Not the church. "All Israel" means the literal nation. A chosen remnant is grafted back into their own olive tree and becomes the nation.
- Not yet. The blessing waits for the full number of believing Gentiles. That is still coming in now.
- Not from Bethlehem. He came from Bethlehem, Nazareth and the grave. The Deliverer of this verse comes out of Zion, the royal city, where the King must reign.
- Not only rescued. He turns ungodliness away from Jacob. Hearts turn to Him before He appears, and every feeling deepens when He does.
And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins.
Paul is quoting the prophets to show that God has not finished with Israel. The reason he gives is God's own promise: a covenant, dated to the moment He takes their sins away. So who is the covenant with? When does it start? And how can God forgive a nation that refused its Messiah?
Commentators link this covenant to the promise God made through Jeremiah. The promise rests on what God says He will do.
In Jeremiah's beautiful prophecy there is no "if." The words that mark it are, "I will." Israel and Judah do come into the picture. But they come as those who receive, not as the important actors. The new covenant will come when God acts in the sovereignty of His mercy. Its righteous basis was laid in the sacrifice of Christ, which Isaiah spoke of. God will put His law inside them and write it on their hearts. Keeping it will then be as natural to them as breaking it once was. They will come into the light of the knowledge of God. All their sins will be forgiven, and even the memory of them dropped. And all of it comes by an act of God's sovereign mercy, as the closing verses of Romans 11 make so plain.
This removal of sins is not happening now. It waits on the end of God's present work among the nations.
Israel's hardening was true then and still goes on — though, we may bless God, only in part. It was announced long before. Yet the same prophet, and the rest of the prophets too, look ahead to the bright day for the earth when all Israel, as such, will be saved. The fullness — the full number — of the Gentiles who now believe will have come in. And so the long guilty, long chastened people of the Lord will turn to Him. They will own Him in the crucified Nazarene as their Lord and their God. It will be just like Thomas, who represents them here: he saw Him and believed.
This raises the obvious question — how? One writer rules out the answer most readers would expect.
But how is this to come about? By the Gentile Church preaching the gospel to Jews? Not at all. Their faith will not be in an absent Christ. It will be in One they see with their own eyes, coming out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. When they see, they will believe.
The cleansing follows an order. God washes the heart first.
The heart of Jerusalem must be washed (Jer. 4:14) before God can place salvation in Zion for Israel His glory (Isa. 46:13)… But in that day a fountain will also be opened for the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1). Then His people will know the once-rejected Jesus as their Saviour. He saves them from their outward enemies, and from the sins they will then admit. The verse next following claims for Israel the full blessing of the New Covenant.
God does not just overlook the sins. Their removal has a date, and it has a cost.
This is no doubtful issue: God's covenant with them was to send His Son to them in glory and majesty. True, He came once in lowliness, and they refused Him. But that cannot cancel God's promise about His coming in glory. At that time He will take away their sins — and of course Calvary laid the basis for it.
The covenant that clears Israel is not a lower arrangement. It rests on the same mercy that already holds up believers today.
Mercy through the Lord our righteousness has raised us up and seated us in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). In the same way, in the day when all Israel will be saved, mercy will rejoice in the lower parts of the earth. Only one covenant takes away sin through the Deliverer. That covenant will establish Israel, just as it now establishes the saints.
Some take Zion here as a picture of the church. Kelly checks every New Testament use of the word.
It is the Jew, not the church, that is in question throughout. Zion measures the privilege and the guilt of Judah. Nowhere in Scripture is it applied to the church, which is Christ's body… And so it is with Rom. 11:26. To read the church into any New Testament use of Zion would yield no right meaning.
- Deliverer. The sins go when the Deliverer comes. Israel turns at the sight of Him, not at the sound of preachers.
- Timing. His coming waits until God finishes gathering from the nations. So this covenant belongs to a future age, not to ours.
- Covenant. Its terms are God's repeated "I will": He writes His law on their hearts, He forgives their sins, and Israel receives.
- Cost. The removal is still future, but Calvary laid the ground. God buys this forgiveness; He does not ignore the sin.
- Mercy. One covenant takes sin away through the Deliverer. It will settle Israel just as it settles believers now.
As regards the glad tidings, [they are] enemies on your account; but as regards election, beloved on account of the fathers.
God gives two verdicts on Israel at once. As to the gospel they are enemies; as to His choice they are loved. So has God finished with the Jewish people, or does their unbelief serve a purpose in a plan He has not dropped?
The two halves of the verse look at Israel from different angles, and they belong to different times. One writer traces both, and says what God will and will not go back on.
The Jews proved hostile to the gospel instead of being saved by it. God turns that, as we have seen, into His gracious call of the Gentiles in the meantime. But in the last days the love of election will still prove faithful to the sons for the sake of the fathers... He may regret creation (Genesis 6), but never what grace gave in promise to Abraham and to his offspring.
The enmity has a purpose. God treats the nation as an enemy and puts its promises on hold. Into that gap He gathers the Gentiles.
"As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake" — and God treats them as such. Their own distinctive promises are put on hold, so that He may gather the Gentiles into the church... These are words often quoted, but rarely applied the way the Spirit of God applies them here — to the calling and promises of the nation of Israel!
Their hostility was not passive. It showed itself in resisting the very mercy now reaching outsiders:
Instead of accepting it and believing themselves, they are enemies. The apostle says they hinder us "from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved."
Notice where the love rests. Not on what Israel is now, but on promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As regards the gospel, they are enemies as a people, so that the Gentiles may be brought in. But as regards the election of the people, they are loved for the sake of their fathers. Clearly this is the election of the people. It stands in contrast with blessing through the gospel, and the ground of their being loved is the fathers — as we find again and again in the Old Testament, in places like Exodus 32:13 and Leviticus 26:42.
Some read "Israel" here as a picture of the church. Neither half of the verse fits Christians, and the choosing it names is not the choosing that takes people to heaven.
This does not apply at all to what people call the spiritual Israel, for they are friends as regards the gospel, and loved by God the Father — not because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Take it as the literal nation of Israel, and everything is simple... The election spoken of here is the election of the beloved people Israel. It must not be confused with the election according to grace, by which, during the time of Israel's rejection, called Jews and Gentiles are taken for heaven. The first is a national election, the second an individual election, which sets us in far greater blessing, since its aim and result are to bring us into heaven.
God may discipline Israel hard and for a long time, and His choice still stands. How God governs the earth is one thing; what He has purposed is another.
In God's government of the earth, Israel, or a great part of it, may be cut off because of sin and unbelief. "Lo-ammi" — "not my people" — may stand written over the nation for centuries. But God's affection and final purpose never change, and Israel can never stop being the nation of His choice.
The promise stands, but Israel will not collect it as a debt. Losing every claim is what makes the final blessing pure gift.
Through this unbelief they lose all right to the promises. So they must receive what the promise gives on the ground of pure mercy and the sovereign grace of God, just like the poor Gentile... Their apparent loss of everything is only the means of their receiving everything from sovereign grace, instead of having it by human righteousness or by a promise they never forfeited.
God still loves them for the sake of their fathers. So taking their promises for ourselves is no harmless way to read the Bible.
He loves Israel — loves them for the sake of their fathers. We can be sure He will not approve our meddling with their place, their portion, or their future.
- Two angles. As to the gospel, Israel stands as an enemy. As to God's choice, the same people are loved. One nation, two true verdicts.
- Your sake. God holds their promises in suspense so that He can gather the Gentiles in. Their enmity serves the mercy now reaching you.
- Their fathers. The love rests on promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not on Israel's record. So Israel's failure cannot cancel it.
- Government, not purpose. God may write "not my people" over them for centuries, yet they never stop being the nation He chose.
- Mercy alone. They forfeited every claim. So the promise reaches them as it reached you — pure mercy, not a reward for human righteousness.
For the gifts and the calling of God [are] not subject to repentance.
Paul has just said that Israel's rejection is not the end of its story. This verse gives the reason, and it turns on one word: irrevocable. What does God never take back, and whom is He speaking about?
Older translations render this "without repentance," which can confuse a reader. It does not mean God feels no regret about anything. It means He never changes His mind about what He has given and whom He has called. One writer contrasts God's acts with God's gifts:
If God is the giver of the blessing, He does not change. The gifts of God are without change of mind on His part. When it is not a gift or a calling of God, He may repent. So He repented of making the world (Gen. 6:6), as we are told; and He destroyed it. That was not a gift; it was simply an act, however immense. But in sovereign love He calls poor guilty men to Himself to make them His own. He gives eternal life, for instance, or forgiveness of our sins, or the place of a child. Such benefits are the gifts and calling of God, and they are without repentance. Here His mind never changes.
Elsewhere Scripture says God changed His mind. One writer divides God's gifts from His ways with sinful men:
When it is a question of God's gifts and calling, which are according to His purpose, no change of mind is possible. When it is a question of His ways with sinful men, they vary in detail, though in the end all achieve His purpose. God tested Abraham, telling him to offer up Isaac, but when he had fully responded, God cancelled the order, having reached His purpose.
Christians love this sentence. One writer asks who it was first said about:
We Christians boast of this, that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance"; well we may — it is a scriptural principle. But to whom does the apostle apply it? Not to us, but to the Jews.
The verse explains the line just before it, where Paul calls Israel "beloved for the sake of their forefathers":
The meaning is this. The Jews proved their hostility to the gospel instead of being saved by it. God turns that, as we have seen, into His gracious call of the Gentiles meanwhile. And election love will still prove faithful in the last days to the sons for the sake of the fathers. This is not the principle on which souls are blessed now, whether from Gentiles or from Jews. But after the actual unbelief of the Jews, sovereign mercy will step in at the end of the age. He never repents of what grace gave in promise to Abraham and to his descendants, nor of His call, first shown publicly in Abraham, the father of the faithful.
How can God discipline a nation and still love it? One writer separates how God rules the earth from whom He has chosen:
As to God's government of the earth, Israel, or a great part of it, may be cut off because of sin and unbelief; and Lo-ammi, "not my people," may be written over them for centuries. But God's affections and final purpose never change. Israel can never cease to be the nation of His choice.
One writer uses the same principle against a common fear: that bad behaviour can throw a Christian out of grace:
The words "fallen from grace" are sometimes used wrongly. People take them to mean that a believer once stood in the grace of God, and God has now thrown him out of it because of his bad behaviour... In the case of a true believer being caught up in this, the fall, we repeat, is in his own mind and conscience. God's grace and the relationship that grace created stay the same, for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."
Paul's point is not Jewish privilege but universal mercy — nobody, in either group, gets in on merit:
The Gentiles had no claim to salvation; they were dead in sins, in unbelief. God showed them pure mercy. Israel would not believe such mercy. They forfeited all their privileges through unbelief, so that God might at last save them as a whole nation — but as objects of mercy... Not one will be found in the church above or in the future kingdom of God on earth who has not been saved as an object of mercy.
- Irrevocable. God may change His mind about an act. He regretted making the world and destroyed it. He never changes it about a gift He has given or a person He has called.
- Purpose, not moods. God's ways with sinful people vary; His purpose never does. That is why God changing His mind elsewhere in Scripture does not contradict this verse.
- Israel first. Commentators insist Paul applies this verse to the Jews. Election love stays faithful to the sons for the sake of the fathers, even while they are hostile to the gospel.
- Government, not choice. God may write "not my people" over a nation for centuries without cancelling His choice of it.
- Mercy for all. No one — Jew or Gentile, on earth or in heaven — stands there on any ground but mercy.