About Israel (3): An election of grace of the Israel of God (Romans 11:1-24)
Context
In Romans chapter 10, Paul is highlighting a paradox: that Israel, God’s chosen Old Testament people, went looking for righteousness, but then they stumbled over the Messiah, Jesus and they missed the righteousness he brought; but the gentiles, the nations, weren’t looking for righteousness, but then they stumbled over the Messiah Jesus Christ and they found righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith in Christ. It was not their own righteousness, a righteousness by works, or by law-keeping. That was the mistake of Israel. Rather, the righteousness the gentiles found was God’s righteousness, and it was by faith, and for everyone who believes. In other words, as Paul says in verses 9-10:
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
But we also learnt that for Israel ‘ignorance is no excuse’. And that was because Israel was not ignorant. They heard the message about Jesus the Messiah and about the righteousness that is by faith, but they rejected it. As Paul says in verse 18 Did they not hear [the gospel]? Of course they did!
And so Paul moves from discussing the human response to the gospel, and the human responsibility to respond to the gospel with repentance and faith, back to God’s sovereignty in election and grace. In Romans 9, we saw that God has already spoken about God’s sovereignty, when he asserted that Gd has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden. So now Paul raises again the problem of why Israelites, Jews, don’t believe in Jesus. Israel has heard the gospel. They have become hardened to it and obstinant.
An Israel Within Israel (vv. 1-10)
God has not rejected his people in total, but has chosen a remnant by grace (Rom 11:1-6). So we read in verse 1, “Did God reject his people?” And the answer is an emphatic no, “by no means!” God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.[1]
And Paul shows this a couple of ways. Paul points to God’s dealing with Israel and Israelites in the present and the past.
In the present Paul points to himself. Verse 1 again, “I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin” It’s as if Paul is saying, “Hey look at me! I’m an Israelite, I’m a true blue Jew. And I’m a Christian Jew what’s more. God hasn’t rejected me.” Paul is living proof that God has not rejected all the Israelites. For some Jews have become Christians.
And in the past, Paul points to the remnant in Elijah’s day. Paul quotes the Old Testament in verse 4, which is God’s answer to Elijah’s complaint:
I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
And then Paul’s deduction in verse 5:
So too at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Literally, there is a remnant according to election of grace. In other words, God has not rejected his people in total. At the present time, there is a remnant because this is the way God has always worked.
The first word to notice in chapter 11 verse 5 is ‘remnant’. It has already popped up in Romans 9:27 where we read “though the number of Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.”
The ‘remnant’ is the remainder, the group within the group. Paul has already said not all Israel is Israel. Chapter 9 verses 6 and 7:
For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they Abraham’s children.
In Chapter 9, we read that Isaac was chosen, but Ishmael was not. This was despite the fact that both were Abraham’s children. Moreover, Paul also reminds the Romans that Jacob was chosen, but Esau was not though they were twins, conceived in the one act at the same time. And now Paul reminds us that in Elijah’s day, and despite the wholesale disobedience of Israel, there were 7000 chosen Israelites who had not bowed to Baal.
And Paul is saying that what was true of Israel then is still true of Israel now. There is the remnant, and there is the rest. There are those who are elect Israelites, and there are those who are not.
But it is not just that a remnant exists, nor merely that it is an elect remnant but it is a remnant chosen according to grace.
You see, the 7000 did not bow the knee to Baal, but that was not the reason for their election. It was not as if God saw that they refused to bow to Baal, and thus chose them. Instead they are elected by grace so that they do not bow the knee to Baal.
And Paul deduces that God’s gracious election excludes works. Works cannot be seen as the basis for the election. God does not look ahead and see who would have been the moral, upright, believing people, who would have done good works. Verse 6:
And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works: if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
The 7000 were chosen on the basis of grace. They were not chosen because they did not bow the knee to Baal. They were chosen so that they would not bow the knee to Baal. If we start to say they were chosen because they didn’t bow the knee to Baal, the basis of their election was not God’s grace and kindness: it would have been their works, because God would have looked ahead and saw them not bowing the knee and so chose them. That is why we have chapter 11 verse 6 immediately following.
So we can see how an election of grace excludes works as a basis. Works are evidence of election, yes.[2] But they can never be a basis for election.[3] Otherwise, we turn election by grace into election by works.[4] And grace is no longer grace.[5]
It is not as if God looks ahead and sees, “Ah, John and Barry and Andrew and Kate and Anna and Tanya are favourably disposed to me. They will have faith and they will do good things. I will choose them because of that.” No, it is not according to their works. God just chooses and elects them because he is gracious and kind, not because of anything good he foresees in them.
Conclusion: the elect of Israel attained [salvation], but the rest were hardened (vv. 7-10)
So then, Paul concludes in verse 7:
What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened.
This is a summary of chapters 9-11 so far.[6] Israel as a nation, as a whole as a people, sought righteousness. But Israel failed to obtain it (cf. Rom 9:31, 10:3). However, the elect (or remnant) within Israel[7] did attain this righteousness by faith. This remnant or elect group is the Israel within Israel. They have put their trust in Jesus as the Christ (cf. Rom 9:6). And Paul is living proof of their existence. The others, the non-elect, the rest of Israel, the great mass of them, did not put their faith in Christ.
And again, Paul shows that this has always been the way. Verse 8 is mainly a quote from Deuteronomy 29:4[8]. In the context of that Old Testament verse, the people of Israel have been wandering the desert for 40 years. As children, the older ones saw the miracles God did in bringing them out of Egypt. And for the last 40 years they had experienced God’s daily, miraculous provision. Yet, Moses says:
Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear. (Deut 29:4 NIV)
Likewise, in verse 9, Paul quotes Psalm 69 verses 22 to 23. There, David speaks as the afflicted Christ, and his desire is that the enemies who disgrace and shame him be cursed. So after the words Paul quotes, the psalm continues:
[D]o not let them share in your salvation. May they be blotted out of the book of life and not listed with the righteous. (Ps 69:27-28 NIV)
They are the somber words of the angry Christ. Christ here is cursing his enemies. And Paul properly applies that curse to the blindness of the majority of the people of Israel who have shamed and rejected their Christ.[9]
The relationship of the gentiles and Israel (Rom 11:11-24)[10]
Question: Is Israel’s stumble a final fall?
So given these harsh words, is there no hope left for Israel? Verse 11:
Again I ask: Did they[11] stumble[12] so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all.
In other words, it is not too late for Israel? Is the fall final? And the answer is “No, at least, not yet!” Israel in general might have stumbled over the Messiah. Few people may have trusted in him. And to this Paul is able to add his testimony from his own lived experience as he went to the Jews with the gospel: he testifies that from Thessalonika he was driven out and pursued to Berea
But Paul is saying here, in Romans 11:11, that it is not too late for Israelites, for Jews, to repent and believe. God is still calling out his elect from both Jews and gentiles to trust in Christ.
However, God has brought good through the evil of the national rejection of Christ. Verse 11:
Rather, because of their transgression[13], salvation has come to the gentiles to make Israel envious[14].
When Paul took the gospel to a city, he first went to the Jew. It was first synagogue and Sabbath day. But the Acts of the Apostles shows how the Jews time after time rejected Paul and his message. They rejected Christ and his apostle. And so Paul then goes to the gentiles. That is his missionary pattern.[15]
But Paul knows from Deuteronomy 32:21 that the disobedience of Israel would lead to them envying the nations.[16] Deuteronomy 32:21:
I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.
And so Paul has embodied the promise of God in his missionary method. This is what he wants to explain to his Gentile Christian readers. Verses 13 to 14:
I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.
How many movies are based on this human characteristic of jealousy? Girl goes out with her former boyfriend’s best friend to get the former boyfriend jealous. The sub-text here is “and you just remember what you’re missing out on”.[17] Forget movies, it happens in real life.
Here, Israel has spurned her Christ. And so the Christ goes to the nations, winning their hearts, to make his first love, Israel, jealous, so that she might come back to him.
For that is God’s and Paul’s endeavor: to bring Israel back to Christ. And if it is as a jealous, jilted lover, than so be it.
And so Paul has two objectives in saying this to gentile Christians. First is he wants them to rejoice over the prospect of Jews returning to Christ. And second is he wants to warn them not to be arrogant over non-believing Jews.
First, Paul wants the Gentile Christians to rejoice. Verses 12:
But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring.
Again, verse 15:
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean [or better, what is their acceptance] but life from the dead?
Again we see the ‘how much more’ logic. If God brings blessing and riches through the Jewish sin of rejecting Christ (that is, Gentile salvation), how much greater will the riches be if they accept Christ and submit to the gospel?
Paul in fact calls it “life from the dead”. Earlier in Romans chapter 6, Paul has used this language to talk about how we have died to sin but now are alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:11, 13). We are people spiritually brought back from the dead and now living (Rom 6:13). We were dead, but are now alive again (Luke 15:32; cf. Eph 2:1-5). And this is what the return of Israel to her Christ will amount to.
Israel’s belief in and acceptance of Jesus as the Christ would have helped Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles, humanly speaking. For then, Israel would be performing her true function, as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that they would declare the praises of God who called her out of darkness into his wonderful light (Exod 19:6 applied to Christians in 1 Pet 2:9).[18]
As it was, God worked through Israel’s rejection of the Christ for blessing. That is the nature of our God. He works good for those who love him. Men mean things for evil, but God means them for good, and works in and through the evil of men and women. That is why Paul says “God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28).
But Paul asks, “how much more blessing would accrue if Israel also accepted her Christ?” “Much more”, is his answer. And so the gentiles should ardently seek the fullness of Israel’s conversion. They should want Jews to become Christians.
In verse 16, Paul uses two analogies. First is the analogy of firstfruits. If the beginning part is holy, so is the rest. And second is the analogy of root and branch. If the root is holy, so is the branch.
Here, I think Paul might mean a couple of things. First, the root and the firstfruits might refer to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is, because the fathers, the patriarchs of Israel, are holy, so too are their spiritual children.[19] Or second, the root and firstfruits might be the first Christians who were Jews, meaning that because the first Jewish converts like himself are now holy because of Jesus who is their holiness, so too are all the subsequent Christians.[20]
Either way, Paul’s point is that gentiles can rejoice with Paul in the hope of the salvation of Israelites.
Friends, how do you feel about the salvation of others. Does the prospect of their salvation and their turning to Christ make you rejoice? Friends, that others should come to Christ should always makes us rejoice. And this is most especially the case for Jewish people. Nowadays we don’t see many Jewish people in our circles, in our church life, or who have become Christians. There are a few. But we should long for the salvation of Jewish people and rejoice in it, because for them and for us, salvation is only found in Christ risen and reigning. We should work towards it, share the gospel, and pray for it, for if the Jewish people come to Christ, what wonderful blessings would come both to them and us.
We must not let either Jewish groups or the secular media tell us that it is anti-semitism to want Jewish people to come to Jesus Christ and be saved by him. We must never think that it is wrong to evangelize Jewish people. No, both Jews and gentiles can only be saved through the Jewish Messiah. We gentiles can only be saved through their Jewish Messiah, and so too, they can only be saved through the Messiah who Yahweh, the God of the Jews, has given. Evangelism, speaking about Jesus Christ risen and raising, is always the most loving thing that we can do.
A warning: Gentiles should not boast over Israel, but fear and stand by faith: the olive tree analogy (Rom 11:17-24)
But Paul knows sinful human nature. He knows our tendency to be arrogant. And he fears that the gentile Christians might become arrogant when they think of the unbelief of the Jews. So Paul develops the analogy of root and branch further in verse 16, and the analogy becomes a full blown horticultural object lesson in verses 17 to 24.
And the lesson carries a grave warning for gentile Christians like us.
Paul likens the gentile Christians to a wild olive tree, and the Israelites to a cultivated olive tree. Some of the branches of the cultivated olive tree have been broken off. They represent unbelieving Jews. And some of the branches of the wild olive tree have been grafted into the cultivated one. These represent believing gentiles. Now, the temptation would be for gentile Christians to ‘boast over’ the branches broken off, that is, Jewish non-Christians, who reject Jesus (v. 18). But Paul says that they and we must not be so arrogant.
The first reason we must not be arrogant and boast over the Jews who have not trusted in Christ is that we gentile Christians are supported by the root—probably the patriarchs.[21] In other words, we gentiles simply hang off the coat tails of the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We owe a lot to the Jewish nation as a result.
The second reason is that if natural branches were broken off if they did not believe, then God will not spare wild branches grafted in. The Jews, who have more right to be in the tree than us gentiles, were chopped out, because of their unbelief. So we must take the warning, and be afraid. We gentiles have less right than the Jews to be part of God’s tree, that is, God’s family, God’s kingdom, if we want to start boasting about who we are and what we’ve done.
So how do we stay grafted into the olive tree? Verse 20 tells us:
But they were broken off by unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid
The way to stay in God’s kingdom is faith and fear. In Christ, there is safety. Outside of him, you have cause to be afraid.
Fear is a good thing. The flight, fight or freeze reflex is given us for a reason. It keeps us where we should be. It keeps us alive. So as I stand at the edge of a cliff at Katoomba (even as I am behind the safety fence), I consider, “What if I fell? What if my children fell? What if I was negligent?’, and I am reminding myself that I am safe within boundaries, but at great risk outside of them.
Paul here is not talking about election of individuals to salvation and he is not saying that God elects some, only to cut them off. He is not speaking from the perspective of God’s sovereignty. Rather, Paul is speaking from the perspective of human response and responsibility. He speaks phenomenologically, from the point of view of what can be seen by humans. That is, in God’s olive tree—which is the true Israel, spiritual Israel, the Israel of faith—some non-Jews, in fact lots of them, are grafted in. They are the gentiles who believe. And some are cut out. They are Jews who don’t believe. It does not actually say anything about whether those who are cut out of the olive tree are elect or not, because we don’t know the end of their story, and we don’t know whether God will graft them back in. If he does, we then know that they are elect—because God has granted them the faith in Jesus Christ that effects their grafting back into the olive tree.
Conclusion: God’s character (kind and severe) and ability (cut out or ingraft)
So we come to the wonderful warning of verses 22-23:
Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
We see here God’s character. God has two different, complementary characteristics: kindness and sternness.
I guess I am the same with my children. I give them cuddles and stories, hugs and other good things, whatever it is that they need. But when they disobey, I am the same one that sends them to their room, takes away pocket money, and removes screen privileges. And they know they need to stay in my kindness, otherwise life is very painful.
Friends, we need to know this of God. We stand by faith. We remain in Christ by faith. And in Christ is the kindness of God. But if we cease to trust in Christ, our salvation slips away. As Calvin says:
Accordingly, the moment we turn away even slightly from him, our salvation, which rests firmly in him, gradually vanishes away’ (Calvin, Institutes, Bk II Ch XVI para1 p503).
If we steadfastly trust in him, we are safe. If we turn away from him, we deprive ourselves of grace, and we face his sternness and anger.
And we learn not only about God’s character, but God’s ability. Israel is not beyond God’s saving hand. God can graft them back in, if he wants. After all, they are more fitting branches to remain in the olive tree than us. We are wild and don’t really belong naturally. They are cultivated, and this is their tree!
When I was at University, I was speaking to a man in one of my Arts courses. And I started talking about Christianity. And he said to me, “O no, I’m a Jew!’ But I said, “Great, this is for you, this is especially a matter for you. These are your books, this is your Christ, much more than mine.”
More recently, I met an older man, and we struck up a friendship. He wanted to explore his Jewish heritage, and fortunately I had a bit of Hebrew and the Old Testament. These were his books, the books of his fathers and mothers. They are also the oracles which point to the Messiah Jesus Christ. I could not do justice to, for example, to Isaiah 53 or Psalm 22 or 110 or Daniel 7 and 9, if I didn’t speak of the Jesus Christ, born under the law, to redeem those under the law and give them the full rights as sons.
If the Jews are saved by grace, how much more we! We should praise God for his special grace to us.
Let’s pray.
[1] And here, ‘foreknow’ does not mean ‘know that they will do something beforehand’, but ‘know the people themselves’. In the same way that God says in Amos 3:2, “You [people of Israel] only have I known of all the families of the earth”. ‘Foreknow’ then means, ‘have a relationship with beforehand’. Compare Calvin’s comments that “When we attribute foreknowledge to God, we mean that all things always were, and perpetually remain, under his eyes, so that to his knowledge there is nothing future or past, but all things are present. And they are present in such a way that he not only conceives them through ideas, as we have before us those things which our minds remember, but he truly looks upon them and discerns them as things placed before him. And this foreknowledge is extended throughout the universe to every creature. We call predestination God’s eternal decree, by which he compacted with himself what he willed to become of each man. For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some, eternal damnation for others.” (Calvin, Institutes, II.21.5 (Battles, p926).
[2] Compare Moo: “God’s grace is the efficient cause of salvation, human faith being not its basis but its result” (Romans, 679 note 34).
[3] Compare Article XII with Article XVII.
[4] Compare Calvin, Comm Rom, 414-5
[5] Moo sees that in verse 5, “The clearly salvific significance of the election here shows that Paul is thinking not of God’s election of Israel as a nation (as e.g. Godet and Dunn think), but of the election of individuals to salvation (cf. Murray)”: Moo, Romans, 678 note 36. Moo, however, sees “a special election of individuals within and alongside, a larger corporate election of Israel”: Moo, Romans, 675 note 20. The reading I adopt emphasizes individual election and the continuity between Romans chapter 9 and chapter 11 to a greater extent than Moo.
[6] Compare Moo: “Paul begins generally with a summing up of the situation of Israel as he has outlined it thus far in chaps 9-11 […] Verse 7 has therefore an important summary role. It blends the predestinatory focus of 9:6-29 […] with the human responsibility perspective of 9:30-10:21 […] to sum up Paul’s discussion of Israel to this point in chaps 9-11”: Moo, Romans, 679 and note 45.
[7] It would seem that at this stage Paul thinks of the elect as the elect within Israel, even if theologically, the elect includes all who God had chosen from before the beginning of time, from both Israel and the gentiles. Compare Dunn, “it would be unjustified to argue that only Jewish Christians are in view here” (Dunn, Romans: WBC, 2:640) with Moo, “the context favours a restriction to Jews here since Paul’s concern seems to be to distinguish two groups within Israel” (Moo, Romans, 680).
[8] With a phrase from Isaiah 29:10 thrown in ‘spirit of stupor’, ‘stupefaction’: Moo, Romans, 682.
[9] Calvin, Comm Rom, 420.
[10] Moo, representative of others, holds that “At the climax of this age, her hardening will be removed, and the present tiny remnant of Jewish believers will be expanded to include a much greater number of Jews obedient to the gospel. And so, as Paul puts it in his famous assertion, ‘all Israel will be saved.’ Israel’s rejection is neither total (11:1-10) nor final (11:11-32).” I am not convinced these understandings are necessarily the best way to understand the text.
[11] One could understand the third person pronoun ‘they’ in terms of the groups mentioned in verse 7: (1) “the nation Israel as a whole” (Moo, 686), (2) “elect Israelites”, or (3) “the hardened rest of Israel”. Moo rejects the last and opts for the first, arguing that “Paul is thinking mainly in terms of corporate bodies, not in terms of individuals within those bodies” (Moo, Romans, 686). However, Moo doesn’t seem to consider the middle option, the elect mentioned in verse 7. But as Moo doesn’t think the nation Israel is every Israelite nor every Israelite at the end time, the difference between options (1) and (2) are not that great. I think Paul intends a general proposition, namely, that it is not too late for Israelites (part of the whole nation) to repent and trust in Christ (and thus show themselves elect). This has the advantage of reading verses 7 and 11 consistently.
[12] Note chapter 9 verse 32-33; 10:3. They stumbled over Christ.
[13] More literally, “through their transgression” (dative).
[14] Compare Deuteronomy 32:21: Moo, Romans, 687.
[15] See the references to Acts at Moo, Romans, 687 note 22.
[16] Moo, Romans, 688.
[17] Compare Calvin’s comment: “For as emulation stimulates a wife, who for her fault has been rejected by her husband, so that she strives to be reconciled again” (Comm Rom, 422).
[18] The meaning I have taken for these verses is disputed. In agreement with this so called ‘figurative’ reading are Calvin, Comm Rom 424-5, and his editor, Morris, 411, and in a slightly different way, Murray, Romans, 2:82-4 follows it. Those who see it as final resurrection include Dunn, Romans: WBC, 2:670, Cranfield, Romans: ICC, 2:562-3, Barnett, 259, and Moo, Romans, 694-6. Stott leans away from the literal ‘final resurrection’ view, and the ‘spiritual view’ I have outlined toward what is in essence Murray’s view of an “unprecedented quickening in the expansion of the gospel”: Stott, Romans: BST, 298-299. One of the problems with the ‘final resurrection’ view is that it fails to deal seriously and consistently with the temporal-spatial context of the letter to the Romans. Paul was speaking of his own personal ministry, that he would personally arouse his compatriots to jealousy. It is somewhat abrupt to read these pastoral comments in the present tense (they are verbless clauses) as effectually prophecies of the future. We must remember Paul’s direct hortatory and pastoral purpose—the gentile mission and preaching the gospel.
[19] Moo, Romans, 699-700. Note that Dunn suggests that Paul may refer to all the spiritual descendants of the patriarchs, whether Jewish or gentile.
[20] Suggested by Moo, Romans, 700.
[21] Moo, Romans, 704.