Letter to the Romans -- Chapter 11
Having established that God alone is capable of working faith in man for the sake of Christ Jesus, Paul continues on: “I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’? And what was God's answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:1-6). Even in the face of the appeal of His prophet Elijah, God refused to reject His chosen people and graciously decided that despite their continued rebellion, disobedience, obstinacy, and rejection that He would reserve for Himself a remnant. As Paul says, this remnant was and is chosen completely by grace, meaning that it is completely apart from any work, doing, willing, effort, seeking, or choosing of Israel.
Paul continues: “What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.’ And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever’” (Romans 11:7-10). Thru Israel God has chosen to illustrate His sovereignty, providence, mercy, and grace. Though Israel fought earnestly to attain righteousness they failed where God’s chosen elect received it apart from any seeking at all. God handed them over to their hardened hearts and thru this illustrates that simply “hearing” the Word of Christ and truly hearing the Word of Christ are far different. One is the effort of impotent man, while the other is the work of God’s Spirit within the hearts of men. “Unless Yahweh builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). Though Israel “heard” the Word, they did not truly hear. In their sinfulness they were blinded and deafened and incapable of responding to the Word in their own seeking and striving.
In the face of this seemingly bleak proclamation Paul continues on, asking the hard question of whether God has completely abandoned His chosen people: “Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 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!” (Romans 11:11-12). In the wake of telling us that God had given His people over to blind eyes, deaf ears, and hardened hearts, Paul proclaims the will and purposes of God in doing this. God willingly sacrificed His own chosen people in order to be gracious to the entire world by setting them up as an “example” for all to see. By taking His chosen people and holding them up for all to see, God mercifully reached out His gracious arm of salvation to all the nations of the world. In this God has made known the riches of His grace and mercy, declaring that all of the efforts of man are only a hindrance to salvation. In order to teach us that everything we do is fruitless and impotent, God has held up Israel as the example, bearing witness to the futility of their earnest seeking; all of their best efforts only resulted in disobedience, idolatry, and rejection time and time again. God broke them down with His law before the whole world so that we, the Gentiles, might see our utter wickedness and inability before God and not follow the dead-end path of self-righteousness of obstinate Israel. God has held up His chosen people before us to illustrate His perfect law and subsequently has held up His Son, Jesus Christ, to display His gospel (which alone is capable of drawing men to God) throughout all the world. Thru His law He too causes us to stumble and breaks us down of all of our vain seeking and willing, so that He may build us up with His gospel message of Jesus Christ. God has not abandoned Israel permanently however, but He is using His grace towards the Gentiles as a way to rouse them from their hardened hearts and once again build them up in the grace of His Son, the promised Messiah and Anointed One of God. The prophet Jeremiah said it best as he described God’s plan with His chosen people that mirrors our individual paths before God’s harsh law and ever-comforting gospel: “Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 31:28). Thru Israel we are meant to see that God’s law and anger is only against us in order to break us of self (to show us our impotence) and to prepare us for His compassion, mercy, kindness, and grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you…Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed” (Isaiah 54:7-8, 10).
After having illustrated the purposes of God thru His people Israel, Paul continues on by telling us that what he has been saying hasn’t been just for His own people but has been in fact been to teach us, the Gentiles. “I am talking to you Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). Even though the topic has been Israel we must understand that the true Israel exists not as a natural blood line, but as those who share in the same faith of Abraham. Thru God’s working in the Old Testament and old covenant nation of Israel He is ultimately speaking to all men. “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. If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:13-18). Paul is first and foremost talking to us Gentiles (since he was called as the Apostle to the Gentiles), but he also prays and hopes that thru his preaching to us that his own people (the old covenant nation of Israel) will eventually be aroused to faith. Thru Israel’s rejection of God, God demonstrated His grace and mercy by bringing reconciliation to the whole world thru His Son. In the nation of Israel we see that Israel’s rejection of God caused them to be broken off and in place of them we, the Gentiles, were grafted in. We however must be careful not to boast over the loss of Israel, for it was nothing from us that caused God to graft us in, but it was purely His grace thru Jesus Christ. It is thru the root that the branches get their nourishment and life, and so also we only have life in Jesus Christ, our root and vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:5-6). Apart from Christ we can do nothing and it is because of Him and His Word, that He has given us, that we have been grafted onto the root that supports us. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
Paul continues on: “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either” (Romans 11:19-21). In these strong words of admonition Paul is eager to point us away from any boasting and arrogance of self. In the face of these truths our sinful flesh is always eager to grasp at straws and claim that we ourselves are the reason we are now grafted onto the root and are in Christ Jesus. Paul however tells us very plainly that we should be afraid (yes, we need to be wary!) to stand on anything from ourselves because that is what His chosen people did and they were indeed broken off because of it. Unbelief is at its core a failure to rely on God alone and His completed work in Jesus Christ, while true faith never looks to anything from “me” but always and only to the gracious work of God. The most dangerous place that this unbelief rears its ugly head is in the false teaching of “free will.” In the lie of “free will” man is deceived into looking at himself as the reason he is on the vine and root and thereby he is in reality already cut off because of this unbelief and lack of reliance on Christ alone. This is the very thing Paul is warning us to be afraid of. We can only boast in the Lord, which means that we can only stand on what He has done, because we ourselves can do nothing but fall and fail. To say that we are grafted on the root because of our own choice, freedom, or willing is to walk the same road of disaster that Israel plummeted down. If God did not spare His own people in their arrogance and self-righteousness, He certainly will not spare us. We do not stand on our own will, we stand by faith on Jesus Christ and His calling. It is because of God’s promise in the gospel and His washing of us in Baptism for the sake of Jesus Christ that our hearts have been transformed thru the Spirit so that we are now His precious children: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
In response to this Paul points us to the beautiful balance of law and gospel, imploring us to daily consider the sternness of God (His law) and His kindness (His gospel of Jesus Christ) so that we can remain strong in the faith He has given us and stay the course until life everlasting. “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 also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22). If we look to anything of our own we will pit ourselves against the sternness of God, but if we avail ourselves and despair of all ability of our own, clinging solely to what God has given to us in the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb, then we will by grace continue in God’s immeasurable kindness.
After this reminder Paul goes on to explain God’s plan to save Israel: “And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:23-27). If Israel is turned back to belief and faith in Christ they will once again be grafted in by God’s work in their hearts. We ourselves were grafted into Christ despite the fact that we were completely helpless sinners and enemies of God, therefore Israel, the very chosen people of God, shall be grafted back in when their hearts are transformed. God has hardened them until the full number of Gentiles has come into His fold, and when the time is right He will once again melt their hearts and save the entire remnant He has chosen. “My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh” (Jeremiah 24:6-7). In the face of this though we must be careful not to despise God’s chosen people or be arrogant towards them. They are indeed our enemies as far as the gospel is concerned (since they currently oppose it and fight against it), but we must continue to love and respect them on account of God’s promise and election which are unchangeable and irrevocable. “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).
In summary Paul goes on to once again touch on what he is teaching us thru Israel: “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:30-32). God gave Israel over to their disobedience, self-righteousness, and “free will” which rejected Him time and time again in order that His mercy and grace might be illustrated in Jesus Christ. By showing thru and in Israel that all the efforts and seeking of man is in empty and fruitless vain, God has destroyed all possibility of self-righteousness and has instead chosen to have mercy on us for the sake of His Son. God bound us all over to disobedience so that we would fail hopelessly in all the works of our own hands and then desperately fall onto the work of His hands that was done for us in the manger, cross, and empty tomb.
Here then in his conclusion on the teaching of God’s providence, election, and predestination, Paul proclaims that ultimately all these teachings are the unfathomable mysteries of God that we must simply accept on faith and at His Word in Jesus Christ. God is God for a reason and His ways are above and beyond our ways and our petty attempts to put Him in a box of our own making: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). It is completely and only because of God’s work that we are even in Christ; He is the one who has graciously, mercifully, and compassionately chosen and called us in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. We dare not boast in or about anything from “me” but we are always bold to boast in and about what God has done for us so undeservedly in Jesus Christ crucified: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Paul continues: “What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.’ And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever’” (Romans 11:7-10). Thru Israel God has chosen to illustrate His sovereignty, providence, mercy, and grace. Though Israel fought earnestly to attain righteousness they failed where God’s chosen elect received it apart from any seeking at all. God handed them over to their hardened hearts and thru this illustrates that simply “hearing” the Word of Christ and truly hearing the Word of Christ are far different. One is the effort of impotent man, while the other is the work of God’s Spirit within the hearts of men. “Unless Yahweh builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). Though Israel “heard” the Word, they did not truly hear. In their sinfulness they were blinded and deafened and incapable of responding to the Word in their own seeking and striving.
In the face of this seemingly bleak proclamation Paul continues on, asking the hard question of whether God has completely abandoned His chosen people: “Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 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!” (Romans 11:11-12). In the wake of telling us that God had given His people over to blind eyes, deaf ears, and hardened hearts, Paul proclaims the will and purposes of God in doing this. God willingly sacrificed His own chosen people in order to be gracious to the entire world by setting them up as an “example” for all to see. By taking His chosen people and holding them up for all to see, God mercifully reached out His gracious arm of salvation to all the nations of the world. In this God has made known the riches of His grace and mercy, declaring that all of the efforts of man are only a hindrance to salvation. In order to teach us that everything we do is fruitless and impotent, God has held up Israel as the example, bearing witness to the futility of their earnest seeking; all of their best efforts only resulted in disobedience, idolatry, and rejection time and time again. God broke them down with His law before the whole world so that we, the Gentiles, might see our utter wickedness and inability before God and not follow the dead-end path of self-righteousness of obstinate Israel. God has held up His chosen people before us to illustrate His perfect law and subsequently has held up His Son, Jesus Christ, to display His gospel (which alone is capable of drawing men to God) throughout all the world. Thru His law He too causes us to stumble and breaks us down of all of our vain seeking and willing, so that He may build us up with His gospel message of Jesus Christ. God has not abandoned Israel permanently however, but He is using His grace towards the Gentiles as a way to rouse them from their hardened hearts and once again build them up in the grace of His Son, the promised Messiah and Anointed One of God. The prophet Jeremiah said it best as he described God’s plan with His chosen people that mirrors our individual paths before God’s harsh law and ever-comforting gospel: “Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 31:28). Thru Israel we are meant to see that God’s law and anger is only against us in order to break us of self (to show us our impotence) and to prepare us for His compassion, mercy, kindness, and grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you…Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed” (Isaiah 54:7-8, 10).
After having illustrated the purposes of God thru His people Israel, Paul continues on by telling us that what he has been saying hasn’t been just for His own people but has been in fact been to teach us, the Gentiles. “I am talking to you Gentiles” (Romans 11:13). Even though the topic has been Israel we must understand that the true Israel exists not as a natural blood line, but as those who share in the same faith of Abraham. Thru God’s working in the Old Testament and old covenant nation of Israel He is ultimately speaking to all men. “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. If their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:13-18). Paul is first and foremost talking to us Gentiles (since he was called as the Apostle to the Gentiles), but he also prays and hopes that thru his preaching to us that his own people (the old covenant nation of Israel) will eventually be aroused to faith. Thru Israel’s rejection of God, God demonstrated His grace and mercy by bringing reconciliation to the whole world thru His Son. In the nation of Israel we see that Israel’s rejection of God caused them to be broken off and in place of them we, the Gentiles, were grafted in. We however must be careful not to boast over the loss of Israel, for it was nothing from us that caused God to graft us in, but it was purely His grace thru Jesus Christ. It is thru the root that the branches get their nourishment and life, and so also we only have life in Jesus Christ, our root and vine. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:5-6). Apart from Christ we can do nothing and it is because of Him and His Word, that He has given us, that we have been grafted onto the root that supports us. “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
Paul continues on: “You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either” (Romans 11:19-21). In these strong words of admonition Paul is eager to point us away from any boasting and arrogance of self. In the face of these truths our sinful flesh is always eager to grasp at straws and claim that we ourselves are the reason we are now grafted onto the root and are in Christ Jesus. Paul however tells us very plainly that we should be afraid (yes, we need to be wary!) to stand on anything from ourselves because that is what His chosen people did and they were indeed broken off because of it. Unbelief is at its core a failure to rely on God alone and His completed work in Jesus Christ, while true faith never looks to anything from “me” but always and only to the gracious work of God. The most dangerous place that this unbelief rears its ugly head is in the false teaching of “free will.” In the lie of “free will” man is deceived into looking at himself as the reason he is on the vine and root and thereby he is in reality already cut off because of this unbelief and lack of reliance on Christ alone. This is the very thing Paul is warning us to be afraid of. We can only boast in the Lord, which means that we can only stand on what He has done, because we ourselves can do nothing but fall and fail. To say that we are grafted on the root because of our own choice, freedom, or willing is to walk the same road of disaster that Israel plummeted down. If God did not spare His own people in their arrogance and self-righteousness, He certainly will not spare us. We do not stand on our own will, we stand by faith on Jesus Christ and His calling. It is because of God’s promise in the gospel and His washing of us in Baptism for the sake of Jesus Christ that our hearts have been transformed thru the Spirit so that we are now His precious children: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
In response to this Paul points us to the beautiful balance of law and gospel, imploring us to daily consider the sternness of God (His law) and His kindness (His gospel of Jesus Christ) so that we can remain strong in the faith He has given us and stay the course until life everlasting. “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 also will be cut off” (Romans 11:22). If we look to anything of our own we will pit ourselves against the sternness of God, but if we avail ourselves and despair of all ability of our own, clinging solely to what God has given to us in the manger, the cross, and the empty tomb, then we will by grace continue in God’s immeasurable kindness.
After this reminder Paul goes on to explain God’s plan to save Israel: “And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins’” (Romans 11:23-27). If Israel is turned back to belief and faith in Christ they will once again be grafted in by God’s work in their hearts. We ourselves were grafted into Christ despite the fact that we were completely helpless sinners and enemies of God, therefore Israel, the very chosen people of God, shall be grafted back in when their hearts are transformed. God has hardened them until the full number of Gentiles has come into His fold, and when the time is right He will once again melt their hearts and save the entire remnant He has chosen. “My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh” (Jeremiah 24:6-7). In the face of this though we must be careful not to despise God’s chosen people or be arrogant towards them. They are indeed our enemies as far as the gospel is concerned (since they currently oppose it and fight against it), but we must continue to love and respect them on account of God’s promise and election which are unchangeable and irrevocable. “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28-29).
In summary Paul goes on to once again touch on what he is teaching us thru Israel: “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:30-32). God gave Israel over to their disobedience, self-righteousness, and “free will” which rejected Him time and time again in order that His mercy and grace might be illustrated in Jesus Christ. By showing thru and in Israel that all the efforts and seeking of man is in empty and fruitless vain, God has destroyed all possibility of self-righteousness and has instead chosen to have mercy on us for the sake of His Son. God bound us all over to disobedience so that we would fail hopelessly in all the works of our own hands and then desperately fall onto the work of His hands that was done for us in the manger, cross, and empty tomb.
Here then in his conclusion on the teaching of God’s providence, election, and predestination, Paul proclaims that ultimately all these teachings are the unfathomable mysteries of God that we must simply accept on faith and at His Word in Jesus Christ. God is God for a reason and His ways are above and beyond our ways and our petty attempts to put Him in a box of our own making: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). It is completely and only because of God’s work that we are even in Christ; He is the one who has graciously, mercifully, and compassionately chosen and called us in the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. We dare not boast in or about anything from “me” but we are always bold to boast in and about what God has done for us so undeservedly in Jesus Christ crucified: “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
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