Israel’s Rejection Not Total
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? f Absolutely not! g For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, h from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. i Or don’t you know j what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life! ,k 4 But what was God’s answer to him? I have left seven thousand for myself who have not bowed down to Baal. ,l 5 In the same way, then, there is also at the present time a remnant chosen by grace. m 6 Now if by grace, n then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.
7 What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for, o but the elect did find it. The rest were hardened, p 8 as it is written,
God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that cannot see
and ears that cannot hear,
to this day. ,q
9 And David says,
Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a pitfall and a retribution to them.
10 Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and their backs be bent continually. ,r
Israel’s Rejection Not Final
11 I ask, then, have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! On the contrary, by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles s to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their transgression brings riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness bring! t
13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Insofar as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, u I magnify my ministry, 14 if I might somehow make my own people ,v jealous and save some of them. w 15 For if their rejection brings reconciliation x to the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? y 16 Now if the firstfruits are holy, z so is the whole batch. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, a and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them b and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, 18 do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. c 19 Then you will say, d “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 True enough; they were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. e Do not be arrogant, but beware, ,f 21 because if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. 22 Therefore, consider God’s kindness and severity: severity toward those who have fallen but God’s kindness g toward you—if you remain in his kindness. h Otherwise you too will be cut off. i 23 And even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, j will be grafted in, because God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from your native wild olive tree and against nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these—the natural branches—be grafted into their own olive tree?
25 I don’t want you to be ignorant k of this mystery, l brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: m A partial hardening has come upon Israel n until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. o 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
The Deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this will be my covenant with them ,p
when I take away their sins. ,q
28 Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your advantage, r but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, s 29 since God’s gracious gifts and calling t are irrevocable. ,u 30 As you once disobeyed God but now have received mercy through their disobedience, 31 so they too have now disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they also may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience v so that he may have mercy on all.
A Hymn of Praise
33 Oh, the depth of the riches w
both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! x
How unsearchable his judgments y
and untraceable his ways!
34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? z
Or who has been his counselor?
35 And who has ever given to God,
that he should be repaid? ,a
36 For from him and through him
and to him are all things. b
To him be the glory forever. Amen.
11:1–6. Paul points out that it would be wrong to conclude that God has rejected Israel and that Jews cannot find salvation. There is a remnant of Jews who have come to faith (11:1–10). More important, Israel’s unbelief has caused the gospel to be proclaimed among the Gentiles, whose experience of God’s saving grace is meant to make Israel jealous (11:11–24), prompting Jews to repent and to find salvation as well, in fulfillment of God’s promises (11:25–32).
11:7–10. The consequences for Israel are spelled out. The nation as a whole has not attained the salvation that the Jewish people have been seeking. God’s chosen remnant has found salvation, while God has hardened the rest (11:7). The truth that God hardened the majority of Jews is explained as conforming to the pattern of God’s dealings with Israel in the past. Paul cites from all three parts of the Hebrew canon: from the Torah in 11:8b (Dt 29:4), from the Prophets in 11:8a (Is 29:10, the phrase “a spirit of stupor”), and from the Writings in 11:9–10 (Ps 69:22–23). Moses asserts that the people of Israel did not see and hear the word of God; they did not keep the law and thus faced God’s judgment of exile. There is, implicitly, hope for future redemption. Moses speaks of a time when God will bring Israel back from exile, a time when he will circumcise their heart so that they will love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul (Dt 30:6). As in the time of Isaiah (cf. Is 29), the people’s rebellion was met with God’s hardening judgment before a time of restoration would come. Paul refers to David in 11:9–10 to make the point that, as David once pronounced a curse on his enemies, so now Jesus the Son of David, the crucified and risen Messiah, a stumbling block for Jews (cf. 1 Co 1:23), brings judgment on unbelieving Israel.
11:11. Paul asks whether Israel’s failure to believe in the gospel of Jesus the Messiah means that Jews have fallen away permanently from fellowship with God (11:11a, reformulating 11:1). Beginning in 11:11b he explains why he rejects the conclusion that Israel’s failure is permanent. Two arguments are important. First, Israel’s disobedience has resulted in the salvation of the Gentiles. In Paul’s ministry, the rejection of the gospel by local Jews often resulted in his turning to Gentiles, among whom a greater number of people believed (cf. Ac 13:45–48; 18:6; 28:24–28). Second, the salvation of the Gentiles is meant to provoke Israel to jealousy.
11:12–14. Paul then explains these two arguments. First, if Israel’s fall leads to the salvation of the Gentiles, the salvation of Israel cannot be excluded as a possibility (11:12). God has not given up on the Jewish people—they will be saved when they come to faith in Jesus as Israel’s Messiah and Savior. Second, Paul’s ministry also aims at the salvation of Israel (cf. 1:16). The salvation of the Gentiles is meant to provoke a yearning for salvation among the Jewish people so that some of them might be saved (11:13–14). Paul hopes that unbelieving Jews will become jealous when they see what happens when believing Jews (the remnant) and Gentiles come to faith in Jesus Christ, forming communities in which the new covenant people of God live together, with their lives transformed by the Holy Spirit. The unbelieving Jews would then realize that the followers of Jesus Christ have obtained the covenantal promises of God and thus be provoked to acknowledge the truth of God’s saving righteousness through Jesus Christ.
11:15–16. The ground for this hope is expressed in 11:15. If Israel’s rejection of the gospel contributed to the reconciliation of the “world” (here, the Gentiles) with God, then the acceptance of the gospel by an increasing number of Jews will lead to an even more astounding benefit—the climactic event of the resurrection of the dead, which is expected at the juncture of this age and God’s new world.
11:17–21. Paul restates the illustration of the roots and the branches in terms of an allegory of the olive tree and wild shoot (11:17). The olive tree is Israel (Jr 11:16–19; Hs 14:6–7); the wild shoots are the Gentiles. The Gentile believers—probably the majority in the church in Rome at the time—must not boast over the unbelieving Jews (11:18). If God removed some branches (unbelieving Jews) from the olive tree (Israel), and if God grafted wild shoots (the Gentile believers) into the olive tree, then they have no reason to boast. Without the promises given to Abraham, God would not have admitted the Gentiles into his people. The decisive factor in the removal of the branches (the unbelieving Jews) and in the grafting in of the wild shoots (the believing Gentiles) is the Jews’ rejection of Jesus as Messiah (11:19–20a). Faith excludes (ethnic) arrogance. The only proper response to what God has been doing is to stand in awe before God. Arrogance provokes God’s judgment. Paul thus warns the Roman believers to watch their attitude and refrain from arrogance against unbelieving Israel, lest they be removed from the tree (i.e., God’s people) as well (11:20b–21).
11:22–24. Paul summarizes his exhortation for Gentile believers. God’s kindness and severity are not possessions that can be taken for granted. God’s kindness rests on the Gentile believers only if and when they acknowledge him. If they reject God’s kindness, they will experience God’s severity (11:22). There is always the possibility that Jews will come to faith in Jesus the Messiah and will be grafted back into the olive tree, “if they do not remain in unbelief,” because nothing is impossible in view of God’s power (11:23). If God could graft wild shoots into the olive tree, then he can graft the original branches back into the olive tree (11:24). Gentile Christians are mistaken if they think that the unbelief of the Jewish people excludes them forever from God’s saving grace, which is granted through Jesus Christ.
11:25–26a. Paul now proceeds to explain the mystery of Israel’s salvation. He begins by underlining God’s sovereignty, warning the Gentile believers not to be proud. The “mystery” is the divine plan of salvation, which has been hidden but which God now has revealed to his people (11:25a; cf. Dn 2:18–19, 27–30; 1 Co 15:51; Eph 1:9; 3:3–4, 9; 5:32; 6:19). Paul’s exposition here focuses on three elements. First, God has hardened a part of Israel (11:25b). At present there are Jews who have rejected Jesus as Messiah and Lord and who have not received God’s salvation (cf. 9:27; 11:7, 14, 17), but God has not rejected the Jewish people as a whole. Second, the period of hardening comes to an end when the “fullness of the Gentiles” has come in, that is, the completion of God’s ingathering of the nations. Third, the salvation of “all Israel” takes place “in this way” (11:26a). [Will “All Israel” Be Saved?]
11:26b–27. Paul provides scriptural confirmation from Is 59:20–21 and 27:9 (with allusions to other OT passages). The first citation explains the means by which Jacob’s ungodliness is removed. This will happen through the deliverer who comes from Zion (11:26b)—in other words, through Jesus Christ. The context of the OT passages suggests that the new covenant, to which believing Gentiles and believing Jews belong, is the promised covenant in which the problem of sin has been solved once and for all, something that the law could not do. The second citation (11:27) emphasizes God’s covenant that removes Israel’s sins, recalling the promise of a new covenant in Jr 31:31–34.
11:28–32. Paul’s summary of God’s plan of salvation begins with the assertion that, “regarding the gospel,” the unbelieving Jews are the enemies of the Roman believers (11:28; cf. 11:11–12). Gentile believers should note that the Jews, as God’s chosen people, are loved by God because of the promises given to the patriarchs (11:16–17). God’s gracious gifts (9:4–5) and God’s call to salvation cannot be revoked (11:29); this means that the Jewish people are not hopelessly lost.
11:33–36. The prospect of ever more Gentiles and Jews coming to redemptive and restorative faith in Jesus Christ prompts Paul to erupt in praise of God’s righteousness. The first stanza (11:33) consists of two exclamations. Paul first praises the depths of God’s riches (the salvation he grants to pagans and Gentiles), the depth of God’s wisdom (his justification of sinners), and the depth of God’s knowledge (his actions in salvation history). Then Paul praises God’s mysterious actions. God’s judgments are unsearchable, as he grants righteousness to the unrighteous. God’s ways are inscrutable, as his mercy elects Jews and Gentiles to form the people of his new covenant. The second stanza (11:34–35) formulates three rhetorical questions, which take up the terms of 11:33 in reverse sequence. Nobody has comprehended the mind of God (Is 40:13a), nobody has advised God (Is 40:13b), and nobody has ever given anything to God (Jb 41:3). The third stanza (11:36) expresses the glorious sovereignty of God the Creator and Savior. Everything is from God since he is the cause of the old and the new creation, everything is through God since he is the power of the old and the new creation, and everything is to God since he is the goal of the old and the new creation. The paragraph ends with a doxology praising God’s glorious majesty, inviting the Christians in Rome to respond with “Amen.”