God hath not cast off all Israel. The Gentiles must not be proud but
stand in faith and fear.
11:1. I say then: Hath God cast away his people? God forbid! For I
also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
11:2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know you not
what the scripture saith of Elias, how he calleth on God against
Israel?
11:3. Lord, they have slain thy prophets, they have dug down thy
altars. And I am left alone: and they seek my life.
11:4. But what saith the divine answer to him? I have left me seven
thousand men that have not bowed their knees to Baal.
Seven thousand, etc. . .This is very ill alleged by some, against the
perpetual visibility of the church of Christ; the more, because however
the number of the faithful might be abridged by the persecution of
Jezabel in the kingdom of the ten tribes, the church was at the same
time in a most flourishing condition (under Asa and Josaphat) in the
kingdom of Judah.
11:5. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant saved
according to the election of grace.
11:6. And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no
more grace.
It is not now by works, etc. . .If salvation were to come by works, done
by nature, without faith and grace, salvation would not be a grace or
favour, but a debt; but such dead works are indeed of no value in the
sight of God towards salvation. It is not the same with regard to works
done with, and by, God's grace; for to such works as these, he has
promised eternal salvation.
11:7. What then? That which Israel sought, he hath not obtained: but
the election hath obtained it. And the rest have been blinded.
11:8. As it is written: God hath given them the spirit of
insensibility; eyes that they should not see and ears that they should
not hear, until this present day.
God hath given them, etc. . .Not by his working or acting in them; but
by his permission, and by withdrawing his grace in punishment of their
obstinacy.
11:9. And David saith: Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a
stumbling block and a recompense unto them.
11:10. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down
their back always.
11:11. I say then: Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God
forbid! But by their offence salvation is come to the Gentiles, that
they may be emulous of them.
That they should fall. . .The nation of the Jews is not absolutely and
without remedy cast off for ever; but in part only, (many thousands of
them having been at first converted,) and for a time; which fall of
theirs, God has been pleased to turn to the good of the Gentiles.
11:12. Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world and the
diminution of them the riches of the Gentiles: how much more the
fulness of them?
11:13. For I say to you, Gentiles: As long indeed as I am the apostle
of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry,
11:14. If, by any means, I may provoke to emulation them who are my
flesh and may save some of them.
11:15. For if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world, what
shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
11:16. For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the
root be holy, so are the branches.
11:17. And if some of the branches be broken and thou, being a wild
olive, art ingrafted in them and art made partaker of the root and of
the fatness of the olive tree:
11:18. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root: but the root thee.
11:19. Thou wilt say then: The branches were broken off that I might be
grafted in.
11:20. Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou
standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear.
Thou standest by faith: be not highminded, but fear. . .We see here that
he who standeth by faith may fall from it; and therefore must live in
fear, and not in the vain presumption and security of modern sectaries.
11:21. For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest
perhaps also he spare not thee.
11:22. See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them
indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of
God, if thou abide in goodness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. . .The Gentiles are here
admonished not to be proud, nor to glory against the Jews: but to take
occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be
cast off. Not that the whole church of Christ can ever fall from him;
having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that
each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be
admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in
particular.
11:23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be
grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
11:24. For if thou were cut out of the wild olive tree, which is
natural to thee; and, contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good
olive tree: how much more shall they that are the natural branches be
grafted into their own olive tree?
11:25. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery
(lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part
has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come
in.
11:26. And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall
come out of Sion, he that shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob.
11:27. And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their
sins.
11:28. As concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your
sake: but as touching the election, they are most dear for the sake of
the fathers.
11:29. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.
For the gifts and the calling of God are without. . .his repenting
himself of them; for the promises of God are unchangeable, nor can he
repent of conferring his gifts.
11:30. For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have
obtained mercy, through their unbelief:
11:31. So these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they
also may obtain mercy.
11:32. For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy
on all.
Concluded all in unbelief. . .He hath found all nations, both Jews and
Gentiles, in unbelief and sin; not by his causing, but by the abuse of
their own free will; so that their calling and election is purely owing
to his mercy.
11:33. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of
God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his
ways!
11:34. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his
counsellor?
11:35. Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made
him?
11:36. For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be
glory for ever. Amen.