I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
Show the surrounding paragraph
Romans 11:11-13 sits inside this longer paragraph.
I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them. For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead? If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root and of the richness of the olive tree, don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.” True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear; for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off. They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Parallel Translations
-
I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry;
-
I saye then: Have they therfore stombled that they shulde but faule only? God forbyd: but thorowe their faule is salvacion happened vnto the gentyls for to provoke the with all.
Wherfore yf the faule of them be the ryches of the worlde: and the mynysshynge of them the ryches of the gentyls: How moche more shuld it be so yf they all beleved.
I speake to you gentyls in as moche as I am the Apostle of the gentyls I will magnify myn office
Show all 3 translations
-
I demaund then, Haue they stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid: but through their fall, saluation commeth vnto the Gentiles, to prouoke them to follow them.
Wherefore if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more shall their aboundance be?
For in that I speake to you Gentiles, in as much as I am the Apostle of ye Gentiles, I magnifie mine office,
Cross-references (36)
- Acts 13:46-48 (v11) Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, “It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it…
- Romans 11:31 (v11) even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.
- Romans 10:19 (v11) But I ask, didn’t Israel know? First Moses says, “I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation. I will make you angry with a…
- Acts 9:15 (v13) But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
- Romans 11:14 (v11) if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
Show all 35 cross-references
- Romans 11:12 (v11) Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?
- Romans 11:25 (v12) For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening…
- 2 Timothy 1:11-12 (v13) For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not…
- Ezekiel 18:23 (v11) Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?
- Romans 11:15 (v12) For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?
- Colossians 1:27 (v12) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- Ephesians 3:8 (vv12–13) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Isaiah 11:11–12:6 (v12) It will happen in that day that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people from…
- Ezekiel 18:32 (v11) For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
- Micah 5:7 (v12) The remnant of Jacob will be among many peoples, like dew from Yahweh, like showers on the grass, that don’t wait for man, nor wait for the…
- Acts 28:24-28 (v11) Some believed the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had…
- Romans 9:23 (v12) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
- Romans 15:16-19 (v13) that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the…
- Galatians 1:16 (v13) to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,
- Galatians 2:7-9 (v13) but to the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the uncircumcised, even as Peter with the Good News for…
- 1 Timothy 2:7 (v13) to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
- Isaiah 66:8-20 (v12) Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as…
- Zechariah 2:11 (v12) Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that…
- Acts 13:2 (v13) As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them.”
- Acts 22:21 (v13) “He said to me, ‘Depart, for I will send you out far from here to the Gentiles.’”
- Acts 26:17-18 (v13) delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light…
- Romans 11:1 (v11) I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
- Galatians 2:2 (v13) I went up by revelation, and I laid before them the Good News which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately before those who were…
- Isaiah 60:1-22 (v12) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and Yahweh’s glory has risen on you. For, behold, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness…
- Zechariah 8:20-23 (v12) Yahweh of Armies says: “Many peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come; and the inhabitants of one shall go to another,…
- Acts 18:6 (v11) When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now…
- Romans 11:33 (v12) Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!
- Revelation 11:15-19 (v12) The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and…
- Ezekiel 33:11 (v11) Tell them, ‘ “As I live,” says the Lord Yahweh, “I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and…
- Micah 4:1-2 (v12) But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of Yahweh’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be…
35 distinct cross-references across this passage (36 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. Have they stumbled, etc. You will be greatly…
11. Have they stumbled, etc. You will be greatly hindered in understanding this argument, except you take notice, that the Apostle speaks sometimes of the whole nation of the Jews, and sometimes of single individuals; for hence arises the diversity, that one while he speaks of the Jews as being banished from the kingdom of God, cut off from the tree and precipitated by God’s judgment into destruction, and that at another he denies that they had fallen from grace, but that on the contrary they continued in the possession of the covenant, and had a place in the Church of God.
It is then in conformity with this difference that he now speaks; for since the Jews for the most part rejected Christ, so that perverseness had taken hold almost on the whole nation, and few among them seemed to be of a sane mind, he asks the question, whether the Jewish nation had so stumbled at Christ, that it was all over with them universally, and that no hope of repentance remained. Here he justly denies that the salvation of the Jews was to be despaired of, or that they were so rejected by God, that there was to be no future restoration, or that the covenant of grace, which he had once made with them, was entirely abolished, since there had ever remained in that nation the seed of blessing. That we are so to understand his meaning is evident from this, — that having before connected a sure ruin with blindness, he now gives a hope of rising again; which two things are wholly different. They then, who perversely stumbled at Christ, fell and fell into destruction; yet the nation itself had not fallen, so that he who is a Jew must necessarily perish or be alienated from God.
Read full note →
But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, etc. The Apostle asserts two things in this place, — that the fall of the Jews had turned out for salvation to the Gentiles; but to this end — that they might be kindled by a sort of jealousy, and be thus led to repentance. He no doubt had an eye to the testimony of Moses, which he had already quoted, where the Lord threatened Israel, — that as he had been provoked by them to emulation through their false gods; so he also, according to the law of retaliation, would provoke them by a foolish nation.
The word here used denotes the feeling of emulation or jealousy with which we are excited, when we see another preferred before us. Since then it was the Lord’s purpose that Israel should be provoked to emulation, they were not so fallen as to be precipitated into eternal ruin; but that God’s blessing, despised by them, might come to the Gentiles, in order that they might at length be also stirred up to seek the Lord, from whom they had fallen away.
But there is no reason for readers to weary themselves much as to the application of this testimony: for Paul does not dwell on the strict meaning of the word, but alludes only to a common and well-known practice. For as emulation stimulates a wife, who for her fault has been rejected by her husband, so that she strives to be reconciled again; so it may be now, he says, that the Jews, seeing the Gentiles introduced into their place, will be touched with grief for their divorce, and seek reconciliation.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11–13 God appointed this casting out of the Jews, that…
God appointed this casting out of the Jews, that it might be an occasion to call the Gentiles: and again might turn this calling of the Gentiles, to be an occasion to restore the Jews, to wit, that they being inflamed and provoked by emulation of the Gentiles, might themselves at length embrace the Gospel. And hereby we may learn, that the severity of God serveth as well for the setting forth of his glory as his mercy doth, and also that God prepares himself a way to mercy, by his severity, so that we ought not rashly to despair of any man, nor proudly triumph over other men, but rather provoke them to an holy emulation, that God may be glorified in them also.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they…
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Ver. 11. Have they stumbled] He that stumbleth and comes not down, gets ground.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Hitherto he hath showed that the rejection of the…
Hitherto he hath showed that the rejection of the Jews is not total. Now he comes to prove that it is not final; that before the end of the world they shall be generally called and converted; that they, together with the Gentiles that believe, shall make one sheepfold, and one flock under one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. And for the proving of this, divers arguments are brought by the apostle, (who alone plainly handles this secret), on which he insisteth the longer, for the comfort of the poor Jews, as also for the administration and information of the Gentiles.
Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: here is another prolepsis or anticipation. The Jews might say: If the case be thus, that these holy prophets, Isaiah and David, have foretold our blindness and stumbling, then we are in a hopeless condition, and that for ever. To this he answers, that they have not so stumbled as that they should finally fall, so as never to rise again; far be it from me to affirm any such things: God hath revealed the contrary to me; that he will one day call the Jews again, and restore them to his favour.
Read full note →
Through they fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles: q. d. Out of the forementioned evil there ariseth this good, that the gospel (being rejected by the Jews) is preached to the Gentiles, and they are thereby called and brought to salvation: see Act 13:42,46. Because now at first a few Jews only, and a multitude of Gentiles, are converted, it hath so fallen out, that the ceremonial law is the more easily abrogated, and the doctrine of the gospel and the grace of God is the better established.
To provoke them to jealousy; i.e. the Jews who embrace not the gospel: q. d. This grace that God hath bestowed upon the Gentiles, he will make use of in his appointed time, as a prick of holy jealousy to the Jews; he will by means thereof stir them up to a holy indignation and emulation, to see themselves so far outstripped by those whom they contemned, and thereupon to embrace the gospel, and become the people of God again. Thus, as God hath ordered that the casting away of the Jews should be an occasion of the calling of the Gentiles; so again, on the other hand, the calling of the Gentiles shall be an occasion of the restoring of the Jews.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Our apostle had in the preceding verses proved the…
Our apostle had in the preceding verses proved the rejection of the Jews not to have been total; here he proves, that it shall not be final, but that they shall be generally called before the end of the world.
Here they stumbled, says he, that they should fall? that is, "Have they so stumbled and fallen as never to rise more?" Are they utterly forsaken and cast off?" No such thing; but God in his just and righteous judgment hath permitted them to fall, that they having obstinately refused the gospel, it might be preached to the Gentiles; and their receiving of the gospel, God will in his infinite wisdom make use of, to provoke the Jews to jealousy and emulation, seeing themselves so far outstript by those whom they contemned and despised, and in the close make this jealousy and emulation a mean and occasion of the Jews conversion.
Read full note →
Learn hence, That emulation and jealousy doth heat and heighten the mind of man to an eager pursuit fo the best things.
Observe it in the instance before us: the salvation of the Gentiles bred emulation in the Jews. " What! say the Jews, shall the Gentiles go away with heaven alone, when we thought the vilest people upon earth?
Come, let us put in for a part and share in gospel mercies and privileges with them." Thus they were provoked to emulation, and this emulation occasioned their conversion.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–13 I say then, have they stumbled that they should…
I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?.... This is an objection, which the apostle takes from the mouth of an adversary; and the purport of it is, you say that the people of the Jews being blind, have stumbled at Christ and his Gospel, as was prophesied of them, and to which they were appointed; pray what were God's view and end in this? was it that they should fall and perish eternally? if it be so, is not this doing himself, what he forbids others, namely, "to put a stumblingblock before the blind?" Lev 19:14, and can he be excused from cruelty, and rejoicing at the misery of others? or is their stumbling permitted, that they should "all" fall through unbelief, and be cast away? and so it is an objection of the same kind with Rom 11:1; or since they have stumbled, and have thereby fell into a forlorn and miserable condition, are they always to continue in it, as the last clause in the above cited passage suggests? To which the apostle answers,
God forbid; neither of these are to be admitted of. The end which God had in view, in suffering the Jews to stumble and fall, was not their destruction, but rather the salvation of the Gentiles; and especially not the destruction of "all" of them, blindness had only happened "in part" to them; for there was a remnant among them according to the election of grace, which should be saved; a chosen number, which obtained life and righteousness by Christ; yea, a fulness of them, how small soever their number might be now, which should be brought in; and still less that they should always continue in this sad condition, their unbelief had brought them into; for the time would come, when there would be a receiving of them as life from the dead, when all Israel should be saved. And at present there appeared nothing ill in view,
Read full note →
but rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles. That is, the Gospel; which is sometimes called salvation, the Gospel of our salvation, the word of "salvation"; because it is a declaration of salvation by Christ, and is the power of God unto it; or a means made effectual by the power of God to convince persons, both of their need, and of the worth of it, and also a means of the application of it to them, by the Spirit of God: now this came to the Gentiles by the ministry of the apostles, according to the orders and command of Christ; and that through the fall of the Jews, their unbelief and rejection of the Messiah; for the Gospel was first preached to them, but they contradicting and blaspheming it, the apostles turned to the Gentiles, and preached it to them, as the Lord had commanded them: and thus they came to be acquainted with the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Christ, and to have it powerfully applied to their souls by the Spirit of God; when salvation might be said to "come" to them, in such sense as our Lord says it did to Zacchaeus and his house, Luk 19:9, and another end is to be answered hereby; which is
for to provoke them to jealousy: that is, to provoke the Jews to jealousy; not in an ill sense, as in Rom 10:19, and as they were provoked upon the first sending of the Gospel to the Gentiles, and the calling of them, when they discovered a great deal of envy, wrath, and bitterness; but in a good sense, as will appear in the latter day, when being convinced of their sin in rejecting the Messiah, and observing the many advantages the Gentiles have received by embracing him, and they have lost by their contempt of him, will be provoked to an holy emulation of them, and be stirred up through their means to seek the Lord their God, and David their King; and thus things will wind about in Providence. The fall of the Jews makes way for the Gospel among the Gentiles; and this having had its effects with them, will be a means of putting the Jews upon serious thoughts about, and a studious inquiry after, the true Messiah, and salvation by him; all which is a full answer to the question, and the objection contained in it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Have they stumbled so as to fall - Totally…
Have they stumbled so as to fall - Totally and finally? No But by their fall - Or slip: it is a very soft word in the original. Salvation is come to the gentiles - See an instance of this, Acts xiii, 46. To provoke them - The Jews themselves, to jealousy.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Verse 11. Have they stumbled that they should fall?]…
Verse 11. Have they stumbled that they should fall?] Have the Jews, now for their disobedience and unbelief rejected, so sinned against God as to be for ever put out of the reach of his mercy? By no means. Are they, as a nation, utterly irrecoverable? This is the sense of the place, and here the prophecy of the restoration of the Jewish nation commences.
But rather through their fall salvation is come] The Church of God cannot fail; if the Jews have broken the everlasting covenant, Isa 24:5, the Gentiles shall be taken into it; and this very circumstance shall be ultimately the means of exciting them to seek and claim a share in the blessings of the new covenant; and this is what the apostle terms provoking them to jealousy, i.e. exciting them to emulation, for so the word should be understood. We should observe here, that the fall of the Jews was not in itself the cause or reason of the calling of the Gentiles; for whether the Jews had stood or fallen, whether they had embraced or rejected the Gospel, it was the original purpose of God to take the Gentiles into the Church; for this was absolutely implied in the covenant made with Abraham: and it was in virtue of that covenant that the Gentiles were now called, and not BECAUSE of the unbelief of the Jews. And hence we see that their fall was not the necessary means of the salvation of the Gentiles; for certainly the unbelief of the Jews could never produce faith in the Gentiles. The simple state of the case is: the Jews, in the most obstinate and unprincipled manner, rejected Jesus Christ and the salvation offered them in his name; then the apostles turned to the Gentiles, and they heard and believed. The Jews themselves perceived that the Gentiles were to be put in possession of similar privileges to those which they, as the peculiar people of God, had enjoyed; and this they could not bear, and put forth all their strength in opposition and persecution. The calling of the Gentiles, which existed in the original purpose of God, became in a certain way accelerated by the unbelief of the Jews, through which they forfeited all their privileges, and fell from that state of glory and dignity in which they had been long placed as the peculiar people of God. See Taylor.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Rom 11:11-12. Have they stumbled that, as a nation,…
Rom 11:11-12. Have they stumbled that, as a nation, they should fall — Totally and finally? No: though they have taken such offence at Christ and the gospel that they are rejected by God at present, yet they are not fallen into irrecoverable ruin, so as never more to be owned by God as his people: but rather, through their fall, salvation, that is, the gospel, which is the means of salvation, is come unto the Gentiles — Not but that salvation might have come to the Gentiles if they had stood, but it was the divine appointment that the gospel should be preached to the Gentiles, upon its being rejected by the Jews. Thus in the parable, Mat 22:8-9, they that were bidden were not worthy; Go ye therefore into the highways, &c. See also Luk 14:21; and so the apostles acted. It was necessary, said St. Paul, Act 13:46, that the word of God should first be spoken to you, Jews: but seeing that you put it from you, lo! we turn to the Gentiles. See also Act 18:6. Add to this, that the persecution of the Christians in Judea drove them into other countries, into which, whether private Christians or public teachers, they carried the gospel with them, and by conversation or preaching, communicated the knowledge of it to such as they found willing to receive it. See Act 8:4. To provoke them to jealousy — That is, to excite them to a holy emulation of sharing the blessings to be expected from their own Messiah, when they shall see so many heathen nations enjoying them. For the word παραζηλοω is evidently to be taken here in a good sense, and signifies, to excite others to emulate those who enjoy advantages which they themselves do not possess. “The admission of the Gentiles into the church erected by Christ, was a very proper means of exciting the Jews to emulation; because, when they saw the Gentiles endued with the gifts of the Spirit, and with miraculous powers, and observed the holiness of their lives, and the favour which God showed them; in short, when they found all the blessings and privileges of the people of God bestowed on the Gentiles, they would naturally conclude that the Christian was now the only church of God, and be excited to imitate the Gentiles by entering into it, that they might share with them in these privileges, Rom 11:14; as it is probable a number of them actually did, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem.” — Macknight. Thus, as the rejection of the Jews became an occasion of the calling of the Gentiles, so this calling of the Gentiles will prove an occasion of the restoration of the Jews. For, if the fall of them — That is, their rejecting the gospel, and so falling from the honour and happiness of being God’s people, be the riches of the world — The occasion of God’s spreading the light of his truth and the riches of his grace over all the world. And the diminishing of them — Greek, το ηττημα, the diminution or the lessening of them, by stripping them of their privileges; the riches of the Gentiles — The occasion of his manifesting his abundant mercy in pardoning and saving the heathen; how much more their fulness — That Isaiah , 1 st, The general conversion of them, which the word πληρωμα, here rendered fulness, undoubtedly implies; since the general conversion of the Gentiles is expressed by the same word, Rom 11:25. 2d, The restoring them to their forfeited privileges, and thereby raising them even to more than their former greatness, which is fifty called their fulness, because it will render both themselves and the Christian church complete. For the word πληρωμα, fulness, is properly that which, being added to another thing, makes it complete. Thus Mat 9:16, the patch with which a torn garment is mended, or made complete, has this name given it: and in this sense the church is called, Eph 1:23, το πληρωμα, the fulness of him who filleth all in all; because without the church, which is his body, Christ would not be complete. “The apostle’s meaning is, that a general conversion of the Jews will take place before the end of the world, and will afford to the Gentiles the completest evidence of the truth of the gospel, by showing them that it is the finishing of a grand scheme, which God has been carrying on for the salvation of mankind, by means of his dispensation toward the Jews.” Indeed so many prophecies refer to this grand event, that it is surprising any Christian should doubt of it. And these are greatly confirmed by the wonderful preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, to this day. When it is accomplished, it will be so strong a demonstration both of the Old and New Testament revelation, as will doubtless convince many thousands of Deists, in countries professedly Christian; of whom, under such corrupt establishments as generally prevail, there will, of course, be increasing multitudes among merely nominal Christians. And this will be a means of swiftly propagating the gospel among Mohammedans and Pagans; who would probably have received it long ago, had they conversed only with real Christians.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11–13 Have they stumbled that they should fall? - This…
Have they stumbled that they should fall? - This is to be regarded as an objection, which the apostle proceeds to answer. The meaning is, is it the design of God that the Jews should totally and irrecoverably be cast off? Even admitting that they are now unbelieving, that they have rejected the Messiah, that they have stumbled, is it the purpose of God finally to exclude them from mercy? The expression to stumble is introduced because he had just mentioned a stumbling-stone. It does not mean to fall down to the ground, or to fall so that a man may not recover himself; but to strike the foot against an obstacle, to be arrested in going, and to be in danger of falling. Hence, it means to err, to sin, to be in danger. To fall expresses the state when a man pitches over an obstacle so that he cannot recover himself, but falls to the ground. Hence, to err, to sin, or to be cast off irrecoverably. The apostle shows that this last was not the way in which the Jews had fallen that they were not to be cast off forever, but that occasion was taken by their fall to introduce the Gentiles to the privileges of the gospel, and then they should be restored.
God forbid - By no means; see Rom 11:1.
Read full note →
But rather through their fall - By means of their fall. The word “fall” here refers to all their conduct and doom at the coming of the Messiah, and in the breaking up of their establishment as a nation. Their rejection of the Messiah; the destruction of their city and temple; the ceasing of their ceremonial rites; and the rejection and dispersion of their nation by the Romans, all enter into the meaning of the word “fall” here, and were all the occasion of introducing salvation to the Gentiles.
Salvation - The Christian religion, with all its saving benefits. It does not mean that all the Gentiles were to be saved, but that the way was open; they might have access to God, and obtain his favor through the Messiah.
The Gentiles - All the world that were not Jews. The rejection and fall of the Jews contributed to the introduction of the Gentiles in the following manner:
(1) It broke down the harrier which had long subsisted between them.
(2) It made it consistent and proper, as they had rejected the Messiah, to send the knowledge of him to others.
(3) It was connected with the destruction of the temple, and the rites of the Mosaic Law; and taught them, and all others, that the worship of God was not to be confined to any single place.
(4) The calamities that came upon the Jewish nation scattered the inhabitants of Judea, and with the Jews also those who had become Christians, and thus the gospel was carried to other lands.
(5) These calamities, and the conduct of the Jews, and the close of the Jewish economy, were the means of giving to apostles and other Christians right views of the true design of the Mosaic institutions. If the temple had remained; if the nation had continued to flourish; it would have been long before they would have been effectually detached from those rites. Experience showed even as it was, that they were slow in learning that the Jewish ceremonies were to cease. Some of the most agitating questions in the early church pertained to this; and if the temple had not been destroyed, the contest would have been much longer and more difficult.
For to provoke them to jealousy - According to the prediction of Moses; Deu 32:21; see Rom 10:19.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v11 Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God…
Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. That is, their fall is not irreparable, or so as never to rise again: but by their offending, salvation (through the liberal mercy of God) is come to the Gentiles, that they, the Jews, may be emulous of the Gentiles, and of their happiness, and so may be converted. (Witham) --- 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. (Challoner) --- How much more the fulness of them? As if he should say, if the obstinacy of so many Jews seem to be an occasion upon which God, whose mercy calls whom he pleaseth, hath bestowed the riches of his grace on other nations; and while the glory of the Jews, the elect people of God, has been diminished, the Gentiles have been made happy: how much more glorious will be the fulness of them? that is, according to the common interpretation, will be the re-establishment and conversion of the Jews hereafter, before the end of the world? See St. John Chrysostom, Greek: om. ith. p. 164; St. Hilary, in Ps. lviii; St. Jerome, in chap. iii. Osee. Habacuc iii.; St. Augustine, lib. xx. de Civ. Dei. chap. xxix. --- Then (ver. 15.) the receiving of them into the Church, and their conversion to Christ, shall be like life from the dead, when the Jewish nation in general, shall rise from the death of sin, and their hardened infidelity, to the life of faith and grace. These things I speak to you, Gentiles, to honour and comply with my ministry of being your apostle: yet endeavouring at the same time, if by a pious emulation, or by any other way, I may be able to bring any of my flesh, or of my brethren, the Jews, to be saved by the faith of Christ. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–13 I say then, Have they stumbled--"Did they stumble"
I say then, Have they stumbled--"Did they stumble"
that they should fall? God forbid; but--the supplement "rather" is better omitted.
Read full note →
through their fall--literally, "trespass," but here best rendered "false step" [DE WETTE]; not "fall," as in our version.
salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy--Here, as also in Rom 10:19 (quoted from Deu 32:21), we see that emulation is a legitimate stimulus to what is good.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–13 2. Resultant Benefits of Israel’s Fall to Gentiles—Glorious yet…
2. Resultant Benefits of Israel’s Fall to Gentiles—Glorious yet Conditional, Rom_11:11-22.
11. Stumbled… fall—Palliating the apostasy of the Jews, the apostle distinguishes between a mere stumble and a fall. The former indicates recoverability, the latter finality of failure.
Read full note →
Provoke… jealousy—Arouse them by the rich display of mercy through the Gospel to an emulation for seeking like blessings. Our Saviour confined his ministry to the Jews; for reason see note on Matthew 10. The apostles first preached to Jews. Paul first preached to Jews, and it was not until by them rejected that he said, “Since ye count yourselves unworthy of eternal life we go to the Gentiles.” (Act_13:46.) And so at the Rome to which this epistle is written he said to the rejecting Jews, “The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will hear it.” (See Act_28:28.) Thus did the fall of the Jews become the riches of the Gentiles.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11–32. Moreover, the rejection is not final: it has…
11–32. Moreover, the rejection is not final: it has a providential purpose to serve; but a great reversal of it is in store
11. I say then] Same word as Rom_11:1. Here begins a new section of the discussion, lasting to the end of the chapter, and of the subject. St Paul has shewn that the rejection of Israel was never total; he now declares that it is not final. A time is to come when the mass of the bodily Israel shall believe, and be restored to the Church.
Read full note →
Have they stumbled] Lit. and better, Did they stumble; i.e. when they, as a nation, rejected Messiah. Cp. the figure of the “stumbling-block” to illustrate Jewish unbelief, 1Co_1:23; Gal_5:11.
that they should fall] Q. d., “Was their stumbling permitted by God with a view to their fall?” Evidently here “fall” (by contrast with “stumble”) bears the sense of final and fatal rejection. Was the nation then and there for ever cut off from becoming, on any national scale, Christian?
God forbid] For the spirit of these words here, see Rom_9:1-5.
through their fall] Better, on occasion of their sinful stumbling. The word rendered “fall” is that elsewhere (e.g. Rom_4:25, Rom_5:15, &c.; Gal_6:1; Eph_2:1;) rendered “trespass,” “fault,” “offence,” &c. Literally it is “a falling aside;” and thus nearly approaches the idea of “stumbling.” Since elsewhere in N. T. it always conveys the idea of guilt, we attempt to combine the moral and literal meanings as above. No doubt the word is chosen by St Paul with reference to the metaphors, just used, of stumbling and prostration; and it is intended to mark a temporary, not final, “false step.” The E. V. fails to keep this point.—The salvation of Gentiles was indeed always in the Divine purpose; but Jewish unbelief was the occasion which that purpose took for its actual developement.
salvation] Lit. the salvation; that salvation which was “of the Jews;” Messiah’s way of peace. Cp. Act_28:28.
for to provoke them] i.e. the Jews. See Rom_10:19. Here is seen, as through a veil, a suggestion of mercy conveyed in the warning of judgment in Deu_32:21. The “provocation to jealousy” was indeed in numberless instances to result only in mortification and hatred; but in numberless other instances (this surely is in view here) it was to result in an intense desire to regain the blessings of the covenant side by side with Gentile believers. Cp. perhaps, Rev_3:9[43].
[43] See Abp. Trench’s Commentary there.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–13 (11) The Jews did, indeed, stumble at the stumbling-block…
(11) The Jews did, indeed, stumble at the stumbling-block mentioned in Rom_9:32-33. Many were offended at Christ. But did their stumbling involve their utter and final ruin? It had a far more beneficent purpose than that. It brought salvation to the Gentiles, and it did this only to react as an incentive upon the Jews.
For to provoke them to jealousy.—The reason why salvation had been extended to the Gentiles was to stir up them (the Jews) to emulation. Their privileges had made them negligent and apathetic. The sight of others stepping into those privileges was to rouse them from their apathy
Read full note →
(11-24) In this section the Apostle goes on to consider further the bearings of the rejection, and here, first (Rom_11:11-16), he considers the more hopeful side of it as regards the Jews themselves; their fall was not to be final, and there was every reason to think that their reconversion would more than make up for their fall; secondly (Rom_11:17-24), he turns to the Gentiles and bids them remember how it was that they came to be inserted like a graft in the true theocratic stem, and warns them not to make use of their new privilege to boast against those who were refused to make way for them.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 Vers. 11, 12. I say then, Have they stumbled…
Vers. 11, 12. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? i.e. in such wise as to fall, rightly given in the Vulgate as sic ut caderent. There is no need here to press the telic use of ina in ina peswsi , so as to require the translation, "that they might fall." It is rather the use of contemplated Result. god forbid. But by their fall (rather, trip, or false step). The word is paraptwma , suitably used here in view of the figure of stumbling. The idea is that they had stumbled over the "stumbling-block" above spoken of, but not so as to lie hopelessly prostrate. Calvin translates well, "Num impegerunt ut corruerent?" and "eoram lapsu." Alford adopts "lapse" for paraptwma . But the word, as used in English, is not equivalent. If we retain the rendering "fall," we must understand a partial or temporary fall, not prostration from which there is no recovery.
Salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. (The word parazhlwsai with the idea conveyed by it, is from Deu_32:21, which see) Now if the fall ( praptwma , as above) of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness? The words htthma and plhrwma , rendered in tile Authorized Version diminishing" and fulness," have been variously understood. They are in contrast with each other, and must evidently be understood with reference to the same idea. Now, plhrwma , as used afterwards in ver. 25 acriv ou to plhrwma twn eynwn eselyh , seems plainly to mean the full complement of the Gentiles; and so here must surely be meant the full complement of the Jews, pointing to the same idea as,as Israhl in ver. 26. If so, htthma must mean the defect from such full complement not. indeed (as some have explained), the small number (i.e. of believers) now opposed to the full number in the future, but abstractedly, defect, or fewness, as opposed to fulness. This interpretation agrees with the meaning of htthma in the only other place where it occurs in the New Testament, viz. 1Co_6:7, where it seems to signify "defect," though used in that passage with a moral reference. The reason why the present htthma of the Jews is the riches of the Gentiles is that the refusal of the Jews to accept the gospel had been the occasion of its being offered to the Gentiles. (cf. Act_13:46 Act_28:28; also Mat_15:24 Mat_22:9) It is not, of course, meant that the gospel was not originally intended for all the world, but only that the present and immediate promulgation of it to the Gentiles had been due to the Jews" refusal. Otherwise, we may conceive, it would have been after the fulness of the Jews had come in that it would have been extended through them to the Gentiles. (cf. Rom_15:8, Rom_15:9) Cf. Isa 60, where, as in other prophetic passages, the vision presented is that of the scattered sons of Israel being first brought into the glorified holy city, and the Gentiles gathering round them through the ever-open gates.
Read full note →
Vers. 11-32. The Jewish people: their past history and their future prospects.
The Jew is the greatest modern miracle. He is an absolutely unique figure in the history of the world. In every nation you find him, an exile and a fugitive, a stranger and a foreigner. Whence came he? how came he hither? He claims our respect, our attention, our pity, our Christian sympathy. These verses are a strong enforcement of the lessons of Israel"s history and a stirring appeal on Israel"s behalf.
I THEIR PAST HISTORY.
1. They were the chosen people of God. This is an absolutely unique distinction so far as races of men are concerned. All who are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, of whatever nation they may be, are in that sense the chosen people of God. But no single nation can ever claim to be the chosen people of God, except the Jews.
2. They were chosen to be a blessing to the world. The promise to Abraham was, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." Wherever they went they carried with them the knowledge of the one true God; they have been a testimony to the nations of God"s faithfulness and justice; and at the same time they executed God"s judgments upon the nations for the preserving and purifying of the world. The Jews have been the historians of the world. A Jewish hand wrote the history of the creation. Jewish hands wrote the history of Israel"s connection with Egypt and Assyria and other great nations, which modern discoveries of ancient monuments and relics are confirming more strongly every day. When the Greek historian Herodotus, who has been called "the father of history," was only beginning to write, Nehemiah, the last of the Old Testament historians, was already beginning to write. The Jews have been the teachers of the world. Unto them were committed the oracles of God. They prepared the way, too, for the coming of the Saviour.
3. Even in their humiliation and dispersion they have brought blessing to the world. "The fall of them" has been "the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles" (ver. 12). "Through their fall salvation has came "to the Gentiles" (ver. 11). "God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew. He is still the God of Israel. The Jews may be despised, they may be hated by men, they may be neglected even by Christians who owe so much to them; but they are still the chosen people of God, bringing blessings even in their fall to those that despise them.
II THEIR FUTURE PROSPECTS.
1. There is hope for Israel in the promises of God. As surely as God predicted the dispersion of the Jews, and that came to pass, so surely has he predicted a restoration of the Jews, and this also will come to pass. Many eminent Christians believe that there will be a literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine. It is remarkable that the late Mr. Lawrence Oliphant, in his book "The Land of Gilead," advocates, not for Christian reasons at all, but as a mercantile man, the colonization of Palestine by Jews, on the ground that they are the natural cultivators of the land, and that the country has never prospered except under Jewish proprietorship. But we are more specially concerned with the promises of their spiritual restoration. The Old Testament prophecies are full of these. "But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me". (Isa_49:14-16) Again, we are told that it is but for a moment that God"s face is hidden from his people; and that in Israel"s restoration "all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob". (Isa_49:26) And here in the New Testament, even after Israel"s rejection of the Messiah, St. Paul emphatically reasserts the certainty of Israel"s restoration. Though they, the natural branches, were broken off for a time, "God is able to graft them in again" (ver. 23). "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (ver. 25). But when that time comes "all Israel shall be saved" (ver. 26). God will yet be as the dew unto Israel.
2. In the present position of the Jews there are many things that point to a bright future for God"s ancient people. Though scattered among the nations, they still preserve their identity and individuality. They have not been absorbed or assimilated by the larger and stronger races among whom they are placed. This in itself would seem to point to a great future in store for them. Not only so, but it points to a great blessing in store for the nations by means of them. "If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" (ver. 15). When M"Cheyne returned from Palestine, he preached a sermon from the words, "To the Jew first," advocating Christian missions to the Jews on the ground that judgment will begin with the Jews, on the ground of God"s special love for the Jews, on the ground of peculiar access to the Jews, and on the ground that the Jews, if converted, will give life to the whole world. This last is a point which deserves more attention than it receives. From their peculiar position, scattered throughout the nations, and being of an industrious and commercial disposition, the Jews are specially fitted to do missionary work. Reach the Jews as a people, bring them under the influence of the gospel, and through them you reach the whole world. Many writers who have given careful attention to this subject are of opinion that the success of missions to the heathen will be comparatively small until the Holy Spirit will enable the Jews to acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, until he employs them as his instrument in the proclamation of the gospel among the nations. The Prophet Zechariah seems to favour that view when he says, "In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you". (Zec_8:23)
III PRACTICAL LESSONS ENFORCED BY THIS SUBJECT.
1. The necessity of personal faith. While we consider God"s dealings with Israel for their unbelief and disobedience, let us consider our own relationship to God. "Be not highminded, but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee" (vers. 20, 21). Christian profession and Christian privileges will not save us, unless we have a personal and living union with Jesus Christ the Saviour.
2. The duty of sympathetic efforts on behalf of Israel. "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy" (vers. 30, 31). God will fulfil his promises of the conversion of Israel just as he fulfils all his promises by the use of means; by the missionary efforts of the Christian Church. C.H.I.
Vers. 11-16. How much more!
Blindness and hardness have come upon Israel, so that they have rejected their Christ, and consequently God has rejected them. They have stumbled, and have missed the way of life. But have they stumbled that they might permanently fall? Can God not work to some other, some better end than this? Shall not even their evil be overruled for good? Such is the question propounded by the apostle here; and in the following verses, glancing with prophetic insight into the promise of the future, he sees and declares the answer. Israel may still be the elect people; its very reprobation works for the world"s salvation; how much more shall its re-election!
I Israel may still be the elect people. God chose them from the first, doubtless for some special fitness of spiritual temperament, to be his chief workers in the world. In Abraham he called them forth; in Isaac, in Jacob, he blessed them. The fathers of the race had worked for him, responding to his election: they were thus holy unto the Lord. But they were only the firstfruits; they were the root. The whole portion of the human race represented by them were to be similarly set apart for God"s proposes; the branches springing from that root were to blossom and bear fruit likewise. And so, even in the future, this now unbelieving people might fulfil their primal mission, turning unto the Lord.
II Israel"s reprobation works for the world"s salvation. So close is the connection in which Israel stands to the world"s salvation, that even now, reprobate people as they are, salvation springs from them, and from the very facts which occasioned their own stumbling. The cross oh, how has that symbol of shame become the object towards which all the nations turn! "To the Jews a stumbling-block:" nevertheless, Christ crucified draws all men unto him! Their very fall, then, is the riches of the world; their loss the riches of the Gentiles. Out of them, even in their ruin, must the world"s deliverance come; for "salvation is of the Jews.
III What sort of salvation, then, shall be for the world when all Israel shall be saved? This is the final outlook of the apostle"s prophecy. And for this he does so glory in his apostleship. For the very salvation of the Gentiles now, without the Jews, must in time provoke the Jews to jealousy; they must one day look on with hungry, wistful eyes as they see the multitudes that have come from the east and west, and north and south, sitting down at the table of God. And when they turn unto their own Christ, and receive the new life of his gospel, oh, what an electric thrill shall pass through the whole world! It shall be, even to the converted Gentile nations, as life from the dead. "The light which converted Jews bring to the Church, and the power of life which they have sometimes awakened in it, are the pledge of that spiritual renovation which will be produced in Gentile Christendom by their entrance en masse. " Think, ibr example, again, of the labours of such men as Neander (see Godet, in loc. ).
The future is full of glorious hope. But meanwhile how much loss is occasioned by their continued unbelief! Let us beware that the purposes of God through us are not in like manner frustrated; that, being designed to some high mission for the world"s good, we do not make void the election of God. T.F.L.
Vers. 11-32. Israel"s future.
In the section now before us we find the apostle passing from the judicial blindness which had come upon his countrymen to its providential purpose. For God can make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of that wrath he can restrain. (Psa_76:10) Hence the blind course pursued by the Jews is made the opportunity for the Gentiles. Paul, when the Jews would not receive the gospel, turned to the Gentiles, and had his success as apostle to the heathen. But the Gentiles, in their turn, are to contemplate the restoration of the Jews to God"s favour, and to work for it. Israel is to be yet gathered into God, and when this desirable consummation comes, it will be as life unto the rest of the world. The future of Israel is what the apostle consequently in this paragraph discusses. And
I THE FALL OF ISRAEL OPENED UP A WAY FOR THE SALVATION OF THE GENTILES. (Vers. 11, 12) There is a strange unity in the human organism, so that when one part suffers another part is saved. How often, by applying a blister to an external part, the inflammation of an internal part is relieved! We have the same law of vicarious suffering obtaining in the human race. It is an organic whole on a vastly larger scale. And so we find one race suffering for the benefit of the others. Take the case of France, for example, and do we not see in it a nation which has been suffering from governmental experiments since before the Revolution, and becoming thereby a beacon and a blessing to the other nations of the earth? In the very same way, the Jewish nation, through rejecting Jesus, led to the evangelization of the Gentiles; and, as the "tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast," the children of Israel have been among the most precious proofs of the Divinity of our Scriptures. Their fall has thus been the riches of the world; the diminishing of them has been the riches of the Gentiles. The sad fate which made exiles and aliens of Israel has led to the acceptance and sonship of the Gentiles. Moreover, the apostle argues that the fulness of the Jews, when this comes round, will be the condition of still more abundant blessing to the Gentile nations. A suffering nation leads to the blessing of other nations; when the suffering shall cease, still more abundant blessing shall be the result.
II THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES HOLDS BEFORE THEM THE HOPE OF STILL MORE ABUNDANT BLESSING WHEN THE JEWS ARE GATHERED IN. (Vers. 13-15) As s skilful apostle, he wants to play the one against the other. He would stir up the Jews to jealousy by showing them how much the gospel has benefited the Gentiles; in this way he would try to save some of them. On the other hand, he would hold before the Gentiles the hope of far greater blessing when the Jews would be gathered in, and so set the Gentiles upon the enterprise of saving the Jews. Israel will thus be a stimulus to missionary enterprise. A great revival of spiritual life is to be expected through the ingathering of the Jews. So great will it be as to be properly compared to a resurrection, "life from the dead;" consequently the Gentiles, as a matter of spiritual profit, should seek the salvation of Israel. In this way Paul promotes the amity of the nations. He shows that in mutual good will is to be found their very highest good.
III FROM THE HOLINESS OF THE JEWISH FIRSTFRUITS, AND OF THE JEWISH ROOT, THE APOSTLE FURTHER ARGUES TO THE HOLINESS OF THE LUMP AND THE BRANCHES. (Ver. 16) Now, the apostle here speaks of the benefit and blessing which the Jewish stock had already been to the world. Some take the reference in the firstfruits and root to be to the fathers referred to in ver. 28; the idea being that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were "holy," that is, set apart, and so are their descendants to be. Others take it as referring to the elect Jews, such as Paul and the eleven, who, being saved, rendered hopeful the salvation of their fellows. But we think the firstfruits and toot can only apply fully to him who was the real Firstfruits and "the Root out of the dry ground." The apostle"s argument in this case would be this: If Jesus, the seed of.Abraham and real root of the true Israelitish race, has been such a preeminent blessing to the race, how much may we expect when the Jewish lump and the Jewish branches get consecrated to God as he has been! In this way the apostle follows up his suggested hope, enlarges it, and makes it the fountain of enterprise, with a view to the conversion of the Jewish race. We should not forget that the most influential and life-giving individual who ever lived in this world was a Jew; and, while we can never expect any of his countrymen to come up to his standard of blessing, we may and ought to expect that the conversion of Christ"s race to God must be of pre-eminent service to all the other nations of the earth. And as a matter of fact, Jews like Neander, who have got converted and consecrated, have become mighty blessings to their fellow-men. And so we hope great things from the first fruits and the root.
IV THE APOSTLE WARNS THE GENTILES THAT THEIR ENGRAFTING INTO THE OLIVE TREE OF CHRISTIANITY CARRIES WITH IT SERIOUS RESPONSIBILITIES. (Vers. 17-24) The Jews who have rejected Christ are branches broken off the real Root. In their place the Gentiles have been engrafted, so that the "eternal sap" proceeding from Christ the Root, and which should otherwise have sustained these Jews, passes over to the Gentiles. But now a fact about the olive tree is utilized by the apostle. Van Lennep tells us, in his work on the Holy Land, that "the olive tree grows to so great an age that the old wild root sometimes conquers the better graft, so that the fruit deteriorates, and the tree must needs be grafted anew" (p. 125). It is this fact which the apostle makes the ground of his warning. If the Gentiles, forgetting that it was solely through God"s grace they had been grafted in, got infected with Jewish pride and self-righteousness, so that their fruit-bearing deteriorated, there would be nothing for it but through a new engrafting of the better Jewish stock to restore the olive tree to fruitfulness. God"s severity to the broken-off Jewish branches should make the Gentiles very humble and very earnest, lest it come round upon themselves. They should continue in the enjoyment of God"s goodness by exercising humble faith and ardent effort. If they will not discharge their responsibilities, they may expect likewise to be broken off. Unfaithful nations have been cut off the candlesticks and Churches have been removed.
V ISRAEL"S PARTIAL BLINDNESS IS PERMITTED UNTIL THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES IS COME IN. (Ver. 25) To prevent the Gentiles being wise in their own conceits, the apostle explains the mystery that Israel"s blindness has been permitted that the fulness of the Gentiles should be gathered in. The Gentiles have now their chance supplied. Their ingathering into Christ"s kingdom is God"s great present purpose. Missions to the heathen, the continuance of Paul"s work, are to be prosecuted m the hope of abundant ingathering. The privileges of the gospel are thus laid at the door of the heathen. In this way the great pioneer missionary, St. Paul, would foster the twofold missionary enterprise; he would have the most earnest effort put forth that the heathen nations should be gathered in; he would also have the saved Gentiles to seek still greater blessing through the ingathering of the Jew.
VI ISRAEL AS A NATION IS TO BE SAVED AS THE CROWNING ACT OF GOD"S MERCY. (Vers. 26-32) When it is said, "All Israel shall be saved," it cannot mean that every individual Jew is to come right at last. Paul"s doctrine is not "That not one life shall be destroyed, Or cast as rubbish to the void, When God hath made the pile complete; but evidently that Israel in its national capacity shall yet be gathered home to God. As touching the election, the Jewish nation or race is beloved for the fathers" sakes. And God"s gifts and callings are without repentance. Consequently, we ought to entertain the hope that the Jewish nation shall yet be restored to God"s favour and be saved. And this is to be done through the mercy extended to the Jews by the saved Gentiles. In other words, the Jewish problem is to be solved by a mission to them from the Gentiles. In this way God has overruled the unbelief of Jews to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the conversion of the Gentiles is next to be utilized for the ingathering of the Jews. When the fulness of the Gentiles is followed by the conversion of the Jewish people, we may expect that unprecedented spiritual life and power and energy shall then be experienced over universal Christendom. May the consummation so desirable be hastened! R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should…
Rom_11:11-22
I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?
Read full note →
The rejection of Israel
I. How occasioned.
1. They stumbled at Christ.
2. Were rejected because of their unbelief.
II. How overruled.
1. For the benefit of the Gentiles.
2. Indirectly for their own.
III. How finally compensated.
1. By their fulness.
2. By enlarged blessing upon the world. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The fall of Israel is
I. Temporary (verses 11-16).
1. It was overruled for the benefit of the world, because in consequence of their unbelief the preachers of the gospel turned to the Gentiles (Act_13:16).
2. Their fulness--
(1) Must be the occasion of still greater blessing (Rom_11:12-15).
(2) Must be the reflex effect of the success of the gospel among the Gentiles (Rom_11:13-14).
(3) Is guaranteed by the firstfruits (Rom_11:15-16).
II. Admonitory.
1. We should not despise but pity them (Rom_11:17-18).
2. Their fall--
(1) Is a warning to us (Rom_11:19-21).
(2) Should excite admiration of the goodness and severity of God (Rom_11:22).
(3) Should awaken hope and efforts for their recovery. (J. Lyth, D.D)
Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world,… how much more their fulness?--
The calling of the Jews the enriching of the world
Learn--
I. God makes all mutations of states to serve to the good of the elect. If the Jews stand it is good; so is it if they fall, and shall be in their rising again. The prosperity of Egypt shall serve the good of Abraham; the destruction of Egypt the good of his children. All His ways are good to such as keep His testimonies.
II. The conversion of the Jews shall be the riches of the world. The more receive of the treasures of Gods grace the greater is every ones part. So is it not in the treasure of princes. If the king bestow a thousand pounds upon one man it is a great gift; if upon two it is the less to each by half; if upon a thousand it is but a small matter to every one. But in Gods treasures multitudes of partakers diminish not but increase anothers part. The more drink of the waters of life the more floweth the fountain, the more the merrier. Where two or three are gathered together, there is Christ, but where more, there He is the more graciously. The prayer of one availeth much, how much more the prayers of many righteous? Force united is the stronger. Many streams make a great river, many drops a great flood, many sparks a great flame. How might we prevail with God if our whole people would join with one mind and affection in the service of God!
III. The gospel, faith, repentance, etc., are true riches. Gold, silver, etc., but shadows to these; therefore the man that had his barns full and his conscience empty, not being rich in God, is called fool. Hast thou silver and gold? But if thou hast not a good conscience, the poorest man that feareth God will not change states with thee.
IV. The conversion of the Jews shall be our riches. It should make us think long for their calling. Gain is pleasing to hear of, but more to have it. Knowledge shall then increase upon us as the waters that cover the sea; the light of the moon shall be as the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold. Zeal and all good graces shall increase. A great light is now risen, but a greater shall arise. Let us pray and long for the revealing of such riches, and in the meantime mourn for the hardness of the Jews, and cry unto God, Visit Thy ancient people with Thy salvation.
V. The casting off of the Jews was our calling; but the calling of the Jews shall not be our casting off, but our greater enriching in grace, and that two ways:
1. In regard of the company of believers when the thousands of Israel shall come in, which shall doubtless cause many Gentiles which now lie in ignorance, error, and doubt receive the gospel and join with them. The world shall then be a golden world, rich in golden men, saith Ambrose.
2. In respect of the graces which shall then in more abundance be rained down on the Church. There shall be more good, and they shall be also more good. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.--
Paul magnifying his office
I. Pauls office. The apostle of the Gentiles. Specially--
1. Commissioned.
2. Qualified.
3. Successful.
II. How he magnified it.
1. Not by boasting of it, but faithfully fulfilling it.
2. Not by confining himself to the Gentiles, but seeking the benefit of all.
3. Not by glorying in the fall of Israel, but anticipating the blessings associated with their recovery. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Church offices and magnifying them
In the Church--
I. Every man has his own office.
1. Higher or lower.
2. Assigned by the Great Head.
3. For which he is specially qualified.
4. Therefore responsible.
II. Should magnify it.
1. Not by glorying in it, but by rightly appreciating it.
2. Not by assumption, but fidelity.
3. Not by despising others, but encouraging them. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Necessaries of the ministerial office
To be prepared for this office we must--
1. Seek to possess ourselves with the most just and influential apprehensions of its nature and high designs.
2. Cherish a devout persuasion of its efficacy.
3. Endeavour to imbibe and visibly to cultivate the spirit appropriate to its discharge.
4. Give to its fulfilment the unreserved and constant dedication of our highest powers. This must appear under the form of
(1) Preparation.
(2) Public labour.
(3) Private assiduity.
5. Continue in the course thus described--
(1) With perseverance and watchfulness unto the end.
(2) With a meek endurance of every trial and privation to which it may expose us.
(3) With cheerful making of every sacrifice necessary to its fulfilment.
6. Cultivate habitual and solemn anticipations of its issues. (R. MAll, D.D.)
The dignity of the Christian ministry
The word magnify, employed to express the qualities of an object or pursuit, conveys the idea of something highly esteemed, honourable, glorious. And this is the estimate which Paul put on the office he sustained as a minister of Jesus Christ. The dignity of the Christian ministry may be seen by contemplating--
I. The authority by which it acts. That the Christian ministry has had its origin in an appointment directly from Heaven, it were folly for any to question who bow to the teachings of revelation. This claim has been asserted from the beginning, and in not a single instance has it ever been modified or relinquished. I say not that the ministry of the New Testament is in all respects identical with that of the Old. There is now no official earthly priesthood, for the one great Sacrifice has been offered once for all. And yet I do say that, as a Divinely appointed agency to meet the spiritual wants of the world, the ministry is not peculiar to the Christian dispensation. The ministry, and, in its most important attributes, the Christian ministry too, has existed under every revelation of the gospel as the medium of spiritual intercourse between Heaven and earth. Change of names, or of forms, or of outward service, does nothing to disturb what is strictly essential to the great ministerial function, nor to mar the integrity of that gracious system in which it has ever held an indispensable place.
II. The objects it contemplates. In all the departments of mans social condition we discover ample proofs of the salutary influence which the ministry is fitted to exert. The influence of the pulpit upon the intellectual condition of man is a subject worthy the profoundest thought of all who are lovers of their kind. There is no agency under heaven that can bear with so much power upon the convictions and motives of humanity as the ministry of the gospel. Compared with the attainments of the human mind under the influence of Christianity, all its achievements amid the most favourable auspices of paganism are light and trivial. It was reserved for teachers mightier than those of the Academy or the Lyceum to proclaim to the world those great principles upon which its elevation, purity, and glory are made to rest. In like manner must it be said that the ministry of the gospel constitutes a most essential element in the progress of civilisation. The science of government, the theory of civil and religious liberty, are properly understood and appreciated only where the pulpit is true to its glorious mission. But to the ministry of the gospel appertains still higher honour. The gospel has to do pre-eminently with mans spiritual nature, and has a direct bearing upon interests that affect his eternal destiny. The ministry goes forth on its benevolent mission. It preaches the gospel--the gospel as a source of light, making known a new element in the character of God--an element of mercy. It preaches the gospel as a source of power, by which the bondage of depravity is broken, the prey is taken from the mighty, and the captive is made free. It preaches the gospel as a source of consolation, by which the spirit is cheered amid all the trials of life, till Death itself falls a conquered monster at his feet, and he is away to the bosom of his Father and his God. And I ask, must not the instrumentality that stands connected with such glorious results as these be of all others the most dignified and important?
III. The means which it employs. Though several agencies might be mentioned having a concurrent influence in accomplishing the objects of the ministry, yet there is one that holds such a preeminence above all others, that we shall confine our attention to it alone: it is truth--the truth as it is in Jesus. How comprehensive and profound, how noble and soul-stirring the themes there presented for investigation!
IV. The aids that are pledged to it. Among these we specially note the Spirit and Providence of God. Is there anything the mind can contemplate more truly sublime and beautiful than this alliance of the weakness of humanity with the strength of Divinity? thus constituting the ministry associate labourers with the eternal God in the regeneration of the world! But the Providence of God is also pledged to aid in the same great enterprise. Christ, the Author of the gospel and the Founder of the ministry, is Head over all things to the Church. Not only by Him were all things created, but by Him also are they sustained and controlled and made subservient to the accomplishment of His purposes of grace. (D. Kennedy, D.D.)
The ministerial office not an easy one
To one who regretted to Dr. Johnson that he had not been a clergyman because the life of a clergyman was an easy and comfortable one, the Doctor replied, The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. No, sir, I do not envy a clergymans life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy life.
If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh.--
Provoking to emulation
My text calls us to consider--
I. The heart of man in a state of indifference towards the unspeakable gift of God.
1. The Jew was satisfied with that which ought not to have satisfied him, and he was indifferent towards that for which he should have craved. He had sacrifices, and should have been watching for the Lamb of God. He had a schoolmaster whose mission it was to lead him to Christ, but he was satisfied with the pedagogue. Toward certain national blessings he was anything but indifferent, but for the incomparable blessings of the kingdom he had no heart.
2. All this is not so much Jewish as human. The emulation of our first mother was, by the primitive temptation, misdirected. Abel was provoked to emulation by the promise of redemption, but Cain was excited to anger, and Adams immediate posterity soon became dead in trespasses and sins. Noah was moved with fear, but the world was immovable. Abraham was inspired to become a wanderer, but his near relatives sought a continuing city. Israel was stirred up by Moses to leave Egypt, but soon they preferred to return. From the time of the dedication of the temple the nation began to decline, and then (Isa_1:8; Hos_7:8; Hos_8:9) no promise or prophecy provoked them to emulation.
3. In the fulness of time the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. But His generation was crooked and perverse toward Him; His own slew Him, and His disciples were slow of heart toward Him. An inferior being would not have been slain. Christ was too good for the people. Their emulation was too low to reach such an object. At and after the day of Pentecost, many Jews were provoked to emulation, but this emulation passed away.
4. No sooner had the light of the world begun to shine than a cry arose for the twilight of Judaism and for the night of Paganism. Men asked and received, they sought and found. And the history of the Church is very much the sad story of the substitution of error for truth. The Reformation provoked to emulation, and subsequently Wesley and Whitfield; but now as heretofore we seem to hear a cry, Not this man, but Barabbas. Not Christ, but Antichrist. We might speak of millions outside Christendom whose emulation carries them no higher than a senseless idol. We might speak of Christendom content with the human where nothing should satisfy but the Divine.
5. But let us look at our own flesh. Multitudes in our England live but to gratify the lowest appetites; their emulation does not raise them to the level of the beasts that perish. Many, free from animal lusts, live for light pleasure and for small enjoyments. A large majority live to earn and to eat the bread that perisheth. Some live to climb to dizzy heights in the social scale. Now that which is good among these varied objects is far below the highest good. There is a spirit in man to satisfy as well as a body. There is Godlike blessedness within reach as well as temporary pleasure, bread that endureth unto everlasting life, honour that cometh from God, but toward these things the multitude in this nation have no emulation.
6. And among those who profess to have accepted the highest good we often observe a low emulation. One has the form of godliness without the power. Another has a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Others limit their religion to orthodox opinions, or sensations, or correct conduct. The godly emulation of the people is low.
II. Behold one who has himself received the unspeakable gift, striving to remove indifference from others.
1. There was much in Christ calculated to arouse. He baptized with fire. He brought not peace only, but a sword. The spirit of His ministry was the spirit of expostulation with those who were satisfied with evil called good, or with a lower kind of good than He offered. He spake as the old prophet (Isa_55:2; cf. Joh_4:13-14; Joh_6:27).
2. John Baptist preached in harmony with this spirit of Christ Jesus. The axe is to be laid to the root of the tree; chaff is to be burned with unquenchable fire. And when men were inclined to rest in him, he cried, He that cometh after me is mightier than I.
3. The manifest tendency of the teaching of Jesus to provoke to emulation led in part to His crucifixion. It was this which imprisoned Peter, and stoned Stephen, and beheaded James, and scourged Paul and Silas.
4. The life and example of Paul wrought upon indifference. He provoked the indolent by his activity, the bigot by his charity, the careless by his consistency, the changeable by his belief, the half-hearted by his zeal, and the cold-hearted by the heat of his enthusiasm and love. Unbelievers and false brethren were not at ease in his presence. He stirred men also by direct endeavours for their salvation. If by any means I may save some. Any means--by preaching and teaching, entreaty, persuasion; wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove, all things to all men to save some.
5. Oh! for Paul-like men to provoke to emulation them which are our flesh! According to our power and opportunity let us try and do it. Our fellow-citizens are near us. We must travel sixteen thousand miles to stir the Japanese and Chinese. Our own flesh are always with us. They see our conduct, and understand our language. To foreigners we may be unable, individually, to set a good example; we cannot address them, but we have opportunity to provoke to emulation our own people. Suffer the example of Paul to provoke you to this good work. But I have something better to present than the example of Paul, even that of Christ. Is this pattern too perfect? Then for the present follow Paul, and let him be your pedagogue unto Christ. (S. Martin.)
Concern for kindred
I. Our kindred have special claims upon our consideration.
II. No means should be spared to awaken their religious feeling.
III. Nothing short of their salvation should satisfy us.
IV. If we cannot save all, at least let us save some. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?--
The conversion of the Jews
The rejection of the Jews deeply affected the apostle. But there were three things which afforded him some consolation in the view of it. They were not all cast away; their rejection was the occasion of spreading the gospel among the Gentiles; they should yet be called in, and made instrumental of enlarging the Church of Christ. I shall show--
I. That the Jews will be called in. God has dispersed them, and therefore His calling them in must imply not only the taking away of the veil from their hearts, but also His restoring them to their own land. These two things cannot be separated any more than cause and effect.
1. This event is repeatedly foretold (Isa_27:12-13; Eze_11:16-20; Hos_1:10-11; Amo_9:14-15; Zec_14:21).
2. The preservation of the Jews confirms these predictions. They have been scattered among all nations for two thousand years, and yet remain distinct, while all other conquered nations have become blended with their conquerors. What other reason can be assigned for this but the Divine purpose of restoring them to their native land? In this view they have been, ever since their dispersion, a standing monument of the truth of God in His predictions, and of the faithfulness of God in His promise to Abraham.
3. This is further confirmed by their peculiar circumstances. They never have been permitted to own any particular country, or to establish any particular government. And though they have generally enjoyed temporal prosperity, yet their wealth has always consisted in personal and not in landed property. So that they have no attachment to any particular place or government, but constantly stand ready to march whenever the promised Messiah shall lead them in triumph to their native land.
II. Some of the happy effects which will flow from this event.
1. It will greatly confirm the truth of Divine revelation. There are more particular and express predictions concerning the restoration of the Jews than concerning any other event. And whenever it shall take place it will be more easy to discern the agreement between the predictions and their accomplishment than it has been in any other case whatever.
2. According to the text the restoration of the Jews shall have a greater tendency to convert mankind than their dispersion had. Their dispersion broke down the middle wall of partition, and opened the way for spreading the gospel among the nations. The same effect in a greater degree shall be produced by their restoration. And this may be greatly owing to the methods God may employ to bring it about. It is supposed by many that He will convert them in the places where they are dispersed before He conducts them to Jerusalem. And should this be the case it will have a powerful tendency to awaken the attention of all nations to the gospel (Zec_8:20).
3. It will have a direct and happy tendency to bring on the latter, day glory. It is easy to see how it will in many ways facilitate the universal spread of the gospel. And there is no doubt they will be as much engaged to spread the gospel as they ever had been to oppose it. Their return, therefore, the apostle represents as the fulness of the Gentiles who will then be united with them, and so all Israel shall be saved; that is, the whole number of Gods elect who are His spiritual Israel.
III. Improvement.
1. It appears from what has been said that there is a growing evidence in favour of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures by the fulfilling of prophecies. The evidence of miracles has ceased; but the evidence of prophecy has been continued and increased from the day that God foretold that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head.
2. The sovereignty of God appears plainly from His conduct towards His peculiar people. He claims a right to give temporal favours to one and not to another, and to give spiritual blessings to one and not to another. He promised to give to Abraham and to his seed such temporal and spiritual blessings as He denied to mankind in general. And though for a long time past He has scattered them through the world, yet He has exercised a particular providence over them by which they are preparing to stand again as His peculiar people at the head of the religious world.
3. If the restoration of the Jews shall produce such effects as have been mentioned, then we may safely conclude that God is as really promoting the prosperity of the Church in general at one time as at another. He was as really fulfilling His promise to Abraham while his seed were four hundred years in bondage as while He was pouring down His blessings upon them in the land of promise. God is never slack, as men count slackness, in carrying into effect the great purposes of His grace. God promotes the fruitfulness of the earth by cold as well as by heat, by darkness as well as by light; just so He promotes the prosperity of the Church by all the opposition made to its growth and enlargement. The friends of Christ have no just ground to despond at the apparently slow movements of the wheels of providence, nor His enemies to hope and triumph. In due time the Jews will be restored and converted, and the gospel will spread and prevail.
4. If the Jews shall be called in, then we cannot expect any long settled peace among the nations till that event shall take place. It cannot be brought about without disturbing the harmony of all nations where they reside, and through whom they must make their way to Judaea, which is in the possession of the Mohammedans. It is not to be supposed that the Mohammedans can be conquered without spreading war among the whole Eastern world. And should a general war break out there, it would directly or indirectly affect all Europe, if not America.
5. It appears from what has been said that we have as much reason to believe the Jews will be eventually restored to their native country as they had to believe the coming of Christ. There was a multitude of plain predictions in the Old Testament concerning Christ, which the Jews ought to have believed, but there are as many both in the Old and New Testament concerning the restoration of the Jews. And there are no more apparent difficulties in the way of their returning to their native land than there were in the way of Christs coming into the world. But Christians have been very unbelieving in respect to their return, and this has led Christian nations to despise and abuse that ancient people.
6. Since God has plainly told us that He intends to deliver them we ought to desire and do all we can to bring about that great and happy event. We have received unspeakable benefits from their being for a while cast away, and are promised still greater benefits from their predicted restoration. There is no ground to expect the restoration of the Jews without the aid of the Christian world. It is time, therefore, for Christians to be alive to the great work they have to do.
7. This subject teaches us the indispensable obligation we are under to believe, and love, and obey the sacred oracles which the Jews so long preserved, and at length conveyed to us Gentiles. (N. Emmons, D.D.)
The benefit resulting from the conversion of the Jews
The calling of the Jews shall bring such an addition of happiness to the world that it shall have more life, spirit, vigour, put into it both in regard to Jews and Gentiles. The world is now like a man taken with the palsy on the one side, for though it live on the side of the Gentile, yet it is dead on the side of the Jew, and therefore in that regard their calling shall be as life from the dead. Also on the side of the Gentile, many that are now seduced by false teachers shall then embrace the gospel in truth. And partly because those that do believe shall so be confirmed and increased, that in comparison their former life shall not come into remembrance. They shall live more. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy.
The holiness of the firstfruit and the lump
1. Concerning these firstfruits the law is set down (Lev_23:1-44), where the people may not put sickle into their corn till they have offered a sheaf to the Lord, and then it was lawful for them to reap it. Hence by allusion is our Saviour called the firstfruits of them that sleep, because our resurrection depends upon and is assured by His. Also when they had their corn in, and made ready of it for their use, they might not eat of it till they had offered two loaves to the Lord, and then was their whole lump made lawful for them to eat.
2. God commanded these ceremonies to teach the Jews that they received all blessings from the Lord. So that as princes when they bestow manors upon deserving servants make reservation of some fealty, service, rent, or such like, only to show that they hold of them. So God required this of the Jews.
3. The sanctification of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be the people of God sanctifieth outwardly all their posterity. The Jews therefore are still a holy people, which appears by their evidence and their letters patents, the tenor of the first grant (Gen_17:7; Act_2:38-39; Act_3:25). And though some of them have forfeited their estate, yet some cannot forfeit the privilege granted to the whole nation. But--
(1) The nation is before called rebellious: how then can it now be called holy? There is a double holiness.
(a) Of regeneration.
(b) Of the covenant; in regard of the first they are rebellious, in regard of the second they are holy.
(2) We are by nature the children of wrath. How then can the Jews be holy by nature or birth? The former definition of holiness makes it plain. In regard of the first, children of wrath; in regard of the second, holy by nature. The first cannot be conveyed by parents to posterity: the second is, as, for example, a gentleman is chosen to some great office whereby he is a great lord; he begets a son, this son is a gentleman by birth, but not a lord, because the honour of his father was not invested in his blood, but a special grace conferred on his person.
I. The children of Christians are born Christians and holy, by virtue of the covenant having right to the initiating seal--baptism, which right, if they were not born Christians, they could not have. Before baptism our children are either heathen or Christians; but not heathens, for then they might not be baptized till they had made confession of Christ. Therefore they are born Christians. Baptism maketh not a Christian, but signifieth. As there are Jews by nature, so Christians. If any allege that we are not born but reborn Christians, the answer is we are not born regenerate Christians, but to be regenerate. We beget Christians, not believers.
II. The children of Christians dying before baptism die as Christians, therefore they have hope, and their parents may be comforted over them.
III. Thou shalt never have comfort that thou art born a Christian till thou believest as a Christian should do. He that is freeborn and will use his freedom must observe some ceremony, and receive some instrument testifying the same; so though we be born of Christian parents we must believe and repent; the sin of the father prejudiceth not the believing, nor the righteousness of the father sayeth the unbelieving child. It is a credit to be born of religious parents if we be religious. If a man have a thousand pound land a year left him, and spend it all in riotous living, what credit is it for him to brag that his friends left him such an estate? nay, it is a shame to him. He is truly noble that is good, but a wicked and vicious man, though he came of a worthier father than Abraham, is to be accounted base. Walk in the steps of thy godly parents, and if they were not godly redeem the baseness of thy family by thy holiness and virtues.
IV. Art thou born a Christian? Why then livest thou like a heathen? If thou art freeborn why becomest thou by thy wickedness the devils slave? As thou bearest the name of Christ so live like Him. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v11 Chapter 23
Chapter 23
ISRAELS FALL OVERRULED, FOR THE WORLDS BLESSING, AND FOR ISRAELS MERCY
Read full note →
Rom_11:11-24
THE Apostle has been led a few steps backwards in the last previous verses. His face has been turned once more toward the dark region of the prophetic sky, to see how the sin of Christ-rejecting souls is met and punished by the dreadful "gift" of slumber, and apathy, and the transmutation of blessings to snares. But now, decisively, he looks sunward. He points our eyes, with his own, to the morning light of grace and promise. We are to see what Israels fall has had to do with the worlds hope and with life in Christ, and then what blessings await Israel himself, and again the world through him.
I say, therefore, (the phrase resumes the point of view to which the same words above (Rom_11:1) led us,) did they stumble that they might fall? Did their national rejection of an unwelcome because unworldly Messiah take place, in the divine permission, with the positive divine purpose that it should bring on a final rejection of the nation, its banishment out of its place in the history of redemption? Away with the thought! But their partial fall is the occasion of Gods salvation for the Gentiles, with a view to move them, the Jews, to jealousy, to awake them to a sight of what Christ is, and of what their privilege in Him might yet be, by the sight of His work and glory in once pagan lives.
Observe here the divine benignity which lurks even under the edges of the cloud of judgment. And observe too, thus close to the passage which has put before us the mysterious side of divine action on human wills, the daylight simplicity of this side of that action; the loving skill with which the worlds blessing is meant by the God of grace to act, exactly in the line of human feeling, upon the will of Israel.
But would that "the Gentiles" had borne more in heart that last short sentence of St. Pauls through these long centuries since the Apostles fell asleep! It is one of the most marked, as it is one of the saddest, phenomena in the history of the Church that for ages, almost from the days of St. John himself, we look in Vain either for any appreciable Jewish element in Christendom, or for any extended effort on the part of Christendom to win Jewish hearts to Christ by a wise and loving evangelisation. With only relatively insignificant exceptions this was the abiding state of things till well within the eighteenth century, when the German Pietists began to call the attention of believing Christians to the spiritual needs and prophetic hopes of Israel, and to remind them that the Jews were not only a beacon of judgment, or only the most impressive and awful illustration of the fulfilment of prophecy, but the bearers of yet unfulfilled predictions of mercy for themselves and for the world. Meanwhile, all through the Middle Age, and through generations of preceding and following time also, Christendom did little for Israel but retaliate, reproach, and tyrannise. It was so of old in England; witness the fires of York. It is so to this day in Russia, and where the "Judenhetze" inflames innumerable hearts in Central Europe.
No doubt there is more than one side to the persistent phenomena. There is a side of mystery; the permissive sentence of the Eternal has to do with the long affliction, however caused, of the people which once uttered the fatal cry, "His blood be on us, and on our children". {Mat_27:25} And the wrong doings of Jews, beyond a doubt, have often made a dark occasion for a "Jew hatred," on a larger or narrower scale. But all this leaves unaltered, from the point of view of the Gospel, the sin of Christendom in its tremendous failure to seek, . in love, the good of erring Israel. It leaves as black as ever the guilt of every fierce retaliation upon Jews by so-called Christians, of every slanderous belief about Jewish creed or life, of every unjust anti-Jewish law ever passed by Christian king or senate. It leaves an undiminished responsibility upon the Church of Christ, not only for the flagrant wrong of having too often animated and directed the civil power in its oppressions of Israel, and not only for having so awfully neglected to seek the evangelisation of Israel by direct appeals for the true Messiah, and by an open setting forth of His glory, but for the deeper and more subtle wrong, persistently inflicted from age to age, in a most guilty unconsciousness-the wrong of having failed to manifest Christ to Israel through the living holiness of Christendom. Here, surely, is the very point of the Apostles thought in the sentence before us: "Salvation to the Gentiles, to move the Jews to jealousy." In his inspired idea, Gentile Christendom, in Christ, was to be so pure, so beneficent, so happy, finding manifestly in its Messianic Lord such resources for both peace of conscience and a life of noble love, love above all directed towards opponents and traducers, that Israel, looking on, with eyes however purblind with prejudice, should soon see a moral glory in the Churchs face impossible to be hid, and be drawn as by a moral magnet to the Churchs hope. Is it the fault of God (may He pardon the formal question, if it lacks reverence), or the fault of man, man carrying the Christian name, that facts have been so wofully otherwise in the course of history? It is the fault, the grievous fault, of us Christians. The narrow prejudice, the iniquitous law, the rigid application of exaggerated ecclesiastical principle, all these things have been mans perversion of the divine idea, to be confessed and deplored in a deep and interminable repentance. May the mercy of God awaken Gentile Christendom, in a manner and degree as yet unknown, to remember this our indefeasible debt to this people everywhere present with us, everywhere distinct from us; -the debt of a life, personal and ecclesiastical, so manifestly pure and loving in our Lord the Christ as to "move them to the jealousy" which shall claim Him again for their own. Then we shall indeed be hastening the day of full and final blessing, both for themselves and for the world.
To that bright coming day the Apostle points us now, more directly than ever. But if their partial fall be the worlds wealth, and their lessening, their reduction, (a reduction in one aspect to a race of scattered exiles, in another to a mere remnant of "Israelites indeed,") be the Gentiles wealth, the occasion by which "the unsearchable wealth of Messiah" {Eph_3:8} has been as it were forced into Gentile receptacles, how much more their fulness, the filling of the dry channel with its ample ideal stream, the change from a believing remnant, fragments of a fragmentary people, to a believing nation, reanimated and reunited? What blessings for "the world," for "the Gentiles," may not come through the vehicle of such an Israel? But to you I speak, the Gentiles; to you, because if I reach the Jews, in the way I mean, it must be through you. So far indeed as I, distinctively I, am the Gentiles Apostle, I glorify my ministry as such; I rejoice, Pharisee that I once was, to be devoted as no other Apostle is to a ministry for those whom I once thought of as of outcasts in religion. But I speak as your own Apostle, and to you, if perchance I may move the jealousy of my flesh and blood, and may save some from amongst them, by letting them as it were overhear what are the blessings of you Gentile: Christians, and how it is the Lords purpose to use those blessings as a magnet to wandering Israel. His hope is that, through the Roman congregation, this glorious open secret will come out, as they meet their Jewish neighbours and talk with them. So would one here, another there, "in the streets and lanes of the City," be drawn to the feet of Jesus, under the constraint of that "jealousy" which means little else than the human longing to understand what is evidently the great joy of anothers heart; a "jealousy" on which often grace can fall, and use it as a vehicle of divine light and life.
He says only, "some of them"; as he does in the sister Epistle; 1Co_9:22. He recognises it as his present task, indicated alike by circumstance and revelation, to be not the glad ingatherer of vast multitudes to Christ, but the patient winner of scattered sheep. Yet let us observe that none the less he spends his whole soul upon that winning, and takes no excuse from a glorious future to slacken a single effort in the difficult present.
For if the throwing away of them, their downfall as the Church of God, was the worlds reconciliation, the instrumental or occasioning cause of the direct proclamation to the pagan peoples of the Atonement of the Cross, what will their reception be, but life from the dead? That is to say, the great event of Israels return to God in Christ, and His to Israel, will be the signal and the means of a vast rise of spiritual life in the Universal Church, and of an unexampled ingathering of regenerate souls from the world. When Israel, as a Church, fell, the fall worked good for the world merely by driving, as it were, the apostolic preachers out from the Synagogue, to which they so much longed to cling. The Jews did anything but aid the work. Yet even so they were made an occasion for worldwide good. When they are "received again," as this Scripture so definitely affirms that they shall be received, the case will be grandly different. As before, they will be "occasions." A national and ecclesiastical return of Israel to Christ will of course give occasion over the whole world for a vastly quickened attention to Christianity, and for an appeal for the worlds faith in the facts and claims of Christianity, as bold and loud as that of Pentecost. But more than this, Israel will now be not only occasion but agent.
The Jews, ubiquitous, cosmopolitan, yet invincibly national, coming back in living loyalty to the Son of David, the Son of God, will be a positive power in evangelisation such as the Church has never yet felt. Whatever the actual facts shall prove to be in the matter of their return to the Land of Promise (and who can watch without deep reflection the nationless land and the landless nation?) no prediction obliges us to think that the Jews will be withdrawn from the wide world by a national resettlement in their Land. A nation is not a Dispersion merely because it has individual citIzens widely dispersed; if it has a true national centre, it is a people at home, a people with a home. Whether as a central mass in Syria, or as also a presence everywhere in the human world, Israel will thus be ready, once restored to God in Christ, to be a more than natural evangelising power.
Let this be remembered in every enterprise for the spiritual good of the great Dispersion now. Through such efforts God is already approaching His hour of blessing, long expected. Let that fact animate and give a glad patience to His workers, on whose work he surely begins in our day to cast His smile of growing blessing.
Now the argument takes a new direction. The restoration thus indicated, thus foretold, is not only sure to be infinitely beneficial. It is also to be looked for and expected as a thing lying so to speak in the line of spiritual fitness, true to the order of Gods plan. In His will, when He went about to create and develop His Church, Israel sprung from the dry ground as the sacred Olive, rich with the sap of truth and grace, full of branch and leaf. From the tents of Abraham onward, the worlds true spiritual light and life were there. There, not elsewhere, were revelation, and God-given ordinance, and "the covenants, and the glory." There, not elsewhere, the Christ of God, for whom all things waited, towards whom all the lines of mans life and history converged, was to appear. Thus, in a certain profound sense, all true salvation must be not only "of" Israel (Joh_4:24) but through him. Union with Christ was union with Abraham. To become a Christian, that is to say, one of Messiahs men, was to become, mystically, an Israelite. From this point of view the Gentiles union with the Saviour, though not in the least less genuine and divine than the Jews, was, so to speak, less normal. And thus nothing could be more spiritually normal than the Jews recovery to his old relation to God, from which he had violently dislocated himself. These thoughts the Apostle now presses on the Romans, as a new motive and guide to their hopes, prayers, and work. (Do we gather from the length and fulness of the argument that already it was difficult to bring Gentiles to think aright of the chosen people in their fall and rebellion?) He reminds them of the inalienable consecration of Israel to special divine purposes. He points them to the ancient Olive, and boldly tells them that they are, themselves, only a graft of a wild stock, inserted into the noble tree. Not that he thinks of the Jew as a superior being. But the Church of Israel was the original of the Church. So the restoration of Israel to Christ, and to the Church, is a recovery of normal life, not a first and abnormal grant of life.
But if the first fruit was holy, holy is the kneaded lump too. Abraham was as it were the Lords First fruits of mankind, in the field of His Church. "Abrahams seed" are as it were the mass kneaded from that first fruits; made of it. Was the first fruits holy, in the sense of consecration to Gods redeeming purpose? Then that which is made of it must somehow still be a consecrated thing, even though put aside as if "common" for awhile. And if the root was holy, holy are the branches too; the lineal heirs of Abraham are still, ideally, potentially, consecrated to Him who separated Abraham to Himself, and moved him to his great self-separation. But if some of the branches (how tender is the euphemism of the "some"!) were broken off, while you, wild olive as you were, were grafted in among them, in their place of life and growth, and became a sharer of the root and of the Olives fatness, -do not boast over the torn-off branches. But if you do boast over them-not you carry the root, but the root carries you. You will say then, The branches were broken off-that I might be grafted in. Good: true-and untrue: because of their unbelief they were broken off, while you because of your faith stand. They were no better beings than you, in themselves. But neither are you better than they, in yourself. They and you alike are, personally, mere subjects of redeeming mercy; owing all to Christ; possessing all only as accepting Christ. "Where is your boasting, then?" Do not be high minded, but fear, fear yourself, your sin, your enemy. For if God did not spare the natural branches, take care lest He spare not you either. See therefore Gods goodness and sternness. On those who fell. came His sternness; but on you, His goodness, if you abide by that goodness, with the adherence and response of faith; since you too will be cut out otherwise. And they too, if they do not abide by their unbelief, shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. For if you from the naturally wild olive were cut out, and non-naturally were grafted into the Garden Olive, how much more shall those, the branches naturally, be grafted into their own Olive!
Here are more topics than one which call for reverent notice and study.
1. The imagery of the Olive, with its root, stem, and branches. The Olive, rich and useful, long-lived, and evergreen, stands, as a "nature parable" of spiritual life, beside the Vine, the Palm, and the Cedar, in the Garden of God. Sometimes it pictures the individual saint, living and fruitful in union with his Lord. {Psa_52:8} Sometimes it sets before us the fertile organism of the Church, as here, where the Olive is the great Church Universal in its long life before and after the historical coming of Christ; the life which in a certain sense began with the Call of Abraham, and was only magnificently developed by the Incarnation and Passion. Its Root, in this respect, is the great Father of Faith. Its Stem is the Church of the Old Testament, which coincided, in the matter of external privilege, with the nation of Israel, and to which at least the immense majority of true believers in the elder time belonged. Its Branches by a slight and easy modification of the image are its individual members, whether Jewish or Gentile. The Master of the Tree, arriving on the scene in the Gospel age, comes as it were to prune His Olive, and to graft. The Jewish "branch," if he is what he seems, if he believes indeed and not only by hypothesis, abides in the Tree. Otherwise, he is-from the divine point of view-broken off. The Gentile, believing, is grafted in, and becomes a true part of the living organism; as genuinely and vitally one with Abraham in life and blessing as his Hebrew brother. But the fact of the Hebrew "race" in root and stem rules still so far as to make the re-ingrafting of a Hebrew branch, repenting, more "natural" (not more possible, or more beneficial, but more "natural") than the first ingrafting of a Gentile branch. The whole Tree is forever Abrahamic, Israelite, in stock and growth; though all mankind has place now in its forest branches.
2. The imagery of grafting. Here is an instance of partial, while truthful, use of a natural process in Scripture parable. In our gardens and orchards it is the wild stock which receives, in grafting, the "good" branch; a fact which lends itself to many fertile illustrations. Here, on the contrary, the "wild" branch is inserted into the "good" stock. But the olive yard yields to the Apostle all the imagery he really needs. He has before him, ready to hand, the Tree of the Church; all that he wants is an illustration of communication and union of life by artificial insertion. And this he finds in the olive dressers art, which shows him how a vegetable fragment, apart and alien, can by human design be made to grow into the life of the tree, as if a native of the root.
3. The teaching of the passage as to the Place of Israel in the divine Plan of life for the world. We have remarked on this already, but it calls for reiterated notice and recollection. "At sundry times, and in divers manners," and through many and divers races and civilisations, God has dealt with man, and is dealing with him, in the training and development of his life and nature. But in the matter of mans spiritual salvation, in the gift to him, in his Fall, of the life eternal, God has dealt with man, practically, through one race, Israel. Let it never be forgotten that the "sundry times and divers manners" of the apostolic Epistle {Heb_1:1} are all referred to "the prophets"; they are the "times" and "manners" of the Old Testament revelation. And when at length the same Eternal Voice spoke to man "in the Son" (έν Υιω), that Son came of Israel, "took hold of Abrahams seed," {Heb_2:16} and Himself bore definite witness that "salvation is from the Jews". {Joh_4:24} Amidst the unknown manifoldness of the work of God for man, and in man, this is single and simple-that in one racial line only runs the stream of authentic and supernatural revelation; in the line of this mysteriously chosen Israel. From this point of view, the great Husbandman has planted not a forest but a Tree; and the innumerable trees of the forest can get the sap of Eden only as their branches are grafted by His hand into His one Tree, by the faith which unites them to Him who is the Root below the root, "the Root of David," and of Abraham.
3. The appeal to the new-grafted "branch" to "abide by the goodness of God." We have listened, as St. Paul has dictated to his scribe, to many a deep word about a divine and sovereign power on man; about mans absolute debt to God for the fact that he believes and lives. Yet here, with equal decision, we have man thrown back on the thought of his responsibility, of the contingency in a certain sense of his safety on his fidelity. "If you are true to mercy, mercy will be true to you; otherwise you too will be broken off." Here, as in our study of earlier passages, let us be willing to go all along with Scripture in the seeming inconstancy of its absolute promises and its contingent cautions. Let us, like it, "go to both extremes"; then we shall be as near, probably, as our finite thought can be at present to the whole truth as it moves, a perfect sphere, in God. Is the Christian worn and wearied with his experience of his own pollution, instability, and helplessness? Let him embrace, without a misgiving, the whole of that promise, "My sheep shall never perish." Has he drifted into a vain confidence, not in Christ, but in privilege, in experience, in apparent religious prosperity? Has he caught himself in the act of saying, even in a whisper, "God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are"? Then let him listen in time to the warning voice, "Be not high minded, but fear"; "Take heed lest He spare not thee." And let him put no pillow of theory between the sharpness of that warning and his soul. Penitent, self-despairing, resting in Christ alone, let him "abide by the goodness of God."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11–15. Have they stumbled that they should fall? Shall…
11–15. Have they stumbled that they should fall? Shall we conclude that Israel has fallen forever? The apostle now proceeds to the second branch of his argument, and shows that God, for wise reasons, has cast off Israel for a time, but that finally the nation will be converted. Through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles. Christ said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” He referred to the cross. Rejected by the Jewish nation, and sent to the cross, he became the Savior of all mankind, Gentiles as well as Jews. So, too, the rejection of the gospel by the Jews, accelerated the preaching among the Gentiles. See Acts 8:4; 13:46. So, too, when the Jews crucified Christ, “the handwriting of ordinances was nailed to the cross,” the “partition wall” between Jews and Gentiles was broken down. So the result of the Jews hardening themselves and rejecting Christ was, under the providence of God, that the Gentiles should be saved. To provoke them to jealousy. The elder brother, in the parable of the Prodigal Son, was filled with jealousy when he saw the younger son accepted by the father.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v13 Rom_11:15.—The apostle awaits a boundless effect of blessing on…
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom_11:15.—The apostle awaits a boundless effect of blessing on the world from the future conversion of the Jews, which will be as life from the dead.
Read full note →
Rom_11:16.—Firstfruit denotes the representative offerings by which the whole mass is consecrated to God.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_11:13-22
The right method of magnifying.—St. Paul was no empty boaster. No vain words fell from his lips. He was humble, and yet his humility did not prevent him asserting rightful claims and vindicating his position. He magnified his office by deeds as well as words. He here says: I magnify my office so that the Gentiles may be encouraged and the Jews have no reason to be disheartened. St. Paul magnifies his office:—
I. By identifying himself with his hearers.—He speaks to the Gentiles, not as an exclusive Jew, but as one of themselves. He goes down to their position in order to raise them to his own high level. He is a Jew, and yet the apostle of the Gentiles. The preacher must identify himself with his hearers by love, by genial sympathy, by manly effort, if he is to do them good.
II. By seeking the salvation of some.—“And might save some.” The impelling idea of apostolic ministration. One might listen to some preachers Sunday after Sunday, and never discover that the gospel was a remedial scheme for the salvation of men. One might suppose that Christ had come on a useless errand when He came to give His life a ransom for many. The salvation of some should be the consuming desire of every preacher.
III. By entertaining a large hope.—Despairing men cannot make the best preachers. The general without hope is on the way to defeat. A preacher without hope cannot successfully rescue the perishing. St. Paul had large hope. The casting away of the Jewish nation was a ground of hope. He does not wail amid the ruins, but rises by their means to joyful expectations. The casting of them away is the reconciling of the world. The view expands before his eager vision. The receiving of them is life from the dead. A bright era is in the happy future. The valley of apostolic vision is not a valley of dry bones. The world is not to be for ever a vast moral sepulchre. Spiritual life shall animate the race; moral wastes shall quickly become gardens of the Lord; spiritual deserts shall speedily rejoice and blossom as the rose. Let hope animate the preacher, and he will lead to great successes.
IV. By investigating divine methods.—Some preachers have only one text. Other preachers, with several texts, have only one sermon. Other preachers, with several sermons, have only one round of elementary topics. St. Paul keeps prominent the way of salvation by faith. Christ crucified is central, and other topics are circumferential. St. Paul can give milk to babes, and meat for strong men. Indeed, the men must be very strong who can assimilate St. Paul’s strong meat. How skilfully he treats the subject of the breaking off the Jewish branches? The unbelieving Jews are broken off, while the believing Gentiles are grafted in. The wild olives become fruit-bearing and glorious because the root and fatness of the eternal olive tree are imparted—a beautiful figure of the working of divine grace. Wild olives are both grafted and changed. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” Successfully to graft requires skill; but what skill is required to graft a wild olive and make it rich! This skill is only possible to the Divine. Philosophy, education, ethical systems, cannot graft and change. The wild olive retains its wildness. Divine grace can and does both graft and change. Wild olives become part of the fruitful tree. Even hearts of stone are turned to flesh.
V. By considering the totality of the divine nature and the divine proceedings.—“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.” The God of some preachers is maimed. He is fashioned according to their tastes or their peculiar theological tenets. Severity hides the goodness, or goodness is made to obliterate the severity. The modern theologian has an all-father for a God,—an all-father whose children rule the world; an all-father who is never to be seen, and who exists merely for the happiness of His family, the word “happiness” referring mostly to present benefits. True to the perfection of the divine nature and to the reading of history and of providence, we are compelled to behold both the goodness and the severity of God.
VI. By making deep subjects have a practical bearing upon life’s morals and manners.—Teachers of homiletics tell us that the conclusion is the proper place for application in every style of treatment. Can the earnest preacher wait for his conclusion? Can he always restrain the swelling tides of his soul by the weak barriers of homiletical rules? Can a St. Paul preach for an hour, if modern light and leading would allow him to speak so long on the sublimest themes, and then say, “And now a few words by way of application”? St. Paul is always applying. After a few sentences he cautions against unseemly pride: “Boast not against the branches.” He proceeds a little further, and then cautions against presumption: “Be not high-minded, but fear.” He may preach election and predestination; but according to some he is not logically consistent, for he appends, “if thou continue in His goodness.” Is burning love ever logically consistent?
Rom_11:22. The goodness and severity of God.—Man is often so perverse as to tempt God to strike, and then God must strike sternly. It seems as if we were bent on challenging God to do His utmost to try how much we can endure. Yet the goodness of God is everywhere manifest.
I. The history of God’s dealings with the Jews a great parable of mercy to man.—Through all the ages of their history they were the children of sparing, delivering, redeeming mercy. Their national history was zooted in redemption. Every defeat, every captivity, was not unto death, but life. Paul, summing up the whole history, breathes the same strain. But there is a dark side. Life is not the one thing needful. It may be the most terrible of gifts. And the Jews, spared, endured sharpest agonies. Their final overthrow is the saddest act in the tragedy of history. Mark their modern persecutions. The world’s outcasts.
II. The principle of the divine method in which the goodness and the severity are thus intertwined.—Psa_99:8 expounds it. The goodness is for us; the severity is for the sins and follies. This involves a principle little in tune with those who hold that man is homogeneous.
1. Man’s nature is in an unnatural condition, lapsed, fallen under the dominion of an alien power. There is strong internal discord. “Flesh lusteth against.” etc.
2. God has declared Himself man’s helper in the grand enterprise of life. God is really the author of the enterprise. It is God’s revelation of Himself which reveals sin (Rom_7:7-13), God kindles in the soul the hope of conquering it.
3. The severity is the hand of help which He brings to us in the working out of the great problem of our lives. He distinguishes between us and our sins, and He trains us to distinguish. The one He crushes, the other He saves. No light treatment of sin in the Bible. Modern philosophy says, Do not trouble too much about sin. Heaven’s philosophy says, Be in anguish about sin, because God lives to trouble it; and the soul that loves it drinks to the dregs life’s cup of bitterness.
4. It is with you to hail the severity and convert it to mercy, or to cling to your sin and convert it to doom. The severity not inconsistent with abounding mercy. God does not, will not, in our state of trial, recognise that our sins and ourselves are one. If deliverance from sin be the end of it, what matters the anguish of the moment? But if you continue with sin, you hate your own soul and love the gates of death.—J. Baldwin Brown.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_11:22, etc
Final perseverance not Paul’s doctrine.—The above section is a complete and designed disproof of the doctrine held by Calvin and others, but not by Augustine, that all who have been justified will be saved. For after assuming (chaps, Rom_5:9; Rom_8:16-17) that his readers are already justified and adopted as sons and heirs of God, Paul here solemnly and emphatically warns them that unless they continue in faith and in the kindness of God they will be cut off. The words “broken off,” used of the unbelieving Jews, evidently denote a “separation from God,” which, if it continue, will end in eternal death. Hence Paul’s sorrow. That the words “cut off,” used as a warning to the believing Gentiles, have the same sense is proved by the comparison of Jews and Gentiles, and by the contrast of being “cut off” and continuing in the kindness of God. Dr. Hodge asserts under Rom_11:22, but without proof, that Paul speaks, not of individuals, but “of the relation of communities to the Church and its various privileges.” But of this Paul gives no hint whatever. And as yet he has not mentioned in any way either the Church or its privileges, but has spoken only of the relation of individuals to Christ. On the other hand, the words “some of them” (Rom_11:14), “some of the twigs” (Rom_11:17), “they that fell” (Rom_11:22), point us to individuals. The word “thou,” which does not always refer to an individual, is proved to do so here by its contrast with “some of the twigs.” Can we conceive that Paul would support this urgent and personal appeal by warning the Roman Christians that if they do not continue in faith, although they will themselves be brought back and be finally saved, the Roman Church will perish? It has been suggested that Paul speaks of that which is possible in the abstract, but which will never actually take place. But could a mere abstract possibility call forth the earnest tones of Rom_11:20-22? The warning would have no force to readers who believed that God had irrevocably purposed to exert upon them irresistible influences, which would secure without fail their final salvation. He tells them to “fear.” But an intelligent man will not be moved by fear of that which he knows will not happen—that certain lines of conduct lead towards a certain goal will not affect us if we are sure that the goal will not be reached. We may be moved by consequences which lie on the way to the goal, but only by such as lie within the range of possibility. There are many serious considerations which, even if Calvin’s doctrine were true, would prompt us to cling to faith. But to seek to deter his readers from unbelief by speaking of what both he and they knew could never come would be unworthy of an apostle. I notice that Act_27:31—a passage very different from that before us—is the only instance given by Dr. Hodge of the mode of speech which he supposes that Paul here adopts. He says that “it is very common to speak thus hypothetically.” But I do not know of a similar instance in the Bible. It may be said that Paul refers to a personal and possible, but only temporary, separation from Christ, and that those who fall will be certainly restored. I admit that such a separation would be exceedingly hurtful, though not fatal, and would be worthy of Paul’s warning and his readers’ “fear.” But we cannot accept this important limitation without plain Scripture proof; and I hope to show that no such proof exists. Moreover the contrast between this temporary fall, which on this supposition is all that could happen to the Gentiles, and that which happened to the Jews would destroy the parallel on which the argument rests, and would increase rather than lessen the high-mindedness of the Gentiles. We now ask, Has Paul said anything elsewhere which compels us to set aside what all would admit to be the plain meaning of his words if they stood alone? Hodge says that “Paul has abundantly taught in chap. 8 and elsewhere that the connection of individual believers with Christ is indissoluble.” I thankfully acknowledge that chap. 8 supplements the teaching of this section and guards it from perversion. But we have seen that it does not contradict or modify in the least the plain meaning of the words before us. And I do not know of any other passage in the epistle which even seems to teach the doctrine in question. This doctrine is also contradicted by Rom_14:15, which assumes the possibility of the perdition of a “brother for whom Christ died.”—Beet.
We estimate God by ourselves.—In the prosecution of this discourse we shall first endeavour to expose the partiality, and therefore the mischief, of two different views that might be taken of the Godhead; and, secondly, point your attention to the way in which these views are so united in our text as to form a more full and a consistent representation of Him. We shall then conclude with a practical application of the whole argument.
I. One partial and therefore mischievous view of the Deity is incidental to those who bear a single respect to His one attribute of goodness.—They look to Him as a God of tenderness, and nothing else. In their description of Him they have a relish for the imagery of domestic life, and in the employment of which they ascribe to Him the fondness rather than the authority of a father. It may be thought that surely He at whose creative touch all loveliness has arisen must Himself be placid as the scene or gentle as the zephyr that He causes to blow over it. At present we do not stop to observe that, if the divinity is to be interpreted by the aspects of nature, nature has her hurricanes and her earthquakes and her thunder, as well as those kindlier exhibitions in which the disciples of a tasteful and sentimental piety most love to dwell. Throughout all the classes of society, in fact, it is this beholding of the goodness without a beholding along with it of the severity of God that lulls the human spirit into a fatal complacency with its own state and its own prospects. Independent of all lofty speculation, and aside from the mysteries which attach to the counsels and determinations of a predestinating God, there is abroad on the spirits of men a certain practical and prevalent impression of His severity, to which we believe that most of this world’s irreligion is owing. Beholding the severity alone without the goodness, you feel it more tolerable for to live in the oblivion rather than in the remembrance of Deity. There is both a goodness and a severity; and this brings us to the second head of discourse, under which we proposed to point your attention to—
II. The way in which these two views of the Godhead were so united in the gospel of Jesus Christ as to form a more full and consistent representation of Him.—First, then, there is a severity. There is a law that will not be trampled on; there is a Lawgiver that will not be insulted. The great delusion is that we estimate God by ourselves, His antipathy to sin by our own slight and careless imagination, of the strength of His displeasure against much evil only by the languid and nearly extinct moral sensibilities of our own heart. We bring down heaven to the standard of earth, and measure the force of the recoil from sin in the upper sanctuary by what we witness of this recoil either in our own bosom or in that of our fellow-sinners upon this lower world. Now if we measure God by ourselves, we shall have little fear indeed of vengeance or severity from His hands. But along with this severity there is a goodness that you are also called upon to behold; and if you view both aright, you will perceive that they do meet together in fullest harmony. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the leading peculiarity of the gospel dispensation, that the expression of the divine character which is given forth by the severity of God is retained and still given forth in all its entireness in the display and exercise of His goodness. Were we asked to state what that is which impresses on the mercy of the gospel its essential characteristic, we should say of it that it is a mercy in full and visible conjunction with righteousness. The severity of God because of sin was not relaxed, but only transferred from the head of the offenders to the head of their Substitute; and in the depth of Christ’s mysterious sufferings has He made as full display of the rigours of His inviolable sanctity. That severity of God, on which we have so much insisted, so far from lessening or casting a shade over His goodness, only heightens and enhances it the more.
We must now conclude with a short practical application.—And, first, such is the goodness of God, that it overpasses the guilt even of the most daring and stout-hearted offender amongst you. Let him even have grown grey in iniquity, there is still held out to him the offer of that peace-speaking blood in which there resides the specific virtue of washing it utterly away. There is none whose transgressions are so foul and so enormous as to be beyond the reach of the Saviour’s atonement. But, again, in very proportion to this goodness will be the severity of God on those who shall have rejected it. There is reconciliation to all who will; but if ye will not, the heavier will be the vengeance that awaiteth you. The kindness of God is still unquenched, even by your multiplied provocations of His broken law; but quenched it most assuredly will be if to this you add the tenfold provocation of His rejected gospel. And, finally, let us warn you all, that no one truly embraces Christ as their Saviour who does not submit to Him as their Master and their Lord. No one has a true faith in His promises who is not faithful in the observation of His precepts. No one has rightly taken refuge in Him from the punishment of a broken law who still heedlessly and presumptuously gives himself up to the violation of that law; for then shall he be judged worthy of a severer punishment, seeing that he has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and accounted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing.—Chalmers.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv11–13 11. “Therefore I say, Whether did they stumble that…
11. “Therefore I say, Whether did they stumble that they may fall? It could not be so.” Then let the people who think that Israel is utterly fallen and gone, bear in mind Paul’s positive contradiction of such a possibility;
God’s covenant is as immutable as His throne. “But by their apostasy salvation came to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy.” The rejection of the Jews wonderfully expedited the transmission of the gospel to the Gentiles, e. g., Paul himself, anxious to preach to the Jews, was met by the glorified Savior in the temple during his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion (Act 2:3-17), and notified that the Jews would not receive his testimony, and then and there commissioned to go and preach to the Gentiles.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv11–13 I say then, Did they stumble that they might…
I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? [Fall (piptoo) is a much stronger word than stumble, and the contrast between the two words makes the former emphatic. To fall means to be killed, and is in Greek, as in English applied to those slain in battle. (Homer, II. 8:475; 11:84.) As emphasized, then, it means to become "utterly irrevocable" (Clark): "irrevocable ruin, in opposition to that which is temporary" (Hodge): "to fall forever, finally" (Pool); "perish forever" (Meyer); "so as utterly to fall" (Stuart). Paul is arguing as to God's intention. Therefore, according to his established custom, he asks a question that he may guard against a false conclusion, and the form of the question, as usual, demands a negative answer, for the false conclusion is to be denied. From the foreseen "stumbling" of Israel ( Rom_9:33 ; Rom_11:9 ), and from the "hardening" ( Rom_11:7 ), it might be concluded that God sent a stumbling-block Saviour, a Messiah in an unwelcome form, and an unpalatable gospel-salvation with the intent and purpose of working Israel's downfall and ruin--his final, irrevocable fall. Did God bring about or cause a stumbling of the Jews of Christ's day, that all future generations might fall, or be cast off forever? Such is the question, and the answer is] God forbid [This general denial is followed by a threefold explanation: (1) The fall of Israel was permitted because spiritually profitable to the Gentiles (11); (2) the rising again of Israel will be for the greater spiritual profit to the Gentiles (12-15); (3) the fall of Israel is only temporary--they shall rise again--26]: but [introducing the real purpose or design of Israel's fall] by their fall [paraptoma, from the verb parapiptoo, which means to sideslip, to fall away, to fall. Hence paraptoma means fall, trespass (Alford), lapse (Stuart), slip (Green), false step (Godet), offence (Gifford), fault, sin. It is best translated here by the word "offence"] salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy . [Emulation is a better translation than jealousy. Their offence was their unbelief, which caused God to put them away, and this putting away greatly facilitated the success of the gospel among the Gentiles. So great was the pride and exclusiveness of the Jews, and such was their blind loyalty to their race, ritual, temple, law, etc., that even the most thoroughly converted and indoctrinated Christians among them, such as the very apostles themselves (Paul alone excepted), never manifested any enthusiasm in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. It took a miracle to constrain Peter to do such a thing (Acts 10), and, after having done so, his Christian brethren demanded an explanation and apology for his intercourse with Gentiles (Acts 11), and later, instead of yielding to his apostolic leadership, they were so stubborn in their aversion to the free admission of Gentiles into the church, that the fear of them triumphed and caused Peter to conform to their views ( Gal_2:11-14 ; for further evidence of their bigotry, see Act_15:1-2 ; Act_21:17-24 ). Their opposition to Paul only ceased with his life. With such a spirit among Jewish Christians, two things were sure to happen if they retained their pre-eminence in the church, and continued to dominate its policy. (1) There would be but little preaching supplied to the Gentiles, since pride and enmity made the Jews unwilling to serve them ( 1Th_2:15-16 ); (2) such gospel as was preached to the Gentiles would be woefully corrupted and perverted by Judaistic teaching and practice ( Gal_1:6-9 ; Gal_3:1-3 ; Gal_6:12-14 ), for "Israel," as Lange observes, "did not desire the Gentiles, under the most favorable circumstances, to participate in the Messianic salvation, except as proselytes of the Jews," since they took more pride and joy in converting men to Moses than in winning them to Christ. Thus by their zeal for the law they would imperil the Gentiles' liberty in Christ ( Gal_4:9 ; Gal_4:21-31 - Gal_5:1 ), so that Christianity could scarce escape becoming merely a new patch on an old garment, even as the Master forewarned ( Mat_9:16 ), in which secondary capacity it could never so save the Gentile as to convert the world. Hence to save the wine Jesus cast aside the old Jewish bottle, and stored the gracious gospel fluid in the new Gentile wine-skin ( Mat_9:17 ). And he not only cast off the Jewish people as unworthy of that pre-eminence in the church which was naturally theirs, but he even stood aside the eleven apostles as too hopelessly narrow-minded for Gentile evangelism, and committed the whole of this colossal ministry to the one man, Paul ( Act_9:15 ; Act_22:21 ; Act_26:17-18 ; Rom_1:5 ; Rom_11:13 ; Rom_15:16 ; Gal_1:15-16 ; Eph_3:7-8 ; 1Ti_2:7 ; 2Ti_1:11 ; especially Gal_2:7-9 ). And even in his case we note how the prompt "offence," or unbelief, of the Jews enabled him to preach "to the Jew first," yet speedily left him free and unfettered to push the work among the Gentiles ( Act_13:45-48 ; Act_28:28 ). So the "offence" and consequent casting off of Israel did facilitate the conversion of the Gentiles. Israel, as a reluctant, sluggish, half-converted hindrance, was thrust from the doorway, that the Gentiles might enter freely and fully into the kingdom ( Luk_11:52 ; Mat_23:13 ). Salvation of the Gentiles was the proximate purpose accomplished, and still being accomplished, by the rejection of the Jews: the salvation of the Jews themselves was the remote purpose of the rejection, and it is largely future, even yet. It is to be brought about by a spirit of emulation. "Seeing," says Godet, "all the blessings of the kingdom, pardon, justification, the Holy Spirit, adoption, shed down abundantly on the Gentile nations through faith in Him whom they had rejected, how can they help saying at length: These things are ours? And how can they help opening their eyes and recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah, since in him the works predicted of the Messiah are accomplished? How shall the elder son, seeing his younger brother seated and celebrating the feast at his father's table, fail to ask that he may re-enter the paternal home and come to sit down side by side with his brother, after throwing himself into the arms of the common father?" A blessed result indeed, but long delayed by the carnal, half-converted state of the Gentile church, as witnessed by the Roman Catholicism which is Sardis ( Rev_3:1 ) and Protestantism which is sectarianism ( 1Co_3:1-5 ), a Philadelphia church lapsing into Laodicean indifference-- Rev_3:14-19 ]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v12 kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8")
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 13 An Admonition and Encouragement to Gentiles and Jews.
An Admonition and Encouragement to Gentiles and Jews.
The result of Israel’s defection for the Gentiles:
Read full note →
v. 11. I say, then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid! but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy.
v. 12. Now, if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?
The apostle here again guards against a false conclusion: Surely Israel, the great mass of the Jewish nation, did not stumble for the purpose of falling? Was the fall of the Jews, the result of their taking offense at the Messiah, a purpose and object of God, in the sense that He takes pleasure and satisfaction in their destruction? That is a gross misunderstanding of God’s essence and qualities which many people even today read into the arguments of Paul. And therefore he interposes a horrified: By no means! God under no circumstances purposes and plans the destruction of any man; He never takes delight in the wrong-doing and the consequent damnation of sinners. But the design which God took out of the self-imposed misfortune and condemnation of the Jews was another: that through their transgression salvation should come to the Gentiles, and that the Jews should be provoked to zeal, to be stimulated to follow. The unbelief of the Jews, their rejection of the Messiah, has resulted in this, that the Gospel of salvation was brought to the Gentiles, as the Book of Acts shows in many instances. But the fact that the Gentiles now accepted the Word of salvation had the purpose to excite the emulation of the Israelites, to urge them to follow the example of the Gentiles And also to become partakers of the redemption in Christ. In the great mass of the Jews that had not yet accepted Christ there were many that had not yet hardened their heart, but that simply followed their leaders without proper knowledge of the dangerousness of their position. Upon these, the remnant according to the election of grace, the fact that the Gentiles accepted the Gospel and the Messiah was intended to make such an impression that they would thereby be urged also to accept the salvation of Christ.
And a further result of the transgression of Israel is noted: Furthermore, if their trespass is the wealth of the world, and their diminution the wealth of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! The transgression of the Jews, their denial and rejection of the Messiah, has brought these same riches, salvation in Christ, to the world at large; it was due largely to their defection that the apostles were obliged to turn to the Gentiles. And so the loss of the Jews, what they lost, their damage, their hurt, what they deprived themselves of by their foolishness, was the gain of the world outside of Israel, it brought salvation to the Gentiles. But if this is true, how much more will the fullness of the Jews result in the benefit of the Gentiles! The fullness is that which is filled up, made full, completed, the sum total of those out of the midst of the Jewish people who are under the election of grace, v. 5. The fact that their full number is gradually reached, that the body of believers from their midst is made complete, will result in a further gain for the world. This is treated at length in the next section.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
With Israel as a nation rejecting God, Paul warns the Gentiles to be careful they do not make the same mistake.
Read full note →
Did they stumble so as to fall?
Paul uses this question to add emphasis. AT: "Has God rejected them forever because they sinned?" (See: Rhetorical Question)
May it never be
"That is not possible!" or "Certainly not!" This expression strongly denies that this could happen. You may have a similar expression in your language that you could use here. See how you translated this in Romans 9:14.
provoke ... to jealousy
See how you translated this phrase in Romans 10:19.
if their failure is the riches of the world, and if their loss is the riches of the Gentiles
Both of these phrases mean basically the same thing. If you need to, you can combine them in your translation. AT: "when the Jews failed spiritually, the result was that God abundantly blessed the non-Jews" (See: Doublet)
the riches of the world
Because the Jews rejected Christ, God richly blessed the Gentiles by giving them the opportunity to receive Christ.
the world
Here the "world" is a metonym that refers to the people who live in the world, especially the Gentiles.
translationWords
stumble
save
Gentile
jealous
world
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 13 11:11 so God made salvation available to the Gentiles:…
11:11 so God made salvation available to the Gentiles: The offer of salvation to the Gentiles is the purpose, not just the result, of Israel’s disobedience. Paul emphasizes that God had the salvation of Gentiles in view all along, and, ultimately, the salvation of many Jews as well. • he wanted his own people to become jealous: The theme of jealousy comes from Deut 32:21, which Paul quoted in Rom 10:19. The sight of Gentiles enjoying the blessings of salvation that God had promised to Israel would spur Jews to desire salvation so they could participate in those blessings as well.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.