11:1 I say then, {1} Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For {2} I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, [of] the tribe of Benjamin.
(1) Now the apostle shows how this doctrine is to be applied to others, remaining still in his propounded cause. Therefore he teaches us that all the Jews in particular are not cast away, and therefore we ought not to pronounce rashly of individual persons, whether they are of the number of the elect or not.
(2) The first proof: I am a Jew, and yet elected, therefore we may and ought fully to be sure of our election, as has been said before: but of another man's we cannot be so certainly sure, and yet ours may cause us to hope well of others.
11:1 The Two Olive Trees
SUMMARY OF ROMANS 11:
A Part of Israel Saved. The Rest Blinded by Their Hardness of Heart. The Salvation of the Gentiles Through the Fall of Israel. The Figure of the Two Olive Trees. The Jewish Branches Broken Off. The Gentile Branches Grafted in. Yet Israel Shall Be Saved. God's Unsearchable Judgments.
Hath God cast away his people? In chapter 10 Paul has shown that the Gentiles were to come into God's favor, and the Jews, the chosen people, to be rejected. He now asks whether the Jews were finally cast off. He shows that the rejection was not total, but partial, many Jews being saved; and secondly, that it was not eternal, but finally all Israel would come to Christ.
I also am an Israelite. Hence all Israel is not cast off, since he, an Israelite, is an apostle of Christ. He shows that he is of approved Jewish descent.
11:1 Hath God rejected his whole people - All Israel? In no wise. Now there is a remnant who believe, Rom 11:5; and hereafter all Israel will be saved, Rom 11:26.
11:1-10 There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Ps 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.
