11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the {d} election of grace.
(d) The election of grace is not that by which men chose grace, but by which God chose us of his grace and goodness.
11:5 Even so... there is a remnant. As in the times of Ahab, there is a remnant, a portion of Israel left, which is faithful.
According to the election of grace. Godet says:
The ideas contained in these words is this: In virtue of the election of Israel as the salvation people, God has not left them in our days without a faithful remnant any more than he did the in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes at the period when a far grosser heathenism prevailed.''
The idea is that Israel was the elected (chosen people), and out of it God had always preserved a remnant by his grace. The election of individuals is not referred to, but the election of a remnant to represent the race.
11:5 According to the election of grace - According to that gracious purpose of God, He that believeth shall be saved.
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.
