God Has Not Cast Off His People: A Remnant Remains
Romanschapter 11
36 verses · BSB
513 cross-references outward · 705 inward
Speaks with:Romans 11×9Romans 9×5Colossians 1×31 Kings 19×2Ephesians 1×2Galatians 2×22 Timothy 1×2Psalms 69×2
Chapter summary
Hath God cast away his people? God forbid — Paul himself is an Israelite. A remnant according to the election of grace is preserved. The olive tree's natural branches have been broken off for unbelief; Gentile branches have been grafted in by faith. Israel's hardening is in part, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. Henry marks the doxology: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God — unsearchable his judgments, past finding out his ways.
Drafted from Matthew Henry, Calvin, Gill, Clarke, JFB, and Barnes.
Context
Epistle · Paul — Romans overview
- A. 1–10 God Has Not Cast Off His People: A Remnant Remains
- B. 11–24 Wild Olive Branches Grafted In
- C. 25–32 The Mystery: So All Israel Shall Be Saved
- D. 33–36 O the Depth of the Riches: To Him Be the Glory
The world behind this chapter
Romans 11The history
The situation behind this chapter is a piece of Roman history. Around AD 49 the emperor Claudius expelled Jews from the city; the churches would have lost their Jewish members overnight and carried on for several years as Gentile congregations. After Claudius died in AD 54 the exiles began returning to find churches that had learned to run without them.
That is the social nerve Paul is touching when he tells the branches not to boast over the branches that were broken off. It was not a theoretical temptation.
The olive tree image is agriculturally odd on purpose. Growers normally graft a cultivated shoot onto hardy wild rootstock, not the other way round, and Paul says outright that this grafting is contrary to nature. The Gentile branch has no grounds for feeling superior — it is the improbable one, supported by a root it did not grow.
Olive trees also lived for centuries and were the backbone of Mediterranean farming. Everyone knew you did not tear one up because a season went badly.
What it meant to them
To Gentile believers this was a warning against arrogance: you do not support the root, the root supports you. Standing was by faith, and could be lost the same way the broken branches lost theirs.
To Jewish believers it was a promise. Their people's stumbling was neither total — Paul himself was proof of a remnant — nor final. God's gifts and calling are irrevocable, and the chapter ends not in argument but in worship at the depth of God's wisdom.