Romans 11

Notes

Ver. 1. From these awful hints by the prophets, and the no less awful present appearances of things among the Jews, we must not conclude that God has universally and for ever abandoned his whole favourite nation, who have so long been his peculiar people, in visible covenant with him. No; I myself, to whom, notwithstanding the greatest unworthiness and guilt, his grace has been exceeding abundant, am an Israelite, of the very meanest and first miscreant tribe. 2-5. Whatever he has done with multitudes of the natural descendants of Jacob, and might justly do with them all, for their many heinous provocations, yet he has rejected none who, because of faith, he chose to special and saving benefits; but, as in the days of Elijah, when idolatry and other wickedness so remarkably prevailed that he thought scarcely a true worshipper of God but himself remained among the ten tribes, the Lord, knowing all, saw no less than seven thousand; so now, notwithstanding our general and deplorable infidelity, a large remnant have been graciously led to believe in Christ to the saving of their souls, according to that free choice which God, from all eternity, determined men should exercise in accepting the offers of mercy or in rejecting the same. 6. And if the choice, calling, and saving of some rather than others be entirely the effects of their faith in his word, then it is plain that no mere good works deserved or moved him to it; nothing being more evident than that the loving, tender favour and mercy of God, and the merit of men's good works, are so directly contrary the one to the other that they cannot be blended together; but salvation, from first to last, must be simply of faith, to the exclusion of works. 7-10. The present state of the Jewish nation stands therefore precisely thus, that all such of them as have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved from their sins and shall be blessed in him; but the rest, who are the far greater part, are in the universal providence of God, and according to his predictions by Isaiah and David, given up to their own lusts, to blind and harden themselves, as in spite of all God could do to save they reject Christ, and bring on themselves as everlasting destruction in that which is to come. 11. Nor has God permitted them to stumble at his crucified Son in order that their whole nation should fall from all their ancient privileges into utter and everlasting ruin; but has overruled their obstinate unbelief into an occasion of sending the gospel to the Gentiles, but : that the ready reception of it among that idolatrous he and detested people might stir up the Jews to vie with them in faith and obedience, that these despised Gentiles might not wholly take away the gospel and its privileges from them. 12. Now, if the apostasy of the Jews, and their falling off from their peculiar relation to God as his people, be, in his infinite wisdom, wanda a mean af cnoner enriching the Gentiles with made a mean of sooner enriching the Gentiles with the gospel and all its inestimable blessings, how much more shall the faith of the Gentiles be confirmed, their blessings increased, and converts multiplied, when, in some future period, the Jewish nation shall be converted to Christ, and enjoy the fulness and privileges of the gospel! 13. It is with great pleasure that I, who reckon myself highly honoured to be the apostle of Jesus Christ for the conversion and edification of you Gentiles, mention this to you for your comfort. 14. And it would give me inexpressible joy and satis- ) anc faction if, by this or any other means, I could be an j you instrument of stirring up my Jewish brethren to bethink themselves and believe in Christ, to their own ever- eve ste atin aba AL An themselves aANQ VCUEVE Wh Waeisey By serene wr = lasting salvation. 15. For if God's casting them off from being his peculiar people for their obstinate unbelief has been made an occasion of bringing you Gen- by tiles, by the gospel, into a state of favour and fellowship with him, through faith in his Son, shall not their future general conversion to Christ be a mean of introducing an inexpressibly more glorious, enlarged, and lively condition to the gospel church? 16. And this general conversion we ought to hope for.—For God's sanctification of Abraham and others of their ancestors to his service, and entering them and their seed into special covenant with himself, imports that though for their wickedness the present and many succeeding naaneatinne chanla he ent off from the favour of God generations should be cut off from the favour of God }) th and expelled from his church, yet he will, in some future period, from regard to their living faith, { ur convert all who have faith in Christ, and reinstate them in his church. And of this I and others who are th already converted are a specimen, pledge, and earnest. 17. But if the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- -those friends of God—be, for their obstinate unbelief, cut off and expelled from God's cove- fe nant and church, that you, ignorant, unprofitable, and wicked Gentiles, fit only for everlasting destruction, might, m the transcendent mercy of God, be brought into the church as their spiritual posterity, and, along with believing Jews, made partakers of all the promises, ordinances, privileges, and blessings of the gracious covenant made with Abraham; 18. Never insult or contemn these rejected Jews, nor imagine yourselves more worthy than they. Remember ye contributed nothing to the honours and privileges of Abraham and his posterity, but receive your gospel privileges through means of Abraham as their root, and the father of all the nations of them that believe. 19. Think not that they, as superlatively wicked, were expelled from God's church, that you, as better, might be admitted in their stead. 20. It was for their rejection of Christ, and the way of salvation through him,

freely offered to you, that ye have been admitted into and continued in possession of, the privileges which they have lost: never therefore ruin yourselves by contempt of others, or by a conceit of your own worthi- and p: ness, or ability to persevere in your holy profession ; length but study always to maintain a holy reverence of God, their a humble diffidence of yourselves, and a filial fear of a falling by unbelief as they have done. 21. For if God would not pass over without fearful punishment the dom,r obstinate unbelief of his ancient people descended from a1 Abraham his distinguished friend, what need have ye, who, contrary to all your deserts, have been admitted ir into his gospel church in their stead, to take heed, lest, riches by pride and unbelief, you should provoke him to ; sof an) OMbanewo and mn) DY PMG au une, yur creer pom punish you in a similar manner. 22. Observe and unl ponder therefore with solemn awe the dreadful but just kr severity which God has exercised towards the obstinate and rejected Jews, and the transcendent mercy and kindness which he has manifested towards you it f Gentiles in sending his gospel to you, opening your 'le to receive it, admitting you into his church, and rendering you partakers of his blessings, if by an humble rt. ye improve his kindness. But if, through pride is- unbelief, ye abuse his merciful dispensation, assure per yourselves that he will also unchurch you, and all other of his merely nominal Christians. 23, 24. And know that er- the Jewish nation who are now rejected shall, in bable 'cc Hime. hv an actual conversion to the faith of off time, by an actual conversion to the faltn OF in- be again made members of his church; for if, ass en- his supernatural compassion, you idolatrous yw- worthless, unprofitable, ond wicked, have eir brought into his church to render you fruitful in ro- works, much more may we expect that these the n ind of Abraham, with whom God established 'his covenant in their pious ancestors, shall, by faith in his d \d's exalted Messiah, be brought back into the covenant he 'ors church of God, from which their unbelief had cut nto off, that they may partake of the spiritual benefits for 25. Nay, that ye may not indulge yourselves ling vain reasonings or self-conceit, or in contempt of sod know that this strange and tremendous aban- Ver - a8 7 a. abate taaavanre and t JOO )TMEIL, KMOW Liat titi oetesege mer nooo yme of most of the Jews to their ignorance and seed ith, will only continue till there be a general con- ond I tate cf the Gentile nations to Christ. 26, 27. And are {then shall multitudes of all the tribes of Israel _be in est. manner turned to the Lord, through faith in Christ, vo aac, the gracious forgiver of their guilt, subduer of their bsti- and reformer from their sinful practices, maniove- to them according to the ancient predictions. mont: and In judgment to them, and in order to the merciful tion, of the gospel among you, they are indeed now ught to, and contradicters and blasphemers of it, ¥n. 3 Jong have thereby cut themselves off from the blessed- on ih pro- of it; but, with respect to that absolutely gracious whe which God made of them as his peculiar people, ro- of it; but, with respect to that absolutely gracivue 1 the which God made of them as his peculiar people, ver are stil the objects of his kind and merciful reine in consequence of that special favour which he al had for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and other pious an- j} generc sof 29. For the gracious and other blessspel which God bestows upon men in consequence of rected jot, faith in his blessed word, being constant, threat. sve. may depend on his infinite wisdom, power, vere and unchangeableness, that this chosen nation they ight again be turned to the Lord, and multitudes saved ri jec- an everlasting salvation. 30. For as ye Gentiles, of iim, had for many ages continued in the most hateful, Han and hopeless circumstances, have now, through

Of the' Jews, who 'now for a time do reject Christ and the gospel, that, through your receiving and preserving the gospel in the world, it may at length be preached unto them, and, through faith in their own Messiah, they may be mercifully restored to their ancient privileges, and all who accept Christ saved. 32. Thus by turns hath God, in infinite wisdom,really seemed to shut up mankind—first the Gen: tiles and then the Jews—under the power of their dis. obedience and unbelief, and out of his visible church, that in his own time he may magnify the exceeding riches of his grace, in bringing men of all ranks, among both Jews and Gentiles, to himself. 33. O} the nnbounded. the unfathomable depths of his wisdom the unbounded, the untathomabie depts oF mip wisuvut and knowledge, and of his counsels and dispensations, especially those which relate to the disposing of and preparing men for their eternal state! How impossible su [is it for created minds to explore the reasons of his determinations with respect to particular persons or nations! And how intricate and unknown are the methods of his providence for accomplishing his greai designs! 34. How impossible it is for mere creatures to penetrate into the secret thoughts and noble schemes of his infinite mind, who is the great Sovereign of heaven and earth, and which he, by the most improbable means, pursues in the most unsearchable dispensations of providence! And how impossible for any sate tl Lin alan av ta direct him in if, assist him in forming his plans, or to direct him in accomplishing them! 35. Very absurd then is it to imagine that any creature, and especially any sinful man, Jew or Gentile, should expect salvation without ase mercy of the infinite God, the Creator and Preied of all, 36. For not only all things relative to his dispensation of justice and mercy, but all things ant heaven, earth or hell, of him, as their Contriver, cut and Cause; and are all preserved, directed, fits and managed by him; and are all inves formed, preserved and managed for the glorious illustration of his infinite love. an-

Ver. 1. The apostle specially describes himself as one of 'the smd of Abraham,' because the word ' Israelite' might describe and seed of Abraham, Decause tue wu sotavenee cere To one who had become an Israclite_by proselytism and adoption; on- he traces his pedigree to Benjamin as a tribe that had ind rebelled against the house of David, nor apostatized to » in C. ist

Ver. 5. Since the election of grace' embraces merely a 'remnant,' that election must be personal to salvation, and not merely neir to civil institutions and ecclesiastical privileges. For ani- institutions and privileges—the latter of which are comons. monly called the 'means of grace *_were not peculiar to a rem'iful nant, but common to the whole nation; see ver. 7. c. . Wu

Ver. 7. The rest were blinded—not by any act of God extin10W ishing their sight, but by that very light of God which they hated, f it, Fn. 3. 19, 20, even as the natural eye of man is blinded by gazing sed- the sun. Their blinding, however, may be called the act of : God so far as it was the consequence of a judicial sentence on ious } their foolish hearts given up to their own counsels and to Satan's Vara Inardinarv grafting, the good branch is inserted into IUD TOONS cai la Ravers wp ew errr re-

Ver. 17. In ordinary grafting, the good branch is inserted into the wild stock; but Bredenkamp has rendered it certain that 3 he } was also customary to ingraft the wilding branch on the more in- stock, by which means the fruitfulness of the garden SS- was increased, and the juices and flavour of the wilding corof rected and improved. C. ;

Ver. 22. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. & prophetic nt, which has literally been fulfilled upon that very er, {the Romans) to whom it was originally addressed. For ion they, like the Jews, having become ignorant of and opposed to God's righteousness by grace, and going about to establish their red righteousness by works, are (while again, like the Jews, they es, off and excommunicate all others) themselves cut off from fal, tree from which the church derives all her righteousness and allher life, through faith alone. C. oo, 1g)

Ver. 26. were intimated in the structure of the passage, and provided other them, solemn scriptures required the limitation. But here the distinction hes your own sel between 'part' and 'all,' so that the prophecy appears to point 4 living sac toa blessed time when faith and salvation shall pervade all Israel g without exception.— Hasten the time, Lord, for which thou hast ye are the le taught us to pray—'thy will (shall) be done on earth as in determ: heaven.' C. glorify him ;

Reflections.—Awful is the thought that so many faith and thembers of the visible church should be eternally a spiritu: rejected and ruined. Yet it is a great mercy that, in answerable t the very worst of times, a remnant, larger than many to hin - - 24 1 Pot tee en warl INE VETY WOFSL UL LULITD, @ Besssssctecy seegyre Tom oe think, are saved ; that our whole salvation is owing to worl taith in Christ; and that not one who remains or beit faithful is lost. But it is absurd for men to attempt and connecting their merits with God's grace, as joint } let your chie causes of their eternal salvation, when the one is utterly more ir eversive of the other. Dreadful are spiritual judg- may ben ments, especially when least perceived ; and awful is recomm the providence when God casts off a person, and espe- God con! cially a nation, which he has long remarkably favoured. underst It is necessary therefore for all professors humbly to to your fear and tremble for themselves, and to make sure Christ, do, i their standing in Christ by vigorous and often-repeated puffed u acts of faith, But when God -asts off one nation he any dist acts of faith. BUL WNeN wWuU Vadis Val Vale sraciean sew Ew ery mon: supplies their room in his church and covenant with in another; and when they are long cast off, God can his own g nevertheless mark his regard to their ancestors, and to and holy enc his promises made to them, in showing them distin- modest guished favour at last.—Blessed indeed will be the whatev period when both Jews and Gentiles shall be generally besto gathered to Jesus Christ. May the Lord hasten it in as we his time! And with reverend awe should we adore all the and acquiesce in all his purposes and providences, each m resolving all into his infinite wisdom, power, mercy, } we believer equity, and great compassion, and referring the glory body, and of all things, all events, to his name. our differe —- ourselves a equity, and great compassion, ana relerring wie givay yp very) oem of all things, all events, to his name. our differe —— ourselves a