Bible Commentaries

F. ELECTION (Cch. 8, 9–11)

It is almost needless to say that the Election spoken of in ch. 8 &c. is variously explained. A large and important school of Theology (the Arminian) interprets it as a personal election, but contingent upon foreseen faith and perseverance. Another school[58] interprets it as an election not personal at all, but (so to speak) social; an election, like the election of the Jewish Nation, not to life eternal but to a vantage-ground for attaining it.

[58] Or, more properly, other schools, with important differences among themselves in other respects.

Without forgetting for a moment the awful mysteries of the subject, we yet feel that both these theories, with all (and it is very much) that can be said for them, do not fit the language of ch. 8. and of St Paul’s (not to quote St John’s) general teaching. “Not according to our works” is surely the tone of this chapter and of the whole previous epistle, and of the next three chapters. And it seems to us impossible, on any other theory than that of a Personal Election to Life, antecedent to “our works” and mercifully prevailing in its purpose, quite naturally to explain the tone of rapturous joy which marks the closing passages of the chapter.

In the Seventeenth English Article, a masterpiece of careful expression, this result of the humble belief in an Election personal and effectual (but, observe, taking effect through moral means,) is strongly stated:—“The godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort, to godly persons, &c.”

See the whole Article; and especially the closing paragraph, in which the word “generally” is technical, and means “with regard to the genus;”—i.e. probably, mankind. The Article warns us to begin with faith in the promises to man as man, not with the question of personal election.

G. PREDESTINATION (Ch. 9)

See note on chap. Romans 8:30, on the original word.

On this great mystery, brought up with such stern force in ch. 9, we quote a few sentences from one who certainly spoke from no cold or unsympathetic heart—Martin Luther. His Prœfatio in Ep, ad Romanos (translated into Latin from Luther’s German by his friend Justus Jonas) is indeed, as Tholuck describes it, “admirable, and breathing the very spirit of St Paul.” There is a very noble contemporary English paraphrase of it, by Tyndale, from which we take the following passage (Tyndale’s Doctrinal Treatises, Parker Soc. Edition, p. 505):—

“In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters he (Paul) treateth of God’s predestination, whence it springeth altogether whether we shall believe or not believe … By which predestination our justifying and salvation are clean taken out of our hands, and put in the hands of God only. For we are so weak and so uncertain, that, if it stood in us, there would of a truth be no man saved; the devil, no doubt, would deceive us. But now is God sure, that His predestination cannot deceive Him, neither can any man withstand or let Him; and therefore have we hope and trust against sin.

“But here must a mark be set to those unquiet, busy, and high-climbing spirits which begin first from an high (sic) to search the bottomless secrets of God’s predestination, whether they be predestinate or not. These must needs either cast themselves down headlong into desperation, or else commit themselves to free chance, careless. But follow thou the order of this Epistle, and noosel thyself[59] with Christ, and learn to understand what the Law and the Gospel mean, and the office of both the two; that thou mayest in the one know thyself, and how thou hast of thyself no strength but to sin, and in the other the grace of Christ; and then see thou fight against sin and the flesh, as the seven first chapters teach thee. After that, when thou art come to the eighth chapter, and art under the cross and suffering of tribulation, the necessity[60] of predestination will wax sweet, and thou shalt well feel how precious a thing it is. For except thou have borne the cross of adversity and temptation, and hast felt thyself brought into the very brim of desperation, yea, and unto hell-gates, thou canst never meddle with the sentence of predestination without thine own harm, and without secret wrath and grudging inwardly against God; for otherwise it shall not be possible for thee to think that God is righteous and just … Take heed therefore unto thyself, that thou drink not wine, while thou art yet but a suckling. For … in Christ there is a certain childhood, in which a man must be content with milk for a season, until he wax strong and grow up unto a perfect man in Christ, and be able to eat of more strong meat.”

[59] I.e. find shelter, as a child with a nurse. This striking clause is not in the Latin of the Præfatio.

[60] Necessitas, fixed certainty.

And to the last, surely, the dark problems that gather round the central and insoluble mystery of Sin will be safely approached only with the remembrance that “the Judge of all the earth” will “do right;” that He is the Eternal, and that His “ways” must therefore be “past finding out;” and that He “so loved the world that He gave His Only-begotten Son.”

H. REPROBATION (Ch. 9)

In the last note but one on Romans 9:22 we have alluded to the tenet that the lost are personally and positively fore-doomed to ruin. To this tenet Calvin was led, not by a passionless rigidity, from which his deep and sensitive temperament, and truly ample mind, were far removed; but by the conviction that it was inexorably demanded by Scripture and reason. But St Augustine, the great patristic teacher of Predestination, carefully avoided such a tenet; teaching that, however little we can fathom the mystery, man’s sin, running its proper course, is the only cause of man’s ruin; while yet special grace is the only cause of his salvation.

Ch. Romans 11:1-10. Meanwhile the rejection of Israel never was, nor is, total: a remnant believes, and so abides in covenant

1. I say then] I say therefore. Thus far St Paul has stated the adverse side of the case of Israel. He has shewn (1) that the Divine Promise never pledged eternal light and life to all Abraham’s descendants; (2) that God is sovereign in His grants of mercy; (3) that the true work of the elder Dispensation was to prepare for the later; (4) that both Gentile faith and Jewish unbelief were distinctly foretold in the Law and the Prophets. And now, true to his main purpose throughout this argument, he turns to state the happier side; and this in two main aspects. First he reiterates the truth of the Divine Election, but now in its positive aspect—the existence always of a believing Israel within the unbelieving mass. Secondly, he predicts a time when even in the mass Israel should turn to the true Messiah, be restored to the Church, and become thus an influence of vast good for the world.—“Therefore:”—i.e. as the practical result from my previous account of sin and judgment in the case of Israel. Q. d., “I have given that account in order the better to give an account of present and coming mercy; which therefore I now do.’

Hath God cast away] Lit. and better, Did God thrust away? i.e. when He welcomed the Gentiles into His covenant. (So too Romans 11:2)—For the expression cp. 2 Samuel 12:22; where LXX. uses the same verb and noun.

his people] Here, obviously, the bodily descendants of Jacob. St Paul asks whether all these as such were now excluded from the covenant. So immense was the apparent revolution of the admission of Gentiles as such to full covenant, that this fact (along with the fact of the unbelief of millions of Jews) might prompt the thought that the Gentiles were now the privileged and the Jews the aliens.

God forbid] See on Romans 3:4.—The phrase rejects with indignation the suggested thought. In this intense feeling are combined deep love for his kinsmen, jealousy for his own place in the covenant, and jealousy too for the great principle of the irreversibility of “gifts and calling.” See Romans 11:29.

For I also, &c.] Q. d., “I am a living proof to the contrary; an Israelite in the strongest and strictest sense of bodily descent; yet a Christian, a child of God, a messenger of His word.”

an Israelite] See on Romans 9:4.

Benjamin] Cp. Php 3:5, where St Paul, for a different purpose, dwells on his pedigree.—See Bp. Lightfoot’s interesting note on Php 3:5, for the historic dignity and pride of the tribe of Benjamin. (Here, however, such ideas are less clearly in question than there.)

The Olive Tree; the Root, Branches, and Graftings

1. The Olive Tree is the true Israel (cp. Jeremiah 11:16,) as the Church, the People of God. Its Root is Abraham and the Patriarchs. Its Stem is the Church of the Old Testament, when in a certain sense (that of external privilege) the Church coincided with the Nation of Israel, and when at least the vast majority of true believers were also physically children of Abraham. Its branches (by a slight modification of metaphor) are potential believers, whether Jewish or Gentile. If Jewish, their faith in Jesus as Messiah is viewed as retaining them in the Church; if Gentile, their faith “grafts” them into the stem of the covenant-congregation. If, being Jews, they reject the offers of the Gospel, they are thereby “cut off” from the stem. If they repent and believe, their faith “grafts” them into it again; and this process, says St Paul, is, by the nature of the case, a more likely and natural one than the “grafting” of the alien branches—which yet is graciously effected.

2. God hath not cast away his people] Lit. did not cast, &c. These words are verbatim (save only the change of tense) with LXX. of Psalms 93 (Heb., 94.):14.

which he foreknew] See on Romans 8:29.—Two interpretations are possible here. The “foreknowledge,” or sovereign antecedent decision of the Eternal Mind, may be (a) that which designated the nation for privilege, or (b) that which designated individuals of it for final glory. The words of Romans 11:3-5 favour the latter view; and thus St Paul would say “God never thrust Israel out of the covenant; for He always had among them a foreknown ‘Israel of God’.”—The former sense (national designation) would be perfectly legitimate in itself; but it is less in accord with the immediate context, and with the closely kindred reasonings of ch. 9. The question in view here is “Was the nation ever so rejected as that members of it, as such, were rejected?” This St Paul negatives by pointing to the “nation within the nation;” the elect faithful.

of Elias] Lit. in Elias; i.e. in the narrative of Elijah’s life.

intercession] On behalf of the Divine Truth and Worship.

2. The whole Olive Tree—its root, branches, and all—is the Church Universal, in which there is “neither Greek nor Jew;” i.e. in which every real part of the organism, every true believer, shares the sap and life of grace in equal reality. But the special imagery is framed to emphasize not this truth, but another truth in harmony with it; viz. that “salvation is of the Jews;”—that with the Hebrew Patriarch began—after a distinct break of continuity—the more definite life and history of the Church; that for ages the saints were all (practically) found among his sons; and that the universal Saviour was of the seed of David.

3. Lord, they have killed, &c.] 1 Kings 19:10. The quotation is not precisely with either LXX. or Heb.; but substantially exact.—The Gr. past verbs here are aorists.

4. This, and not the evangelical equality of Jew and Gentile, is here in view; with the special object of reminding the Gentile Christian how singular and eminent had been the work of the Jewish Church; how welcome individual Jews must be to return to the Church, which, though now universal in extent, was, and of course is always, Jewish in descent; and how natural it was that a special work in that Church should yet be designed for an aggregate of Jewish believers.

4. the answer of God] Lit. the oracular answer. The words “of God” are an explanatory addition.

I have reserved, &c.] 1 Kings 19:18. The Heb. is, “And I have left in Israel seven thousand; all the knees that have not bowed, &c.” (LXX. has “And thou shalt leave, &c.”)

4. It is hardly needful to point out how this metaphorical passage, like almost every other, secular or sacred, carries its qualifications and corrections with it. For example, the true Church of God existed ages before Abraham; it embraced Abel, Enoch, Noah. And no saint, however great, can be the “root” of the rest in the sense of being their source of life: the Divine Saviour alone can say “Abide in me.” And again, the figure here, if taken alone, would leave us with the impression that the Call of the Gentiles was an accident in the history of the Church, instead of being the great “Purpose of the Ages” (Ephesians 3:11) to which the privileges and work of the Elder Covenant were but the mighty prelude. But St Paul writes for those who will read his revelation in the full light of Gospel-truth; and therefore he securely leaves the details to self-explanation or self-correction. Carefully so read, the passage tells us not of a higher level of grace and glory hereafter for Jewish saints as above Gentile saints, but of a gracious welcome back, and a special work for God, for repenting and believing Israel.

5. at this present time] In which the mournful phenomenon of Jewish unbelief occasioned this whole discussion.

there is] Lit. there hath been: it was and still is.

a remnant] a reserve, a leaving. The noun is cognate to the verb “I reserved” in Romans 11:4. This “remnant” at some stages of apostolic history (Acts 6:7; Acts 21:20,) was in itself very numerous. But it was always, no doubt, small comparatively; and it became more and more so the more the distinctive character of the New Kingdom came out, (as in Stephen’s and now in Paul’s teaching,) and the nearer the last crisis of the old order approached.

according to the election of grace] i.e. “on the scale determined by the Divine choice (to faith and salvation), whose only motive and reason is grace—the free favour of Him who chooses out His own.”—See on Romans 8:33.

6. And if by grace, &c.] This verse is wholly parenthetical. Not that its statement is alien to the whole argument, but this is not its logical place. The argument is continuous between Romans 11:5; Romans 11:7; but St Paul is so desirous to make the truth of Gratuitous Salvation perfectly clear and familiar that he seizes this passing occasion to re-state it, as it were in a note. The occasion is the quotation (Romans 11:4) of the words “I have reserved;” in which St Paul sees the sovereign act of Divine grace, withholding a remnant from the commission of idolatrous sin. The faithful seven thousand were faithful “not according to their works, but according to His purpose and the grace given to them.”

no more of works] no longer of works. i.e. when once this principle is granted, thenceforth the thought that it is “of works” is negatived. So below, “no more grace;” “no more work.”—The best commentary on this verse is the argument of cch. 3 and 4. Nothing could be clearer than St Paul’s anxiety to give an absolute denial to the whole idea of antecedent human merit as a factor among the causes of salvation. Grace, to be grace, must be entirely uncaused by anything of meritorious claim in us.

But if it be, &c.] There is much documentary evidence against the genuineness of this last half of the verse. It is however not conclusive; and slight variations in the Gr. phrases, as compared with those of the first half, afford an internal argument for retention; for an imitator would probably follow the model exactly. Certainly the reiteration of the truth in question would be just in keeping here, and it is doubtful whether that truth is one which was so well grasped in the early centuries as that copyists would tend to emphasize it by an insertion.

work is no more work] Work, in the sense in question, (i.e. as an antithesis to grace,) necessarily involves claim. This necessary idea must be negatived if “works” and “grace” can coincide as causes of salvation.

7. What then?] A phrase of resumption after the digression.

Israel] Here, obviously, the nation. Cp. Romans 9:6.

hath not obtained] Lit. did not obtain. The crisis of the offer of the Gospel to them is in view in the tense. So did obtain it, just below.

that which he seeketh for] i.e. a Righteousness before God; a valid ground of acceptance. This was the aim of their efforts, as much when St Paul wrote as ever before; but the method was fatally wrong. Cp. Romans 10:3.

the election] i.e. the company of the chosen. For a similar collective use of singular nouns, cp. the phrases (so frequent in this Epistle) “the circumcision,” “the uncircumcision.”

were blinded] Better, were hardened. (So hardening, Romans 11:25, below.) The verb indicates failure of sensation; of which blindness is only a special instance.—The best commentary is ch. 9. The verb rendered “harden” there is not the same, but the idea is the same. Here, as there, St Paul states this dark mystery of the Divine dealing with sinners with no attempt at explicit clearing up. He does not try to conjure away the cloud around the throne, but commits the mystery to “the Judge of all the earth.”