Comentarios bíblicos

Romans 11:1, &c. I say then, &c.— This chapter is of the prophetic kind. It was by the spirit of prophesy that the Apostle foresaw the rejection of the Jews, which he supposes in the two foregoing chapters; for when he wrote this Epistle, they were not in fact rejected, seeing that their church and polity were then standing: but the event has proved that he was a true prophet; for we know that in about ten or eleven years after the writing of this letter, the temple was destroyed; the Jewish polity overthrown; and the Jews expelled the promised land, which they have never been able to recover to this day. This, first, confirms the arguments which the Apostle has advanced to establish the calling of the Gentiles; for the Jews are infact rejected; consequently our calling is in fact not invalidated by any thing which they have suggested, relating to the perpetuityoftheMosaical dispensation; but that dispensation being wholly subverted, our title to the privileges of God's church and people stands clear and strong. The Jewishconstitutionalonecouldfurnishobjectionsagainstourclaim; and the event has silenced every objection from that quarter. Secondly, The actual rejection of the Jews proves St. Paul to be a true Apostle of Jesus Christ, who spake by the Spirit of God; otherwise, he could not have argued so fully upon a case which was yet to come, and of which there was no appearance in the state of things, when he wrote this Epistle. This should dispose us to pay great regard to the present chapter, in which he discourses concerning the extent and duration of the rejection of his countrymen, to prevent their being insulted and despised by the Gentile Christians. First, As to the extent ofthis rejection: it is not absolutely universal; some of the Jews have embraced the Gospel, and are incorporated into the church of God with the believing Gentiles. Upon the case of those believing Jews he comments, ver. l-7. Secondly, As to the duration of it; it is not final and perpetual; for all Israel, or the nation of the Jews, who are now blinded, shall one day be saved, or brought again into the peculiar kingdom and covenant of God. Upon the state of those blinded Jews he comments, Rom 11:7 to the end of the chapter. His design in discoursing upon this subject was not only to make the thing itself known, but partly to engage the attention of the unbelieving Jew; to conciliate his favour; and, if possible, to induce him to come into the Gospel scheme; and partly to dispose the Gentile Christians not to treat the Jews with contempt;(consideringthattheyderivedalltheirpresentblessingsfromthepatriarchs, the ancestors of the Jewish nation, and were ingrafted into the good olive-tree, whence they were broken) and to admonish them to take warning by the fall of the Jews, that they improved their religious privileges, lest through unbelief any of them should relapse into heathenism, or perish finally at the last day. The thread of his discourse leads him into a general survey and comparison of the several dispensations of God towards the Gentiles and Jews; which he concludes with adoration of the depths of the divine knowledge and wisdom, exercised in the various constitutions erected in the world: Romans 11:30, &c.

This first verse is a question in the person of a Jew, who made the objections in the foregoing chapter, and continues to object here. The word 'Απωσατο, rendered cast away, is very strong and emphatical. "Hath God absolutely, universally, and for ever thrust his people away from him?" See Acts 27:31; Act 13:46, 1 Timothy 1:19.

Instead of Wot,—Wot ye not,—and maketh intercession; some read, Know ye not—maketh complaint.

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Romans 11:3. Digged down thine altars— It hence seems, that though, according to the law there was only one altar for sacrifice, and that in the place where God had fixed his peculiar residence; yet, by some special dispensation, pious persons in the ten tribes built altars elsewhere. It is well known, at least, that Samuel and Elijah had done it; and perhaps they were either kept up, or others raised on the same spots of ground. Baal, or Baalim, (see Romans 11:4.) was a general name, whereby the false gods and idols were denoted in Scripture. See Judges 11:11-13, Hosea 11:2. Locke and Doddridge.

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Romans 11:6. And if by grace— Here the Apostle has his eye upon the remnant of the Jews who had embraced the Gospel, mentioned in the foregoingverse; and he throws in this verse to shew them, that their standing in the Christian church had no relation to or dependence upon their past or present observance of the law of Moses. Their standing in the church and covenant of God was according to the election of grace; grace, received by faith, was the only ground upon which they stood, and had a title to the privileges of God's people. The election of grace is not a particular act of sovereign grace, which singled out some few of the Jews, who deserved to have been cast off as well as the rest; but it is that general scheme of grace, according to which God purposed to take into his church and kingdom any, among either Jews or Gentiles, who believed in Christ; and the remnant of the Jews were taken in, not because God singledthem out from the rest of their countrymen, by such a special act of favour as might have taken in all the Jews, had he so pleased; but because they believed, and so came into the scheme of election which God had appointed: out of which election they, as well as others, would have been excluded, had they, like the rest, remained in unbelief, and into which election all the Jews, to a man, notwithstanding they were all sinners, would have been taken, had they all believed in Christ. This, and the preceding verse, may be paraphrased thus:"So it is at this very time: there is a remnant of the Jews, a considerable number, who have accepted of the grace of the Gospel, and are the people of God, after the only true way of choosing his people, which is by grace; and here, by the way, (Romans 11:6.) let me put this remnant of the Jews, who have embraced the Gospel, in mind, that if their standing in the church is of grace and favour, it is wholly so, and in no part or respect dependent upon their observance of the law of Moses; for if it were, grace would lose its proper nature and cease to be what it is; a free undeserved gift. On the other hand, were it true that they are invested in the privileges of the kingdom of Christ by the observance of the law of Moses, then grace would be quite set aside; for if it were not, work, or the merit of obedience, would lose its proper nature, which excludes favour and free gift." See Locke and Doddridge.

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Romans 11:7. That which he seeketh for— Namely, that righteousness, whereby he was to continue the people of God. See ch. Romans 9:31. It may be observed, that St. Paul's discourse being concerning the national privilege of continuing the people of God, he speaks here, and all along, of the Jews in the collective term Israel; and so likewise he calls by the name of election the remnant, which would remain his people, and incorporate with the converted Gentiles into one body of Christians; owning the dominion of the one true God in the kingdom that he had set up under his Son, and owned by God for his people. See the preceding note. How the rest were blinded, see 2 Corinthians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 3:18.

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Romans 11:14. If by any means, &c.— The Apostle has generally very extensive and complicated views in writing; and it seems very evident, that he had not only intended to excite the Jews to emulation by turning their thoughts to the consideration of the privileges they had lost, but also that it was his aim to insinuate himself, and the Gospel he preached, into the good opinion of the Jews: for he cautions the Gentile against insulting the Jew; labours to give him an honourable opinion of the Jew; and so explains the case of the Jew's present rejection, and future reception, as to dispose him to think favourably of the Gospeldispensation; which allowed him the opportunity ofrecoveringhimselfthroughdivinegraceimmediately,wouldheimmediatelyrepent and believe; and which concurred with the prophets in asserting, that one day the whole nation would be gloriously restored. TheApostle's affirming and arguing upon this event with so much assurance and pleasure, had a natural tendency to soften the Jew, and incline him to think.

See commentary on Rom 11:13

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Romans 11:15. The reconciling of the world— See ch. Romans 5:11. But life from the dead, means "to the world; to us Gentile Christians; the world, reconciled and enriched by the casting off of the Jews." When we were at first reconciled by being converted to the power of Christianity, we were raised from the dead to a new life, ch. Rom 6:13 and the approaching glorious dispensation which the Apostle here speaks of, will again be to us as life from the dead. By which we may understand, that the future glory of the church, when this great event of the restoration of the Jews shall take place, will be so much more glorious than its present state, as to appear to the people of God like a life from the dead. Numberless prophesies of the Old Testament evidently refer to this event; and the wonderful preservation of the Jews, as a distinct people, not only leaves a possibility, but encourages our strong hope of it. When it shall be accomplished, it will be so unparalleled, as necessarily to excite a general attention, and to fix upon men's minds such an almost irresistible demonstration both of the Old and New Testament revelation, as will probably captivate the minds of many thousands of deists, in countries professedly Christian; of whom, under such corrupt establishments as generally prevail, there will of course beincreasing multitudes. Nor will this only captivate their understanding, but will have the greatest tendency through grace to awaken a sense of true religion in their hearts; and this will be a means of propagating the Gospel with an amazing velocity in pagan and Mahometan countries; which, probably, had been evangelized long ago, had genuine Christianity prevailed in those who have made a profession, and God knows, for the most part, a very scandalous profession of its forms. See Doddridge, Hartley's Observations, vol. 2: p.

373 and Lardner's Discourses on "The Circumstances of the Jewish People, an Argument for the Truth of the Christian Religion."

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Romans 11:16. For if the first-fruit be holy, &c.— Now if, &c. The Apostle makes use of these allusions to shew that the patriarchs, the root of the Jewish nation, being accepted by God, and the few Jewish converts who at first entered into the Christian church, being also accepted of God, are as it were first-fruits, or pledges, that God will in due time admit the whole nation of the Jews into his visible church, to be together with the Gentile Christians his peculiar people again. By holy here is meant that relative holiness, whereby any thing has an appropriation to God. See Locke. Instead of lump, Dr. Heylin reads, the whole product.

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Romans 11:17. Thou, being a wild olive-tree, &c.— This is another way of expressing the justification and election of us Gentiles; and it is also an incontestable proof, that we Gentile Christians are taken into the Abrahamic covenant, (for the Sinai covenant is abolished) as truly and fully as ever the nation of the Jews were. Consequently, any argument relating to our church privileges, taken from the nature of the Abrahamic covenant, must be just and valid; for we are grafted into the church, which sprung from that root, and are partakers of its fatness. It is to very little purpose to object, that it is unnatural to suppose an ignoble branch grafted on a rich stock; for it was not necessary that the simile from inoculation should hold in all its particulars; and the engagement to humility, arises in a considerable degree from the circumstance objected against. Had the scion been nobler than the stock, yet its dependence on it for life and nourishment would render it unfit that it should boast against it: how much more, when the case was the reverse of what in human usage is practised; and the wild olive is ingrafted on the good! See Doddridge and Calmet.

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