Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Romans Capítulo 11

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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Romans 11:18. Boast not against the branches— Though the great fault which most disordered the church, and principally exercised the Apostle'scare in this Epistle, was from the Jews pressing the necessity of legal observances, and not brooking that the Gentiles, though converts to Christianity, should be admitted into their communion without being circumcised; yet it is plain from this verse, as well as from ch. Romans 14:3; Rom 14:10 that the convert Gentiles were not wholly without fault on their side, in treating the Jews with disesteem and contempt. To this also, as it comes in his way, he applies fit remedies, particularly in this chapter, and in ch. 14. See Locke.

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Romans 11:20. Be not high-minded, &c.— Dr. Heylin connects this with the next verse, thus: Be not presumptuous, but fear, lest God should not spare you, since he did not spare even the natural branches.

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Romans 11:22. Behold therefore the goodness, &c.— What is here meant by goodness to the believing Gentile, as it stands opposed to severity against the rejected Jew, is very evident. It is the same with salvation being come to them, Rom 11:11 with their being enriched, Rom 11:12 with their being grafted into the good olive-tree, Rom 11:17 with their having obtained mercy, Rom 11:30 with their being called and chosen, ch. Romans 9:24. It is, in short, the same with their being justified by the grace of God, upon their faith.

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Romans 11:24. The olive-tree, which is wild by nature—which be the natural branches— The original in both these places is κατα φυσιν, and therefore our translators should either have rendered it in the first clause, The natural wild-olive tree, or in the latter, Which are branches by nature. See Heylin.

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Romans 11:25. The fulness of the Gentiles— The fulness of the Jews, Rom 11:12 is the whole body of the Jewish nation professing Christianity, and therefore the fulness of the Gentiles here must be the whole body of the Gentiles professing Christianity. It is well remarked by Dr. Harris, that as this Epistle was written about the year 57, that is, long after the most remarkable conversion of the Jews by the first preaching of the Apostles, and after St. Paul had been about thirty years engaged in his work, it appears that the prophesies relating to the calling of the Jews were not accomplished then, and consequently are not yet accomplished. Dr. Whitby very justly observes, that there is a double harvest of the Gentiles spoken of by St. Paul, in this chapter; the first called their riches, Rom 11:12 as consisting in the preaching the Gospel to all nations; whereby indeed they were happily enriched with divine knowledge and grace; the second, the bringing in their fulness, in the latter age of the world. See Locke, Whitby, Harris's Discourse on the Messiah, p. 91. Limb. Collat. p. 94 and Doddridge.

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Romans 11:28. They are enemies for your sakes— Enemies signify strangers, or aliens; that is to say, such as are no longer to be the peculiar people of God: for they are called enemies, in opposition to beloved in this verse; and the reason given why they are enemies, makes it plain that this is the sense; namely, for the Gentiles' sake: that is, "they are rejected from being the peculiar people of God, that you Gentiles may be taken in to be the people of God in their room," Romans 11:30. Enemies has the same signification, ch. Romans 5:10. As concerning the Gospel, enemies: that is, all those who not embracingthe Gospel, not receiving Christ for their king and Lord, are aliens from the kingdom of God;—and all such aliens are called enemies: and so indeed were the Jews now; yet they were, as touching the election, beloved; that is, not actually within the kingdom of the Messiah, his people, but within the election which God had made of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity, to be his people; and so God had still intentions of kindness to them, for their fathers' sakes, to make them again his people. The election is the same with that mentioned Rom 11:5 and ch. Romans 9:11. Therefore the unbelieving Jews were not so cast off, as to be intirely deprived of the favour of God in a national sense; agreeably to what he had long before declared, Leviticus 26:44-45, Deuteronomy 4:31. This clearly shews the nature of that election, concerning which the Apostle discourses in this and the two fore-going chapters. See Locke, and on ch. Romans 5:11.

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Romans 11:29. For the gifts and calling of God, &c.— "For the favours which God shewed to those their fathers in calling them and their posterity to be his people, he does not repent of; but his promise, that they shall be his people, shall stand good." So God's repenting is explained, Numbers 23:19. See Elsner.

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Romans 11:32. For God hath concluded them all, &c.— Them is not in the original, and should not be in the translation. Concluded is no English word in this place; the sense of the Greek verb συνεκλεισε is, he hath locked, or shut up together, which may be properly rendered by the Latin word concludo; but we never in English use the word conclude to signify to lock or shut up. The word in the original is found but in three places besides this, viz. Luk 5:6 where it is well rendered inclosed; and Gal 3:22-23 where in one verse it is rendered very improperly concluded, and in the other shut up. All were locked up under sin, and the Jews in particular were locked up under the law; so here God has locked up all together in unbelief. Now, as all Jews and Gentiles, before Christ came, were locked up under sin, and the Jews were locked up under the law, condemning them to death;—(not as if none of them could be saved, or be in a state of acceptance with God, but only so far, and in this sense, as the ground of their pardon and redemption was not laid, or the price of their redemption was not paid, till Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, took away the sin of the world;) so here first the Gentiles, afterwards the Jews are locked up in unbelief; not as if they were therefore locked out of the favour of God, and excluded from eternal life; for unbelief is here to be understood, not in the absolute, but in the relative sense;—not in the absolute sense, as it is a principle, which renders a man wicked, but with reference to the kingdom of God in this world, or as it disqualifies a person from being a sharer in the honours and privileges of that kingdom.—It is unbelief in profession, which stands opposed, not to a life of holiness and virtue, or of eternal happiness in the world to come, but only to faith in profession. That the Apostle here means unbelief in this general relative sense, and only so far as it excludes a person out of the present kingdom of God, is evident; for this verse stands in immediate connection with the two foregoing; and ALL here includes the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles in those verses. But the unbelieving Gentiles are those (Romans 11:30.) who in times past had not believed God; but now, upon their conversion to Christianity, had obtained mercy; consequently, they were the whole body of Gentiles, who, from the time when the covenant was made with Abraham, to the time when they embraced the faith of the Gospel, had not believed God; that is, had not been numbered among the subjects of his visible kingdom, as the Jews were during that period. And the unbelieving Jews are those (Romans 11:31.) who now do not believe God; but at last shall upon their conversion to Christianity, obtain mercy; consequently, they are the whole body of Jews, who, from the time of their rejecting the kingdom ofGod under the Messiah, have not believed God; that is, have not been numbered amongthe subjects of his visible kingdom, as the believing Gentiles now are. All this is clear; and therefore we may conclude, first, that the unbelief which the Apostle here speaksof is not the faulty character of particular persons, but the general profession of whole nations through a long tract of time: neither, secondly, is it that unbelief which subjects persons to final condemnation; for that unbelief will not terminate in their obtaining mercy: but the unbelief under which the Gentiles were locked up, terminated in their obtaining mercy, and so will the unbelief of the Jews also. Thirdly, the whole body of Gentiles, who embraced the Christian religion, obtained mercy; and so will the whole body of the Jews, at the future period whereof the Apostle speaks; but evidently this relates to their being admitted to the privileges of God's kingdom in this world; consequently their unbelief, which stands opposed to their obtaining mercy, relates only to their being excluded from those privileges. In short, the Apostle considers the unbelieving Gentiles, during the Jewish peculiarity, as one body of men; which body of men afterwards obtained mercy, when they were taken into the visible church of God: and he likewise considers the unbelieving Jews, from the time of their rejecting Christ, to the future time of their conversion, as one bodyof men, who shall then also obtain mercy, or be brought again into the peculiar kingdom of God. Therefore, as this obtaining of mercy is no other than the election about which he argues in this Epistle, it is certain he does not therefore mean that election only of particular persons; but he means such an election as may be applied to bodies of men, with respect to their being taken into the kingdom of God in this world. Mr. Locke's note on this place is very excellent, and sets the whole of this important subject in a very clear light. "The unbelief," says he, "here charged nationally on Jews and Gentiles in their turns, in this and the two preceding verses, whereby they ceased to be the people of God, was evidently the disowning of his dominion; whereby they put themselves out of the kingdom which he had and ought to have in the world, and so were no longer in the state of subjects, but aliens and rebels. A general view of mankind will lead us into an easier conception of St. Paul's doctrine, who through this whole Epistle considers the Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, as three distinct bodies of men. God, by creation, had no doubt an unquestionable sovereigntyover mankind, and this was at first acknowledged in their sacrifices and worship of him. Afterwards they withdrew themselves from their submission to him, and found out other Gods, whom they worshipped and served. This revolt from God, and the consequence of it, God's abandoning them, St. Paul describes, ch. Romans 1:18-32. In this state of revolt from God were the nations of the earth in the time of Abraham. And then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity the Israelites, upon God's gracious call, returned to their allegiance to their ancient and rightful King and Sovereign; owned the one invisible God, creator of heaven and earth, for their God, and so became his people again, to whom he, as to his peculiar people, gave law. And thus remained the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, that is to say, the nations, as the word signifies, till the time of the Messiah; and then the Jews ceased to be the people of God, not by a direct renouncing the God of Israel, and taking to themselves other false gods whom they worshipped; but by opposing and rejecting the kingdom of God, which he proposed at that time to set up with new laws and institutions, and to a more glorious and spiritual purpose, under his Son Jesus Christ; him God sent to them, and him the nation of the Jews refused to receive as their Lord and Ruler, though he was their promised King and Deliverer, answering all the prophesies and types of him, and evidencing his mission by his miracles. By this rebellion against him, into whose hand God had committed the rule of his kingdom, and whom he had appointed Lord over all things, (and who himself is God over all, blessed for ever,) the Jews turned themselves out of the kingdom of God, and ceased to be his people, who had now no other people but those who received and obeyed his Son as their Lord and Ruler. This was the απειθεια, unbelief, here spoken of. And I would be glad to know any other sense of believing or unbelief, wherein it can be nationally attributed to a people (as visibly here it is), whereby they shall cease, or come to be the people of God, or visible subjects of his kingdom here on earth. Indeed, to enjoy life and estate in this, as well as other kingdoms, not only the owning of the prince, and the authority of his laws, but also obedience to them is required: for a Jew might own the authority of God, and his law given by Moses, and so be a true subject, and as much a member of the commonwealth of Israel as any one in it, and yet forfeit his life by disobedience to the law. And a Christian may own the authority of Jesus Christ, and of the Gospel, and yet forfeit eternal life by his disobedience to the precepts of it; as may be seen, ch. Romans 7:8, , Romans 7:9"

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Romans 11:33. O the depth, &c.— This emphatical conclusion seems in an especial manner to regard the Jews, whom the Apostle would hereby teach modesty and submission to the over-ruling hand of the all-wise God, unfit as they are to call him to account for his dealing so favourably with the Gentiles. "His wisdom and ways are infinitely above their comprehension; and will they take upon them to advise him what to do? Or is God in their debt?—Let them say for what, and he shall repay it to them." This is a strong rebuke to the Jews, but delivered, as we see, in a way very gentle and inoffensive: a method which the Apostle endeavours every where to observe towards his nation. See Locke.

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Romans 11:35. Or who hath first given to him, &c.— This has a manifest respect to the Jews, who claimed a right to be the people of God so far, that St. Paul (chap. Romans 9:14.) finds it necessary to vindicate the justice of God in the case; and here also, in this question, he exposes and silences the folly of any such pretence. See Locke.

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