The Word Made Fresh
1So I ask, has God rejected his people? Of course not! I am myself an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin. 2God has not rejected the people he knew from the beginning. Don’t you know that the scripture tells us how Elijah pleaded with God against Israel? He said, 3“Lord, they have murdered your prophets! They have torn your altars apart! I’m the only one left, and they are looking to take my life also!” 4And how did God answer him? “I have kept apart for myself seven thousand who have not bowed down to Baal.” 5So, it also holds in the present time – there is a remnant chosen by God’s grace. 6But since it is by grace, it no longer rests on works. If it were otherwise, grace wouldn’t be grace!
7What then? Israel did not find what it was looking for. Those who were chosen found it, but the others were stubborn. 8As it is written, “God has kept them from seeing and hearing down to this very day.” 9As David said: “Let their table become a trap for them, a stumbling block and a reprisal. 10Let their eyes be blinded, and their backs forever bent over.”
11So, you might ask, have they stumbled so that they will fall? Of course not! But because they have stumbled salvation has been presented to the Gentiles to make them jealous. 12For if their failure is meant to benefit the world, and their defeat is for the salvation of Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean rewards for all of us!
13I have been addressing you Gentiles. Since I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I make my ministry known 14so that my own people will be jealous, and some of them will be saved. 15If their rejection reconciled the world, what can their acceptance mean but life from death? 16If that part of the dough is holy which was offered as first fruits, then the whole lump of dough is holy.
In the same way, if the roots are sacred then the branches are as well. 17But if some of the branches were broken and you were grafted in their place as a wild olive root to share in the richness of the olive tree, 18you would have no reason to boast over the branches. If you are tempted to do so, just remember that you aren’t supporting the root. The root is supporting you. 19You might say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in their place,” 20and that is true. They were broken off because they had no faith, but you can stand in their place only through faith. So don’t become proud of yourself, but be in awe. 21If God didn’t spare the natural branches, he may not spare you either! 22So take note: God’s severity is shown toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness is shown toward you as long as you continue to deserve it. Otherwise, you will be cut off as well. 23And if they don’t continue refusing to believe, they will be grafted onto the branch because God has the authority to graft them once more. 24After all, if you have been cut from a wild olive tree and grafted onto a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?
25I want you to understand this mystery to keep you from thinking you are wiser than you really are, because part of Israel has become hard-hearted so that all the Gentiles called by God may enter. 26For God wants all of Israel to be saved. It is written, “Out of Zion will come the Deliverer who will rid ungodliness from Jacob.” 27And, “This is my promise to them when I forgive their sins.”
28As far as the gospel is concerned they are your enemies, but because of God’s election they are loved for the sake of their ancestors, 29for God’s gifts and God’s calling cannot be revoked. 30You were once disobedient to God, but now because of them God’s mercy has erased your disobedience. 31So, their disobedience puts them in line to receive mercy. 32God made them all disobedient so that he might be merciful to them all.
33See the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! His judgments cannot be challenged! His actions are unexplainable!
34“For who has understood the Lord’s mind? Who has advised him?”
35“Who would give the Lord gifts just to receive something in return?”
36All things are from God, and all things are through God, and all things are for God. To God be the glory forever! Amen.
Commentary
1-6: Still, God has not rejected Israel, but Paul has made it perfectly clear that Israel, or certainly many Israelites, rejected God. Verse 2 presents problems for Calvinists because it declares that God “foreknew” the Jews, which would mean that under Calvin’s doctrine of predestination, all Jews are automatically saved. Perhaps they are, but that is not what Paul intends to say, nor do I think that’s what John Calvin intended to prove. (John Wesley would say all of them can be saved.) He goes on to reference a story about Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-18) in which God refers to a remnant of Israelites who had not bowed down to Baal, and using that tale surmises that there is still a remnant in Israel whom God has not rejected, but he insists that God’s acceptance of them is an act of God’s grace, not because of their works.
7-10: Again, quoting from the Old Testament (Isaiah 29:10 and Psalm 69:22-23), Paul “proves” that God knew some in Israel would persist in rejecting him.
11-12: Still, Israel is not doomed, he says. Instead, their failure has made salvation available to the Gentiles as well (I doubt this argument went over well with his Jewish readers).
13-16: Paul declares that he is trying to make his own people jealous so some of them might be saved. He reasons that if Israel’s rejection of God (Christ) has resulted in Gentiles now being reconciled to God, then if anyone in Israel accepts God (Christ) all Israel will reap the benefits.
17-24: Gentiles, however, have no right or reason to brag that they have been saved in place of those in Israel who have rejected the message. He uses the olive tree as a metaphor for God’s people. Those Israelites who reject Jesus are pruned from the tree, and those Gentiles who accept Jesus are grafted onto the branches in their place, but the fallen ones from the house of Israel are not forever lost; they can still be grafted in; and the Gentiles who have been grafted in can still be pruned away. The attitude the Christian is supposed to have, then, is not an attitude of boasting, but of gratitude.
25-32: In spite of rejecting the law, Paul is really hung up on it and keeps using legal terms — obedience and disobedience — to describe how God has worked through Christ to bring about salvation for all.
33-36: Quoting Isaiah 40:13 and Job 35:7, the wonder of God’s providence is extoled.
Takeaway
God will save whomever God chooses to save. Faith is the passport to heaven.