Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

An overview of chapter 11 before we go into the verse by verse study.

What does Romans chapter 11 mean?

This passage concludes a significant section of Paul’s letter, contained in Romans 9—11. These three chapters ask and answer the question, “What about Israel?” This is an objection Paul’s opponents often asked. If Israel is God’s chosen people and they have rejected faith in Christ as the way of salvation, what will happen to them?

Paul has acknowledged that Israel has, for the most part, rejected faith in Christ. He begins this chapter by asking if that means that God has rejected Israel. His response is another resounding “no.” After all, Paul himself is an Israelite who has come to faith in Christ and has been saved, showing that this is possible for all Jewish people. Paul refers to the smaller subset of Jewish people who have turned to Christ as a remnant, comparing them to the remnant of those in Israel who had not bowed to Baal in Elijah’s day. By His grace (Romans 9:6–8), God has set aside this remnant of Jewish Christians as true Israel (Romans 11:1–5).

Paul also makes a clear point about any attempt to mix salvation by grace with salvation based on works. In short, they are totally incompatible. If something is truly by “grace,” it cannot be in any way based on works, and vice versa (Romans 11:6).

What about the rest of Israel, though? What of those who refused to believe in Christ as the Messiah? Paul’s startling revelation is that God has hardened their hearts in their initial unbelief. He has caused them to trip over the stumbling block of Jesus, but not permanently. Their hardening is only for a time (Romans 11:7–10).

One reason for Israel’s unbelief, Paul writes, is to make room on the main body—referred to as “the root”— of God’s tree. This open space is intended for the non-Jews in the world. These Gentiles who are coming to God through faith in Christ are like the branches of a wild olive tree that have been grafted onto the trunk of a cultivated plant. The old branches, unbelieving Jews, have been broken off for a time to make this possible (Romans 11:11–16).

Paul warns the Gentile Christians not to be arrogant toward these unbelieving Jews, however. The time is coming, after the right amount of the Gentiles have believed in Christ, when God will remove the hardening from the unbelieving Jews. They will turn to faith in Christ and, as a people, be grafted back onto God’s symbolic olive tree, from which they had previously been pruned. God is not done with Israel (Romans 11:17–24).

In spiritual terms, the Israelites may be enemies of the gospel of faith in Jesus Christ, for now. They were certainly the spiritual enemies of Paul during his lifetime. And yet, the Jewish people of Israel remain deeply loved by God because of the promises He made to the patriarchs. God never breaks His promises. His gifts and His calling on Israel can’t be taken back. God will use His grace and mercy toward the Gentile Christians to make Israel jealous. He will use these events to bring her back to Himself as a nation, in the form of those individual Jews who eventually trust in Christ at some future time (Romans 11:25–32).

Paul concludes this section with what has become a beloved poem, like a hymn, about the vast un-knowable-ness and independence of our merciful God (Romans 11:33–36).

Verse by Verse

Verse 1: I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

As Paul often does in Romans, he responds to his own statement with a question. In this case, Paul has just written that God has offered Himself to the non-Jewish nations through faith in Jesus, while Israel has rejected the gospel of faith in Christ.

Now Paul asks if this means that God has rejected His previously chosen people Israel. It’s a question that expects a negative answer, and Paul gives that familiar answer: “By no means!” This again uses the phrasing mē genoito in the original Greek, a strong, emphatic “may it never be!”

Paul points to himself as the first evidence that God has not rejected Israel. After all, Paul is an Israelite and descendant of Abraham. More specifically, Paul writes that he belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. Paul may have become one of the most vocal promoters of Christianity of his day, but he still held on to his status as an Israelite. He insists that God’s relationship with Israel as a nation continues.

Verse 2: God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?

Paul asked rhetorically in the previous verse if God had rejected His people Israel. Now Paul states definitively that God has not rejected His people. Paul describes them as a people God “foreknew.” Paul described God as foreknowing another group of people earlier in this letter. He wrote that those God foreknew He also predestined to become like Christ (Romans 8:29). In that passage, Paul described all who trust in Christ for salvation, including both Jews and Gentiles.

Here, though, Paul seems to describe God as foreknowing Israel as a nation or a family (Amos 3:2). God knew Israel as His people before they existed as a people. One of God’s many promises to Israel is that He would never forsake or abandon His them (Psalm 94:14; 1 Samuel 12:22). That promise stands, Paul writes.

He then introduces new evidence, pointing to a conversation between the prophet Elijah and God about the people of Israel. Paul will quote Elijah’s complaint in the following verse.

Verse 3: ESV”Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.”

Paul is debunking the idea that God has rejected His people Israel. For one thing, Paul wrote, he himself is an Israelite and God has not rejected him. Instead, by God’s grace, Paul has come to God through faith in Christ as an Israelite. To show that there are others, Paul now quotes from a conversation between God and the prophet Elijah.

Elijah, discouraged from standing alone against those who worshiped Baal, said the words of this verse in 1 Kings 19:10. His complaint was against God’s people Israel. They had killed the other prophets of God. They had destroyed the altars used for making legitimate offerings to God. Elijah believed he was the only one left still faithful to the Lord, and they wanted to kill him, too. Elijah was convinced he was speaking of all the other Israelites on the planet. Everyone else has turned away from God and to the worship of Baal.

God showed Elijah that this was not true. Paul, too, will show that a remnant of Israelites has remained faithful to God by having faith in Christ.

Verse 4: But what is God ‘s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

This passage continues to prove that Israel has not been entirely abandoned by God. Even though they have rejected Christ, God has not given up on His promises to them. Nor has He changed their status as His chosen people.

The previous verse quoted Elijah’s words to God in 1 Kings 19:10. Elijah complained, in essence, that he was the last Israelite left who remained faithful to God and did not worship Baal. In this verse, Paul quotes God’s reply to Elijah, found in 1 Kings 19:18. God says that He has kept for Himself 7,000 men who have not bowed to Baal. They remained faithful to God. Elijah was not alone, after all.

Paul will show that the same is true of Israel in his day. Though most of Israel has missed the righteousness of God by rejecting faith in Christ, a remnant of Israelites is faithful to God in and through Christ.

Verse 5: So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.

Paul is making the case that God has not rejected Israel as His people, as well as the fact that a remnant of Israel has remained faithful to God by faith in Christ. This small portion of the Jewish people have received Christ as Messiah instead of rejecting Him in order to try to be saved by their works through the law.

Paul proclaims now that this remnant has been chosen by God’s grace. By this, Paul means that they have not earned their place in this faithful remnant of Israelites. Just as Gentile Christians are chosen by God’s grace, these Israelites have received salvation as a gift. Paul wants to be clear they have not earned it in any way by being faithful to the law of Moses.

The following verse not only summarizes this point, it also stands alone as a crucial part of Christian theology. Grace cannot be mixed with good works—either salvation is attained according to God’s grace, or it’s earned by deeds. It cannot be both at the same time. Paul has already demonstrated that salvation by one’s own works is impossible (Romans 3:10, 20).

Verse 6: But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Though the vast majority of Israelites have rejected Christ and were still trying to receive God’s righteousness by following the law, Paul insists that a remnant of Israelites are in Christ. Paul wrote in the previous verse that God has chosen them for Himself by His grace.

Now Paul restates what grace means. He wants to dispel any notion that any Israelites stand with God because of their own works. They don’t. Grace means receiving an unearned gift. It is always given and never paid for. The idea that a person’s work—such as keeping the law—could in some way contribute to receiving God’s grace is a self-contradicting idea. If that were possible, grace would not be grace, Paul writes.

Those who remain as the remnant of faithful Israel understand that they have not been saved by their works. They have come to God by faith in Christ.

While this verse is meant to prove a point about God and Israel, it also draws a clear line in terms of theology. There is no gray area between works-based salvation and grace-based salvation. None. Any dependence on works—adherence to the law, undergoing rituals, performing sacraments, or good deeds—is a rejection of grace. This is an often-resisted truth, but it is the clear teaching of Scripture. If works, in any sense, contribute to salvation, then that salvation is no longer “by grace.” Paul’s point, here, is that because salvation is, in fact, by grace, works have absolutely zero part to play in securing it

Verse 7: What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,

Paul begins this verse with the simple question, “What then?” He is asking about the implication of his teaching in the previous verses: that a small portion—a remnant—of Israelites have come to God by faith in Christ. How does this fit with what Paul has written about God’s grace and Israel earlier in Romans?

He repeats that Israel, meaning both the nation and the clear majority of the Jewish people, failed to obtain what was sought. This echoes what Paul wrote in Romans 9:31: that Israel pursued a law that would lead to righteousness but failed in reaching or keeping that law. In other words, they failed to reach God’s righteousness.

The “elect,” on the other hand, did obtain the righteousness of God. Paul describes those who have come to God by faith in Christ as the elect. This term, in general, refers to both Jews and Gentiles, but Paul here seems to be talking about the Jews who have become believers as the elect. This group obtained righteousness by their faith in Christ and not by obeying the law (Romans 9:30).

Although the elect obtained righteousness by God’s grace, Paul now writes that the rest of the Israelites were hardened by God. This is consistent with what Paul has already written about those whom God allows to stand in their sin of unbelief. He addressed the issue of whether this is fair or not in Romans 9:14–29, including the statement that God will have mercy on and harden whomever He chooses (Romans 9:18).

Paul will show in the following verses that God has hardened most Israelites for a specific purpose.

Verse 8: as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor,eyes that would not seeand ears that would not hear,down to this very day.”

Paul follows his pattern of supporting his arguments with quotes from the Old Testament—the Jewish Scriptures. He has just written that God has hardened most Israelites in regard to faith in Christ.

To show that God has always done this, even with Israel, Paul seems to assemble the quote in this verse from Isaiah 29:10 and Deuteronomy 29:4. In both instances, God was said to have kept Israel from understanding what was true. The people were overcome by a spirit of stupor, or sleepiness, and were not given eyes to see and ears to hear. God was the one who kept them from understanding.

Again, some might ask if this is fair on God’s part. Paul made clear in Romans 9, however, that God retains the right to give or withhold understanding, to soften or harden hearts, as He sees fit and for His greater purposes. Just as Pharaoh was resistant to God, and so God enhanced that resistance, Israel’s “hardening” comes as part of God’s overall plan to fulfill His own purposes.

Verse 9: And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap,a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

Paul is quoting from familiar Jewish Scriptures in the Old Testament. His goal is to support the teaching that God gives or withholds understanding about what is true based entirely on His choice. To some, God gives the ability to believe Him and others he “hardens” (Romans 9:18). This is not a concept Paul takes lightly, and much of chapter 9 was given to exploring how this idea fits with the idea of a just, fair Creator.

Now Paul quotes from David’s Psalm 69, a psalm that is often described as being about Christ Himself. In that sense, then, the verses quoted here could point to the enemies of Christ. In that way, Paul suggests Psalm 69:22–23 could apply to those Jewish people who have rejected faith in Christ.

Paul then uses David’s words to suggest that these Jewish unbelievers would be trapped and tripped up and punished by their own “table” when they think they are at peace. They would be fooled into complacency, although they are in mortal danger. Paul seems to add the idea of a stumbling block to the quote, connecting it to Isaiah 8:14, which he also quoted in Romans 9:33.

Verse 10: let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,and bend their backs forever.”

Paul is quoting Jewish Scriptures from the Old Testament to support the idea that God has often hardened some people, in terms of their ability to understand and believe Him. Romans chapter 9 took an in-depth look at how, when, and for what purposes this can happen. This verse continues a quotation from David’s Psalm 69, often taken as being about Christ Himself. In that way, this quote from Psalm 69:22–23 can refer to the enemies of Christ.

David prayed that his enemies and, by Paul’s implication, the Jewish unbelievers of his day, would have darkened eyes so they could not see or understand. That is, they will be hardened to the truth that Christ is the Messiah and, thus, refuse to have faith in Christ and be saved by God’s grace.

It’s not clear what is meant by their backs being bent forever. Those who reject Christ are, ultimately, facing an eternity of separation from God because of their stubbornness (John 5:40; Isaiah 6:9–10). Paul might be referring to the danger faced by all who refuse to come to Christ, which is to be subject to shame and suffering “forever.”

Verse 11: So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous.

This verse begins a new section. Paul is answering the question, “why?” Why would God cause most Israelites to be hardened to faith in Christ and, in that way, to miss out on God’s righteousness?

Paul asks if God caused them to stumble over Christ, the stumbling stone (Romans 9:32–33) in order to make them fall down. In other words, Paul asks if God caused Israel to be tripped up in order that they might permanently fall—never to rise again. Was that what God wanted for Israel? Paul answers his own question once more with a rousing “By no means!”

Instead, God has two purposes for Israel’s stumbling over Christ by refusing to believe in Him. First, Israel’s trespass, or sin, made it possible for salvation to come to the Gentiles. That sin was a refusal, on a national level, to obey the gospel of faith in Jesus (Romans 10:16). When Israel rejected Christ, God used that rejection to make His offer of salvation by grace through faith in Christ available to all people.

God’s second purpose, though, was to make Israel jealous. Paul introduced this idea in Romans 10:19. God plans to use this—jealousy of a close relationship with God enjoyed by Gentiles—to provoke many Jewish people to eventually come to Him, as well, also through faith in Christ.

Verse 12: Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!

Paul introduced an important idea in the previous verse: The sin of Israel in rejecting faith in Christ resulted in the opportunity for all Gentiles to be saved through faith in Christ. Now Paul asks one of his “how much more” questions.

If Israel’s sin brought the riches of sharing in God’s glory to the world, and if Israel’s failure to believe brought those riches to all the Gentiles, then how much more will Israel’s full inclusion in Christ mean for all of us? Put another way, if Israel’s sin can result in that kind of glory, then imagine how much glory will result when Israel accepts Christ!

Paul will finally answer this question in verse 15. There, he will write that Israel’s acceptance of Christ will mean life from the dead for all who trust in Christ. He will clarify that idea in the following verses, but the central idea is this: God has hardened most Israelites to faith in Christ for a time, but He will eventually bring many Israelites to faith in Christ. The result, mysteriously for now, will be life from death for all of us.

Verse 13: Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry

Paul has been writing about God’s relationship with His chosen people, Israel. He described how and why God hardened most Israelites to faith in Christ. God’s purpose was, in part, to include Gentiles—non-Jews—in the promise of salvation through faith in Christ. In the previous verse, Paul introduced the idea that at some point in the future, the full inclusion of Israel to faith in Christ will result in great things for all people.

Now Paul addresses Gentiles directly, beginning a thought he will complete in the following verse. Paul describes his identity and purpose to be an apostle to the Gentiles. Christ Himself gave this role to Paul in Acts 9:15. Paul writes that he magnifies his ministry to take the good news about faith in Jesus to all Gentiles. In other words, he glorifies his ministry. He goes big. He works hard at it. He is bold and strategic and amplifies the message of God’s grace for the Gentiles through faith in Christ.

In part, as Paul reveals in the next verse, he does this to provoke jealousy among his own Jewish people. He wants to see them saved, to have the same special relationship with God that the Gentiles have now received.

Verse 14: in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.

This completes Paul’s thought begun in the previous verse. He cited his calling as an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Though Paul himself was a “Hebrew among Hebrews” (Philippians 3:4–7), he was converted (Acts 9:1–6) in order to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to the non-Jewish people: the Gentiles. An apostle is a person sent to represent another with an important message. In Paul’s case, that message is that the Gentiles can be saved and come into relationship with God through faith in Christ.

Paul now declares that he magnifies—he works hard at—this ministry, in part, to help save some of his fellow Jews. How would that work? His aim is to provoke the Jews to become jealous of the special relationship the Gentiles now have with God through faith in Christ. Paul wants his fellow Jewish people to see that and want it too. Some will come to faith in Christ in that way, Paul believes.

Verse 15: For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

Paul answers a question in this verse that he posed in verse 12, as well. There, he wrote that Israel’s full inclusion in faith in Christ will mean a great deal for the Gentiles. It will be even greater than the riches of God’s glory, received through faith in Christ, made available when Israel rejected Christ.

Now he asks a similar question. If Israel’s rejection, by God and for a certain period, led to reconciliation with God for the rest of the world, what will be the benefit to the rest of the world when the fullness of Israelites is eventually accepted by God through faith in Christ? Paul writes that it will mean life from the dead.

Paul seems to be saying that God’s eventual acceptance of Israel is somehow connected to the idea of resurrection, perhaps the future resurrection of the bodies of all who are in Christ at some future moment. The exact meaning of “life from the dead,” however, is debated by Bible scholars.

Verse 16: If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Paul’s statements in the previous verses assumed that Israel would one day be accepted by God again as the Jewish people turned to faith in Christ. Israel, as a nation, would regain her special relationship with God. Paul now seems to say this destiny is in Israel’s very nature. It is Israel’s identity to be the people of God despite this temporary state of estrangement because of Israel’s rejection of Christ as the Messiah.

Paul offers two illustrations to make this point. First, a bit of dough mixed into a larger lump of dough can determine what the entire mixture will be like. Paul is referencing Israel’s practice of offering the first dough made from each year’s harvest as a loaf of bread to the Lord (Numbers 15:20–21). That bit of dough offered as the “firstfruits” to the Lord was set apart. It was holy. Its holiness conferred holiness onto everything else made with that lump of dough.

The second illustration is one Paul will build on in the following verses. The nature of branches is determined by the “root” from which they grow. The basic Greek word used here is rhiza, referring to the core part of the plant, from the surface and reaching below the soil. If this root is holy, Paul implies, the branches will be holy as well.

Paul’s larger point seems to be that Israel’s firstfruits were the patriarchs. God set those first Israelites apart as His people. He made them holy in a sense. In that same sense, Paul says, their holiness will determine the ultimate nature of Israel. That’s why she must eventually return to a right relationship with God, which now comes through faith in Christ.

Alternatively, some interpreters suggest that the firstfruits Paul has in mind are not the patriarchs, but the first Jewish people to trust in Christ. Their place in Christ will eventually lead to strengthen Israel’s faith in Christ, as well.

Verse 17: But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree,

This verse begins an if/then statement that will be concluded in the following verse. Paul is building on the previous verse in which he compared Israel to a tree. In this analogy, he uses versions of the Greek term rhiza, which suggests the life-sustaining part of the plant from the soil surface on down. If the root of the tree is holy, then the branches of the tree will be holy. Paul was making the point that Israel will eventually return to their first nature as the set-apart people of God by coming to faith in Christ.

Now Paul begins a sentence meant for Gentile Christians. He writes that some of the branches of Israel’s tree have been broken off. In this context, that seems to mean they have been deliberately pruned away because of their refusal to trust in Christ for salvation. He describes Gentile Christians as being grafted in among the other branches on this metaphorical tree. The Gentiles now receive nourishment through those holy roots, just as believing Jewish people do.

Paul is describing an apparently common practice of olive tree farming. To mingle plants, caretakers can transplant branches from one tree to another. Paul’s take on the practice seems unusual, however. It was unlikely that a farmer would graft a wild olive branch onto a cultivated olive tree. However, that may well be Paul’s point. God’s choice to graft the “wild” and unspiritual Gentile people onto the tree of God’s grace to the Israelites also seems unlikely. And yet, this is exactly what God has done.

Paul’s if/then statement concludes in the following verse with the “then” part in which he warns Gentile Christians not to be arrogant.

Verse 18: do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.

This verse concludes the “then” part of an if/then statement begun in the previous verse. Paul has said to Gentile Christians that they have been grafted into the tree of God’s special relationship with Israel. Now, he says Gentiles must not be arrogant toward the Jewish “branches.”

Perhaps some of the Gentile Christians of Paul’s day were being harsh or dismissive about the lack of faith in Christ among most Jewish people. Since some in Israel’s leadership were persecuting Christians, it’s understandable that some Christians would lash back against them. Even today, there are those who attempt—falsely—to justify antisemitism through Israel’s rejection of Jesus.

Paul doesn’t want these Gentile believers to miss an essential truth, however. They are the ones being “artificially” inserted into a relationship with God. This is happening only by His grace and through faith in Christ. These Gentiles are not nearly the first to have a special relationship with God. They are not the root: the vital, life-giving source of the plant, taken from the Greek term rhiza.

In the flow of this passage, the “root” is likely the patriarchs of Israel who received God’s promises. Those roots, and the trunk which now grows from it are what supports these new Gentile Christians. They, the grafted-in branches, do not give life to the rest of the tree. Humility about Israel’s special and ongoing relationship with God is the only response that makes sense for non-Jewish believers.

Verse 19: Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

Paul has warned Gentile Christians not to be arrogant about their position before God. Some might have slipped into thinking their relationship was superior to that of the Jewish people. In the previous verse, Paul wrote that Gentiles have been transplanted onto an existing root: the reality of God’s relationship with Israel. That root supports them, not the other way around.

Paul imagines these arrogant Gentile Christians arguing back the words of this verse. Paul himself has said as much in his olive tree illustration. Some branches of the tree of God’s people Israel have been broken off because of their refusal to receive Christ as the Messiah. That pruning left room on the trunk, as it were, for new branches to be grafted in to the root. Those branches are the Gentiles who have trusted in Christ for their salvation.

As such, Paul’s imagined debaters seem to be saying, “Are we not superior to the branches that have been broken off?” Paul’s response in the following verses will be that the branches had to be broken to make the new branches all the more humble about their position. After all, couldn’t they be broken off, as well?

Verse 20: That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear.

Paul has warned the Gentile Christians not to be arrogant toward the Jewish people. Though Israel had rejected faith in Christ as the way to be right with God, Gentile Christians are in no way superior or favored to the Jews. Paul has compared those Israelites to unproductive branches broken from a tree. Purely for the sake of this point, those people are like limbs deliberately pruned to make way for the new branches to be added: those new branches are the Gentiles.

That fact, Paul now writes, should cause a Gentile Christian to be even more humble about their place on that symbolic tree. The only difference between the broken off branches and the newly added branches is faith in Christ. Paul warns the Gentile Christians to hold tight to the branch by continuing in their faith in Christ.

Lest we lose sight of Paul’s point here, this is not a suggestion that saved believers can lose their salvation. The analogy of branches and trees, so far as this specific statement goes, extends only to the idea that God has the right to add or remove branches. Since God removed Israel for their stubbornness and pride, He is more than able to do the same to Gentiles for their arrogance.

Instead of pride in their position, these non-Jewish believers should respect the consequences of drifting from the very faith that brought them to the tree in the first place (Hebrews 2:1). Instead of false confidence in themselves because of their position, the Gentile believers should fear the God who gave them that spot and took it away from the unbelieving Jewish people of their era.

Verse 21: For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

Paul has been warning the Gentile Christians not to be arrogant and prideful about their place in God’s family. They should not be puffed up about their position on the symbolic olive tree of those who belong to God through faith. He has specifically told them not to be arrogant toward the unbelieving Jewish people: those who had rejected Christ and have been removed from the tree.

The only difference between the Jewish people who have been pruned by God and the Gentile Christians who have been added is faith in Christ. The Jewish branches that were pruned were taken off because of their refusal to believe. The Gentile Christians were added because they believed. Faith in Christ is the only difference.

Now Paul writes that if God was willing to break off the natural branches, those Jewish people who were genetic descendants of Abraham, He certainly won’t spare Gentiles who refuse to believe in Christ. Faith in Christ is their only hope of remaining connected to the tree.

Verse 22: Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God ‘s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

In the previous verse, Paul warned the Gentile Christians that the only reason they had a place in the family of God was because of their faith in Christ. Without that faith, God was just as likely to “prune” them from His tree as He did to the Jewish people who refused to believe in Jesus. Their status was absolutely not on the basis of their own good works (Romans 3:10, 20) or anything other than the grace of God (Romans 11:6).

Paul now wants to make sure his readers don’t miss these two pillars of God’s nature. He is simultaneously kind and uncompromising, based only on a person’s faith in Christ. God is holy, so He must be firm toward those who have fallen by their lack of faith in Christ. God is kind to the Gentile Christians because of their faith in Christ. They must continue in God’s kindness by continuing to trust in Christ. Without faith in Christ, God will cut them off, as well.

Context is crucial in any passage, but this verse is particularly easy to misunderstand when read by itself. The issue at hand is not being “cut off” from eternal salvation, as the following verses will show. God had “cut off” some of Israel for their rejection of Him, and “grafting in” Gentiles. Paul is still referring to “the Gentiles” as a group, as much as to Israel as a nation. If “the Gentiles” act as coldly and stubbornly towards God as Israel had, God is more than willing and able to deem them “cut off” and suffer as a result. The context here is not about eternity, but the relationship and communion with God. Similar themes are explored in passages such as Hebrews chapters 3 and 4.

Verse 23: And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.

Paul has already implied that one day Israel will return to her special relationship with God as her people come to faith in Christ. Paul seems confident that is Israel’s future. Now, for the first time, he adds that being pruned from God’s olive tree, as an unproductive branch is broken off, is not necessarily the end of the story for these Israelites. The reason they were taken off the main trunk was a refusal to believe in Christ as the Messiah and an insistence on proving their righteousness to God by following the law.

Paul now writes, though, that these discarded branches can be grafted back onto the tree if they don’t continue to reject Christ in their unbelief. Paul is clear: God has the power to do this. He can grant His people Israel their rightful place on the olive tree when and if they trust in Christ. This ability to be grafted back in, after being “cut off” is further evidence that Paul’s discussion here is not about eternal salvation, but about fellowship with God.

Verse 24: For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

In the previous verse, Paul wrote that the branches pruned from God’s metaphorical olive tree can be grafted back into it. In other words, God has rejected Israel only for now. His temporary rejection is due to her refusal to believe in Christ as the way to be righteous before God. However, He will receive her back when and if her people stop refusing to have faith in Christ.

Paul seems to be eager for Gentile Christians to reach two goals. First, to understand that this re-grafting is possible. Second, to look forward to it themselves. After all, God could cut them from the wild olive tree—the unspiritual religions of the world—and graft them into His own cultivated tree through faith in Christ. Therefore, God can graft back into His tree the branches that grew there in the first place.

Grafting wild olive tree branches into cultivated trees is not the natural way to raise olive trees. Symbolically speaking, it was not “natural” for God to do this in order to offer salvation to the Gentiles, though it is exactly what He has done. Paul’s point is to highlight the way a Gentile Christian ought to look at the potential salvation of the Jewish people. What could be more natural than for God to welcome the Jewish people back into His family, as they begin to trust in Christ for their salvation?

Verse 25: Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Paul continues to talk to the Gentile Christians with a cautioning tone. He doesn’t want them to reach the wrong conclusion about the truth by being wise in their own sight. He wants them to understand one of the central mysteries of God’s relationship with Israel and humanity at large.

God has brought upon Israel a “partial hardening.” In other words, most Israelites have been hardened to faith in Christ by God, keeping them from receiving God’s righteousness. Why has God done this? As Paul has made clear, it was to make room for the non-Jewish people of the world to come into relationship with God through faith in Christ.

However, Paul now states outright that this is a temporary season. Israel’s hardening will end when the “fullness” of the Gentiles has come to God through faith in Christ. Does this mean that God is waiting for all Gentiles to believe in Jesus? That’s not likely, nor does it fit the words used here. The “fullness of the Gentiles” means “as many as will believe,” or “the complete number.” When that mysterious point has been reached, the Jewish people will no longer be hardened in their unbelief in Christ. This does not mean, necessarily, that every Israelite will come to faith in Christ, but perhaps that a representative proportion of living Israelites will do so. Nor does it mean that no Jewish person, prior to then, can come to faith—but most will not.

Verse 26: And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion,he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

The meaning of this verse has been hotly debated by Bible teachers and scholars throughout history. What does Paul mean, exactly, when he says that all Israel will be saved?

Here’s the picture Paul has painted in the previous verses: As a nation and, in large part, as individuals, God’s chosen people Israel have refused to believe in Christ as Messiah and the only way to be saved. In fact, God Himself has caused them, the nation and most of her people, to become hardened in this unbelief. Why has God done this? In part, Israel’s rejection of Christ created room for the rest of the world (Gentiles) to come to God themselves through faith in Christ. In the previous verse, Paul wrote that when the “fullness” of the Gentiles has come to Christ, God will remove the hardening on the nation and people of Israel.

Now Paul writes that “in this way all Israel will be saved.”

Some have read this to mean that every Israelite who has ever lived will be saved in the end. This does not seem to fit with Paul’s teaching in Romans that salvation comes only by God’s grace through faith in Christ. Clearly, some Jewish people—as is the case in any culture—had thoroughly and totally rejected God. God is not extending salvation to those who actively hated Him, merely based on their ethnicity.

Some read this to be an account of specific events during the end times when Israel, under great persecution, will be saved from further earthly harm by the “Deliverer.” “Salvation” and “deliverance,” in an Old Testament sense, are closely related. This interpretation does not take Paul to mean eternal salvation in this verse, though the context seems to be about salvation from sin. Paul likely refers to the end times, the last days of history, when Isaiah’s prophecies about a Deliverer from Zion banishing Israel’s ungodliness will be fulfilled (Isaiah 59:20. Most Bible teachers understand Paul to be describing the second coming of Christ.

Another view is that by “all Israel,” Paul means all who are in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. This view understands the church to be a new Israel. This view is not in keeping with the full context of Scripture. Paul has written that everyone who comes to God by faith are the children of Abraham (Romans 4:16), but in this very chapter he has made a clear distinction between believing Gentiles and Israelites.

Many Bible teachers have concluded that by “all Israel,” Paul means either all Israelites who trust in Christ (Romans 9:6–8) or the nation of Israel as a whole. In either view, the outcome would be the same: All Israelites will be saved who come to faith in Christ at some future time after God removes the hardening of their hearts. The sense of Paul’s words conveys the idea that this will include enough Israelites to represent the nation as a whole, though it will not necessarily include every Israelite living at the time.

Not every verse of Scripture is crystal clear, and not every question we can ask about the Bible ends in a neat, clean answer. This statement is obscure enough that some translations title this section “The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation.” As is always the case, however, the Bible is only obscure on issues which don’t affect our relationship with God, or the core doctrines of the faith.

Verse 27: “and this will be my covenant with themwhen I take away their sins.”

Paul has stated flatly that when the “fullness” of the Gentiles has come to God through faith in Christ, God will remove the hardness of heart from Israel. At that time, all Israel will be saved. That verse (Romans 11:26) presents a series of challenges in interpretation.

Paul then quotes from Isaiah 59:20–21 and Isaiah 27:9 to support this idea. In the previous verse, he adjusted Isaiah’s words about the arrival of a Deliverer from Zion, likely referring to the Second Coming of Christ. This Deliver will banish sin and ungodliness from Jacob, meaning Israel (Genesis 32:28). Isaiah writes that this “Redeemer” will come to those Israelites who turn from transgression (Isaiah 59:20).

Now Paul uses phrases from both Isaiah 59:21 and 27:9 to quote God as declaring, or renewing, His covenant with Israel at that time when He removes their sin. In the context of Romans 11, the sin of the Israelites will be removed when they obey the gospel and trust in Christ for their salvation.

Verse 28: As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.

Paul is addressing Gentile Christians. He has warned them not to be arrogant toward Jewish people who have rejected Christ (Romans 11:18). He has revealed to them that the people of Israel have been hardened in their unbelief by God so that Gentiles could come to God through faith in Christ (Romans 11:15), and that Israel will return to God through faith in Christ once that hardening is lifted (Romans 11:26).

Now Paul agrees that Israel has become an enemy of the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul should know. He has suffered great persecution at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders for preaching the gospel. This makes what he says about the Jewish people next even more significant. His words here clarify that anti-Jewish sentiments are not only foreign to the Bible’s depiction of Jews, they are contradictory to the character of God.

Paul describes the Jewish people as “beloved,” meaning that they are still loved and cherished by God. This is in regard to “election,” Paul writes, meaning that God has destined that Israel will return to close relationship with Him as her people come to faith in Christ at some point in the future (Romans 11:25–27).

Why has God elected the people of Israel—meaning a representative number, not necessarily every single Israelite—to return to Him at this future time? It is for the sake of their forefathers, the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s promises to Israel’s founding fathers were unconditional and irrevocable, as the following verse will declare.

Verse 29: For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Paul has written in previous verses that God’s people Israel will return to God. This will be through faith in Christ, at some point in the future. Through election—God’s sovereign choosing beforehand—this is the purpose for which God has destined the nation of Israel.

Why has God done this? The prior verse said that it is because of their forefathers. Those are the patriarchs of Israel: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God gave to these three men great and unconditional promises that He would bless them and make of them a mighty nation. Since these promises were given by God, they carried the weight of certainty. The promises were God’s gifts. God called the patriarchs to follow Him and He made an everlasting covenant with them that included their descendants.

Paul writes that these gifts and calling are irrevocable. Though God later made conditional covenants to bless Israel if they would keep the law, His promises to the patriarchs were mostly one-sided promises based only on His own goodness. Those promises will not be revoked no matter how deeply Israel sins in rejecting faith in Christ as the Messiah. He will always call Israel back into relationship with Himself, even bringing the people of the nation to faith in Christ in due time.

Verse 30: For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,

Paul, still talking to the Gentile Christians, has warned them not to be arrogant and dismissive of the Jewish people who have rejected faith in Christ as the way to be righteous before God. He repeats a theme of this chapter, that the Gentiles were once disobedient to God, but those who trusted in Christ have received mercy from God. That mercy was available for a specific reason: Israel disobeyed the gospel; the people did not believe in Christ. God chose to apply His mercy to the Gentiles, in part, to encourage Israel to come back to God (Romans 11:11–14). Gentiles are no better than Jews, since both people have demonstrated disobedience to God.

Paul continues to urge the Gentile Christians to remain respectful of the Israelites; some of the Israelites will eventually share eternity with them as brothers and sisters in Christ. All who are saved are saved for the same reason: God’s merciful and undeserved grace (Romans 3:10; 3:23).

Verse 31: so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.

Paul is repeating one of the main themes of this chapter. He is saying once more to the Gentile Christians that, though they were disobedient and did not deserve it, they received mercy from God. This is true, in part, because of Israel’s disobedience in rejecting Christ.

Does that mean that the Gentile Christians should be done with Israel? Should they mock Israel? Paul insists that they do not. Israel is in a season of disobedience to the gospel of Christ now, just as the Gentiles were—and for the most part still are—in a season of rejection of God. One day, however, Israel’s people will see the mercy shown to the disobedient Gentiles, believe in Christ, and turn to receive mercy from God, as well.

Paul has described this as God making Israel jealous of His now special relationship with believing Gentiles in order to provoke some Jewish people to return to Him through faith in Christ and be included in that relationship (Romans 11:11–14).

Verse 32: For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

This verse is a profound declaration of truth, but it must be understood in the narrow context of this specific passage. Paul is not teaching that every single person, of all time, will receive God’s mercy. This idea, known as universalism, would contradict what Paul has written previously: that the only way to be saved is by accepting Christ (Romans 10:9–10). Paul has made abundantly clear that the opportunity to receive God’s mercy, instead of the deserved payment for our sin (Romans 6:23), is something accessible only through Jesus Christ.

Instead, the word “all” should be understood in reference to the two people groups Paul has been discussing throughout this chapter: the Jews and the Gentiles. God has turned both groups—”all”—over to their disobedience for a time so that people from both groups may receive mercy from Him in the right time through faith in Christ.

What does it mean that God consigned each group to disobedience? In Romans 1, Paul described God’s reaction to the sinful unbelief of the Gentiles. He gave them up or turned them over to their own sinful desires (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). In a similar way, God is described as having hardened the Israelites in their initial unbelief in Christ for a season (Romans 11:25).

In the end, though, God will show mercy to people in both groups— to “all”—by His grace and through their faith in Christ.

Verse 33: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

Paul has just concluded a long and complicated discussion of God’s unique relationship with Israel as a nation and with her people as individuals. He has compared and contrasted God’s actions toward Israel with His actions toward the Gentiles. He wrapped it up in the previous verse by declaring, in essence, that both groups have lived in disobedience and that God will show mercy to people from both groups in response to their faith in Christ.

Now Paul delivers a poem, structured much like a hymn, expressing his profound reaction both to God’s ways and to His mercy to sinful human beings.

Paul starts by marveling at the depth of three of God’s characteristics. He is stunningly rich or wealthy. Earlier in Romans, Paul has written about the riches of God’s kindness and patience (Romans 2:4), the riches of His glory (Romans 9:23), and His riches—of mercy—for the world (Romans 11:12). In each case, God’s riches are described as graciously shared and never-ending.

Next, Paul is awed by the depth of God’s wisdom, likely in the expression of His love and power in making mercy available to all people through faith in Christ. This is followed by God’s deep knowledge, perhaps a reference to His “foreknowledge” of all who will come to Him through faith in Christ (Romans 8:29; 11:2).

Paul’s next two lines begins with “how.” How unsearchable or unfathomable are God’s judgments, Paul wonders. In other words, human beings simply lack the capacity to understand why God decides what He does. God’s ways are said to be inscrutable, like a code we can’t break.

One reason God retains the right to do as He will when it comes to showing mercy or not to human beings is that we do not have the capacity to understand His choices. His thoughts, His ways, His decisions are beyond us. We are left to simply yield to Him and to worship Him.

Verse 34: “For who has known the mind of the Lord,or who has been his counselor?”

Paul’s hymn of praise and adoration for the God who is beyond us continues here. He asks two questions, quoted from Isaiah 40:13, to illustrate just how little God needs from us.

First, who has known the Lord’s mind? The answer is so obvious that Paul does not bother to respond. Nobody has ever known God’s mind. As beings created by Him, we lack any capacity to fully grasp His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8–9). To assume that we could possibly know anything about God’s thinking processes beyond what He has revealed in His Word is foolish arrogance. To recognize His mind as unknowable to us is cause for worship.

The second question is as ridiculous as the first. Who has been God’s counselor? Who has God gone to for counselling, or moral support, or for relationship advice? Who has He asked for ideas about creation or the care of His creatures? God doesn’t need us to help Him think things through, no matter how eager we sometimes feel to do exactly that. As we begin to understand the difference between His vast mind and our own, the only response that makes sense is to worship Him and accept His decisions as right and true.

Verse 35: “Or who has given a gift to himthat he might be repaid?”

Paul’s hymn about how God is vastly unknowable began with a declaration about the depth of three things: His riches, wisdom, and knowledge. That poem continued with three questions about what we can know of God and what He needs from us. The first two of those questions were in the previous verse.

This is the third one, perhaps pulled from Job 41:11: Who has given a gift to God that God needs to pay back? In other words, who could ever give to God anything valuable enough that God would be in their debt? Paul is underlining the hard truth that God simply does not need us. He needs nothing from us, and does not require our existence. He will exist in completeness for eternity no matter what we do or don’t do in response to Him. He owes us nothing.

That’s not necessarily a comforting thought. This, however, is reassuring: the God who owes us nothing has given to us every good thing (James 1:17). Even better, the God who owes us nothing has given Himself to us in the form of Christ Jesus. In the context of Romans 11, He has shown us baffling mercy instead of the punishment we deserve for our sin, based only on our faith in Christ.

Verse 36: For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Paul concludes Romans 11 and his hymn about God’s vastness with this verse. Paul declares in no uncertain terms that the universe belongs to God, and we’re simply living in it, and part of it.

Paul builds on the question he asked in the previous verse: Who has given anything to God valuable enough that God owes him something back? The answer is nobody. God doesn’t owe us anything. In this verse, Paul explains why. Everything that is in the universe came from God to start with. He is the Creator and the source of all that is good. How could we ever give Him anything He doesn’t already have?

Second, all things are through God. This means that not only is God the source of all things, He holds them together. He sustains everything that is. He is active and present in the work of keeping the universe running. All things that exist continue through Him.

Third, all things are to Him or for Him. In other words, everything that exists has been made for God’s purposes. They all reflect glory back to Him. Nothing exists that doesn’t serve His great plan and purpose for all things.

Paul finishes his hymn with statement of great worship: To God be glory forever. This is both a statement of fact and a prayer for its fulfillment. Glory will flow to God forever, and Paul affirms that is exactly as it should be in the form of a prayer. He ends this section of his letter with a formal “amen,” meaning “so be it” or “let it be so.”