Romans — Chapter 11

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul is still writing from Corinth around AD 57 to the believers in Rome, by now a mostly Gentile church with a Jewish minority. This chapter closes the long argument of chapters 9–11 about Israel. Chapter 10 ended with God holding out his hands "all day long" to a disobedient people (10:21), which raises the obvious question: has God given up on them? Chapter 11 answers in three movements. God has not rejected Israel, because a believing remnant exists now. Israel's stumble is not a final fall, and Gentile believers must not grow proud. And Paul reveals a "mystery" about Israel's future, before the whole argument breaks into one of the great hymns of praise in the Bible.

The Remnant of Israel (vv1–10)

• "Has God rejected his people? By no means!" (v1). "Rejected" (apōtheō) means to thrust away. The wording echoes Psalm 94:14 and 1 Samuel 12:22, which promise that the LORD will not forsake his people. Paul answers with his strongest denial, the "By no means!" of 3:4 and 6:2.
• "I myself am an Israelite… of the tribe of Benjamin" (v1). Paul is his own first piece of evidence: a fierce opponent of Jesus whom God brought to faith. Benjamin was the tribe of King Saul, Paul's namesake, and the small tribe that stayed with Judah and Jerusalem when the kingdom split (1 Kings 12:21).
• "His people whom he foreknew" (v2). "Foreknew" (proginōskō) is the word of 8:29. The lexicon gives "know beforehand," but in the Old Testament God's "knowing" a people often means choosing them in love: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2). God chose Israel knowing exactly what they would do, so their unbelief does not cancel his choice.
• Elijah "appeals to God against Israel" (vv2–3). The verb (entygchanō) means to petition or plead a case. It is the word used in 8:27 and 8:34 of the Spirit and Christ interceding for believers. Elijah pleads against his own nation. After Mount Carmel, Jezebel vowed to kill him, and he fled to the wilderness and told God, "I alone am left" (1 Kings 19:10, 14).
• "Seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal" (v4). God tells Elijah he has the numbers wrong (1 Kings 19:18). Paul's wording, "I have kept for myself," stresses that the faithful were God's doing.
• "A remnant, chosen by grace" (v5). "Remnant" (leimma, "what is left") picks up 9:27–29. In the prophets the remnant is the part of Israel that survives judgment and carries the promise forward (Isa 10:20–22). Jewish believers in Jesus, from the apostles to the Jewish members of the Roman church, are that remnant "at the present time."
• "Otherwise grace would no longer be grace" (v6). If the remnant existed because they were better people, it would be wages, not grace (4:4–5). The ESV footnotes that some manuscripts add, "But if it is by works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work would no longer be work." Most scholars think a scribe added it to balance the sentence. The meaning is unchanged.
• "The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened" (v7). "Hardened" (pōroō) comes from a word for a stone or a callus, the hard tissue that forms over a wound. It pictures a heart grown thick and unfeeling. Mark uses the same verb of the disciples (Mark 6:52; 8:17), so hardening is not only something that happens to outsiders.
• "A spirit of stupor" (v8). Paul blends Deuteronomy 29:4 (God had not given Israel "eyes to see") with Isaiah 29:10 ("a spirit of deep sleep"). "Stupor" (katanyxis) is an odd word. The lexicon says it first meant "a pricking" and may have come to mean numbness through confusion with a similar verb meaning to doze. In the Greek Old Testament it translates Isaiah's "deep sleep." "Down to this very day" ties Moses' generation to Paul's.
• "Let their table become a snare" (vv9–10). This is Psalm 69:22–23, a psalm of a righteous sufferer that the New Testament reads as pointing to Jesus (John 2:17; the sour wine at the cross, 69:21). The "table," a place of fellowship and safety, becomes a trap. Many take it as Israel's very privileges, such as the law and the temple, becoming grounds for self-confidence instead of faith. The next section shows that "forever" here does not mean God has shut the door for good.
• How does God harden? Reformed readers stress that God actively and justly hardens by his sovereign will, as with Pharaoh (9:17–18). Others, including the Tyndale notes, describe it as God giving people over to the unbelief they keep choosing, like the handing over of 1:24–28. Both agree that the hardened are responsible, that it is a judgment, and that God remains in control of it. Verses 11–32 add that it has a purpose and a limit.
• Commentators: Henry takes comfort from Elijah's mistake: "Things are often much better with the church of God than wise and good men think they are." Of the seven thousand he says, "Sober singularity is commonly the badge of true sincerity," and of the hardening, "Of all judgments spiritual judgments are the sorest, and most to be dreaded, though they make the least noise." JFB calls Paul's own conversion "a living witness to the contrary." Guzik notes that God has often worked through small, faithful groups, and that even a great prophet misjudged how many stood with him.

Gentiles Grafted In (vv11–24)

• "Did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means!" (v11). The question is whether Israel tripped so as to fall beyond recovery. "Stumble" (ptaiō) means to trip, and the contrast with a final fall is carried by the whole sentence more than by the verbs alone. Israel's "trespass" (paraptōma, a false step or misdeed) had a purpose in God's plan.
• "So as to make Israel jealous" (v11). This is the pattern of Acts: Paul preached in the synagogue, was rejected, and turned to the Gentiles (Acts 13:46; 18:6; 28:28). "Make jealous" picks up Deuteronomy 32:21, quoted in 10:19. There it sounded like a threat. Here it becomes hope: seeing Gentiles enjoy Israel's promised blessings will make Israel want them back.
• "How much more will their full inclusion mean!" (v12). Paul argues from lesser to greater. Israel's "failure" (hēttēma, a loss or defeat) brought riches to the world. Their "full inclusion" (plērōma, "fullness," which can mean "full number") will bring far more. It stands in contrast to the small remnant, and the same word returns in v25 for the Gentiles.
• "I magnify my ministry" (vv13–14). Paul turns to the Gentile majority in Rome. He makes much of his Gentile mission partly because it might win his own people. It was never a turning away from Israel. "Save some of them" is modest: Paul does not expect to convert the nation single-handedly.
• "Life from the dead" (v15). If Israel's rejection brought "reconciliation of the world," their "acceptance" (proslēmpsis, "a receiving") will mean "life from the dead." Some take this as the bodily resurrection at the end of the age, linking Israel's turning to Christ's return. The Tyndale notes lean this way, since the wording most naturally means resurrection. Others take it as a picture of overwhelming spiritual renewal in the world. Both see Israel's future turning as world-changing.
• Firstfruits and root (v16). Numbers 15:17–21 told Israel to offer the first portion of dough to God, which consecrated the whole batch. A holy root likewise means holy branches. "Holy" means set apart for God, not that every Israelite is saved. Most take the root as the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (v28). Some take the firstfruits as the first Jewish believers in Jesus.
• The olive tree (v17). The olive was the Mediterranean's most common fruit tree and a known picture of Israel, "a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit" (Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6). Unbelieving Jews are branches "broken off." Gentile believers are "a wild olive shoot" grafted in "among the others," beside the Jewish branches that remain, and together they share "the nourishing root" (literally, the ESV notes, "the root of richness," the rich sap). There is one tree, not two. Gentiles do not start a new tree. They join Israel's.
• "It is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you" (v18). By the late 50s the Roman church was largely Gentile, and Jewish believers had only recently returned after Claudius expelled Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2). Gentile Christians could easily look down on them. Paul's reply: Gentile faith depends on Israel's story, scriptures and Messiah, not the other way round.
• "That is true… but you stand fast through faith" (vv19–21). Paul grants the Gentile boast that branches were removed to make room, then turns it. They were broken off for unbelief, and faith is the opposite of boasting (3:27). "Do not become proud, but fear" means reverent, humble awe (Phil 2:12). If the branches that belonged by birth could be removed, borrowed branches have no grounds for complacency.
• "The kindness and the severity of God" (v22). "Severity" (apotomia) comes from a verb meaning "to cut off," so it fits the image of pruning exactly. "Kindness" (chrēstotēs) is the word of 2:4, where God's kindness leads to repentance. Both are true of the same God.
• "Provided you continue in his kindness" (v22). Christians read this warning differently. Many Wesleyan and Arminian believers take it to mean that a real believer can abandon faith and be lost. Most Reformed readers take it as a genuine warning God uses to keep his people persevering, and say that those who finally fall away show their faith was never living (1 John 2:19). Paul is also speaking of Gentiles as a group, the way he speaks of Israel as a group. All agree that faith which does not continue is not saving faith.
• "God has the power to graft them in again" (vv23–24). The only thing in the way is unbelief. Olive growers normally grafted a cultivated branch onto wild rootstock, so grafting a wild branch into a cultivated tree was "contrary to nature," though the Roman farming writer Columella does mention grafting a wild shoot into a failing tree to revive it. Paul's point: if God did the unnatural thing, "how much more" will he restore the natural branches to "their own olive tree."
• Commentators: Henry puts the grafting in one line: "Men graft to mend the tree; but God grafts to mend the branch." He takes the root as Abraham in one sense, but adds that for spiritual life "Christ only is the root." On v15 he calls Israel's conversion "so strange and surprising, and yet withal so welcome and acceptable," and JFB likewise sees "such a stupendous manifestation of the power of God upon the spirits of men." Both lean toward spiritual renewal, unlike the Tyndale notes. Henry warns on v22 that "God is most severe towards those that have been in profession nearest to him, if they rebel against him." JFB renders "trespass" in v11 as "false step." The lexicon gives that as the word's basic sense, though Abbott-Smith files this verse under the moral sense, "trespass." Guzik takes the firstfruits as the first Jewish Christians, where Henry and JFB look to the patriarchs. He also observes that the church has often done the opposite of making Israel jealous.

The Mystery of Israel's Salvation (vv25–36)

• "This mystery" (v25). "Lest you be wise in your own sight" echoes Proverbs 3:7: Paul reveals this to stop Gentile arrogance. A "mystery" (mystērion) is not a puzzle too hard to understand. The lexicon defines it as something of God's counsel once hidden and now revealed (16:25–26; Eph 3:3–6).
• "A partial hardening… until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (v25). "Hardening" (pōrōsis) is the noun form of v7's verb. It is partial because the remnant believes, and temporary because it lasts "until." "The fullness of the Gentiles" probably means the full number God intends to save, using the same plērōma as v12 (compare "the times of the Gentiles," Luke 21:24).
• "And in this way all Israel will be saved" (v26). This is the most debated sentence in the chapter. "In this way" translates houtōs, "so" or "thus," which usually describes manner rather than simply meaning "and then." Faithful Christians hold three main views. The whole people of God: "all Israel" means all the redeemed, Jew and Gentile, the "Israel of God" (Gal 6:16). This was Calvin's view, drawing on 9:6 ("not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel"). The objection is that "Israel" in v25 plainly means the people who are partly hardened. The elect of Israel across history: the total of Jewish believers through the ages, gathered alongside the Gentiles. The objection is that this adds little to what Paul has said, though he calls it a revealed mystery. A future turning of the Jewish people as a whole: after the full number of Gentiles comes in, there will be a large-scale turning to Jesus as Messiah, often linked to his return (Zech 12:10; Matt 23:39). This is probably the most common view among modern commentators, held in different forms by Reformed, evangelical and dispensational interpreters. "All Israel" could mean the nation as a whole without every individual (1 Sam 7:2), and the Tyndale notes stress it does not mean every Jewish person. The idea that Jews are saved by a separate covenant apart from Christ is rejected by most, because the branches return only "if they do not continue in their unbelief" (v23; compare 10:9–13).
• "The Deliverer will come from Zion" (vv26–27). Paul combines Isaiah 59:20–21 with Isaiah 27:9, and "when I take away their sins" recalls the new covenant of Jeremiah 31:33–34. Isaiah's Hebrew has the Redeemer (go'el, the kinsman-redeemer, a title of the LORD throughout Isaiah) coming "to Zion." The Greek Old Testament has "for the sake of Zion." Paul's "from Zion" may echo Psalm 14:7. Some think it points to Jesus coming from Israel at his first coming, others to his return from the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb 12:22; 1 Thess 1:10).
• "Enemies for your sake… beloved for the sake of their forefathers" (v28). Both are true at once. Regarding the gospel, unbelieving Israel stands opposed, and that opened the way for Gentiles. Regarding election, God still loves them because of his oath to the patriarchs, not because of the fathers' merit.
• "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (v29). Ametamelētos means "not repented of" or "unregretted." The KJV's "without repentance" means God does not change his mind about what he has given. The "gifts" are Israel's privileges in 9:4–5. If God could cancel his promises to Israel, no believer could be sure of his promises at all.
• "Consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all" (vv30–32). Verses 30–31 mirror each other: Gentiles received mercy through Israel's disobedience, and Israel may "now" receive mercy through the mercy shown to Gentiles. The ESV notes that some manuscripts omit that second "now." "Consigned" (synkleiō) means to shut in on every side. Luke 5:6 uses it of a net enclosing fish, and Galatians 3:22 of Scripture imprisoning everything under sin. Jew and Gentile are shut in the same net, so neither can boast. "All" means both groups, as the Tyndale notes say, not a promise that every individual will be saved (2:5–8).
• "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (v33). After eleven chapters of argument, Paul can only worship. "Inscrutable" (anexichniastos) means "untraceable," from the word for a footprint. God's ways leave no track a human can follow. The Greek Old Testament uses it for God's works in Job 5:9 and 9:10.
• "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" (vv34–36). Verse 34 quotes Isaiah 40:13: no one advised God. Verse 35 draws on Job 41:11: no one has put God in their debt. Together they sum up chapters 9–11, since God's plan came from his own wisdom and his mercy is never owed. "From him and through him and to him" names God as source, means and goal. The Tyndale notes observe that Stoic philosophers used similar phrases, and Paul borrows familiar language as he did at Athens (Acts 17:28), filling it with the God of Israel.
• Commentators: Guzik and JFB both hold the third view of v26. JFB calls it "the ultimate, ingathering of Israel as a nation, in contrast with the present 'remnant,'" and says, "Clearly the meaning here is, The Israelite nation at large." Guzik argues that "Israel" means ethnic Jews throughout these chapters, sets aside Calvin's view, ties the event to Christ's return, and rejects the idea that the church simply replaces Israel. Henry also looks for a future conversion of the Jews: "True conversion may well be called salvation; it is salvation begun." JFB agrees with the lexicon that "mystery" "does not mean, as with us, something incomprehensible," and on v29 glosses the gifts as ones that "cannot be, repented of." Henry draws a lesson from mercy shown to both groups: "True grace hates monopolies." Guzik notes that God can never be made anyone's debtor and applies v29 to every believer's calling.

Pointing to Christ

The whole chapter hangs on Jesus, even where his name does not appear. He is the "Deliverer" from Zion who takes away sins (v26), the kinsman-redeemer Isaiah promised. The olive tree lives because the promises to Abraham are kept in Abraham's greatest son, Israel's Messiah (9:5). Through him Jew and Gentile alike, shut up together in disobedience, receive mercy and nothing else (v32). The chapter that began by asking "has God rejected his people?" ends with no human boast left standing, only praise "to him." And the God who is the source and goal of all things is the same God who "did not spare his own Son" (8:32), so that his severity and his kindness meet at the cross.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines the remnant, the olive tree metaphor, the mystery of Israel's future salvation, and the closing doxology.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• Crossway: crossway.org On the whole letter: why Romans has carried the weight it has in church history.
• Crossway: crossway.org Why Paul's own story of being overtaken by grace is the right way into the letter.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Romans -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• God Always Preserves a Remnant (vv.4-5) — Paul recalls how God kept 7,000 faithful even when Elijah felt utterly alone, and says a remnant remains today by grace. How does this encourage you when faithfulness around you seems rare or the church feels weak?
• Israel's Stumbling Opened a Door (v.11) — Paul explains that Israel's rejection of the gospel became the occasion for salvation to reach the Gentiles. Where has God used a painful setback in your life to bring blessing to someone else?
• Don't Be Arrogant Toward the Root (vv.18-20) — Paul warns Gentile believers, pictured as grafted-in branches, not to boast over the natural branches since they stand only by faith. Does gratitude or quiet superiority better describe how you view your place in God's story?
• God's Goodness and Severity Together (v.22) — Paul holds both truths side by side: God's kindness toward those who continue in faith and His severity toward those who don't. Do you tend to picture God as only loving, or only strict, instead of holding both accurately?
• God's Calling Is Irrevocable (v.29) — Paul insists that God does not take back His gifts and calling once given. What has God called you to that you need to trust He won't abandon, even when you feel unfit for it?
• Theology That Ends in Worship (vv.33-36) — After three chapters of dense argument, Paul breaks into praise at the depth of God's wisdom and ways. Does your own study of God tend to end in genuine worship, or does it stay purely in your head?