1 John 3:16


"By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."

Saturday 1 May 2010

The Meaning of Rom 11

We have reviewed 30 commentaries on Romans 11. It is difficult to find good commentaries on this chapter. The most detailed commentary we have seen is by Daniel Thompson, available on the Internet.

Romans 11 has nothing to do with the last-days, or “end times”. The chapter has nothing to do with the Second Coming of Christ. Nowhere in the chapter does Paul even hint that he is considering the Second Coming of Christ. Christ will come at the end of this world, but this is not the subject of Romans 11.

We will take Romans 11 step by step. First Paul asks, “Has God cast away national Israel?”. He answers no. His proof runs like this:

1. Paul himself is an Israelite, meaning that if God had cast them off he would not be saved.

2. Paul explains from the Old Testament that God always kept a remnant from Israel as His people. There were 7,000 who did not bow the knee to Baal in Elijah’s day, for example.

3. Paul states, “Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Rom 11:5).

We can see that Paul’s answer is that God has reserved a portion of national Israel by election, not the whole of the nation. Two things are clear from Rom 11:5. Paul was speaking about his present time, not the Second Coming of Christ; and Paul was speaking about a remnant of the nation of Israel being saved and not the whole of the nation. This is Paul’s stated subject. The chapter then shows how this would be done.

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