로마서 Chapter 11

Translation: ESV

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.

Key Message

God has not rejected Israel; Paul himself, as a remnant from within Israel, is evidence of God's faithfulness.

▸This is the direct answer to the core question of chapters 9–11: has God rejected Israel? Paul himself is the evidence.

This is the direct answer to the core question of chapters 9–11: has God rejected Israel? Paul himself is the evidence. His very existence proves that God's election of Israel has not been entirely withdrawn. 'By no means (μὴ γένοιτο)' is the strongest negation in Romans, a rhetorical formula that utterly dismisses the question.

Related Verses

For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.
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.

Key Message

Israel's stumbling became the occasion for Gentile salvation, and that Gentile salvation becomes the providential stimulus intended to bring about Israel's restoration.

▸Israel's failure is not a final and irrevocable fall.

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.

Key Message

Israel's partial hardening is a temporary phenomenon within God's redemptive-historical plan, and when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, Israel's restoration will follow.

▸A 'mystery (μυστήριον)' is a truth previously hidden but now revealed.

33

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

Key Message

God's wisdom and knowledge infinitely surpass human comprehension, and before that depth the only fitting human response is worship.

▸The theological discussion of chapters 9–11 concludes in doxology.

36

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

Key Message

God is the origin, the sustainer, and the goal of all things, and before this absolute sovereignty nothing remains but to ascribe glory to him forever.

▸This is the conclusion and theological summit of chapters 9–11 as a whole.