Romans 11
Has God rejected Israel? By no means — and the mystery of Israel's partial hardening and eventual inclusion ends in one of the greatest doxologies in the New Testament.
Summary
Romans 11 is the climax of the Israel chapters. Paul opens with a personal counter to the suggestion that God has rejected his people: he himself is an Israelite — seed of Abraham, tribe of Benjamin — and God has not rejected the people he foreknew. The Elijah parallel establishes the pattern: even when the prophet thought he was the only one left, God had kept seven thousand. So now there is a remnant chosen by grace, and the rest have been hardened — but hardened for a purpose. Their trespass has been the occasion of the Gentiles' riches. Paul addresses the Gentile reader directly: do not be arrogant toward the branches. They were broken off because of unbelief; you stand fast through faith. If God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. And he is able to graft the natural branches back in.
The mystery Paul discloses in verse 25 is the resolution of everything chapters 9-11 have been building toward. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved — citing Isaiah 59 and 27 as the scriptural authorization. As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. The chapter ends with a doxology that is itself the theological conclusion: the depths of God's wisdom and knowledge and judgment are beyond tracing, his ways past finding out. From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. The argument has not been resolved by a syllogism but by an act of worship — and Paul knows that is the only honest ending to this argument.
- Romans 1Chapter 1 is the opening of a long letter to a community Paul did not found and has not yet visited.
- Romans 2Chapter 2 is the turn in Paul's argument.
- Romans 3Chapter 3 is the hinge of the letter's first movement.
- Romans 4Chapter 4 is Paul's exegetical demonstration of justification by faith, built entirely from the figure of Abraham.
- Romans 5Chapter 5 opens the second major movement of the letter (chapters 5-8), which draws out the consequences of the justification argued in chapters 1-4.
- Romans 6Chapter 6 opens with Paul's most pointed rhetorical question: Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? The question follows logically from the last verse of chapter 5, where he said grace abounds where sin increases, and it is the objection he expects.
- Romans 7Chapter 7 addresses the role of the law in the new life.
- Romans 8Chapter 8 is the climax Paul has been building toward since chapter 1.
- Romans 9Chapter 9 opens the three-chapter meditation on Israel — the hardest sustained argument in the letter.
- Romans 10Chapter 10 continues the argument of chapter 9 but shifts from divine sovereignty to human responsibility.
- Romans 11Chapter 11 brings the three-chapter meditation on Israel to its resolution.
- Romans 12Chapter 12 opens the practical movement of the letter with the word therefore, gathering everything from chapters 1-11 into a single imperative.
- Romans 13Chapter 13 contains the verses that have generated more controversy in the history of Romans' reception than any other passage in the letter.
- Romans 14Chapter 14 addresses a concrete dispute in the Roman church.
- Romans 15Chapter 15 continues directly from chapter 14.
- Romans 16Chapter 16 is the longest closing greeting in any of Paul's letters.