111 I say, then, Did God cast away His people? let it not be! for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin: 2 God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have ye not known—in Elijah—what the Writing saith? how he doth plead with God concerning Israel, saying, 3 'Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;' 4 but what saith the divine answer to him? 'I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.' 5 So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been; 6 and if by grace, no more of works, otherwise the grace becometh no more grace; and if of works, it is no more grace, otherwise the work is no more work. 7 What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened, 8 according as it hath been written, 'God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear,'—unto this very day, 9 and David saith, 'Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense to them; 10 let their eyes be darkened—not to behold, and their back do Thou always bow down.'
11 I say, then, Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be! but by their fall the salvation 'is' to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy; 12 and if the fall of them 'is' the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them? 13 For to you I speak—to the nations—inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify; 14 if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall save some of them, 15 for if the casting away of them 'is' a reconciliation of the world, what the reception—if not life out of the dead? 16 and if the first-fruit 'is' holy, the lump also; and if the root 'is' holy, the branches also. 17 And if certain of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become— 18 do not boast against the branches; and if thou dost boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Romans 11:1-18
Commentary on Romans 11:1-10
(Read Romans 11:1-10)
There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of grace. If then this election was of grace, it could not be of works, either performed or foreseen. Every truly good disposition in a fallen creature must be the effect, therefore it cannot be the cause, of the grace of God bestowed on him. Salvation from the first to the last must be either of grace or of debt. These things are so directly contrary to each other that they cannot be blended together. God glorifies his grace by changing the hearts and tempers of the rebellious. How then should they wonder and praise him! The Jewish nation were as in a deep sleep, without knowledge of their danger, or concern about it; having no sense of their need of the Saviour, or of their being upon the borders of eternal ruin. David, having by the Spirit foretold the sufferings of Christ from his own people, the Jews, foretells the dreadful judgments of God upon them for it, Psalm 69. This teaches us how to understand other prayers of David against his enemies; they are prophecies of the judgments of God, not expressions of his own anger. Divine curses will work long; and we have our eyes darkened, if we are bowed down in worldly-mindedness.
Commentary on Romans 11:11-21
(Read Romans 11:11-21)
The gospel is the greatest riches of every place where it is. As therefore the righteous rejection of the unbelieving Jews, was the occasion of so large a multitude of the Gentiles being reconciled to God, and at peace with him; the future receiving of the Jews into the church would be such a change, as would resemble a general resurrection of the dead in sin to a life of righteousness. Abraham was as the root of the church. The Jews continued branches of this tree till, as a nation, they rejected the Messiah; after that, their relation to Abraham and to God was, as it were, cut off. The Gentiles were grafted into this tree in their room; being admitted into the church of God. Multitudes were made heirs of Abraham's faith, holiness and blessedness. It is the natural state of every one of us, to be wild by nature. Conversion is as the grafting in of wild branches into the good olive. The wild olive was often ingrafted into the fruitful one when it began to decay, and this not only brought forth fruit, but caused the decaying olive to revive and flourish. The Gentiles, of free grace, had been grafted in to share advantages. They ought therefore to beware of self-confidence, and every kind of pride or ambition; lest, having only a dead faith, and an empty profession, they should turn from God, and forfeit their privileges. If we stand at all, it is by faith; we are guilty and helpless in ourselves, and are to be humble, watchful, afraid of self-deception, or of being overcome by temptation. Not only are we at first justified by faith, but kept to the end in that justified state by faith only; yet, by a faith which is not alone, but which worketh by love to God and man.