Daily Thoughts from Romans: Treadmill to Nowhere (11:1-10)

Daily Thoughts from Romans: Treadmill to Nowhere

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. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written,

   “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.”

And David says,

   “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”  (Romans 11:1-10 ESV)

Some might argue that since Israel has, as a nation, failed to embrace the gospel, God has rejected them.  He is saving some Israelites but they are no longer under His promise.

But the proof that God has not abandoned Israel or forgot His promises to her is found those few Jews who have believed the gospel and the principle of the remnant in Scripture.  Elijah thought he was the only Jew left in his day who worshiped Yahweh, but was shown that this was not the case.  God always keeps some Israelites, chooses them by His grace, to remain so that He may fulfill His covenant with them.

But for now, only this elect remnant has obtained such grace and salvation, and the rest are being hardened, as Scripture says.  God is not permitting them to see or hear with spiritual eyes and ears.  Will it always be just a remnant, then, to whom He fulfills His word?  Definitely not!

All this heightens, once again, that salvation is not obtained by works.  It is a gift of grace from God.  As Paul says, if it were granted on the basis of works it would no longer be a matter of grace.  Grace is a gift, but works gets its wages.  Works merit and require payment.  This is the way the world thinks it wants relationship with God, if it wants it at all.  Every religion on earth, except for Christianity, subscribes to this perspective.  Only Christianity knows both justice and grace.  God cannot simply overlook sin.  It must be paid for.  But His grace has provided the payment in Christ, freeing Him to offer forgiveness justly and making it possible for any and every one to have this relationship with Him.  Every other religion has us on a treadmill going nowhere.