Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 1 Study # 1
June 23, 2009
Lincolnton, N.C.
(505)
1769 Translation:
1 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham,
of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 And if by grace, then
is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
1901 ASV Translation:
1 I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel:
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6 But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
- I. Paul's Most "Logical" Question.
- A. Is, "Hath God cast away His people?".
- B. Is rooted in the final words of chapter ten: God, Who "spread out His hands all the day long" toward Israel, determined to make a "not My people" His people (9:26) and decided to provoke Israel by this choice (10:19). Thus, He "became manifest unto them that asked not of" Him and so dealt with those who were "disobedient and gainsaying".
- C. Is, fundamentally, this: does God's plan to "provoke" and, in some sense, "replace" mean that all of God's plans for Israel have been jettisoned? Has He "cast off " those known as "Israel"?
- II. The Meaning of Paul's Words.
- A. "I say, therefore...".
- 1. Paul's typical term for "I say", when he is dealing with definitive doctrine, is present here: this "saying" is a firm theological conclusion.
- 2. This "therefore" is not unlike 9:6 where Paul's reasoning almost led to a similar conclusion: Has the word of God come to nought? If God has "cast off His people", His words regarding them have "come to nought".
- B. "Did God cast away His people?"
- 1. The word translated "cast away" is used six times in the New Testament and it invariably has the notion of "deliberately rejecting". When it is used in a physical setting, the "rejection" includes "shoving the rejected away so that there is a physical distance that illustrates the distance that has been created by the rejection". Most of the uses are not physical; they are set in a context of mental and spiritual decisions that shove the rejected concept out of their hearts and minds.
- a. Since "Israel" was "disobedient and gainsaying", it is clear that "Israel" had "cast away" the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul's question is whether God responded "in kind".
- b. Since God did turn to the Gentiles, in some sense God did respond in kind. But, Paul's answer to his own question is: God forbid. Thus, there is also a sense in which it is not possible that God responded in kind.
- 2. The key issue is "His people". To whom does this refer? Is it the "disobedient and gainsaying" people within "Israel" that refused the words of Isaiah?
- a. Paul answers this "identity" question clearly.
- 1) In 9:6-8 Paul had already made a significant distinction between "Israel's descendants" and the "children of promise".
- 2) Now, in this text, Paul reverts back to that reality: God has not "cast away" those who are "His people" because "His people" are not of that body within Israel who are disobedient and gainsaying all the day long...at least in the long term. Without hesitation, Paul immediately runs to his doctrine of "election" and "sovereign mercy" (9:15). Interestingly, it is the "gainsayers" who dislike this doctrine the most. Their attitude is that if God will not function the way they say He must, He cannot be their "god". And, frankly, that doesn't faze Him one whit.
- 3) And, in this text, he claims that his identity as "an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" shows the reality that God has not "cast away His people".
- b. Paul rejects the false answer to this question adamantly: "God forbid".
- 1) This does not mean that those within the boundaries of the nation that descended from Israel who "cast God away" were not "cast away" by God. The issue here is a matter of the difference between God's "Israel" and Jacob's "Israel". There is the Master Plan, which includes both the final stage realities as well as the pertinent, and necessary, developing-through-time particulars, and there is the issue of whether particular individuals will participate in that Master Plan. If there is a person within the boundaries of the national entity who rejects the God of the Nation, he/she will be rejected. This is true whether there is one such person, or one million such persons. It is true whether those who reject are in the majority or in the minority, and the size of such majorities/minorities is immaterial. Paul freely admits this when he refers to the days and complaint of Elijah: the "7,000" who were preserved by God were a very small group in the nation.
- III. The Theological Realities of Paul's Words.
- A. God has a plan for the true "Israel".
- B. Words of promise can never be violated under the rubric of "integrity".
- C. God also has a plan for those who "call upon Him" who are non-Israel. These will "provoke" true Israel to repentant faith in the time when the plans begin to come together as fingers of the Plan.