Old Missouri Theologian George Stoeckhardt’s Commentary on Romans is a wealth of doctrine for our present, starved age of antinomian Lutheranism. One such application ripe for the correction of Christian thinking is a series of hilights regarding the Judaean people, Israel —both the nation and the typological concept found in Scripture —, and the Church Herself. Herein below you will find such a selection of hilights from Stoeckhardt’s Romerbrief demonstrating the Old Missouri teachings on these topics and more. This is the third and final part in a series regarding such.
For more on the topic of true Israel (i.e the Church Invisible) and the modern peoples called Jewish today read
In contrast to Parts 1 & 2 (linked above) there will be no editorial bolding nor short comments following. The following excerpts are esteemed of utter importance throughout and speak for themselves to the utmost. Verses from Scripture are underlined as original.
XI.1
The apostle’s people, Israel, is accursed from Christ and excluded from salvation. This is due to their persistent unbelief. Paul now refers back to these chief thoughts of the two previous chapters and says: I say then, Hath God cast away his people? What I have written concerning the condemnation of the Jews is not meant as though God has rejected His people is it? It would be a self-contradiction if God had rejected His own people. That is as unthinkable as hating one’s own flesh.
Paul is not thinking of the Jewish nation as such and of its historical calling, as though the latter perished with the condemnation of the majority of Israelites. For rejection is as much as condemnation, exclusion from salvation, something different than loss of the historical calling. “His people” designates God’s people in the narrower sense of the word. The apostle has already distinguished between the Israelites descended from Abraham according to the flesh and children of God from Israel, the children of the promise, whome God chose and called to adoption and eternal life; and he has restricted to the former what he said of Israelis rejection. This difference he wishes to discuss further. “His people,” the people of God, is the sum total of the true children of Israel. And it is unthinkable that God should have rejected his people. God forbid.
He confirms this denial with a reference to his own person. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul was a full-blooded Israelite. For the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin were the core of the Jewish people after the return from exile. And he, the servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, shares in Christ’s salvation; and so by his example he proves that there are Israelites who will be saved, that there is in Israel a people which God has not rejected.
XI.7
What then? What follows from this? What then is the situation? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. What Israel sought, according to the great mass, namely, righteousness and salvation, that they did not receive, for they wished to be justified and saved by works. But the election hath obtained it. The elect, who owe their existence and constancy to God’s free grace, have obtained it. Therefore, there is in Israel a true people of God, whom He has not rejected but who share in Christ’s salvation.
And the rest are blinded. Their understanding and will became blunt and hard and altogether insusceptible and insensitive to salvation in Christ and to the Word of salvation, Already in the discussion of obduracy, 9,17.18, Paul had the Jews in mind objectively. Now after he presented the ubelief and guilt of Israel at full length, he directly testifies that Israel as punishment for its unbelief has incurred God’s judgment of obduracy. They were hardened by God, confirmed in their corrupt inclination; they were made insensitive to all encouragements to change it. Therefore, their obduracy is punishment for their corrupt inclination, in which they must henceforth persist, after they did not want to forsake it.
XI.8
No one, however, should be astonished over this severe lot of the Jews. For’ the same was already prophesied by the prophets. According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber. Is. 29, 9-12. God has given them a spirit of prickling, bewildering pain; according to the original Hebrew: a spirit of sleep, of bewilderment. They were so bewildered and stupified that they could not understand the prophetic Word, divine revelation.
Eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, namely, has He given them, unto this day. Thus the apostle refers back to Deut. 29,4 where Moses holds before his people, that had seen such great signs and miracles:”yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” However, in that Paul changes the negative “The Lord hath not given you… eyes to see,” etc., into the positive “God hath given them eyes that they should not see,” he, at the same time he refers to Is 6,10, this locus classicus of Israel’s obduracy, where Isaiah received the commission from God to harden the heart of this people by preaching “Make the heart of this people fat… lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart.
Israel was denied spiritual sight and hearing, the ability to grasp and understand God’s Word and work. The blinding and hardening of Israel had begun in the time of Isaiah, yes, reach back in their beginnings to the days of Moses. Yet, because at the time of Christ and the apostles the judgment of obduracy over Israel was really completed, the apostle thus righty refers the statement of Isaiah and Moses as prophecies of the New Testament.
XI.10
What is the threatened destruction? Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. They should be spiritually blinded and darkened. Their spiritual powers must become so weak that they can no more see and go the way of salvation.
What is said in these quotations from the prophets concerning the obduracy of the Jews coincides with the example of Pharaoh. 9,17.18. God hardens those who before have hardened themselves, God gives them over to their corrupt, hardened disposition and withdraws from them Spirit and grace, And when man is thus forsaken by God and His Spirit, then he is altogether incapable of knowing the truth, of repentance, of faith, of obedience.
XI.11
“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall?” First it read: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people?” No, the rejection of the Jews is not to be thought of thus. But not also thus, as though Israel had stumbled in order to fall. Paul again has those in mind whom God has given over to their malice, who have finally hardened themselves against Christ and His salvation, whom God denies Spirit and assistance, so that it is impossible for them to turn and repent. They have stumbled and definitely fallen, never to rise again, But did they stumble in order to fall? Is their fall the end in itself? Did God intend that they should fall and be destroyed, so that He should find satisfaction in their destruction? God forbid.
The final purpose of Israel’s destruction was: But rather through their fall salvation is come unto the gentiles. The fall of Israel is their unbelief. In 9,22 Paul had stated that God made use of the time of patience, when He bore the vessels of wrath in great longsuffering, to make known to the vessels of mercy, also to the heathen, the riches of His glory, and to offer them salvation in Christ. And here he stresses that the unbelief of the Jews turned salvation to the heathen, in that the apostles, after the Jews rejected the Word of salvation, traveled the streets of the heathen.
That the heathen shared in salvation again had the purpose to incite the Jews to emulation. For to provoke them to jealousy. God’s design was and is that Israelites should be won for Christ through the Word and example of the believing Gentiles, And this is a design which is realized, for in verse 15 the reception of the Jews is presented as a fact. To be sure, those Jews, who are converted to Christ, are not of the obdurate Jews They too were at first unbelieving. Nevertheless, their unbelief did not advance to obduracy. After stumbling and falling they were attracted by the Gentiles and converted to Christ.
XI.12
Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing or them the riches ot the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? The injury and harm, which the Jews drew upon themselves by their unbelief, are the riches of the world or of the Gentiles, for as a result of their unbelief the heathen world has received the fulness of salvation and grace, all the riches of Christ. If this is the case, how much more will their fulness bring the world blessing and salvation, The fulness of the Jews is not all Jews descended from Abraham according to the flesh but all Jews wno have salvation in Christ, They are God’s people in Israel, whom God before chose unto Himself, in other words, the full number of the elect from Israel. And when this fulness is complete, when all the elect from Israel have been brought in, then there will be a new, greater gain for the world. Wherein this gain consists is seen from the following.
XI.14
If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. The heathen should know that Paul, he apostle to the Gentiles, has the welfare and salvation of the Jews at heart. Yet, it would satisfy him if he could win but a few for Christ. For according to the prophecy in Is. 10,22; 53,1, etc., he is certain that the great majority of them do not believe the Gospel and incur final wrath and judgment, and that only a remnant of Israel will be saved. These few, who will be converted through the ministry of Paul and further through the witness and example of the believing Gentiles, form with the remnants of previous times the fulness of Israel.
XI.15
What incites and spurs the apostle on to provoke his relatives according to the flesh is the prospect of the blessed results of Israel’s conversion. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? The rejection of the Jews establishes the reconciliation of the world. The reconciliation, obtained through the unbelief and the resultant rejection of the Jews, is not the objective reconciliation of the world with God through Christ’s blood and death but the subjectove reconciliation, identical with the conversion of the heathen world to God. 2 Cor. 5,20. As a result of Israel’s rejection the Word of reconciliation has gone into the heathen world and has placed many heathen into the right relation of peace with God and brought them into fellowship with Him.
If this rejection of Israel, this bad thing, has such a good result, what blessing will then flow from the acceptance of Israel? Just as little as all Jews were rejected, will all Jews be received. And when all the remaining out of Israel, whom God from the beginning has elected for Himself, unto the last one has been won for Christ and received by God into grace, then the glorious, blessed end will follow. That is nothing else but life from the dead. That is eternal life, which begins with the resurrection from the dead, the life which is the fruit and result of justification and reconciliation. When the preaching of the Gospel has reached its goal in the heathen worid and in Israel, when the elect from the heathen peoples and the elect from Israei have been reconciled and have entered into fellowship with God, then the time of the world is past; then a new existence and life, the life of glorification, wiil begin; then the converted Jews and Gentiles will inherit the kingdom, which was prepared for them from the beginning of the world.
Looking back upon the last two sections, verses 11.12 and verses 13-15, we find the same train of thought in both. The fall of the Jews, their unbelief and their rejection redound to the salvation, to the conversion of the heathen; on the other hand, the faith of the heathen redounds to the conversion and deliverance and finally to the perfect salvation of some of Israel, the remnant, the fulness of Israel. Only that in the second section the apostle speaks of himself and of his apostleship, how through his service in the Gospel -and that is true in general of service in the Word- he helped to carry out those salutary designs of God, verses 1l.12. And so the latter, verses 13-15, serves to confirm what he before said in general about the wonderful ways of God. So the working and officiating of Paul, and of New Testament preachers in general, real clearly show what God’s object was with regard to the Jews and Gentiles and how His design is carried out.
XI.16
For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. The first-fruit is the beginning of the dough, not the first-fruits of the harvest. That Paul speaks of the beginning of the dough was entailed by the regulation of the law, according to which the first-fruit of the dough should be given to the priests. Num. 15,19-21. In reality there was and is no holy beginning and no holy dough, as little as there are a holy root and holy branches. The picture only states that the dough has the same quality as the first-fruit, and that the branches are formed as the roots.
Both pictures have the same sense, but only the latter is discussed further. Roots and branches awaken the concept of a tree; and so the apostle speaks further of an olive tree, a good olive tree, which he then contrasts to a wild olive three. The first is evidently a picture of Israel, the latter of the heathen world. The roots of Israel are the fathers of Israel, the patriarchs. The same are meant with the first-fruit or beginning of the dough.
However, is the Jewish nation as such meant by the olive tree and by the dough ? Are all Israelites, who are descended from Abraham according to the flesh, meant by the branches? And accordingly is the perfection, which Paul ascribes to the roots and branches, only an external sanctity?
Many answer in the affirmative. Indeed scripture also calls the entire people of Israel “the people of God.” To this people was given certain advantages. God had revealed Himself to them and had given them the law and promise. Out of Israel Christ came according to the flesh. And if one desires, he may take these objective prerogatives together into the concept of sanctity.
But this outward concept of sanctity does not exactly fit the patriarchs. If the roots, the patriarchs, are called holy, one thinks of what marks and distinguishes them. And that was, on the one hand, the promise which they received, and on the other hand, faith in the promise. Paul had presented Abraham as the father and type of all believers. The Word of God first came to Abraham, and it was primarily a word of promise concerning future salvation. And this promise Abraham had received in faith. So he was sanctified through Word and faith, separated from his heathen surroundings and brought into fellowship with God.
What is further said and praised of the branches is more than external sanctity, is inner sanctity. The branches of the olive tree share in the fatness of the root and the olive tree. This means: the Israelites, pictured under the branches of the olive tree, not only received the promise from the fathers but also shared in the content of the promise, the promised blessing. One, however, only partakes of divine blessing and salvation through faith. The part of the branch that is broken off is broken off because of unbelief. Therefore, it is faith which connects the branches and keeps them joined to the tree and roots. So by branches we understand all believing Israelites, sanctified through faith. Accordingly, the good olive tree is believing Israel, God’s Church, which in the time of the Old Covenant had her abode in natural Israel. Now the sense of the picture becomes clear.
XI.17
And if some of the branches be broken off etc. It is a sad fact that sone of the branches were broken off. They were also at first branches of the olive tree, sanctified by promise and faith, but now are they broken out of the good olive tree, are withered, dead branches and need but be burned. Although the branches broken off are not few in number, yet with the apostle those branches which remain on the olive tree count far more than the great number of branches broken off. The breaking off of these branches falls in time together with the ingrafting of the branches from the wild olive tree, with the conversion and pardoning of the Gentiles.
Thus Paul thinks of what has happened at his time, in the time of the New Testament. With the appearance of Christ and the preaching of the Gospel a crisis arose for the believing Israelites. Many of them, who had at first believed Moses and the prophets, became worse. Tney took offense at the crucified Christ, at the Word of the cross. And because of their unbelief they were broken off. They remained distant from the Church of Christ and were thereby cut off from the olive tree and the root, from the promise of the blessing and fellowship of God, excluded from God’s congregation. For the Church of God had now become the Church of Jesus Christ. The Christian Church, which had her origin and beginning in Israel, was the continuation of true Israel. In Christ all of God’s promises, in which the fathers shared, in which all believers of the Old Testament comforted themselves, became Yea and Amen. Therefore, he of Israel, who who first accepted the promises and then rejected the promised Savior, ceased to be a true Israelite, a member of God’s congregation of salvation. In the number of unbelieving Jews belong also all of those children of Abraham according to the flesh, whose heart had always been far from God, who had believed neither Moses nor the prophets and now did not believe Christ and the preaching of the apostles. To these, however, Paul does not refer. Only the example of the Israelites who fell from faith, as then also the example of those who after the fall were again converted and again received, suited the purpose which he here follows: to warn the Gentile Christians against apostasy.
The apostle now takes out one from the number of the Gentile Christians and deals with him as the representative of his class, in order to present clearly and concretely this grave truth to his readers. With a powerful appeal to the conscience of every individual Gentile Christian, the apostle continues: And thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them. Before you were converted, you were of the wild olive tree. You descended from the wild olive tree, from degenerate humanity, estranged from God and fallen under the curse. But you were inserted into the good olive tree, which was originally planted in Israel and whose roots were the patriarchs of Israel. You were converted to Christ through the preaching of the Gospel and became a living member of his congregation. You were planted in among them, between the original branches which remained, the believing Israelites, who now became believing Christians. And with them partakest of the root and the fatness of the olive tree. Through faith in the gospel you partake of the benefits of Christ: reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, justification, victory over death and eternal happiness. Those are the blessings which were already promised to the fathers, and of which also the believers of the Old Covenant partook through faith in the promise.
Paul has before his eyes the olive tree in its original form and in the first stage of its growth: the roots – the patriarchs; and the branches – the believing children of the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant the appearance of the tree has changed; it has entered a new stage of development. The believing Israelites now call upon the name of Christ Jesus. They live on
the Gospel of Christ. And in the congregation of the believers out of Israel are found pelievers from all the peoples of the earth. Nevertheless, it is the same olive tree. There is one Church of God in the Old and New Testaments, whose roots reach back to Abraham, yes, to Adam. The Christ, who appeared in the flesh, the Lord of the Christians, is the Messian of Israel. The Gospel of Christ, the Crucified and the Resurrected, shows that the promise, which was given to the fathers of Israel and to their children, is fulfilled. And to the believing Jews the believing Gentiles were added. Yes, Gentile Christians should consider that they were added to the Jews and not vice versa, that the Jews have first claim to the riches of God’s kingdom. This truth Christ already expressed in Matt. 8,11: “And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. In John 10, 16: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.” In Eph. 2,11ff. Paul reminds the Gentile Christians that they were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, and so without hope and without God, but that they were brough nigh unto Christ through the preaching of the Gospel and are now fellow Citizens with all the saints of Israel.
XI.23
In order to keep the Gentile Christians in humility and to guard them against contempt for the fallen, the apostle continues: And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: they will again be accepted in grace and translated into their former state, The roles can quickly change. Those who now stand can easily fall, On the other hand, the fallen can also be raised. True, Paul speaks conditionally; yet he would not speak thus if he did not expect at least a few to rise again and return to their previous position. With those Jews who are again converted and accepted by God after the fall from faith, unbelief has not gone to the extreme, to obduracy. Their fell was not definite and their loss of saivation no permanent, final loss.
They shall be grafted in for God is powerful, for God is able to graff them in again. It would be strange if the apostle meant by this that cod had the power to forgive and to reinstete the penitent, also those who again repent after their fall. Then an appeal would rather be in place to God’s great grace.
The mention of the power and omnipotence of God points power to the influence of God upon the heart and disposition of the fallen. The almighty God has the power also to fulfill the condition of reacceptance, the return to faith. The almighty God has the power to convert sinners and also to reconvert the fallen and again bring them into the congregation of saints. The grafting in of the heathen also implied the conversion of the heathen.
XI.25
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. The apostle wants to reveal a mystery to his brethren, the Christian readers, and not conceal it from them, lest they become wise in their own thinking or give way to their own thoughts. He has especially the Gentile Christians in mind, for just they could easily think wrong of this.
That blindness in part is happened to Israel. First, he does not want to conceal from his brethren that a part, but not all, of Israel has become obdurate. The apostle had said that also at present there was a remnant in Israel according to the election of grace and that this remnant had received what Israel did not. Then he added:”And the rest were blinded. From this one could conclude that all Israelites, who at the time of the apostle did not partake of salvation and were outside the Christian Church, had been hardened. But that is not the case. The apostle now brings forth that not al2 were under the judgment of obduracy at the time. That believing Israel was excluded from obduracy is self-evident. But he has unbelieving Israel in mind and wants to make known to his readers that at the time unbelieving Israel had not as a whole become obdurate. He has just established the possibility, yes, uttered the expectation, that some of the branches cut off from the olive tree would forsake unbelief and again be engrafted. And these Israelites do not belong to the obdurate Israelites. Because of the rebirth of the apostates Israel was only hardened in part. And this partial hardening will also in the future be the characteristic of Israel and will continue until the time which has been set.
That time is until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. This is the entrance of the heathen not into the kingdom of glory but into the Church of Christ, into the congregation pictured by the olive tree. The. entire context deals with the development and progress of the kingdom of God on earth, The fulness of the Gentiles is all heathen who enter the Christian Church or are converted to Christ. They form a definite whole, known to God the Lord alone and firmly established by God from the beginning. As the fulness of the Jews is the fulness of the elect from Israel, so the fulness of the Gentiles is the is the fulness of the elect from the heathen world. All whom God in time has called, converted and still converts from the Jews and Gentiles, they are the vessels of mercy, which he has predestined to glory. And their sum total is the fulness of the Jews and Gentiles.
What Paul teaches in agreement with the last prophecies of the Lord concerning the conversion of the heathen is the following. He, Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, first brought the Gospel of Christ, the Son of God, into the heathen world, and established among the Gentiles the obedience of faith. This Gospel, however, will be preached on earth until the end of the world as a witness unto all peoples. Matt. 24,14. And so at all times souls will be won for the Lord , first from this, then from that people. Through the whole New Testament era Christendom is gathered from all races of the earth. And when the last of the Gentiles, predestined to glory, are called and converted to Christ, then the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled; then the fulness of the Gentiles exists; then the fulness of the Gentiles has entered the kingdom of God. Luke 21,24.
And when it is stated that Israel in part has become obdurate until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, it does not follow that when tae designate time has been reached, obduracy will cease and Israel will be freed from their present fate and judgment. Only this much is clearly stated that obduracy will continue up until that time, that during the entire period of the conversion of the heathen Israel, the obdurate part, remains under the curse of obduracy. After the entrance of the fulness of the Gertiles a change of things is to be expected. Wherein this change consists will shortly follow of itself.
XI.26
And so all Israel shall be saved. Spoken of is not the future salvation but the salvation which falls in time and consists in this, that Israel will share in the salvation in Christ, which coincides with conversion to Christ. In Eph. 2,lff. Paul designates the conversion of the heathen, the awakening from spiritual death to spiritual life, as salvation, deliverance, This deliverance, to be sure, results in the future salvation.
It is here solemnly announced by the apostle that all Israel will be converted and saved. “AlÌ” refers to the entire whole, including all the individual parts. A mass conversion of the Jews is no conversion of all Israel. If one understands all Israel as all of natural Israel, nothing remains but the assumption that all the Jews, who died in unbelief, will arise from the dead before the end of the world and will with those yet living be converted to the Lord. According to the newer interpretation the conversion of all Israel is identical with the conversion of obdurate Israel. That is a contradiction in itself and contrary to the context. According to the context all Israel is the sum total of the elect out of Israel.
According to the apostle’s presentation, chapters 9-11, the following is the history of Israel’s deliverance. God from eternity chose for himself a people out of Israel, a fulness. And those whom he elected from eternity He in time called and converted. So there was at all times a remnant in Israel, a small group of the true children of Abraham and God, also during the worst periods of apostasy. At the time of Christ and the apostles this remnant, the elect, consisted of those Israelites who joined themselves to Christ and entered the Christian Church. Even later many Jews, who first did not believe, were provoked by the converted heathen to follow Christ. And so in the future some will always be won out of Israel until the fulness of Israel is completed and become Christ’s own. And how can “all Israel” in this connection mean anything else other but the fulness of Israel, the people whom God had before elected? And how can “all Israel will be saved” mean anything else than that the conversion and deliverance just of this fulness will finally be an accomplished fact? “All Israel” is identical with the fulness of Israel, with the people whom God had before elected. When the last of the elect of Israel will be converted to Christ, then are the remnants of all times brought together; and these remnants of all times form all Israel. This complete whole includes all the individual parts without exception.
This then is what Paul teaches, Israel is in part hardened. There are believing Jews who are not yet hardened. This partial obduracy of Israel will continue until the fulness of the heathen will have come in or until the end of the world, for according to Matt. 24,14, the Gospel will be preached to the heathen until the end. And so, since the partial obduracy of Israel, which continues until the end, creates the possibility for continued partial conversion of the Jews, there will at all times be some won from Israel, until then at the end of time the fulness of Israel exists. That only part, to be sure the greater part, of Īsrael is hardened makes possible the deliverance of the smaller part. God leaves Israel so long under the curse of obduracy because He according to His eternal decree desires to and must bring into his kingdom the fulness of the heathen before the end of time. Since obduracy only concerns part of Israel, more souls will always be converted to Christ from the unbelieving Jewish people during the course of time. And so the eternal decree of God is also aimed at all Israel.
When the fulness of the Gentiles has gone in and all Israel is saved, then follows for the fulness Of the Gentiles and of the Jews life from the dead, eteral salvation; while the judgment of obduracy, which has befallen the greater part of İsrael, will end in the judgement of eternal damnation. That is the change which will take place.
We can now understand in what sense and by what right the apostle calls this statement a mystery. In the New Testament the truths of salvation, as far as they are revealed by divine revelation, are regarded as mysteries. These mysteries are embraced in that one mystery, that of Christ and His redemption. Col, 2,2; 4,3; I Tim.3,9.16. Then, also historical data are called mysteries inasmuch as they were originally hidden to men and were revealed to the apostles by the Spirit and communicated by them unto the congregations. Thus the fact that the heathen are “fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ” is also called a mystery, Eph. 3,6. And so here the fact that Israel is only partially hardened and this partial hardening will remain unto the end, that from this partially hardened people there is continually a great gathering of believers until the end of days and in this way all Israel will be saved, is introduced as a mystery. No one could know that in this hostile people, apparently totally hardened, there were yet the elect, whose gathering was not yet completed through the evangelic preaching. This secret the apostle reveals to his readers.
Paul has already told his readers of Israel’s obduracy, on the one hand, and of the deliverance of Israel, on the other. However, that Israel is only hardened in part and this partial obduracy, persisting until the end, gives opportunity for the deliverance of all Israel, he first states at the end of his historical presentation. Now it is clear what false thoughts the apostle wishes to prevent.
It was already remarked that one could think that the entire unbelieving Jewish people, which at the time of the apostle was opposed to the Christian Church, had incurred the judgment of obduracy and were lost without hope. And among the Gentiles such thoughts arose. So the apostle declares to his readers that these are erring thoughts and assures them that not all unbelieving Israelites were hardened at the time. There was still hope for Israel. There were some at their time who would be converted to Christ and be saved. And with this assurance he confirms the expectation that olive branches, which were cut off, will again be grafted into their own olive tree.
XI.27
As it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
This is a combination of various prophetic passages. The statement concerning the coming of the Deliverer is from Is. 59, 20.21. This chapter 59 is a reprimand which runs out into a threat of judgment against apostate Israel. The threat suddenly changes into a promise. Verse 20: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.” This promise concerns the remnant of Jacob. To them will the Redeemer come. And God’s covenant, made through the Messiah with Israel the remnant in Jacob, should consist in this that the Lord’s Word and Spirit will constantly rule them. Israel will then be a believing, obedient people. Paul adopts the translation of the Septuagint and so ascribes the conversion of those in Jacob to the Redeemer. Thus the conversion of the lost sheep of the house of Israel is e.g. Ezek. 34, 11ff, presented as Christ’s work. In that Paul says the Redeemer will come out of Sion, he refers to such passages as Ps. 14,7. So he interweaves reminiscences from other passages into the quotation from Is. 59. And that he does when he says that the new covenant should also consist in the forgiveness of sins. He points to such prophecies as Is.27, 9; Jer. 31,31ff. When the remnant of Jacob will be converted to Christ, the mighty God, then they will have salvation in Christ, the forgiveness of sins. The quotation, as Paul has it, prophesies the actual appearance of Christ and the work of converting the Jews, which He began during His earthly wandering and continued after His exaltation through His apostles and preachers in order to complete it before His second coming, to complete it not with the last Jewish generation, but in and with the conversion of the last remnants from Israel.
XI.28
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved. The unnamed subjects, of whom it is said that they are the objects of both God’s hate and of God’s love, are none other than the unbelieving Jews, whose conversion is yet to be expected. They are the enemies of God. They have God as their enemy, because they malignantly oppose the Gospel. “For your sakes” shows that in this way salvation fell to the heathen. The unbelief of the Jews in general, not only the unbelief advanced to obduracy, determined God to turn salvation to the heathen. On the other hand, concerning the election they are beloved of God, God loves them inasmuch as and because He chose them from the beginning, because they belong to His people in Israel, which He had before chosen unto Himself.
XI.29
They are beloved for the father’s sakes. This the apostle explains in the words: For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. The context deals with a showing of God’s grace, the call of the fathers. This was exhibited in the promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which promised salvation in Christ to them and their seed, the true seed. This promise cannot fail; it must and will be fulfilled unto the whole seed, because all showings of God’s grace are immutable. Both reasons adduced for the love of God form a uniform motive. Election and call are correlatives here also. The latter is a result of the former, because God has elected them from the beginning and has called them to salvation in Christ, in and with the promise given to the fathers, and because the purpose of such election and call will certainly be fulfilled, therefore, the Israelites whom the apostle has in mind, are loved now already by God, though they do not yet believe, even though God hates their unbelief.
