---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible"
author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 697 of 927
url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/697/
cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 697. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/697/"
---

# Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

*Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown*

The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation.

## 697. Romans · 14 of 22

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/697/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/697/#p-N

[¶0] long I have stretched out my hands--"did I stretch forth"

[¶1] my hands--the attitude of gracious entreaty.

[¶2] unto a disobedient and gainsaying people--These words, which immediately follow the announcement just quoted of the calling of the Gentiles, were enough to forewarn the Jews both of God's purpose to eject them from their privileges, in favor of the Gentiles, and of the cause of it on their own part.

[¶3] Note, (1) Mere sincerity, and even earnestness in religion--though it may be some ground of hope for a merciful recovery from error--is no excuse, and will not compensate, for the deliberate rejection of saving truth, when in the providence of God presented for acceptance ([Ro 10:1-3]; and see on [Ro 9:7], Note 7). (2) The true cause of such rejection of saving truth, by the otherwise sincere, is the prepossession of the mind by some false notions of its own. So long as the Jews "sought to set up their own righteousness," it was in the nature of things impossible that they should "submit themselves to the righteousness of God"; the one of these two methods of acceptance being in the teeth of the other ([Ro 10:3]). () The essential terms of salvation have in every age been the same: "Whosoever will" is invited to "take of the water of life freely," [Re 22:17] ([Ro 10:13]). () How will the remembrance of the simplicity, reasonableness, and absolute freeness of God's plan of salvation overwhelm those that perish from under the sound of it (Ro 10:4-13). (5) How piercingly and perpetually should that question--"How shall they hear without a preacher?"--sound in the ears of all churches, as but the apostolic echo of their Lord's parting injunction, "Preach the Gospel to every creature" ([Mr 16:15]), and how far below the proper standard of love, zeal, and self-sacrifice must the churches as yet be, when with so plenteous a harvest the laborers are yet so few ([Mt 9:37], ), and that cry from the lips of pardoned, gifted, consecrated men--"Here am I, send me" ([Is 6:8]), is not heard everywhere ([Ro 10:14], )! (6) The blessing of a covenant relation to God is the irrevocable privilege of no people and no Church; it can be preserved only by fidelity, on our part, to the covenant itself ([Ro 10:19]). () God is often found by those who apparently are the farthest from Him, while He remains undiscovered by those who think themselves the nearest ([Ro 10:20], ). () God's dealings even with reprobate sinners are full of tenderness and compassion; all the day long extending the arms of His mercy even to the disobedient and gainsaying. This will be felt and acknowledged at last by all who perish, to the glory of God's forbearance and to their own confusion ([Ro 10:21]).

### Chapter 11

### Ro 11:1-36. Same Subject Continued and Concluded--The Ultimate Inbringing of All Israel, to Be, with the Gentiles, One Kingdom of God on the Earth

[¶6] 1. I say then, Hath--"Did"

[¶7] God cast away his people? God forbid--Our Lord did indeed announce that "the kingdom of God should be taken from Israel" ([Mt 21:41]); and when asked by the Eleven, after His resurrection, if He would at that time "restore the kingdom to Israel," His reply is a virtual admission that Israel was in some sense already out of covenant ([Ac 1:9]). Yet here the apostle teaches that, in two respects, Israel was not "cast away"; First, Not totally; Second, Not finally. First, Israel is not wholly cast away.

[¶8] for I also am an Israelite--See [Php 3:5], and so a living witness to the contrary.

[¶9] of the seed of Abraham--of pure descent from the father of the faithful.

[¶10] of the tribe of Benjamin--([Php 3:5]), that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted, with Judah, the one faithful kingdom of God ([1Ki 12:21]), and after the captivity was, along with Judah, the kernel of the Jewish nation ([Ezr 4:1]; ).

[¶11] 2-4. God hath--"did"

[¶12] not cast away his people--that is, wholly

[¶13] which he foreknew--On the word "foreknew," see on [Ro 8:29].

[¶14] Wot--that is, "Know"

[¶15] ye not that the scripture saith of--literally, "in," that is, in the section which relates to

[¶16] Elias? how he maketh intercession--"pleadeth"

[¶17] against Israel--(The word "saying," which follows, as also the particle "and" before "digged down," should be omitted, as without manuscript authority).

[¶18] 5. Even so at this present time--"in this present season"; this period of Israel's rejection. (See [Ac 1:7], Greek).

[¶19] there is--"there obtains," or "hath remained"

[¶20] a remnant according to the election of grace--"As in Elijah's time the apostasy of Israel was not so universal as it seemed to be, and as he in his despondency concluded it to be, so now, the rejection of Christ by Israel is not so appalling in extent as one would be apt to think: There is now, as there was then, a faithful remnant; not however of persons naturally better than the unbelieving mass, but of persons graciously chosen to salvation." (See [1Co 4:7]; [2Th 2:13]). This establishes our view of the argument on Election in [Ro 9:1-29], as not being an election of Gentiles in the place of Jews, and merely to religious advantages, but a sovereign choice of some of Israel itself, from among others, to believe and be saved. (See on [Ro 9:6].)

[¶21] 6. And, &c.--better, "Now if it (the election) be by grace, it is no more of works; for [then] grace becomes no more grace: but if it be of works," &c. (The authority of ancient manuscripts against this latter clause, as superfluous and not originally in the text, though strong, is not sufficient, we think, to justify its exclusion. Such seeming redundancies are not unusual with our apostle). The general position here laid down is of vital importance: That there are but two possible sources of salvation--men's works, and God's grace; and that these are so essentially distinct and opposite, that salvation cannot be of any combination or mixture of both, but must be wholly either of the one or of the other. (See on [Ro 4:3], Note 3.)

[¶22] 7-10. What then?--How stands the fact?

[¶23] Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for--better, "What Israel is in search of (that is, Justification, or acceptance with God--see on [Ro 9:31]); this he found not; but the election (the elect remnant of Israel) found it, and the rest were hardened," or judicially given over to the "hardness of their own hearts."

[¶24] 11. I say then, Have they stumbled--"Did they stumble"

[¶25] that they should fall? God forbid; but--the supplement "rather" is better omitted.

[¶26] through their fall--literally, "trespass," but here best rendered "false step" [De Wette]; not "fall," as in our version.

[¶27] salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy--Here, as also in [Ro 10:19] (quoted from [De 32:21]), we see that emulation is a legitimate stimulus to what is good.

[¶28] 12. Now if the fall of them--"But if their trespass," or "false step"

[¶29] be the riches of the--Gentile

[¶30] world--as being the occasion of their accession to Christ.

[¶31] and the diminishing of them--that is, the reduction of the true Israel to so small a remnant.

[¶32] the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness!--that is, their full recovery (see on [Ro 11:26]); that is, "If an event so untoward as Israel's fall was the occasion of such unspeakable good to the Gentile world, of how much greater good may we expect an event so blessed as their full recovery to be productive?"

[¶33] 13-14. I speak--"am speaking"

[¶34] to you Gentiles--another proof that this Epistle was addressed to Gentile believers. (See on [Ro 1:13]).

[¶35] I magnify--"glorify"

[¶36] mine office--The clause beginning with "inasmuch" should be read as a parenthesis.

[¶37] 15. For if the casting away of them--The apostle had denied that they were east away ([Ro 11:1]); here he affirms it. But both are true; they were cast away, though neither totally nor finally, and it is of this partial and temporary rejection that the apostle here speaks.

[¶38] be the reconciling of the--Gentile

[¶39] world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?--The reception of the whole family of Israel, scattered as they are among all nations under heaven, and the most inveterate enemies of the Lord Jesus, will be such a stupendous manifestation of the power of God upon the spirits of men, and of His glorious presence with the heralds of the Cross, as will not only kindle devout astonishment far and wide, but so change the dominant mode of thinking and feeling on all spiritual things as to seem like a resurrection from the dead.

[¶40] 16. For--"But"

[¶41] if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root ... so the branches--The Israelites were required to offer to God the first-fruits of the earth--both in their raw state, in a sheaf of newly reaped grain ([Le 23:10], ), and in their prepared state, made into cakes of dough ([Nu 15:19-21])--by which the whole produce of that season was regarded as hallowed. It is probable that the latter of these offerings is here intended, as to it the word "lump" best applies; and the argument of the apostle is, that as the separation unto God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the rest of mankind, as the parent stem of their race, was as real an offering of first-fruits as that which hallowed the produce of the earth, so, in the divine estimation, it was as real a separation of the mass or "lump" of that nation in all time to God. The figure of the "root" and its "branches" is of like import--the consecration of the one of them extending to the other.

[¶42] 17-18. And if--rather, "But if"; that is, "If notwithstanding this consecration of Abraham's race to God.

[¶43] some of the branches--The mass of the unbelieving and rejected Israelites are here called "some," not, as before, to meet Jewish prejudice (see on [Ro 3:3], and on "not all" in [Ro 10:16]), but with the opposite view of checking Gentile pride.

[¶44] and thou, being a wild olive, wert--"wast"