Romans 11:28

Note

Romans 11 begins with a question and its answer: "did God reject His people? Certainly not!" (Romans 11:1). Paul speaks of a hardening that has come to Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and he says, "so all Israel will be saved" (Romans 11:26). This verse sets out that mystery from two sides.

The noun euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον) stands in the accusative after κατά, "with regard to". The sentence is built as a pair, μέν… δέ: on one side the gospel, on the other eklogē (ἐκλογή), election; on one side echthroi (ἐχθροί), enemies, on the other agapētoi (ἀγαπητοί), beloved. Because "enemies" stands opposite loved, and loved means loved by God, many interpreters take the first word from God's side too: while they set themselves against the gospel, they stand in the place of enemies before God. Yet the same people, at the same time, are loved.

"On your account" points back to Paul's word that through their stumbling "salvation has come to the Gentiles" (Romans 11:11). "On account of the patriarchs" means the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The next verse gives the ground: "For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). The King James Version has "As concerning the gospel… as touching the election", and the LSV renders the second word "the [divine] selection", making plain that it is God who chooses.

Wesley reads "enemies" as enemies "To the gospel, to God, and to themselves, which God permits" Wesley, and takes "beloved" of the believing part of Israel: "That part of them who believe, they are beloved" Wesley. Matthew Henry reads it of the people as a whole: though they are now enemies to the gospel, "when God's time is come, that will no longer exist, and God's love to their fathers will be remembered" Matthew Henry. He adds: "True grace seeks not to confine God's favour" Matthew Henry.

Christians read "all Israel" in verse 26 in more than one way. Many take it as a promise that the Jewish people will turn to Christ after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Others take it as the whole of elect Israel, called throughout history; others again as the whole people of God, Jews and Gentiles together. However it is read, Paul closes the passage not with a scheme but with mercy and with praise.

In the twentieth century the Catholic Church read these two verses afresh. In 1965 the Second Vatican Council, in section 4 of Nostra Aetate, drew on them to teach that God still holds the Jews dear for the sake of their fathers and does not take back his gifts and his call, and it deplored antisemitism Nostra Aetate 4.

The verse leaves the Gentile reader of the gospel no room to be "conceited" (Romans 11:25). That God's call is irrevocable is the same ground for the Jewish people and for everyone who lives by that grace.