The Election of Grace

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel... "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal." Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Even when His people prove faithless, God preserves a remnant—not by their merit, but by the election of His grace.

Has God Given Up on His People?

I wonder if the thought has ever crossed your mind, as it has mine: "If I don't get my act together, God is not going to put up with me much longer." If God were anything like me, I might give up on myself. We clearly fall short of the glory of God, and we wonder how He puts up with so much from us.

In our recent studies in Romans, we have been considering God's dealings with the children of Israel—the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—a people whom God chose to bless and through whom He would bring great blessing. But as their history unfolded, God said through the prophet Isaiah, "All day long I've stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people." For hundreds of years that was the testimony of Abraham's descendants. Though chosen both to be blessed and to be a blessing, they were stubborn, rebellious, and contrary.

The Great Contrast: Israel's Rejection, the Gentiles' Reception

One might begin to think that God would give up on them, cast them off, reject them. By the time Paul wrote this letter to the church at Rome, Israel had rejected Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. When Pilate brought the beaten Jesus before the gathered Jewish multitude and said, "Behold your King!" they answered, "We will not have this man to rule over us."

So they rejected Jesus as King and Messiah. Yet Paul is writing to a gathering of mostly Gentiles—non-Jewish followers of Jesus in Rome. There is a huge contrast here: the people God chose to bless, and through whom He would bring the Messiah, rejected the very incarnation of blessing, while people who were not Abraham's descendants were openly receiving Him.

With all this in mind, Paul anticipates the inevitable question of his readers. Much of Romans is written as anticipated responses to objections, and now he raises the next one: "I say then, has God cast away His people?" In chapters 9 through 11, "His people" means the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The word "cast away" literally means rejected. Has God rejected them? Paul immediately answers as he has before: "Certainly not!" May it never be!

Why This Question Matters

This whole section—Romans 9 through 11—is woven into the letter because Paul had claimed at the end of Romans 8 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Yet the children of Israel, the people to whom God said through Jeremiah, "I have loved you with an everlasting love," were largely not abiding under His grace. So it is logical to ask whether God has rejected them, because on outward observation it might seem that if they were once God's people, they are no longer.

I remember a couple of weeks after September 11, 2001, when Pastor Eric, Rick Kierstead, our elder Mark Cato, and I were in New York City serving with the Red Cross. We were handing out flyers with a prayer hotline number. One Jewish woman came back to Rick with tears in her eyes and said, "God doesn't love us." Considering what she had seen with her own eyes, and the history of her people, she concluded that if God once loved them, He certainly did not now. On the surface of the evidence, one might wonder.

Two Reasons God Has Not Rejected His People

How can Paul be certain God has not cast away His people? Two reasons.

First, the promise of Scripture. God said in 1 Samuel 12:22, "The Lord will not forsake His people." Psalm 94:14 declares, "For the Lord will not cast off His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance." There are many such declarations in the Old Testament.

Yet Jewish history shows times when His people were removed from His blessing. In the 8th century B.C., the northern kingdom of Ephraim was taken captive by Assyria because of their sin. About a hundred years later, the southern kingdom of Judah was carried into Babylon for seventy years. God will not bless sin—and not just Israel's sin, but our own. God cannot bless us if we are walking in sin.

Now, the absence of temporal blessing is not automatic proof of sin. But if we find ourselves in extreme difficulty or seem to lack God's blessing, we should at least ask God, "Is there anything in my life bringing this about?" Second Kings 23:27 says the Lord would remove Judah and Israel and cast them off from Jerusalem—because of their sin. But removing them from blessing is not rejecting them from access to His grace. As long as you are alive in this life, you always have access to His grace for forgiveness and salvation.

Second, the proof of salvation. Notice verse 1: "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." Even in our own church there are people who can trace their heritage back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Paul, Peter, Thomas, and Bartholomew were all Jewish. Most of the early church was Jewish; it was not until Acts 10 that the Gospel began spreading to Gentiles. The salvation of Jewish people proves God has not rejected His people.

Those Whom He Foreknew

Paul expands his answer in verse 2: "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew." That word foreknew appears only one other time in Romans—chapter 8, verse 29: "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son." The implication is that those whom God has not rejected do not include all the people of Israel. There are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who are not saved—but there is a remnant who receive His grace.

Who is this group whom God foreknew? Paul answers with an illustration from the Scriptures. Throughout chapters 9, 10, and 11 he keeps returning to the Hebrew Scriptures because he is writing to a Jewish audience who knew them. He has quoted Isaiah, Nahum, Joel, Moses, and David. Now he turns to 1 Kings: "Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 'Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life'?"

Elijah on Mount Carmel

This story took place in 1 Kings 19, in the 9th century B.C. The nation was divided into two kingdoms, and Elijah was a prophet to the northern kingdom. The king was Ahab, and his wife Jezebel was the most wicked queen Israel had ever had. Under them, the northern tribes completely rejected God and bowed to false gods—Baal and Asherah—served by nearly a thousand prophets, with Jezebel leading the way and Ahab simply going along.

God sent Elijah to call the people to repentance and to proclaim judgment: a drought that lasted more than three and a half years. In a land of shepherds and farmers, famine set in. The people cried out to Ahab for relief, and Ahab sent generals to find Elijah—not to ask for rain, but to kill him.

When the Lord told Elijah it was time, he summoned the people to Mount Carmel along with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. He challenged them: "How long will you falter between two opinions? If God is God, serve Him; if Baal is god, serve him." He proposed a test—two altars, two sacrifices—and whichever God answered by fire would be the true God.

The prophets of Baal went first. All day long they cried out, growing louder, cutting and piercing themselves until they bled—the first emo kids in the Bible. And Baal did not show up. All through this, Elijah mocked them: "Maybe he can't hear you! Cry louder! Maybe your god's on vacation!"

At the end of the day Elijah rebuilt the altar of God, dug a trench around it, and had the people drench it with water—three times—so everyone would know he was not manufacturing anything. Then he prayed, "God, so that the people may know that You are God in heaven, reveal Yourself!" Fire came down from heaven and consumed the offering and everything around it. God was shown to be God. The people seized the prophets of Baal and executed them.

"I Alone Am Left"

The next chapter shifts the tone. Ahab told Jezebel all Elijah had done. Jezebel sent a messenger: "So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow." She failed to recognize that God had shown up by fire; she only wanted vengeance for her prophets.

You would hope Elijah might think, "God's in this; we're okay." But sometimes after great highs come great lows. Elijah ran for his life, fled south, fell into deep depression, and hid in a cave. Finally God spoke to him in a still small voice: "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Elijah's response is priceless: "I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, and torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek my life." Elijah had grown myopic and short-sighted. You almost want to read it in an Eeyore voice: "Poor me, I'm the only one left."

God's response in verse 18: "Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal." God says, "That's not the case, Elijah. I have a remnant. You're not the only one." Who is the foreknown group? In Elijah's day, it was the faithful. Though small, there was a faithful remnant among sinful, rebellious Israel, and God knew exactly who they were.

A Remnant According to the Election of Grace

Paul applies the story in Romans 11:5: "Even so, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Just as there was a remnant among unbelieving Israel in Elijah's day, so there is a faithful, believing remnant among unbelieving Israel today.

How is this remnant saved? Not according to their descent from Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. Not according to their adherence to the law of Moses. They are a remnant according to the election of grace. It is God's grace that makes them a people and that they are foreknown by Him.

Paul drives it home in verse 6: "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace." If anything could make us righteous apart from God's grace—lineage, good works, or law-keeping—then grace is nullified and the cross is of no effect. It would not be necessary for Christ to die if there were any other way. On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed three times in Gethsemane, "Father, if there is any other way, let this cup pass from Me." The heavens were silent—because there was no other way.

Grace Through Faith, Not Works

The New Testament emphasizes throughout that salvation is by grace through faith. Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace were you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Romans 3:24: "being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Titus 3:7: "that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

The New Testament also emphasizes that no work can make us righteous. Romans 3:20: "by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight." Romans 3:28: "a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." Galatians 3:11: "no one is justified by the law... for 'the just shall live by faith.'" Ephesians 2:9: "not by works, lest anyone should boast." Titus 3:5: "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us."

And this is not only a New Testament teaching. Genesis 15:6 says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness. Habakkuk 2:4: "the just shall live by faith." Listen to God speaking through Ezekiel 36:25-27 and count how many times He says "I will": "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you... I will cleanse you... I will give you a new heart and a new spirit... I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." God's grace—He is the One who saves us.

What Israel Sought, and Why It Was Missed

Paul continues in verse 7: "Israel has not obtained what it seeks." They have not found what they were looking for, as the old song says. What were they looking for? Romans 9:30-32 answers: the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained the righteousness of faith, "but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law."

Israel sought to be made righteous by their own works, their law-keeping, and the fact that they descended from Abraham. So they did not obtain what they sought—because there is no righteousness in keeping the law or in who your father is.

"But the elect have obtained it." Who are the elect? The remnant according to the election of grace. By grace the elect have obtained righteousness, because it comes through faith and not by anything they could do. "And the rest were blinded." A better translation is hardened, and many English versions use that word.

A Calloused Heart

The word translated blinded or hardened means to cover over with a thick covering, like a callus. Any guitar players here? I have a guitar in my office, and when people see it they say, "Oh, you play." Well, not really. Every time I try, my fingers burn and hurt before the calluses form, and I quit. Everyone tells me, "You just have to push a little farther." Once you've played a long time, calluses harden over your fingertips and it becomes easier, because you've deadened that area through use.

In the same way, the rest of Israel who did not receive grace through faith have become calloused, hard-hearted, and blinded. Paul supports this from Isaiah 29:10—"God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, to this very day"—and from David in Psalm 69:22-23.

Someone might read these verses and conclude that God, in His sovereignty, arbitrarily blinded certain people through no fault of their own, and that this is unfair. But that takes these texts out of context. When Isaiah spoke those words, it was after many hundreds of years of God repeatedly calling His people, through the prophets, to return to His grace. They hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks. So God allowed them to continue their march toward blindness. The reality is that the majority who call themselves Jews today are blinded and do not recognize that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and the only Savior of the world.

The Only Way the Veil Falls

The only thing that opens their eyes is what the prophet Zechariah described, and what happened to Paul himself. He was a Pharisee, a religious leader, on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians, when he saw the risen Lord. A few days later, something fell from his eyes like scales. The callousness fell away. Why? Because, as Zechariah prophesied, he looked on Him whom he had pierced—the risen Savior—and his ears understood for the first time the gospel of grace.

There are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob given great blessings—the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the promises, the fathers, and through them Christ Himself (Romans 9). Yet the majority remain unbelieving and blinded, their hearts hard toward the Gospel. The only way salvation comes is for them to look on Him whom they pierced—the stumbling stone they stumbled at. Romans 9:33: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whoever believes on Him shall not be put to shame."

How We Reach the Hardened Heart

How then do we share the Gospel with someone whose heart is calloused and whose ears are hardened—especially someone of Jewish background with a veil over their mind? We get a preview in verse 13: "For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them."

This is how you reach someone hardened to the Gospel: they must see the proof of its power in your life. It cannot be merely words. I remember a woman in our fellowship telling me how she tried to share the Gospel with a Jewish friend, and he became offended because she tried to school him on his understanding of the Old Testament. People who have heard the Gospel so often that they are inoculated to it must see its power in you and me. Our lives must provoke them to jealousy, so they yearn for what we have—every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, and the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, self-control. They should see in us the power of the risen Lord. Would to God that the church would be so radically different from the world. Amen?

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank You for Your great grace. It is clear, Lord, that it is because of Your grace that we are able to come before You and stand before You. It is because of Your great grace and mercy that we can be Your people. And it is our desire that others who don't know You yet would become Your people because You would shine through our lives. Help us to reflect Your grace and Your glory to those who don't know You. We pray for those who are Jewish, Lord, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; draw them to Yourself, that they would look on You, Jesus, whom they pierced, and come to faith, just as we have. We thank You that it is not by anything we have done that You've made us righteous, but by Your great grace. Use us to be ambassadors of that grace. In Jesus' name. Amen.