Romans 11.2a-God Has Not Rejected Israel Whom He Knew In Advance
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday June 17, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:2a-God Has Not Rejected Israel Whom He Knew In Advance
Lesson # 353
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:1.
Last evening we studied Romans 11:1 and in this passage, Paul poses a rhetorical question that is the result of an inference that could be implied from his teaching in Romans chapters nine and ten, namely that God has rejected Israel.
He emphatically rejects this idea and then presents himself as living proof that this is not the case.
This evening we will begin to note Romans 11:2 by noting the first statement in the passage in which Paul emphatically declares that God has not rejected the nation of Israel whom He foreknew.
Romans 11:1, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”
Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?”
Romans 11:3, “Lord, THEY HAVE KILLED YOUR PROPHETS, THEY HAVE TORN DOWN YOUR ALTARS, AND I ALONE AM LEFT, AND THEY ARE SEEKING MY LIFE.”
Romans 11:4, “But what is the divine response to him? ‘I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.’”
Romans 11:5, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.”
Now, let’s concentrate on the first statement in verse 2.
Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?”
Paul employs the figure of “asyndeton,” in order to make a solemn affirmation that God has emphatically not rejected the nation of Israel whom He foreknew.
“God has not rejected His people” emphatically rejects the idea that God has rejected the nation of Israel.
“He foreknew” is the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb proginosko (proginwvskw) (prog-in-oce-ko), which is a compound word composed of the preposition pro, “before” and the verb ginosko, “to know,” thus the word literally means, “to know beforehand” or “to know in advance.”
The word is used by Paul in Romans 11:2 with reference to the Father’s “foreknowledge” of the nation of Israel in the sense that the Father “knew in advance” in eternity past there would be a remnant in the nation of Israel that would in the future accept Christ as Savior.
Now, in Romans 11:2, the question arises, “is the verb proginosko referring to the remnant of believers in Israel whom God foreknew or is it referring to the national election of the nation of Israel?”
The immediate context, namely, Romans 11:2-5, clearly indicates that Paul is speaking of a remnant of believers within the nation of Israel and not the national election of Israel.
Paul cites 1 Kings 19:10 in Romans 11:3 and 1 Kings 19:18 in Romans 11:4 to support his argument in Romans 11:1-2a that God has not rejected Israel.
These verses make clear that in Elijah’s day God has set aside for Himself a remnant of believers.
Paul uses this as support for his argument that God has not rejected Israel.
Thus, he is teaching that God has not rejected the nation of Israel in that just as He set aside for Himself in Elijah’s day a remnant of believers so in Paul’s day God was doing the same and would also do in the future.
Therefore, in Romans 11:2, Paul uses the verb proginosko of God the Father in eternity past having foreknowledge of a remnant of believers in the nation of Israel.
Therefore, this remnant’s faith in Christ as Savior is the object of the Father’s foreknowledge.
This verb proginosko in Romans 11:2 denotes that in His foreknowledge, which is based upon His omniscience, God knew in eternity past a remnant of Israelites whom He would create and would accept His Son Jesus Christ as Savior in time.
The nation of Israel would be completely rejected by God if there wasn’t a remnant of believers and would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah as Paul states in Romans 9:29.
But the fact that there is a remnant in Israel and will always be the case is why the nation still exists according to Romans 9:27-29.
In Romans 9:27, Paul cites Isaiah 10:22 to teach that only a remnant of Jews throughout history will be saved, which supports his premise in Romans 9:6 that not all racial Israel is considered by God to be spiritual Israel, children of the promise and spiritual descendants of Abraham.
Romans 9:27, “However, Isaiah cries out over Israel, ‘Though the number which is the posterity descended from Israel is like the sand, which is by the sea only the remnant will be delivered.’”
Then, in Romans 9:28, Paul quotes from Isaiah 10:23 to warn unregenerate Israel of eternal condemnation in that the Lord Jesus Christ will execute this judgment thoroughly and decisively.
Romans 9:28, “In fact, the Lord will execute judgment upon the inhabitants of the land thoroughly and decisively.”
In Romans 9:29, Paul quotes Isaiah 1:9 to teach that if the Lord had not been merciful by leaving a remnant in Israel that it would have become like Sodom and would have been make like Gomorrah in that not only would the nation have been destroyed but all its citizens would have suffered eternal condemnation as well.
Romans 9:29, “So that just as Isaiah predicts, ‘If the Lord over the armies had not left to us descendants and He has, we would have become like Sodom and in addition like Gomorrah, we would have been made like.’”
It would be ridiculous of God to elect the nation of Israel if He did not set aside a remnant of believers since the national election of Israel only makes sense if God has set aside a remnant of believers throughout human history.
Therefore, the national election of Israel is based on the fact that God, in His foreknowledge, which is based on His omniscience, knew in eternity past a remnant of Israelites whom He would create in time and would in time accept His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
Consequently, this is the reason why God has by no means rejected Israel completely.
If God had not set aside a remnant of believers in Israel, God would have rejected that nation.
The national entity status of Israel is maintained because God has set aside a remnant of believers in the nation as he illustrates in Romans 11:2b-5 with God’s response to Elijah’s prayer against Israel.
Otherwise, as Paul teaches in Romans 9:29, Israel would be non-existent as a nation, just as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Paul teaches in Romans 9:6 that not all racial Israel is considered by God to be His covenant people but only those who have trusted in His Son Jesus Christ as Savior.
Romans 9:6, “Now, this does not by any means imply that the word originating from God is nullified because each and every person who descended from Israel, these are, as an eternal spiritual truth, by no means, Israel.”
In Romans 2:28-29, Paul teaches that a true Israelite in God’s eyes has faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
Romans 2:28-29, “Therefore, as an eternal spiritual truth, he is absolutely never a Jew who is one by means of the external, nor, as an eternal spiritual truth, is circumcision, that which is by means of the external in the human body. But rather, as an eternal spiritual truth, he is a Jew who is one by means of the internal and circumcision originates in the heart by means of the omnipotence of the Spirit, never by means of the letter whose praise is as an eternal spiritual truth never from men but from God.”
These two passages make clear that God makes a distinction between Israelites and accepts those who accept His Son by faith and rejects those who reject His Son.
The nation of Israel whom God foreknew is the remnant of believers because God considers a true Israelite to be one who has faith in His Son Jesus Christ.
So in Romans 11:1-2a, Paul teaches that God has by no means rejected His people Israel whom He foreknew.
Then, in Romans 11:2b-5, he teaches that God has set aside a remnant of believers in the future just as He did in Elijah’s day.
Together, these verses teach that God has not rejected Israel because He has set aside a remnant of believers in the future.