Romans 11.5-As In The Days Of Elijah, God Has Set Aside A Remnant For Himself In Paul's Day According To His Sovereign Grace
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday June 23, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:5-As In The Days Of Elijah, God Has Set Aside A Remnant For Himself In Paul’s Day According To His Sovereign Grace
Lesson # 356
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:1.
This evening we will study Romans 11:5, which teaches that in the same way that God set aside a remnant for Himself in Elijah’s day so He had done so in Paul’s day according to His sovereign grace.
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.”
“In the same way” is the adverb of manner houtos (ou^tw$) (hoo-tos), which introduces a statement that teaches that in Paul’s day during the church age, just as in Elijah’s day God has set aside a remnant of believers for Himself according to His sovereign grace.
Therefore, Paul is comparing what God did in Elijah’s day with what He is doing in his day.
“Then” is the “inferential” use of the post-positive conjunction oun (ou@n) (oon), which denotes that Paul’s statement in Romans 11:5 is the result of an inference from his statements in Romans 11:1-4.
Therefore, Paul is saying, “If God reserved a remnant of believers for Himself in Elijah’s day when the majority of Israelites were unbelievers, we can infer that He is doing the same in our day when the majority of Israelites had rejected Christ.”
“Also” is the “adjunctive” use of the conjunction kai (kaiV), which indicates that “in addition to” the remnant in Elijah’s day, God has set aside one in Paul’s day.
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.”
“There has come to be” is the third person singular perfect active indicative form of the verb ginomai (givnomai) (ghin-om-i), which means “to come into existence.”
The perfect tense of the verb is an “intensive” perfect emphasizing the results or present state produced by a past action.
This indicates that the remnant of believers in Paul’s day were in existence as a result of God’s gracious sovereign decision in eternity past to elect them.
“At the present time” refers to a particular moment in human history when the majority of Israelites had rejected Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and only a remnant had believed in Him.
“A remnant” is the nominative neuter singular form of the noun leimma (leimma) (lime-mah), which refers to the “remnant” of believers in Israel in Paul’s day, in the first century.
The noun hupoleimma (u(povleimma) (hoop-ol-im-mah), “remnant,” which appears in Romans 9:27 is related to the noun leimma, “remnant,” which in turn is related to the verb leipo, “to leave” and speaks of “that which is left, remnant.”
In Romans 9:27, Paul cites Isaiah 10:22 to teach that only a remnant of Jews throughout history will be saved.
In Romans 9:27, hupoleimma speaks of those Jews in Paul’s day who had trusted in Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah in contrast to the majority of Jews who did not.
In the Old Testament, in relation to the nation of Israel, a “remnant” referred to a small percentage of the population of the nation of Israel who survived divine judgment in the form of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions and deportations.
The concept has its roots in Deuteronomy 4:27-31; 28:62-68; 30:1-10.
In these passages, Moses warns Israel that they would be dispersed throughout the nations for their disobedience but would be brought back to the land based upon God’s grace and covenantal faithfulness.
The prophets subsequent to Moses continued this doctrine when teaching the nation of Israel during the time each lived.
The prophet Jeremiah uses the word often of the remnant in his day (Jeremiah 40:11, 15; 41:10, 16; 42:2, 15, 19; 43:5; 44:7, 12, 14, 28; 44:28; 47:4, 5; 50:20).
Zechariah also speaks of a remnant of Israelites during the millennial reign of Christ (Zechariah 8:6, 11, 12).
The prophet Micah also speaks of a future remnant of Israelites during the millennium (Micah 2:12; 4:7; 5:7-8; 7:18) and so does Zephaniah (3:13).
The remnant doctrine appears in the writings of Isaiah (Isaiah 10:20-22; 11:11, 16; 15:9; 16:14; 17:3; 28:5; 37:4, 31, 32; 46:3).
It is used in Nehemiah (1:3) and in the writings of Ezra of the returning Israelites from Babylon (Ezra 9:8, 13, 14, 15).
Haggai speaks of this remnant that returned from Babylon (1:12, 14; 2:2).
Paul first mentions this remnant doctrine in Romans 9:6 and then develops it further in Romans 9:27-29 and alludes to this doctrine in Romans 10:16.
The reason why there will always be a remnant of believers in Israel is the four unconditional covenants that God made with Israel.
The four unconditional covenants to Israel: (1) Abrahamic deals with the race of Israel (Gen. 12:1-3; 13:16; 22:15-18). (2) Palestinian is the promise of land to Israel (Gn. 13:15; Num. 34:1-12). (3) Davidic deals with the aristocracy of Israel (2 Sam. 7:8-17) (4) New deals with the future restoration of Israel during the millennium (Jer. 31:31-34).
The fulfillment of unconditional covenants does not depend on the continued obedience of the recipient but rather the integrity and faithfulness of God who instituted the covenant.
Therefore, God will always have a remnant of believers in Israel since He is faithful to His promises to the nation of Israel that appear in these covenants.
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.”
“According to God’s gracious choice” is composed of the preposition kata (katav), “according to” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun ekloge (e)klogvh) (ek-log-ay), “choice” and the genitive feminine singular form of the noun charis (xavri$) (khar-ece), “gracious.”
The noun ekloge is used by Paul in relation to the election of those racial, descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and help to compose “spiritual” Israel and the “remnant” in Israel.
God elected or chose the remnant in Paul’s day before the foundation of the world in the sense that God, in His foreknowledge, which is based upon His omniscience, knew before anything was ever created, that they would believe in His Son in time.
The preposition kata with the accusative noun ekloge, “election” specifies that the remnant of born-again Israelites in Paul’s day is “in conformity with” God’s grace policy.
Election ensures the fact that God will never reject Israel altogether since in every generation He elects in eternity past those who will believe in His Son in time since election excludes human merit and failure.
In Romans 11:6, the noun charis refers to God’s grace policy towards the remnant of Israelite believers in Paul’s day in the sense that God imparted to this remnant who are sinners, unmerited benefits, both temporal and spiritual, as a result of making the non-meritorious decision to trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The word functions as a genitive of means indicating that grace is “the means by which” God elected this remnant of Israelite believers in Paul’s day.
Grace ensures the fact that God will never totally and completely reject Israel since He deals with that nation according to His grace policy, which excludes all human merit and overcomes human failure.
It ensures the fact that God will never totally and completely reject Israel since He does not deal with Israel according to her faithfulness or lack thereof but rather in accordance with His character and integrity and faithfulness.
There would never be a remnant in Israel and the nation would be totally destroyed if they were elected by God based on their own merit.
That this remnant was elected by God based on His grace or unmerited favor, ensures the fact that God will never totally and completely destroy Israel since God’s grace excludes human merit.
Election of this remnant is in accordance with God’s grace because the justified sinner was not yet created when he was elected nor had they done anything good or bad to merit or not merit this election.