Paul opens this passage differently than he has opened some of his other arguments. Here he begins a series of questions that he asks, not simply hypothetical questions that the reader might ask. His first question is, “Has God rejected his people?” This is personal to Paul, as he has already told us that he has “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” for his brothers according to the flesh (Romans 9:2–3).
After hearing everything Paul has said about salvation, election, and hardening, we could be tempted to assume that the answer is “yes.” Unfortunately, some Christians do believe that God has rejected Israel entirely.
Paul’s answer is direct: “By no means!” Then he puts himself forward as an example of one who has not been rejected. Paul himself is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. Obviously, then, God has not rejected every Israelite. Paul’s point is that “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:2).
Paul then moves to the story of Elijah. Elijah believed that he alone remained faithful while the rest of Israel had turned to Baal. But God told him, “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal” (Romans 11:4). Even in the Old Testament, when Israel as a nation had fallen into terrible unbelief, God preserved for Himself a remnant.
Paul tells us that the same thing is happening in his own day: “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Romans 11:5). And if they are chosen by grace, then it cannot be because of their works. Otherwise, as Paul says, “grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6).
This is the same argument Paul has been making throughout this letter. God has called His people not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles (Romans 9:24–26). Some have been hardened, just as Paul has already shown us in Romans 9. But the hardening of some does not mean that God has rejected an entire nation.
Paul will have more to say about this hardening as the chapter continues. But here his answer to the question is intensely simple: Has God rejected His people?
By no means.
God has preserved for Himself a remnant, chosen by grace. God’s people are not preserved by their ability to remain faithful to Him, but by the God who remains faithful to His promises.
-steve