Two things must characterize any Christian. One is a profound sense of personal sin and unworthiness. The other is an overwhelming awareness of the grace of God. The two go together, of course, for without a proper sense of sin, we will never appreciate grace. We will think that the good we experience from God’s hand is merited. On the other hand, the more we appreciate the grace of God, the more aware we will be of our sin and want to be free of it.

The apostle Paul was a trophy of God’s grace, and he never forgot it, which is probably why he has included the words about grace that we find in Romans 11:6. Paul loved the doctrine of grace, saw it everywhere, and wanted his readers to see it and love it, too. Paul also knew how difficult it is for most people to accept grace and how inclined we are to add works to it. I imagine that as he wrote the preceding verses, referring to the seven thousand faithful Jews from the days of Elijah’s ministry, he would have thought that some readers would instinctively give those faithful Jews some credit and by extension give themselves a bit of credit, too.

Because that kind of thinking comes naturally to all of us, and Paul knew it, he interrupts the natural flow of thought that would have led him to the distinctions between the majority of Jews and the remnant, which he develops in verses 7-10, to make sure we all understand that even the remnant exists by God’s grace only. It is not that some had it in them to be faithful while others did not. It is rather that God chose the remnant to believe. Verse 6 makes only one point: that grace and works are incompatible opposites. So if a person is to be saved by grace, it cannot be by works, otherwise, grace is not grace. Conversely, if a person is to be saved by works, it cannot be by grace; otherwise, work would not be work.

A good teacher knows when enough information has been given out and it’s time for a summary. Paul seems to have been aware that a summary was needed at precisely this point in his letter. It is what Romans 11:7-10 is about. These verses are a summing up of what Paul has written thus far in Romans 9-11. What has he written? First, there is his teaching about election. He introduced the subject in Romans 9, showing that God’s purposes in salvation have not failed because even though the great majority of Jews had rejected the gospel, those whom God has elected to salvation beforehand nevertheless were being saved.

Second, there is his teaching about reprobation, the doctrine that God passes by the many who are not saved, sovereignly declining to elect them to salvation. Third, there is the reason for man’s rejection of the gospel. The Jews are Paul’s prime example, because he is discussing the fate of unbelieving Israel in these chapters. But it’s the same for all persons apart from Christ. People reject the gospel because they want to establish their own righteousness and do not want to submit to the righteousness that comes from God. Paul discusses these in chapter 10.

Fourth, there is the teaching that what has happened historically in the overall rejection of Christ by Israel had been foretold by God and was therefore no surprise to God, nor did it cause a departure from His plan. In Romans 9, Paul gave four separate Old Testament quotations to make this point (Hos. 2:23; 1:10; Isa. 10:22-23; 1:9). In Romans 11:8-10 he provides two more: verse 8, which combines words from Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10; and verses 9 and 10, which quote Psalm 69:22-23.Yet Paul’s summaries are never mere summaries. They always seem to carry his argument just a bit further, even in summing up. In this case, Paul’s summary has the effect of highlighting the doctrine of election and thus brings him back to the point from which he started out.

In another way in which these verses carry the argument further comes by comparing Paul’s teaching about reprobation in Romans 9 with what we have here. In chapter 9 Paul uses Esau, the father of the Edomites, and Pharaoh, the nation’s great enemy. Paul wrote that God “hated” Esau and that He “hardened” Pharaoh’s heart. Neither Esau nor Pharaoh was among the elect people of God. But here is the striking thing. In Romans 11 Paul is not writing about non-Jews, Edomites, and Egyptians. He is writing about Israel, which means that he is applying the doctrine of reprobation to the allegedly “chosen” people. What’s more, he is saying that even those things that should have been a blessing to them – presumably the very things he lists at the start of Romans 9 – have become a “snare,” “trap,” “stumbling block,” and “retribution” for them in their unregenerate state (11:9).

Here is where this summary of Paul’s teaching comes home forcefully to us. If individual Jews, who were a chosen nation, missed salvation because of their rejection of Christ and if, as a result, the blessings of God that had been given to them became a curse for these people (see Mal. 2:2), it is entirely possible (indeed probable) that many sitting in the evangelical churches of America today are also missing salvation because of their failure to trust Jesus in a personal way and that their blessings have become curses, too.

Do you understand that? It means that if you will not allow the good things we enjoy as allegedly Christian people to lead you to Christ, which is what God has given them to us for, they will be worse than worthless to you. They will actually be harmful and propel you inevitably into an even greater spiritual stupor, hardness of heart, and sin.

Here are four examples: (1) Baptism. Baptism is an outward sign of an inward, spiritual union with Jesus Christ. It is meant to strengthen our faith by making the inward reality more palpable to us. But countless allegedly Christian people have trusted the outward sign without the inward commitment. They have judged themselves to be saved persons without any true following after Jesus Christ. (2) Communion. The same thing is true of communion. Entire branches of the church teach that grace is somehow imparted in the physical partaking of the elements, so that the physical act by itself conveys salvation. But the reality in not physical. The Lord’s Supper is meant to show us the broken body and atoning blood of Jesus Christ and lead us to trust Him and place our faith in Him, not the ceremony. If we don’t trust Christ, the sacrament, which is intended to do us good, actually becomes a curse for us, and we become superstitious and even pagan in our practice.

(3) Material possessions. Money and other material goods are from God. But they are dangerous, particularly when we possess them in abundance. They should lead us to God in gratitude. More often they lead us from Him. (4) The Lord’s Day. In earlier years, Sundays were sacred days of rest and worship for the majority of Americans, and even those who were not Christians respected them. Look how this has changed today, look how many events today are scheduled on Sundays, and do any of them give rest and the worship of Jesus Christ?

Romans 11:6-10 Reflection Questions:

What is the situation of the Jews to whom Paul is referring in Verses 7-12?

Paul sees Israel’s blindness and stumbling (vv. 8-10) as means by which the wider world can be brought into God’s family (vv. 11-12). How is it that Paul nonetheless has hope for Israel’s future and envisions its resurrection (vv. 11-15)?

How do you deal with Paul’s statements concerning God’s decision to save some and not others, to harden the hearts and to shut the eyes and the ears of some?