Among modern Christians there is a fairly widespread idea that one union-covenant with God somehow replaces another. Thus, the covenant with Noah was replaced by the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Abraham in turn by the covenant with Moses, then by the covenant with David, and the pyramid is crowned by the covenant concluded through Jesus Christ, the new, messianic, and final covenant, which...
Among modern Christians there is a fairly widespread idea that one union-covenant with God somehow replaces another. Thus, the covenant with Noah was replaced by the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Abraham in turn by the covenant with Moses, then by the covenant with David, and the pyramid is crowned by the covenant concluded through Jesus Christ, the new, messianic, and final covenant, which cancels all the previous ones, which automatically cease to operate with the coming of Christ.
Perhaps that would be so if the matter concerned only a legal contract. Then such logic would be quite understandable and absolutely correct: if changes are made to a contract concluded by the parties at the initiative of one of them, then the previous version of the contract automatically ceases to be valid. But in this case we are not speaking of a contract in the legal sense, but of a union, of relationships binding God with His people and with individual representatives of that people.
And a union and relationships presuppose a certain dynamism; they can and must deepen and be filled with new content as they develop. And in this case a new stage of relationships by no means cancels or devalues the previous one. At least as long as the previous stage or previous stages remain relevant for even one person. And even the coming of Christ and the nearness of the Kingdom change nothing in principle here, because concrete people are what matter in this case.
Of course, the approaching Kingdom changes many things objectively, but a person remains a person. And if there are people on earth who remain at the stage, for example, of the covenant with Noah, then that covenant itself will remain relevant precisely for such people. What has been said is all the more true with regard to the covenant with Abraham or with Moses: after all, the Torah entered the world precisely through the covenant with Moses, and it remains relevant for Christians too, if, of course, we are speaking of the inner Torah. But those who stop at the Noahic covenant, or, like most Jews in Paul's day, at the Abrahamic covenant, cannot be considered rejected by God.
The door always remains open for them. They have passed through some part of the path in their relationship with God, stopping at a certain stage; however, this does not mean that their path is finished. God is always waiting for them. And the apostle is convinced: when those who have stopped use their opportunity to move farther and enter the Kingdom, it will be a great day in the history of the Church and in their own history. A day comparable to the day of the universal resurrection from the dead.
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11:13 I magnify my office - Far from being ashamed of ministering to the gentiles, I glory therein; the rather, as it may be a means of provoking my brethren to jealousy.
11:14 My flesh - My kinsmen.
11:15 Life from the dead - Overflowing life to the world, which was dead.
11:16 And this will surely come to pass. For if the first fruits be holy, so is the lump - The consecration of them was esteemed the consecration of all and so the conversion of a few Jews is an earnest of the conversion of all the rest. And if the root be holy - The patriarchs from whom they spring, surely God will at length make their descendants also holy.
11:17 Thou - O gentile. Being a wild olive tree - Had the graft been nobler than the stock, yet its dependance on it for life and nourishment would leave it no room to boast against it. How much less, when, contrary to what is practised among men, the wild olive tree is engrafted on the good!
11:18 Boast not against the branches - Do not they do this who despise the Jews? or deny their future conversion?
11:20 They were broken off for unbelief, and thou standest by faith - Both conditionally, not absolutely: if absolutely, there might have been room to boast. By faith - The free gift of God, which therefore ought to humble thee.
11:21 Be not highminded, but fear - We may observe, this fear is not opposed to trust, but to pride and security.
11:22 Else shalt thou - Also, who now "standest by faith," be both totally and finally cut off.
11:24 Contrary to nature - For according to nature, we graft the fruitful branch into the wild stock; but here the wild branch is grafted into the fruitful stock.
11:25 St. Paul calls any truth known but to a few, a mystery. Such had been the calling of the gentiles: such was now the conversion of the Jews. Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits - Puffed up with your present advantages; dreaming that ye are the only church; or that the church of Rome cannot fail. Hardness in part is happened to Israel, till - Israel therefore is neither totally nor finally rejected.The fullness of the gentiles be come in - Till there be a vast harvest amongst the heathens.
11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved - Being convinced by the coming of the gentiles. But there will be a still larger harvest among the gentiles, when all Israel is come in. The deliverer shall come - Yea, the deliverer is come; but not the full fruit of his coming. Isa 59:20
11:28 They are now enemies - To the gospel, to God, and to themselves, which God permits. For your sake: but as for the election - That part of them who believe, they are beloved.
11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance - God does not repent of his gifts to the Jews, or his calling of the gentiles.
11:32 For God hath shut up all together in disobedience - Suffering each in their turn to revolt from him. First, God suffered the gentiles in the early age to revolt, and took the family of Abraham as a peculiar seed to himself. Afterwards he permitted them to fall through unbelief, and took in the believing gentiles. And he did even this to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and so bring them also in the end to faith. This was truly a mystery in the divine conduct, which the apostle adores with such holy astonishment.
11:33 O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God - In the ninth chapter, St. Paul had sailed but in a narrow sea: now he is in the ocean.The depth of the riches is described, Rom 11:35;
the depth of wisdom, Rom 11:34;
the depth of knowledge, in the latter part of this verse.Wisdom directs all things to the best end; knowledge sees that end.How unsearchable are his judgments - With regard to unbelievers.His ways - With regard to believers.His ways are more upon a level; His judgments "a great deep." But even his ways we cannot trace.
11:34 Who hath known the mind of the Lord - Before or any farther than he has revealed it. Isa 40:13.
11:35 Given to him - Either wisdom or power?
11:36 Of him - As the Creator. Through him - As the Preserver. To him - As the ultimate end, are all things.To him be the glory of his riches, wisdom, knowledge.Amen - A concluding word, in which the affection of the apostle, when it is come to the height, shuts up all.