NOTES for Rom 11:1-12
Two points in today’s reading deserve attention. First: faith is preserved not because we are worthy of what God has given us. No, the gifts and blessings, the covenant and the promise, all belong to us by the grace of God. The example of Israel, which worshiped Baal and killed the prophets yet nevertheless preserved the faith, gives us a vivid lesson in this. The people were unfaithful, but those who sought the truth received it. Those who thirsted for grace were endowed with it. And this is how it always happens. Faith lives wherever people agree to preserve it, while God seeks an opportunity to pass this treasure on to them.
Second: the Lord uses everything to bring each person to Himself. Israel fell away; Israel did not accept the Messiah. As a fact of the world’s order, this is terrible. But, having this choice at His disposal, the Lord uses it so that as many Gentiles as possible may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This does not mean that we have the right to do whatever we please because the Lord can turn any crime to good. It means that what is mad and blasphemous can, by grace, be turned toward benefit and good by the Lord who died on the Cross for our salvation.