“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”
Romans 11:22, KJV
“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
Romans 11:22, ESV
Table of Contents
- Romans 11:22 Meaning – Behold therefore the kindness and the severity of God
- Romans 11:22 Meaning – but toward thee, goodness if thou continue in his goodness
- Romans 11:22 Meaning – otherwise thou also shalt be cut off
Romans 11:22 Meaning – Behold therefore the kindness and the severity of God
By placing the whole state of the case before the view of his readers, Paul confirms, in a more clear and luminous manner, the groundless nature of that pride in which the gentiles exulted over the Jews.
The heathens behold in the Israelites an example of divine severity which ought to impress them with the deepest terror; while, in their own case, they have a proof of grace and goodness, which ought to excite them to gratitude alone, and to extol not themselves, but the Lord, the fountain of all love and mercy.
The following is the sense of the apostle: — “Consider, first, your former character, before you insult over the calamity of the Jews; for you were threatened with the same divine severity, unless you had been delivered from it by his gratuitous goodness. Consider, in the second place, your present character; for your salvation can only be secured by acknowledging, with humbleness of mind, the mercy of infinite love: should you, however, forget yourself, and exult with insolence over the Jews, the same ruin into which they have fallen will be assigned as your lot: for it is not sufficient to have embraced, at one period only of your life, the grace of God, unless during its whole course you steadily pursue the call of your Saviour, and walk in the light of his countenance:” for it is the bounden duty of those who have been enlightened by divine truth, and put on the very armour of light, to have their meditations always fixed on their own perseverance; for those professors by no means continue in the goodness of a merciful Lord, who, after having answered for some time to the divine call, begin finally to loathe the kingdom of heaven, and not to run the race that is set before them; such ingratitude causes them to merit a second blindness.
He does not add each individual believer, as stated above, but compares, at the same time, the gentiles with the Jews.
It is true that every individual of the Jewish nation received the recompense due to his unbelief, when he renounced the kingdom of God, and all called to be believers from the heathens were vessels of mercy.
We must, however, always keep our attention fixed upon Paul’s design, for he was desirous that the gentiles should depend on the eternal covenant of God, that they might join their own salvation with that of the chosen people.
To prevent them from being offended and stumbling at the rejection of the Jews, as if the ancient adoption of that people had been disannulled, Paul was desirous to impress their minds with terror by the example of the punishment inflicted upon the Israelites, that they might keep their attention fixed, with reverential awe, upon this divine judgment.
For why do we indulge with such unbridled licentiousness in curious disputes, but from our general neglect of those inquiries which are deservedly calculated to teach us the invaluable lesson of humility?
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
Instead of boasting against the cast off Jews, the apostle calls on his Gentile readers to “behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.”
The “severity” — i.e., the strict justice — of God was awfully displayed in the Divine conduct to the unbelieving Jews. When we reflect on the high privileges of which they were deprived — on the variety, and weight, and continuance of the judgments inflicted on them — exiled from a land far dearer to them than his native country can be to a Gentile patriot — scattered among the nations, a degraded, hated, ill-used people, and, as individuals, exposed, in the unseen world, to “wrath to the uttermost;” when we reflect on the prodigious numbers who, as race have followed race, have passed, during 1800 years, into the darkness of the grave and eternity — we must say, It is an awful thing to exhaust the Divine patience: “It is a fearful thing; to fall into the hands of the living God.”
On the other hand, “the kindness of God” — His rich, free, sovereign mercy — was illustriously displayed in the calling of the Gentiles. They had not deserved to be thus distinguished. Deserved it! Read the description of them in the close of the first chapter of [this] epistle [to the Romans], and say if it was not of the Lord’s mercies that such monsters of impiety and impurity, ingratitude and malignity, were not consumed! As they did not deserve, they were not soliciting, any such favour from the Divine hand.
And then think of the value of the blessing: the knowledge of the only true God, and of His Son Jesus Christ — the revelation of the only way in which they could escape destruction, and be made truly wise, good, and happy for ever — the means of deliverance from error, guilt, depravity, misery, in all their forms — of obtaining glory, honour, and immortality.
It was of high importance that those belonging to the Gentiles who had believed should ponder these truths. “Behold,” says the apostle, that, from a consideration of “the severity of God” to the unbelieving Jews, they might learn to take heed, lest they too, thinking, as the Jews did, that they stood, should fall — “fall after the same example of unbelief;” and to “be not high-minded, but fear;” and that, from a consideration of the high value of the benefits bestowed on them, they might learn gratitude and obedience; and from the gratuitous nature of these blessings, they might learn to repress pride, and to say, “Not to us, not to us, but to sovereign mercy be all the glory.”
The apostle now proceeds to intimate, that neither of these dispensations — neither the merciful nor the severe one — were to be considered as necessary, irreversible, and final. Should the Gentiles become unbelievers, their state of privilege would be at an end. Should the Jews become believers, their state of abandonment would be at an end. The first of these sentiments is, briefly, stated in the close of this 22nd verse; the second, at considerable length, in the succeeding paragraph.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Romans 11:22 Meaning – but toward thee, goodness if thou continue in his goodness
The condition is added, if they continue in his goodness, because he is not here disputing with regard to individuals who are elected, but the whole body of the nation.
I confess, indeed, that every abuser of divine goodness merits to be deprived of the grace which is given him; but it would be improper to say particularly of any of the pious, that God showed the believer pity when he chose him, provided he continue in that mercy; for the perseverance of faith, which perfects the effect of divine grace in us, flows from election itself.
Paul therefore teaches us that the gentiles were admitted into the hope of eternal life on this very condition, that they might retain the possession of it by their gratitude; and certainly the horrible revolt of all Christendom, which afterwards followed, afforded a luminous evidence of the necessity of this admonition; for after God had nearly in a moment so watered the then known world, in almost every direction, with his grace, that religion flourished in the whole Roman empire, the truth of the gospel soon afterwards disappeared, and the treasure of salvation was removed.
What reason can be assigned for so sudden a change, but the falling away of the heathens from their calling?
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
The apostle is here, as throughout the whole paragraph, speaking of the called Gentiles as a body; and he states to them, that the inestimable privilege, for which they were indebted entirely to Divine goodness, benignity, grace, mercy, would be continued only while they improved it; and that, if unimproved or misimproved, it would be taken from them. If they resembled the Jews in their sin, they should resemble them in their punishment. This dispensation would be to the Gentiles, in its ultimate result, as well as in its intrinsic character, “goodness,” if they continued in this goodness, not otherwise.
To “continue in God’s goodness,” is to continue within the sphere in which this particular kind of goodness operates, — i.e., to continue in the faith and profession of the Gospel. The apostle’s statement seems to be this — ‘The blessings which the Gentiles have obtained possession of, through the preaching of the Gospel among them, originate in, and are necessarily connected with, the faith of the Gospel; and should those bodies of men — now Christian churches among the Gentiles, and enjoying, in their true members, all heavenly and spiritual blessings — should those churches fall from the faith of the Gospel — should there cease to be a succession of true believers in them — they would cease to enjoy the advantages conferred on them, and be cut off like the unbelieving Jews — cease to be recognised by God as a part of His people.’ The desolations of many generations of once famous Christian churches, in Asia, and Africa, and some portions of Europe, are an awfully impressive commentary on these words.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Romans 11:22 Meaning – otherwise thou also shalt be cut off
We here understand the sense in which Paul now threatens the cutting off of those whom he had before confessed to be ingrafted into the hope of life by the election of God; for, indeed, although this cannot befall elect individuals, yet such exhortation is absolutely required to subdue the pride of the flesh, which, as it is in reality opposed to their salvation, so it ought deservedly to be kept in constant terror by the fear of damnation.
For Christians, so far as they are enlightened by faith, hear for their assurance that the calling of God is without repentance; but since they carry about with them a body of flesh, which indulges in lasciviousness against the grace of God, the voice of divine truth, take heed lest thou fall, teaches them the important lesson of humility.
My former solution of the difficulty must be kept in view, that Paul is not here disputing concerning the special election of every individual believer, but opposing the Jews to the gentiles; and he does not therefore so much address the elect in these words, as those boasters of their having taken possession of the situation formerly held by the Jews; nay, at the same time he addresses the gentiles, and directs his remarks to the whole body of them in common, among whom there were many believers, and members of Christ only in name.
Should the question be proposed concerning individuals, how any one may be cut off after he has been grafted in, and the contrary? it can be answered by considering three kinds of grafting in, and two of cutting off.
For, in the first place, the children of believers are grafted in, to whom the promise is due according to the covenant entered into with their fathers; secondly, those are grafted in who receive, indeed, the seed of the gospel, but it either does not strike its roots sufficiently deep, or is choked before it brings forth fruit; thirdly, the elect are grafted in, who are illuminated for everlasting life by the immutable purpose of God.
The first are cut off when they reject the promise given the fathers, or otherwise do not receive it, from ingratitude: the second, when the seed has become withered or corrupted, and the danger of this evil threatens all with respect to their own nature: the admonition given by Paul, it must be acknowledged, pertains also in some measure to believers, for the purpose of preventing them from indulging in the torpid dulness and sluggishness of the flesh.Suffice it to observe, on the present passage, that the same punishment inflicted by God upon the Jews is denounced against the gentiles, if their conduct is similar.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
Argument 11. Unless thou continue in the faith and obedience unto Christ, considering the severity of God against the Jews, and his goodness towards thee, thou also shalt be broken off, and cast away. Therefore unless thou wilt be rejected, keep thyself in the fear of God, and despise not the Jews.
Dickson, David – An Exposition of All St. Paul’s Epistles (1659)
