“Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.”
Romans 11:31, KJV
“so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.”
Romans 11:31, ESV
Table of Contents
- Romans 11:31 Meaning – Even so have these also now not believed
- Romans 11:31 Meaning – that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy
Romans 11:31 Meaning – Even so have these also now not believed
The following sentence, these have now been made unbelievers when mercy was bestowed on the gentiles, is a little harsh, but it involves no absurdity, since Paul is not assigning the cause of this blindness, but only means, that God had deprived the Jews of the blessing he transferred to the gentiles.
Because the Israelites had lost the blessing by their own unbelief, to prevent the gentiles from imagining they had attained the gospel by the merit of faith, he makes mention of nothing else than mercy.
The sum of the whole is, Because God was desirous to have pity on the gentiles, the Jews were, on this occasion, deprived of the light of faith.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
Now, says the apostle, there is an analogy between the past and present conduct of God towards the Gentiles, and His present and future conduct toward the Jews.
This verse admits, and almost requires, a somewhat different rendering from that given in our translation — “Even so have these also now not believed through your mercy— or, even so have these also now, through your mercy, not believed — that they also might find mercy.”
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Romans 11:31 Meaning – that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy
The apostle, in the words “through your mercy,” seems to refer to the cause or occasion of the Jews’ unbelief, not to the means through which they were to find mercy. It is true the mercy of the Gentiles is to be rendered ultimately subservient to the conversion of the Jews: this is distinctly stated in the 11th verse of this chapter; but though this is a truth, and an important one, it does not seem to be the truth stated here.
The apostle contrasts the former state of the Gentiles with their present state, and the present state of the Jews with their future state. The past state of the Gentiles was a state of disobedience — their present state, a state of gracious salvation. The present state of the Jews is a state of disobedience —their future state is to be a state of gracious salvation.
He compares the past state of the Gentiles with the present state of the Jews, and the present state of the Gentiles with the future state of the Jews; and he contrasts the instrument or occasion of the Gentiles’ conversion with the instrument or occasion of the Jews’ apostacy; and he does all this to show how “the mercy” — the grace, of God is displayed in the salvation of both.
“These,” i.e. the Jews, “have now not believed,” or have now become unbelieving and disobedient. The Gospel — the glad tidings of a full and free salvation for mankind, had been proclaimed to them. They were called to believe it, and God had promised that, in believing it, they should obtain all heavenly and spiritual blessings.
But they “rejected the counsel of God against themselves.” They would not acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Saviour and Lord. And one circumstance which greatly tended to harden their minds against conviction, was what the apostle here terms “the mercy of the Gentiles.”
“They have now not believed through your mercy.” By the mercy of the Gentiles here, we are not to understand their actual conversion; for, were that its meaning, we should have the apostle assigning as the occasion of the conversion of the Gentiles, an event which he represents as occasioned by that conversion.
The mercy of the Gentiles, is that peculiar character of the Gospel revelation which placed the Gentiles on the same level with the Jews, offering the same salvation to both, to be received in the same way — by believing: its declaring that, in order to obtain the blessings promised and bestowed by Messiah, there was no necessity for them to become Jews, but that “whosoever believed on the name of the Lord Jesus should be saved.”
This was in direct opposition to the strongest prejudices and expectations of the Israelitish people, and, next to “the offence of the cross,” was perhaps the strongest obstacle in the way of them embracing Christianity. The elder brother would not come in, because his prodigal brother had been so readily admitted— so kindly entertained.
Thus, the Gentiles obtained mercy through the unbelief of the Jews; and, through the extension of mercy to the Gentiles, the Jews became unbelievers.
But are the Jews fallen into a state of hopeless and permanent unbelief and disobedience? Is this the end of the series of Divine dispensations? No; “they have not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy” — that they also may become the subjects of such a merciful, gracious interposition as had taken place with regard to the Gentiles.
The meaning of this clause will vary according as you render the particle translated that. It may be rendered either simply that, meaning in order that, indicating intention, or so that, indicating merely consequence.
According to the rendering preferred by our translators, the meaning is, God has now permitted the Jews, as a body, to become disobedient, through their misconception of His mercy to the Gentiles, just as He had formerly permitted the Gentiles, as a body, to become disobedient; and He has done this, not that He may utterly destroy them, but that when, according to His purpose and promise, He deals with them as He dealt with the Gentiles, in giving them “repentance unto life,” it may be evident that, as in the case of the Gentiles, it is a display of pure sovereign grace.
The design of God, in allowing this display of human depravity in the case of the Jews as of the Gentiles, was that thus the riches of Divine grace might be the more gloriously manifested.
The Jews were, as well as the Gentiles, to be blessed in Him in whom all men are to be blessed; but they were not to be put in possession of these blessings as persons who had descended from Abraham, and who were observers of the law of Moses; for, in this case, it might have been thought, and the Jews themselves would have so interpreted it, that it was on those grounds they obtained this blessedness.
On the contrary, the principles of their depraved nature were left to manifest themselves in the rejection of the Gospel; and they thus brought themselves into a state, from which deliverance could be attributed to nothing on the part of God but sovereign mercy, and implied in it a glorious manifestation of that Divine attribute.
If we render the particle “so that,” it refers not so much to the Divine design in, as to the actual result of, the Jewish people becoming unbelieving and disobedient through the mercy of the Gentiles. “They have become disobedient through your mercy, so that they also shall obtain mercy” — become objects of grace — free favour.
When saved, as they shall be, according to the Divine oracle, it shall be plain that, like the Gentiles when saved according to the Divine oracle, they are debtors to free sovereign grace for their salvation.
As the Gentiles were saved, not as dutiful observers of the law of nature, but as ungodly idolaters — enormous sinners, so the Jews are to be saved, not as those who had been obedient keepers of the law, but as those who had been obstinate rejecters of the Gospel.
It does not materially affect the apostle’s argument in whatever way you interpret the particle.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
