“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded”
Romans 11:7, KJV
“What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened,”
Romans 11:7, ESV
Table of Contents
- Romans 11:7 Meaning – What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for
- Romans 11:7 Meaning – but the election hath obtained it
- Romans 11:7 Meaning – and the rest were blinded
Romans 11:7 Meaning – What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for
Because the subject here discussed was difficult, Paul proposes a question, as if he was perplexed by doubt.
He was, however, desirous to give greater certainty to the following answer by the very doubt he proposes.
Paul intimates that no other reason can be given than the vain labour of the Jews in seeking for salvation, because they struggled with a preposterous zeal.
Notwithstanding he here makes no mention of the cause, yet he was desirous it should be understood, since he had expressly given a statement of it in a former passage.
His expressions convey the following sense: “We need not be surprised to find Israel accomplishing nothing by her struggles after righteousness;” and he then subjoins his declaration concerning election.
For if Israel has deservedly obtained nothing, what have others acquired, whose case or condition was not superior? Who cannot see that election alone maketh all the distinction?
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
The second conclusion, shewing what was said before (Romans 9:31) of the Israelites, who sought for righteousness by the Law, and did not attain it, is to be understood only of the reprobate. For the elect Israelites obtained righteousness, which they sought for by grace, in the Messiah, but the rest, that is the reprobate, were hardened.
Dickson, David – An Exposition of All St. Paul’s Epistles (1659)
“What then?” says the apostle, resuming the discussion. ‘How does the matter stand, as to the “casting off” of Israel now being as like that “casting off” in the time of Elijah, not universal?
It stands thus : “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for.” “Israel” is the great body of the Israelites, who have not obtained that which they sought for; and what was that? It was “a law of righteousness” — a method of justification — a way of securing the Divine special favour; and justification, or the special favour of God, by that law, method, or way. This they sought, not in God’s way, but in their own; not by the faith of the Gospel, but by the works of the law; and, therefore, they had not attained it.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Romans 11:7 Meaning – but the election hath obtained it
But the signification of this word is doubtful. Some consider it to be taken collectively for the elect themselves, that the parts of the antithesis may correspond to each other; nor do I disapprove of this opinion, provided, at the same time, they grant me that the word election implies more than elect, intimating this to have been the alone cause of our enjoying divine mercy: as if Paul had said, “Those who rely on merits have not obtained, but such as depend for salvation on the gratuitous election of God;” for he here institutes a direct comparison between the whole body of the Israelitish people and the remnant whose salvation was secured by the grace of God.
It hence follows, that the cause of salvation does not reside in men, but depends on the mere good pleasure and will of God.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
But, while this was the case with Israel as a body, “the election hath obtained.”
“The election” here is used as equivalent to “the elect,” just as “the circumcision” is used as equivalent to “the circumcised.”
The elect, because they were the elect, in consequence of an influence originating in sovereign mercy, believed the Gospel, submitted to “the righteousness of God,” and thus attained to the true way of justification, and to justification by that way. All believing Jews were “justified freely by God’s grace, through the redemption in Christ Jesus.”
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
Romans 11:7 Meaning – and the rest were blinded
“As the elect alone are freed from destruction by the grace of God, so all, who are not elected, must necessarily remain in blindness.”
For Paul, when he considers the reprobates, makes the beginning of their ruin and condemnation to arise from their being forsaken of the Lord.
All his proofs, which are collected rather from various parts of the Scriptures than taken from any one writer, seem to be foreign to the design of Paul, if more carefully examined according to the circumstances of the passages adduced.
Blindness and hardness of heart are stated in all the apostle’s quotations to be, as it were, the scourges of God inflicted upon the wicked, as punishments of their crimes already committed.
But Paul was desirous to prove in this passage that such as have been reprobated by God before the creation of the world are blinded, and not those who have already merited such a punishment by their own wickedness.
This difficulty admits the following brief solution, — that the perverseness of our nature, when forsaken of Infinite Holiness, is the source and origin of the impiety which provokes the indignation of God to inflict punishment in so striking a manner.
Paul’s quotations, therefore, were not irrelevant to the subject under consideration, namely, eternal reprobation, since it is the spring and origin of those awful manifestations of divine judgment mentioned by Isaiah and David, as the tree produces the fruit, and the fountain is the source and spring of the river.
The wicked, indeed, on account of their crimes, are punished with blindness by the just and merited judgment of God; but if we inquire into the fountain and origin of their ruin, we shall come to this conclusion, that, since they are cursed of God, they can draw down, and heap upon their own heads, by all their deeds, sayings, and counsels, nothing but a curse.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
Men which were reprobated were offered unto God in a mass of perdition, and utterly corrupted; for God decreed to produce them, not elsewhere, but out of the seed of Adam.
And, forasmuch as by his free purpose he would not bestow his mercy on many, which is utterly to refuse, thereof followed rejection, whereby they were left in their native sin.
Farther, forsomuch as God suffereth not his creatures to be idle, they also are perpetually pricked forward to work; and, for that they were not healed, they do all things according to their corrupt nature; which, although they seem sometimes to be beautiful works, yet before God they are sins.
Moreover, according as their wicked facts deserve, God many times punisheth in them sins by other sins; as in the Romans, “many are said to have been delivered up unto a reprobate mind, for that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God.” (Romans 1:24,26)
God oftentimes, (Isaiah 6:10,) either by himself or by evil angels, sendeth cogitations, and offereth occasions which, if we were upright, might be taken in the best part; but, forasmuch as we are not renewed, we are by them driven unto evil; afterwards justly and worthily followeth damnation for sinners; and, finally, the declaration of the power and justice of God is the last effect of reprobation, and all these things follow reprobation.
God useth sins, which are continually committed, to those ends which he himself hath appointed.
And, forsomuch as this is not done of him rashly, but by his determinate counsel, how can it be that, after a sort, sins are not comprehended under reprobation?
God doth not properly stir up men unto sin; but yet he useth the sins of wicked men, and also guideth them, lest they should pass beyond their bounds: for God dealeth not alone, but wicked men and the devil also do use their naughty endeavour in working.
But when we say that the act itself (which afterward, through our own fault, is evil) is brought forth by the chiefest good, that is, by God, and by us, that is by our will, how shall we understand this? Whether does God do it wholly, or we wholly? Or, whether it be partly from Him, and partly from us? And here we draw this producement to the very act of our will.
We answer, If consideration of the whole be referred unto the cause, we must speak after one sort; if it be referred unto the effect, after another sort.
If the whole be referred to the cause, so that we understand our will to be the whole cause of the action, that it be able by itself to work without God, it is not true; for unless God would assent thereunto, it should not be able to bring forth action.
So God, although by his absolute power he might perform the work itself by himself, yet, as the course of things is, he will not deal alone, but will have the creature to be a doer together with him; by this means are neither the will nor yet God said to be the whole cause.
But, if it be referred to the effect itself, God and the will are the full cause; for God and the will make the whole effect, although they be joined together in action.
I will show the thing by an example: for bringing forth of an action, we have a will and an understanding, and our will maketh the whole effect, and our understanding is the cause of the whole effect; but the one is nigh, the other farther off.
And so it is of the will and of God; the will doth all, and God doth all; but one is the first cause, and the other is the second.
Peter Martyr’s Common Places [as quoted in Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)]
Nay, the cause of eternal reprobation is hidden, that we can do nothing else but admire the incomprehensible counsel and purpose of God, as the last clause of this chapter proves.
There is great folly in the conduct of such as endeavour to conceal this first cause, which is hidden from our sense and judgment, under the veil and pretext of near and most manifest causes, whenever allusion is made to them in conversation.
This implies that God had not freely determined and surely purposed concerning the whole human race before Adam’s fall according to the good pleasure of his will; for, in the first place, he condemns the vicious and depraved seed of our first parent, and, in the second, recompenses in a peculiar manner, according to their deserts, the crimes of every individual.
Calvin, John – Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans tr. Francis Sibson (1834)
Thus God has still a people from among the Israelites, Israel is not totally cast off; but “the rest” — those who are not included in the election — “were blinded, or hardened.”
The peculiar circumstances in which they were placed, as God’s chosen people — the predictions of the prophets respecting the reign of the Messiah — these, which were the work of God, misunderstood by the great body of the Jews in consequence of the carnality of their minds, blinded them, so that they could not see that Jesus Christ was the Messiah; or the heavenly and spiritual salvation offered in the Gospel, the glorious emancipation which they anticipated from Him.
God exercised no direct influence in blinding or hardening the unbelieving Jews. He left them, after clearly stating the truth to them, to the natural operation of their depraved hearts, in the circumstances in which they were placed; and the result was, they rejected His Messiah, and salvation through Him, and of course were rejected by Him.
Brown, John – Analytical exposition of the epistle of Paul the apostle to the Romans (1857)
