Following the section about Christ as the end of the law (Romans 9:20–10:13), Paul first returned to the theme of the preceding passage, namely God’s mercy (Romans 9:14–29) in order to highlight how God’s mercy demands a response (Romans 10:14–21). Eventually he returns to what he had said at the beginning of this section of the letter, namely that the people of God had always been carried by the promises of God (Romans 9:6–13). He now proceeds to clarify that it is this promise that has always ensured and will always continue to ensure that there is a faithful remnant, and that this is the reason why God’s people have never ceased to exist (Romans 11:1–12), thereby also elucidating the place of the Gentile Christians in the church.
Paul had begun this section (Romans 9:1–11:36) by writing extensively concerning the problem that the people of Israel as a whole have not accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah and actively persecute his apostles. Now he explains the true nature of God’s people. From of old it was always constituted through promise rather than through birth (Romans 9:6–13). After that he spoke about God’s compassion (Romans 9:14–29 and Romans 10:14–21) wherein Christ is central (Romans 9:30–10:13). Finally, he returns to the promise, emphasising its enduring and hopeful power in particular (Romans 11:1–12). In light of the history of this people, Israel’s present unbelief is actually not as strange as Gentile Christians perhaps would have thought. However, in the light of God’s promise it is also less definitive that Gentile Christians perhaps feared it might have been. Therefore, in Romans 11:13–23 Paul incites his Gentile to collaborate in his project of saving some of his own people from the nation of Israel.
Yet the question remains: has the future of Israel not become hopeless because they rejected the Messiah? Paul continues to address this in Romans 11:23–32, where he highlights not only God’s power, but also his mercy with respect to the Jews. God not only has the power to bring Jews to faith, but there is actually still reason to expect him to do so. Or will God no longer use his power for the salvation of Jews? This question demands a clear answer for the sake of Paul’s plans for the mission among the Gentiles. If he wants to mobilize the Gentile Christians to win back unbelieving Jews, it is important for them to know whether the plan is actually realistic—certainly that it is more than simply some nostalgic pipe dream of Paul. Paul addresses this question in Romans 11:25–32, although in a certain sense this passage contains nothing new. It concludes in Romans 11:30–31 with a renewed expression of compassion over Israel, which Paul had also already written about in Romans 11:23–24 by means of employing the image of the re-engrafting into the tree. Yet now the apostle stimulates the readers to truly embrace this future possibility as a real point of departure, by pointing them to God’s strategy of compassion (Romans 11:25–27, Romans 11:32).
The most important aspect of the concluding doxology in Romans 11:33–36 is that, in the Messiah, Israel has a future Saviour. When Christ returns, he will bring the elect from the four corners of the earth together (Matthew 24:31). The Jerusalem from heaven therefore becomes the new focus. The names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel are inscribed on it twelve gates (Revelation 21:12). Looked at from Rome’s point of view, the Jewish nation of that time was largely insignificant and it seemed to have been altogether left behind now that the servants of the Lord are being recruited from among the Gentiles. Yet the mystery is that in this very process Israel is actually being delivered from all its unrighteousness.1
1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.