Useful Bible Studies > Romans Commentary > chapter 11
Paul does not mean that none of Israel’s people were obeying God. Rather, he is describing the present age (the period from Christ’s death until his return) by the most important things that are happening. That is, these are the most important in God’s opinion. People’s opinion about what is most important differs much from God’s opinion.
In fact, many of the Jews (Israel’s people) were serving God loyally, and from them came the first Christians. However, at the present time, most of the Jews are behaving in the same way as most people in other nations. They are not obeying God, although God is eager to show them his mercy. In other words, because of his great kindness, he wants to help them.
At this time when many Jews are not accepting God’s mercy, he is showing mercy to people from other nations. However, by that act he is not neglecting the Jews; he has not forgotten his promises to them (for example, Jeremiah 31:31-37). Rather, God wants them to see his great love for the people from other nations. He wants the Jews to desire that love for themselves (11:11). Then they too will turn back to God (Zechariah 12:10 to 13:1). God will forgive them and so they too will receive God’s mercy (11:26-28).
That will bring about a truly wonderful event in the world’s history (11:12-15). As Christians have prayed for so long (Matthew 6:10), Christ will return to rule the world (Revelation 20:4-6). His rule will be completely good and right in every way (Isaiah 32:1), and the world will know peace (Isaiah 11:1-9).
Next part: The mercy that God offers to all people (Romans 11:32)
Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.
© 2022, Keith Simons.