11:3. Others before Paul have been frustrated with the lack of response in Israel.
11:4. God has reserve believers that we don't know about; that Israel didn't know about. Their existence is not due to works, which doesn't get anywhere (v5).
11:8. So the elect believe, and recognize their unbelief, but the others just harden because they can't get credit. This thought will show again in 25 as the permanent condition of Israel, which he had already expressed back in 9:7.
11:9. All we know of David in Romans is that he knows what forgiveness for sins is, and here, that nothing can be done about the hardened. Almost (v12). If they don't persist in unbelief, they can thrive.
11:26. So the humble remnant will be saved; Israel's hardness is not a surprise that has God stumped. The Isaiah quote is historic and fulfilled, the new covenant that took away sins. All this business is wrapped up as the "nows" and past tenses of v32 show.
11:35. God is not obligated by human "payment"--this is a theme that goes as far back as Job.
Again we notice that this wresting of scripture required the writer to omit everything from verse 10 to verse 25.
But what did the Holy Spirit say in this section?
I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Romans 11:11-15)
How much more clearly could the Holy Spirit have stated this? They were not caused to stumble that they should fall, but to provoke them to jealousy. We have already noticed that this act of provoking to jealousy is an act designed to restore a relationship, not an act of final rejection. So the Apostle Paul was earnest in his ministry in hopes of provoking jealousy in those who are my flesh, in hopes of saving some of them. But these statements are interspersed with two others of even greater significance. These are, Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! and For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? These last two statements highlight two things. First, they both refer to Israels future acceptance, and second, they answer the unbelieving complaint that preferring Israel in a future day would be unjust. God here is stressing that when Israel is finally once again accepted, it will be such blessing for the Gentiles as to seem as if they had risen from the dead.
The Holy Spirit now begins a solemn warning to those that He knew would in a future day deny this wonderful truth. For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. (Romans 11:16-22)
This is not just an idle threat. When we study the history of the church, we find that at about the same time as the essentially universal acceptance of the doctrine that Israel was permanently set aside, the church also lost the essential doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. This was the beginning of what we call the dark ages, a period of well over thousand years in which the church taught salvation by works, not by faith. Indeed, they were cut off the tree of blessing, even as these ancient Jews had been. For it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. (Titus 3:5)
But after this warning, the Holy Spirit continues with his subject, saying, And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? (Romans 11:23-25) Here God stresses his ability to graft these, the natural branches, back into their own olive tree. Many have stressed the application of this principle to individual Jews in the present day. And that application is both true and appropriate, for today God will graft any believing Jew back into that olive tree of blessing. But that is not the only correct application of this promise.
The promise has a condition attached to it. That condition is if they do not continue in unbelief. God has explicitly promised that if Israel does not continue in unbelief, He will graft them back into their own olive tree. This promise is indeed conditional, and thus will not be kept unless Israel indeed does not continue in unbelief. But if that is the case, how can God have so explicitly promised their eventual restoration in so many places? It is because He, who declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) Has already told us, in no uncertain language, that in a future day they will indeed not continue in unbelief. We have already noticed two scriptures about this, that in a coming day he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holyeveryone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:3) and No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. (Jeremiah 31:34) But now we need to notice several others.
The repentance that will bring about this state is explicitly described in Zechariah 12:10-14, saying,
I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
We have already noticed Isaiah 1:9, where we read, Unless the Lord of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like Sodom, We would have been made like Gomorrah. Those who repent in the way we have just seen will indeed be only a very small remnant, for this will only take place after it shall come to pass in all the land, Says the Lord, That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it: I will bring the one-third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. (Zechariah 13:8-9a) Some have quite incorrectly pretended that this speaks of the time of the time of Titus, when he was used by God to destroy guilty Judea. But there is no way to even pretend that at that time two-thirds of all those in the land died, and all the rest became believers as described in the rest of this passage in the words, They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, This is My people; And each one will say, The Lord is my God. (Zechariah 13:9b)
The prophesied repentance will also be after the time of which we read that As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead My case with you face to face. Just as I pleaded My case with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead My case with you, says the Lord GOD. 'I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; I will purge the rebels from among you, and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the country where they dwell, but they shall not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord. (Ezekiel 20:33-38)
So the God who cannot lie has told us that He will bring Israel through a time of intense trouble that will kill a full two-thirds of them, and even after that He will personally purge out all the rebels from their midst. Then, after that time, they will truly repent and turn to him with their whole hearts. Anyone who denies that this will indeed happen is denying explicitly stated scripture.