A Remnant

Daily Reading: Romans 11

 Has God rejected his people?  By no means…   At the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace…  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11.1a, 5, 29)

Devotional Thought: God is true to his Word.  While ethnic Israel had rejected God, God had not rejected them.  In chapter 9, Paul had shown that being “children of the flesh” of Abraham did not guarantee salvation – for it was only “through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”  But here in chapter 11, Paul’s goal is to demonstrate that God, through the remnant of Israel, has not pushed Israel aside.  How could he?  His gift and calling are irrevocable!

Does that mean every person born of the line of Israel will be saved?  Hardly.  His gift and calling are irrevocable, not irresistible.  Under the Old Covenant, there were those who resisted grace, who rejected God, who refused to live according to the righteous requirements of the Law.  Now, Paul observed, under the New Covenant, there are still those ethnic Israelites who resist grace, who reject God, and who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  But Paul does not give up hope in Israel.  Far from it!  He sees that faithful, believing Israelites can be “grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.”

In the time of Elijah, God said, “I have kept for myself seven thousand…”  Paul applied that to his day when he said, “So, too, at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.” What does that mean to us?  Simply this: whether we are Jew or Gentile, we are all offered the gift of salvation; we are all called by grace to be part of the “all Israel” that will be saved, the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6.16).

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”

Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, for the depth and riches of your wisdom and knowledge.  Your plan of salvation encompasses all people.  By faith, I receive that salvation and so join the remnant chosen by grace!  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 22.6-11

6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;

8 “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him! ”

9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.

10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.