Has God cast away His people?

The short answer Settled

"Certainly not!" That is Paul's own answer. Unbelief does not make God's faithfulness void. A remnant remains now, as in Elijah's day. Israel's stumble is not a final fall. And in the olive tree, Gentile believers are grafted in among the natural branches, which can be grafted in again.

Unbelief does not cancel God's faithfulness

Paul asks, "What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?" and answers, "Much in every way!" (Romans 3:1-2). Then he asks the question directly: "For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?" (Romans 3:3). His answer: "Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).

A remnant, as in Elijah's day

In Romans 11 Paul asks, "has God cast away His people? Certainly not!" (Romans 11:1). He says it again as a statement: "God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew" (Romans 11:2). His first piece of evidence is himself, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin.

His second is Elijah. Elijah thought he alone was left, but God answered, "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal" (Romans 11:4). Paul applies that pattern to his own day: "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace" (Romans 11:5). The rest were hardened (Romans 11:7). Judgment is real, but it falls on the rest; it does not erase the remnant by which Paul proves God has not cast away His people.

A stumble, not a fall

Paul asks, "have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not!" (Romans 11:11). Salvation has come to the Gentiles "to provoke them to jealousy" (Romans 11:11), which points back toward Israel, not away from it. He sets their present failure against their future: "how much more their fullness!" (Romans 11:12). And he asks, "what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" (Romans 11:15).

The olive tree

Paul pictures both peoples with one tree. Some natural branches were broken off, and Gentile believers, "being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them" (Romans 11:17). They were grafted in among the branches, not in their place, and they share the same root. So Paul warns them not to boast: "you do not support the root, but the root supports you" (Romans 11:18). The natural branches were broken off because of unbelief, "and you stand by faith" (Romans 11:20).

Then he says what can happen to the natural branches: "they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again" (Romans 11:23). He even calls it the more natural of the two: if a wild branch could be grafted in against nature, "how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?" (Romans 11:24).

The usual objection

The objection says Israel's rejection of Christ ended its standing as God's people. Individual Jews may still be saved, but only by joining the church, and the olive tree shows the church has permanently taken Israel's place.

Paul's own answers run the other way. He denies that God cast away His people, and he uses the remnant as proof of that denial, not as proof of replacement. In the olive tree, the wild branch stands among the natural branches by faith, on the same terms by which any branch stands, and Paul says the natural branches can be grafted in again.

The words behind it