RECONCILIATION AND DISPENSATIONAL TEACHING131

While it is blessedly true (and the revelation is a great comfort) that God does not hold one who has never heard

the gospel responsible for rejecting it (10:14,15), this is no refuge for Israel, for the apostle asks, `Have they not

heard?' and answers his own question by, `Yea, verily' (10:18). One of the reasons for the blessing of the Gentile

during this time is now revealed:

`... I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people (see the Gentile included by application in Hosea's

prophecy, Rom. 9:25,26), and by a foolish nation I will anger you' (Rom. 10:19).

Isaiah goes further and says:

`... I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me' (Rom. 10:20

see also 9:30).

The Lord's attitude to Israel, and Israel's attitude to the Lord, throughout this period are described in Romans

`... All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people'.

`Do I say then that God hath cast away His people?' asks Paul (11:1); `Let not my reasoning come to this' (me

genoito). Take my case as a blessed type. I am an Israelite; I withstood the gospel; I sought my own righteousness

by works of law: yet here I stand saved by grace. Saved in spite of my enmity; saved `because He had set His love

upon me'; saved as all Israel must be, because `the gifts and calling of God are without repentance' (11:29). In the

darkest days of the nation's history God has always reserved a company unto Himself:

`Even so at the time then present (i.e. before Acts 28. - not, this present time) also, there is a remnant according

to the election of grace' (11:5 Author's translation).

We have here resumed the theme of 9:11. This remnant of grace is a standing witness against salvation by works

`Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded'

Do we then argue that election means salvation for the few and damnation for the many? No! Election is God's

method of preparation. The elect remnant, instead of being a barrier to the whole, is a pledge of its future

blessedness, as surely as `first fruits' do not prevent but pledge the coming harvest. Here we get the key to the

mystery of the ages! Election purposes first; the remnant before the nation; the first fruit before the harvest; the

church before the world; those `ordained' to eternal life before the `whosoever will':

`For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches' (11:16).

Following upon this simile of root and branches comes the Gentile relationship to the stock of Israel, but before

going on to that subject we must notice the verses just before the one quoted above:

`Do I say then, Did they not stumble so that they might fall? Let not my reasoning come to this (me genoito);

but by their fall, salvation (has come) to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy. But if their fall be

the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak unto

you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office; if by any means I may

provoke to jealousy them which are my flesh and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be

THE RECONCILING OF A WORLD, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?' (11:11-15 Author's

Here the apostle links the setting aside of Israel with the reconciliation. Just as the nations were given up (Rom.

1 and Gen. 11) at the time when Israel was chosen as the one nation, so, as that one nation's privileges wane, the

Gentile nations are brought back again.

The apostle now proceeds to an illustration which further explains the provoking effect that the inclusion of the

Gentiles should have had upon Israel. Israel is likened to an olive tree, of which some of the branches had been

broken off. Into their place had been grafted, contrary to nature, scions cut out of a wild olive tree. It is the usual

practice in grafting fruit trees to graft the choice variety on to the wild stock, just as the special rose is grafted on to