The eminent biblical scholar I. Howard Marshall writes,
“We now turn to Romans 9-11. The general theme of this section of the Epistle is the problem of Israel’s unbelief (Romans 9:1-5). In the course of Paul’s grappling with this tremendous problem of theodicy, he makes clear that it is Israel which has rejected God and not God who has rejected Israel (Rom 9:6-29); that in so far as God has rejected Israel it is because Israel has sought Him by the way of works of the law instead of by the righteousness of faith (Romans 9:30-10:21); and that in the future when the full number of Gentiles have been saved then Israel as a whole will also be saved (Romans 11:1-36).
It is clear throughout this section that Paul teaches the fact of a special predestination or election of the people of Israel to salvation, but it is equally clear that this predestination by no means guarantees the salvation of every Israelite or even of all who hear the Gospel and respond to it.
Looking at the salient facts in more detail we note, first, that although God chose Israel as His people this did not mean that the nation as a whole accepted his grace. Many failed to attain salvation. On the other hand, the fact that God had hardened the nation did not prevent Paul from praying for Israel to be saved and seeking to win Israelites through jealousy of God’s mercy shown to the Gentiles (Romans 10:1; 11:13); the hardening was only ‘in part’ (Romans 11:25). The fact of a divine decree did not rule out either of these possibilities.
Second, the reason why Israel failed to obtain salvation was not that God had rejected them. It is true that he did bring a spirit of hardness upon the people, but this was because they themselves had rejected salvation by seeking it in the wrong way. This misguided zeal for the works of the law was not something predestined by God. What God had done was to send the good news of salvation by faith to Israel, but Israel had failed to obey it.”[1]
Note that Marshall observes that, “This misguided zeal for the works of the law was not something predestined by God.” Given the universal divine causal determinism of Calvinism, Israel’s sins and present unbelief would have been predestined and caused by God, for in Calvinism all things are preordained by God and therefore logically caused by him. That is to say that persons are not the cause of their thoughts and actions, whether good or evil, in the sense required by libertarian freedom. Marshall’s point is important because it shows the absurdity of Calvinism. It is absurd to believe that God is judging and hardening Israel for rejecting God and Jesus, and for their disobedience and unbelief, along with their pursuit of righteousness through the law, when God himself predetermined and caused them to commit these sins. Marshall continues,
“Third, we note that Paul’s doctrine of the grafting in of the Gentiles contains a warning lest the Gentiles be cut off because of unbelief. They stand fast only because of faith, and if they become boastful and cease to rely on faith they will be cut off as Israel was cut off because of unbelief.”[2]
Note the one thing that is central to the relationship between Israel, the Gentiles, and God; it is the response of faith. Faith is presented as the only appropriate response to God’s promises and salvation in Christ because it is the God-ordained condition for salvation. It demonstrates trust and reliance on God alone. This is the only appropriate response of a creature to his Creator. As such, individual sinners are always depicted as ‘response-able’ or responsible for the way they react to God’s revelation of himself throughout the Old Testament and now to the salvation wrought in Christ Jesus in the new covenant. Marshall continues,
“…Two points might be raised in opposition to the line of thought which has just been suggested. Does not the phrase which speaks about the ‘remnant chosen by grace’ (Romans 11:15, cf. 7) imply that God chooses certain people for salvation apart from the question of their response to the Gospel? In other words, does He predetermine their response? This is surely a wrong inference. No doubt divine election does not rest on human merit or upon divine foreknowledge of human merit, but this is not to say that human response is predetermined by God. Grace was shown to a number of Israelites and they accepted it and so joined the company of the elect, but it is never said that their response was predetermined by God, or that the offer of God’s grace was limited to the number of those who actually responded to it.[3]
The second point that arises is whether Paul’s revelation that ‘all Israel will be saved’ (Romans 11:26) does not imply a divine predestination which would cause every Israelite to respond to the Gospel. May it not even be that a doctrine of universal acceptance of the Gospel is enunciated here? We must observe, however, that, as has been frequently pointed out, Paul is thinking here of the nation rather than of the complete total of individuals who compose it. In the Rabbinic literature references to the salvation of ‘all Israel’ always excluded certain classes of men who have sinned beyond recovery, and we may safely assume that Paul would have made a similar qualification. The fact that Paul is prepared to limit Israel in Romans – 9:6 ‘not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel’ – may be held to show that a limitation is implicit here also. Above all, the statement in Romans 11:32 that ‘God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all’ cannot be read as an unqualified assertion of universalism or of the ultimate predestination of all to salvation; it must unquestionably be understood in the light of the parallel in Galatians 3:22: ‘The Scripture consigned all things to sin, that what was promised to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe,’ where the need for faith is explicitly stated. There is no reason to suppose that election excludes the need for faith or that election automatically produces faith.
We conclude that Romans 9-11 does not teach divine predestination which guarantees final salvation to those who respond to the Gospel. On the contrary, side by side with the stress on the divine initiative in election and salvation there is a warning to show awe in the sight of God lest anyone should be cut off for failing to continue in His kindness.”[4]
Return to Chapter 16 – The Doctrine of Election According to Scripture
Footnotes
[1] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 3rd ed. (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), 103-104.
[2] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 104.
[3] What has been said above applies to the New Testament as a whole. In no case, except where divine ‘hardening’ is the penalty for sin, is human response to the Gospel due to divine predetermination. Faith is a response to the Gospel, not the result of divine causation.
[4] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 104-105.
The Truth of the Gospel 