Romans 11:15

Romans 11:15. For introduces the reason for Romans 11:13-14; his labor was in view of the more blessed results indicated in the close of this verse.

The casting away of them, i.e. , the exclusion of the Jews through their unbelief, analogous to, but not precisely identical with, ‘diminishing'(Romans 11:12).

Is the reconciliation of the world. Their unbelief occasioned the preaching of ‘reconciliation' (comp. chap. Romans 5:11) to the Gentiles; many Gentiles were actually reconciled to God, and this was the token of the design and adaptation of the Gospel for the whole world.

What shall the receiving of them be. The reception to salvation of the Jewish nation as a whole; comp. Romans 11:12, where the numerical phase of the comparison is brought out. That they would be thus received, is the leading thought of the entire chapter.

But (lit., ‘if not') life from the dead. Evidently the Apostle has in mind something beyond ‘the reconciliation of the world,' some greater blessing than the gradual conversion of the Gentiles through the gospel, and this he terms ‘life from the dead.' Explanations: (1.) The literal view: the resurrection from the dead will follow the conversion of Israel. This view has been held by many commentators, both ancient and modern, but with various modifications. Some add to this view speculations of which the Apostle, here at least, gives no hint whatever. Objections: (a.) The use of ‘life' not ‘resurrection;' the former word often having a wide significance; (b.) the absence of the article before ‘life,' which is strange if Paul meant to indicate an event, to which he so often refers; (c.) the lack of evidence from other passages of Scripture that the resurrection will immediately follow the conversion of the Jews. The latter event may be closely connected with the final acts of the present dispensation, but prophecy seems to point to other events as intervening. Meyer and others meet some of these objections by including the life which follows the resurrection as its blessed consequence. (2.) The figurative explanation refers the phrase to a new spiritual life which will be introduced by the conversion of the Jews. To this it may be objected, (a.) that it presents no further thought than the previous ‘reconciliation;' (b.) that the language of the remainder of the verse is literal; (c.) that the upholders of this view are not agreed as to what the new and surprising spiritual blessing is, which thus surpasses the present effects of the gospel. These objections, however, do not seem to us so weighty as those to the preceding view. New Testament prophecy does not as yet demand specific interpretation. That a figurative expression might occur here scarcely needs proof. Godet, in accordance with his view of Romans 11:13, applies this phrase to the blessedness of Gentile Christendom in consequence of the conversion of Israel, while others limit it to the Jews themselves. We prefer the wide reference to the entire body of believers. To combine the two views seems improper, as Meyer affirms, yet his own explanation scarcely differs from a combination of the literal and figurative interpretations.