Romans 11:7

What then? What conclusion is to be drawn from the truths just stated? Since God has not cast away His people Israel, what exactly is their position? Paul now shows that the statement of ch. 9:31 must be understood to mean that, while it is true that Israel as a nation has failed to reach its aim, nevertheless the failure is not total. A part of Israel, the elect, have succeeded.

Obtained. Gr. epitugchand, “to hit the mark,” hence, “to attain to,” “to obtain.”

Seeketh for. The present tense indicates that the search is still in progress. Israel, as a people, have been and still are seeking after righteousness, the very thing they have failed to obtain. The object of Israel’s search, together with the fact that they were seeking for it in the wrong way, has already been explained in chs. 9:31, 32; 10:2, 3. The basic principle asserted in these passages has been emphatically repeated in ch. 11:6.

The election. That is, those who have been elected. Compare the expression, “the circumcision,” meaning those who have been circumcised (chs. 3:30; 4:9). Paul is stressing the fact that those who are saved owe their position entirely to God’s grace and election.

Were blinded. Gr. porod, “to harden,” “to become callous,” “to become insensible” (cf. 2 Cor. 3:14). The OT quotation in Rom. 11:8 speaks of God as the One responsible for the hardening. In the nontechnical language of the Bible, God is often said to do that which He does not prevent (see on 2 Chron. 18:18).

It has thus been made clear that the believing Jews, like the believing Gentiles, are saved only by grace (Rom. 11:6; cf. Eph. 2:8). As for the rest of Israel, they have been hardened, not because God has cast them away, for He has not (Rom. 11:1,2), but because they have sought to establish their own righteousness by their own works and have not submitted to the righteousness of God (ch. 10:3).