John Calvin Commentary Romans 11:11

"I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation [is come] unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy." — Romans 11:11 (ASV)

Have they stumbled, etc. You will be greatly hindered in understanding this argument unless you notice that the Apostle speaks sometimes of the whole nation of the Jews and sometimes of single individuals. For from this arises the diversity: at one time he speaks of the Jews as being banished from the kingdom of God, cut off from the tree, and cast by God’s judgment into destruction; and at another time, he denies that they had fallen from grace, but asserts that, on the contrary, they continued in the possession of the covenant and had a place in the Church of God.

It is, then, in conformity with this distinction that he now speaks. For since the Jews mostly rejected Christ, so that perverseness had taken hold of almost the whole nation and few among them seemed to be of a sound mind, he asks the question whether the Jewish nation had so stumbled at Christ that it was completely over for them universally, and that no hope of repentance remained.

Here he justly denies that the salvation of the Jews should be despaired of, or that they were so rejected by God that there was to be no future restoration, or that the covenant of grace, which he had once made with them, was entirely abolished, since there had always remained in that nation the seed of blessing.

That we are to understand his meaning in this way is evident from this: having previously connected sure ruin with blindness, he now gives a hope of rising again, which are two completely different things. Those, then, who perversely stumbled at Christ, fell and fell into destruction; yet the nation itself had not fallen, so that a Jew must necessarily perish or be alienated from God.

But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, etc. The Apostle asserts two things in this place: first, that the fall of the Jews had resulted in salvation for the Gentiles; and second, that this was intended to arouse them to a kind of jealousy and thus lead them to repentance.

He undoubtedly had in mind the testimony of Moses, which he had already quoted, where the Lord threatened Israel that, just as he had been provoked by them to emulation through their false gods, so he also, according to the law of retaliation, would provoke them by a foolish nation.

The word used here denotes the feeling of emulation or jealousy by which we are stirred when we see another preferred over us. Since, then, it was the Lord’s purpose that Israel should be provoked to emulation, they had not fallen so far as to be plunged into eternal ruin. Instead, God’s blessing, despised by them, was to come to the Gentiles, so that they too might eventually be stirred up to seek the Lord, from whom they had fallen away.

But there is no reason for readers to weary themselves much about the application of this testimony, for Paul does not dwell on the strict meaning of the word but alludes only to a common and well-known practice. For just as emulation (or jealousy) stimulates a wife who, for her fault, has been rejected by her husband, so that she strives to be reconciled, so it may be now, he says, that the Jews, seeing the Gentiles introduced into their place, will be touched by grief for their divorce and seek reconciliation.