John Calvin Commentary Romans 11:32

"For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all." — Romans 11:32 (ASV)

For God has shut up, etc. A remarkable conclusion, by which he shows that there is no reason why those who have a hope of salvation should despair of others; for whatever they may now be, they have been like all the rest. If they have emerged from unbelief through God’s mercy alone, they ought to leave room for it for others also. For he makes the Jews equal in guilt with the Gentiles, so that both might understand that the avenue to salvation is no less open to others than to them. For it is the mercy of God alone which saves, and this offers itself to both.

This sentence then corresponds with the testimony of Hosea, which he had before quoted, “I will call those my people who were not my people.” But he does not mean that God so blinds all men that their unbelief is to be imputed to him; rather, he has so arranged by his providence that all should be guilty of unbelief, so that he might have them subject to his judgment, and for this end—that all merits being buried, salvation might proceed from his goodness alone.

Paul then intends here to teach two things—that there is nothing in any man why he should be preferred to others, apart from the mere favor of God; and that God, in the dispensation of his grace, is under no restraint that would prevent him from granting it to whomever he pleases. There is an emphasis in the word mercy; for it intimates that God is bound to none, and that he therefore saves all freely, for they are all equally lost. But extremely gross is the folly of those who conclude from this that all shall be saved; for Paul simply means that both Jews and Gentiles obtain salvation only through the mercy of God, and thus he leaves no one any reason for complaint. It is indeed true that this mercy is offered to all without distinction, but everyone must seek it by faith.