John Calvin Commentary Romans 9:27

"And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:" — Romans 9:27 (ASV)

And Isaiah exclaims, etc. He now proceeds to the second part, with which he was unwilling to begin, lest he should exasperate their minds too much. And it is not without a wise design that he presents Isaiah as exclaiming, not merely speaking, so that he might excite more attention.

But the Prophet's words were evidently intended to keep the Jews from glorying too much in the flesh, for it was a dreadful thing to hear that out of such a large multitude, only a small number would obtain salvation. For though the Prophet, after describing the devastation of the people, offered some remaining hope of favor—lest the faithful should think that God's covenant was wholly abolished—he nevertheless confined it to a few.

But as the Prophet predicted concerning his own time, let us see how Paul could rightly apply this to his purpose. It must be in this sense: when the Lord resolved to deliver His people from the Babylonian captivity, His purpose was that this benefit of deliverance would come to only a very few of that vast multitude. These could be described as the remnant of that destruction when compared with the great number whom He allowed to perish in exile.

Now, that temporal restoration was a type of the real renovation of the Church of God; indeed, it was only its commencement. Therefore, what happened then is now to be much more completely fulfilled as the very progress and completion of that deliverance.