They are enemies for your sakes— Enemies signify strangers, or aliens; that is to say, such as are no longer to be the peculiar people of God: for they are called enemies, in opposition to beloved in this verse; and the reason given why they are enemies, makes it plain that this is the sense; namely, for the Gentiles' sake: that is, "they are rejected from being the peculiar people of God, that you Gentiles may be taken in to be the people of God in their room," Romans 11:30. Enemies has the same signification, ch. Romans 5:10. As concerning the Gospel, enemies: that is, all those who not embracingthe Gospel, not receiving Christ for their king and Lord, are aliens from the kingdom of God;—and all such aliens are called enemies: and so indeed were the Jews now; yet they were, as touching the election, beloved; that is, not actually within the kingdom of the Messiah, his people, but within the election which God had made of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their posterity, to be his people; and so God had still intentions of kindness to them, for their fathers' sakes, to make them again his people. The election is the same with that mentioned Romans 11:5 and ch. Romans 9:11. Therefore the unbelieving Jews were not so cast off, as to be intirely deprived of the favour of God in a national sense; agreeably to what he had long before declared, Leviticus 26:44-45, Deuteronomy 4:31. This clearly shews the nature of that election, concerning which the Apostle discourses in this and the two fore-going Chapter s. See Locke, and on ch. Romans 5:11.
Related Commentaries of Romans 11:28
Romans 11:28
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.