I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
The scope of this chapter is to explain the present condition, and open up the future prospects of Israel; and the sum of it is, that although God might seem to have cast off His covenant-people, this rejection was neither total nor final: not total, for even now there is a chosen remnant, that have believed through grace; not final, for a time is coming when all Israel shall be saved.
First: Even Now, Israel is Not WHOLLY Rejected (Romans 11:1-10)
I say then, Hath ('Did') God cast away his people? God forbid. Our Lord did indeed announce that 'the kingdom of God should be taken from Israel' (Matthew 21:41); and when asked by the Eleven, after His resurrection, if He would at that time "restore the kingdom to Israel," His reply is a virtual admission that Israel was in some sense already out of covenant (Acts 1:9). Yet here the apostle teaches that, in two respects, Israel was not "cast away." First, Israel is not wholly cast away.
For I also am an Israelite (see Philippians 3:5) - and so a living witness to the contrary;
Of the seed of Abraham - of pure descent from the father of the faithful;
Of the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5) - that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted, with Judah, the one faithful kingdom of God (1 Kings 12:21), and after the captivity was, along with Judah, the kernel of the Jewish nation (Ezra 4:1; Ezra 10:9).