For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
For if the casting away of them. The apostle had denied that they were cast away (Romans 11:1), and here he affirms it; but both are true. They were cast away, though neither totally nor finally; and it is of this partial and temporary rejection that the apostle is speaking.
Be the reconciling of the (Gentile) world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? It is surely very strained to explain this of the literal resurrection, as most modern critics, following some of the fathers, do; but to take it as a mere proverbial expression for the highest felicity (as Grotius, etc.) is far too loose. The meaning seems to be, that the reception of the whole family of Israel, scattered as they are among all nations under heaven, and the most inveterate enemies of the Lord Jesus, will be such a stupendous manifestation of the power of God upon the spirits of men, and of His glorious presence with the heralds of the Cross, as will not only kindle devout astonishment far and wide, but so change the dominant mode of thinking and feeling on all spiritual things as to seem like a resurrection from the dead.