Romans 11:29

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_11:29-32

The unchangeableness of God’s attitude towards men.—It is difficult to comprehend that, while change and decay are recognised everywhere in men and in nature, these should not have any place with God. Our preconceived notions lead us to expect shifting policies. But in these points natural and spiritual law are unlike, whatever other harmony there may be. One truth is always before us concerning God—He changes not.

I. God’s intentions towards men are unchangeable.—I. This is shown by the fact that, notwithstanding men’s unfaithfulness, He does not repent of His gifts and promises. Yet some say God has repented—e.g., Gen_6:6, where He repented that He had made man. In reality this only points out man’s limitation. He cannot think of God save as a magnified man, with man’s methods of thought and action. The true explanation of this is that God’s visible procedure towards man was altered. From being longsuffering and merciful He was about to show Himself a God of judgment. It is easy to conceive God’s grief that the mercy had so little effect and that judgment was called for. But, in point of fact, God’s feelings towards men were unchanged. It was simply a change in the method of treatment, but pointing to the same gracious end. A father, e.g., has the welfare of his child at heart. Kind treatment failing, he brings strong discipline to bear. So it is with a nation and the troublesome subjects. So it was with God in the treatment of man.

2. But if there be apparent change, it is in detail, not in purpose. “Changes take place above and around the fortress, but its massive buttresses still stand unmoved, and its battlements frown defiance at the strength of the foe.” Such is the parallel to God’s purpose concerning men. “He willeth not the death of a sinner,” etc. Since mercy will not keep the sinner in the path of righteousness, another method is pursued.

3. God may choose others, and not lose His first love—e.g., He turned to the Gentiles and called them; but He did not thereby lose His regard for the Jews. There was still the gracious plan for their redemption. Even when they passed into mischief and sorrow, and the Gentiles were invited to participate in redemption, He still was saying, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” God’s heart too large only to have love for a Jew or a portion.

4. Apparent cruelty was in reality kindness. “Is error to be immortal because its eradication is painful? Is the mandrake to grow because its roots shriek when they are torn out of the ground?”

II. Only pure perversity can cause a sinner’s loss.—It is not God who changes, but the sinner who refuses. It is the grace of God which gives the Gentiles salvation, and only rebellious resistance to that grace which excludes the Jews. This suggests man’s freedom of action. He is no victim of fate. He may choose his attitude towards God, and may submit and serve, or be defiant. The rejection of the Jews was the natural result of their own obstinacy and hardness—not the result of a blind, hard fate against which they were powerless.

III. In spite of man’s wilfulness God has unchangeably adhered to His scheme of mercy.—“God’s gifts and calling admit of no revocation. Once given, they are given for ever.” The question is, Do we reject them? God’s constancy to His purposes shows:

1. The amplitude of His love—mercy offered to those who by no means deserved it.

2. Man, when lost, has been his own worst enemy, by having refused the offers of mercy.

3. The vastness of our debt to Him who decreed our salvation. While sin is universal, God’s love is equally unlimited; it traverses the whole range of sin. What is our response? The question may come to us, How much owest thou unto thy Lord? The difficulty is to answer how much; for the mercy we have received is so vast, so boundless, so undeserved—it is so much a gift of God’s free grace, large, unmerited, and free! We may not say less than this,—

“Here, Lord, I yield myself to Thee!

’Tis all that I can do.”

Albert Lee.

Rom_11:29-32. Temporal restoration not. promised.—There is nothing in this passage pointing to a temporal restoration of the Jewish nation, or to an Israelitish monarchy having its seat in Palestine. The apostle speaks only of a spiritual restoration by means of a general pardon and the outpouring of the graces which shall flow from it. Will there be a political restoration connected with this general conversion of the people? Or will it not even precede the latter? Will not the principle of the reconstitution of races, which in our day has produced Italian unity, German unity, and which is tending to the unity of the Slavs, also bring about Israelitish unity? These questions do not belong to exegesis, which confines itself to establishing these two things:

1. That, according to apostolical revelation, Israel will be converted in a body;

2. That this event will be the signal of an indescribable spiritual commotion throughout the whole Church. As Nielsen says: “Divine impartiality, after having been temporarily veiled by two opposite particularisms, shines forth in the final universalism which embraces in a common salvation all those whom these great judgments have successively humbled and abased.” There is therefore no inference to be drawn from this passage in favour of a final universal salvation (De Wette, Farrar, and so many others), or even of a determinist system, in virtue of which human liberty would be nothing more in the eyes of the apostle than a form of divine action. St. Paul teaches only one thing here-—that at the close of the history of mankind on this earth there will be an economy of grace in which salvation will be extended to the totality of the nations living here below, and that this magnificent result will be the effect of the humiliating dispensations through which the two halves of mankind shall have successively passed. The apostle had begun this vast exposition of salvation with the fact of universal condemnation; he closes it with that of universal mercy. What could remain to him thereafter but to strike the hymn of adoration and praise?—Godet.

Rom_11:29. Persistence of the divine gifts.—St. Paul having shown that the rejection of Israel was only partial, he next shows that it was only temporary—that God had not done with His people yet, but that they had still a great part to play in the spiritual history of the future.

I. The gifts of God are without repentance.—These two words, “without repentance,” are the translation of one word, and that one word occurs only twice in the New Testament,—here, and in the passage where the apostle, contrasting godly sorrow with the sorrow of the world, says that “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of”—that is to say, such repentance is followed by no regret; no man is ever sorry that he has repented of his sins. In like manner God’s gifts, once bestowed, are not lightly recalled. Freely given, they are steadily continued from age to age—they are “without repentance”; even when misused and neglected, they are made in some way to work out the gracious purpose of Heaven. This is true of His commonest gifts of all. The word translated “gifts” is one almost entirely peculiar to the apostle in the New Testament, and is used by him in the sense of an endowment of power. It is analogous to what we say ourselves when we speak of the gift of the poet or the musician, of the orator or the artist, meaning thereby special aptitude or faculty for doing something. In the passage before us St. Paul is speaking of a special endowment of power bestowed upon a nation; for a nation may be specially gifted as well as a man. It was theirs, by means of super natural revelation through prophet and seer, to minister to the God-consciousness of the human soul, to deal with the conscience and the religious life. “The spiritual thirst of mankind has for ages been quenched at Hebrew fountains” the profoundest thoughts of God and of His righteousness to be found anywhere in the world, the clearest and most fruitful ideas of His nature, His moral government, and His personal relations to the souls of men, have come to us from them. In modern days, as in ancient, God’s gifts have been steadily persistent, without repentance and without recall. We thank God for harvests and fruitful seasons; let us also thank Him for men who have pioneered our way to nobler realms of thought, for men who have spoken burning words of conviction to the national conscience, for men who have grappled with great social wrongs and done battle with injustice, for men who have helped to make vivid to us the spiritual world and our own personal responsibility to the God of our life. Nor must we think only of great men and great gifts. The humblest man you meet has his own proper gift of God. But we must not stop at the intellectual and practical gifts which God bestows upon men. In the spiritual region, as in the intellectual, each hath his own proper gift of that God who divides to every man severally as He will. The grasp of faith, the intensity of love, the power of sympathy, vary. This gift of the Spirit is the gift of God Himself, as an indwelling, ennobling, and sanctifying power to His creature.

II. The words before us speak of the call of God as well as of the gifts of God; and the call, equally with the gift, is without repentance.—God’s call takes various forms. This, which is true of nations, is true also on a smaller scale of our own personal lives. There are times when God breaks up a man’s surroundings and sends him forth to new scenes and circumstances, that He may make more of the man himself. The call of God may take another form—that of summoning us to special acts of service. The men who have made the noblest sacrifices and done the noblest work have been those who have heard most clearly the call of God in their souls, and have felt most surely that He gave them their work to do. When God gives us work to do, He gives power to do it; power comes upon us as we go. Finally, the call of God to some men is a call to break away from a sinful, godless life. Such calls come at times even to the worst of men. In other ways, too, the call comes. It comes sometimes in the shape of personal trouble sweeping down upon the man’s life. Perhaps he has been trying to make his life complete without God, trying to make his paradise here instead of yonder. And it may be that he seemed to succeed for a while; but only for a while. For changes come. The shadow fell where the love dwelt; there was a vacant chair, and when that chair became vacant the light of the house seemed to go out, and in the silence and desolation which followed God’s voice was heard calling the stricken heart to its true home and its true rest.—John Brown, D.D,

God’s conduct in the salvation of mankind.—This is the conclusion of the argument which Paul had pursued in regard to God’s conduct in the salvation of mankind. He seems to be overwhelmed with the sense of its unsearchableness. In many things do the depths of God’s wisdom and knowledge in man’s spiritual restoration appear. We remark five things:—

I. The manifestation of His righteousness in the restoration of rebels.—Human monarchs have shown their justice in crushing rebels, but God in restoring them.

II. The destruction of the spirit of rebellion in the restoration of rebels.—Human monarchs may deliver rebels, but they cannot destroy the spirit of rebellion. God does this.

III. The augmentation of the force of moral government in the restoration of rebels.—Human monarchs may weaken their government by saving rebels, but God strengthens the force of His moral administration by redeeming transgressors.

IV. The promotion of all the rights of His subjects in the restoration of rebels.—Human monarchs by delivering rebels endanger the rights of loyal citizens. God in the restoration of rebels promotes the rights of all. “O the depth of the riches,” etc.

V. The election of earth instead of hell as the scene for the restoration of rebels.—Homilist.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11

Rom_11:28-32. Providence always at work.—God’s work of providence is “His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all His creatures and all their actions.” It has no Sabbath, no night suspends it, and from its labours God never rests. If, for the sake of illustration, I may compare small things with great, it is like the motion of the heart. Beating our march to the grave since the day we began to live, the heart has never ceased to beat. Our limbs grow weary; not it. We sleep; it never sleeps. Needing no period of repose to recruit its strength, by night and day it throbs in every pulse, and constantly supplying nourishment to the meanest as well as to the noblest organs of our frame, with measured, steady, untired stroke, it drives the blood along the bounding arteries without any exercise of will on our part, and even when the consciousness of our own existence is lost in dreamless slumber.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 11:29. Ἀμεταμέλητα, without repentance) Truly an apostolic axiom. Something absolute is signified; for God will not give way to the unbelief of His own people [so as to suffer it to continue] for ever. Repentance is hid from the eyes of the Lord [i.e. change of His purpose, as to raising Israel from its present spiritual ‘death,’ is impossible with God], Hos 13:14.—χαρίσματα, gifts) towards the Jews.—κλῆσις, calling) towards the Gentiles.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:29. Confirmation of the second half of Rom_11:28 by the axiom: Unrepented, and so subject to no recall, are the displays of grace and (especially) the calling of God. The application to be made of this general proposition is: Consequently God, who has once made this people the recipient of the displays of His grace and has called them to the Messianic salvation, will not, as though He had repented of this, again withdraw His grace from Israel, and leave and abandon His calling of Israel without realization.

On ἀμεταμέλητος, comp. 2Co_7:10.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 11:29 . Proof that the Israelites, in virtue of their relation to the fathers, are objects of God’s love. ἀμεταμέλητα cf. 2Co 7:10 : it may mean either what is not or what cannot be repented of: here the latter. God’s gifts of grace, and His calling, are things upon which there is no going back. The χαρίσματα are not the moral and intellectual qualifications with which Israel was endowed for its mission in the world (Godet), but the privileges of grace enumerated in chap. Rom 9:4 f. Neither is the κλῆσις of God a “calling” in the modern sense of a vocation or career assigned to any one by Him; it is His authoritative invitation to a part in the Messianic kingdom. From Israel these things can never be withdrawn.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:29

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance; τὰ χαρίσματα καὶ ἡ κλῆσις, the gifts of God in general, and specially the calling of God. Compare Mar_16:7. God is not a man, that he should change. Having chosen the Jews as his people, the purpose which he had in view in that choice can never be altered; and as it was his purpose that they should ever remain his people, their future restoration to his favor and kingdom is certain. Having previously explained the nature of Gods covenant with his ancient people, Paul infers from the divine character, that it will be fully accomplished. Calling is equivalent to election, as appears from the context, the one word being substituted for the other, and also from the use of the cognate terms, (see Rom_8:28, Rom_1:7, etc., etc.) The general proposition of the apostle, therefore, is, that the purposes of God are unchangeable; and, consequently, those whom God has chosen for any special benefit cannot fail to attain it. The persons whom he hath chosen to eternal life shall certainly be saved; and the people whom he chooses to be his peculiar people, as the Jews were chosen in Abraham, must for ever remain his people. The purpose once formed, and the promise once given, never can be changed. As in the whole context Paul is speaking, not of individuals, but of the rejection and restoration of the Jews as a body, it is evident that the calling and election which he here has in view, are such as pertain to the Jews as a nation, and not such as contemplate the salvation of individuals.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The reason or proof: because the covenant made with that nation of life everlasting, cannot be frustrate and vain.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For the gifts and calling--"and the calling"

of God are without repentance--"not to be," or "cannot be repented of." By the "calling of God," in this case, is meant that sovereign act by which God, in the exercise of His free choice, "called" Abraham to be the father of a peculiar people; while "the gifts of God" here denote the articles of the covenant which God made with Abraham, and which constituted the real distinction between his and all other families of the earth. Both these, says the apostle, are irrevocable; and as the point for which he refers to this at all is the final destiny of the Israelitish nation, it is clear that the perpetuity through all time of the Abrahamic covenant is the thing here affirmed. And lest any should say that though Israel, as a nation, has no destiny at all under the Gospel, but as a people disappeared from the stage when the middle wall of partition was broken down, yet the Abrahamic covenant still endures in the spiritual seed of Abraham, made up of Jews and Gentiles in one undistinguished mass of redeemed men under the Gospel--the apostle, as if to preclude that supposition, expressly states that the very Israel who, as concerning the Gospel, are regarded as "enemies for the Gentiles' sakes," are "beloved for the fathers' sakes"; and it is in proof of this that he adds, "For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." But in what sense are the now unbelieving and excluded children of Israel "beloved for the fathers' sakes?" Not merely from ancestral recollections, as one looks with fond interest on the child of a dear friend for that friend's sake [DR. ARNOLD]--a beautiful thought, and not foreign to Scripture, in this very matter (see Ch2 20:7; Isa 41:8) --but it is from ancestral connections and obligations, or their lineal descent from and oneness in covenant with the fathers with whom God originally established it. In other words, the natural Israel--not "the remnant of them according to the election of grace," but THE NATION, sprung from Abraham according to the flesh--are still an elect people, and as such, "beloved." The very same love which chose the fathers, and rested on the fathers as a parent stem of the nation, still rests on their descendants at large, and will yet recover them from unbelief, and reinstate them in the family of God.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. For the gifts and calling of God, c.] The gifts which God has bestowed upon them, and the calling-the invitation, with which he has favoured them he will never revoke. In reference to this point there is no change of mind in him and therefore the possibility and certainty of their restoration to their original privileges, of being the people of God, of enjoying every spiritual blessing with the fulness of the Gentiles, may be both reasonably and safely inferred.

Repentance, when applied to God, signifies simply change of purpose relative to some declarations made subject to certain conditions. See this fully explained and illustrated by himself, Jer 18:7-9.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He has mentioned gifts and calling; which are to be understood, according to a figure in grammar, as meaning the gift of calling: and this is not to be taken for any sort of calling but of that, by which God had adopted the posterity of Abraham into covenant; since this is especially the subject here, as he has previously, by the word, election, designated the secret purpose of God, by which he had formerly made a distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. For we must bear this in mind, — that he speaks not now of the election of individuals, but of the common adoption of the whole nation, which might seem for a time, according to the outward appearance, to have failed, but had not been cut up by the roots. As the Jews had fallen from their privilege and the salvation promised them, that some hope might remain to the remnant, Paul maintains that the purpose of God stands firm and immovable, by which he had once deigned to choose them for himself as a peculiar nation. Since then it cannot possibly be, that the Lord will depart from that covenant which he made with Abraham,

“I will be the God of thy seed,” (Genesis 17:7,)

it is evident that he has not wholly turned away his kindness from the Jewish nation.

He does not oppose the gospel to election, as though they were contrary the one to the other, for whom God has chosen he calls; but inasmuch as the gospel had been proclaimed to the Gentiles beyond the expectation of the world, he justly compares this favor with the ancient election of the Jews, which had been manifested so many ages before: and so election derives its name from antiquity; for God had in past ages of the world chosen one people for himself.

On account of the Fathers, he says not, because they gave any cause for love, but because God’s favor had descended from them to their posterity, according to the tenor of the covenant, “Thy God and the God of thy seed.” How the Gentiles had obtained mercy through the unbelief of the Jews, has been before stated, namely, that God, being angry with the Jews for their unbelief, turned his kindness to them. What immediately follows, that they became unbelievers through the mercy manifested to the Gentiles, seems rather strange; and yet there is in it nothing unreasonable; for Paul assigns not the cause of blindness, but only declares, that what God transferred to the Gentiles had been taken away from the Jews. But lest what they had lost through unbelief, should be thought by the Gentiles to have been gained by them through the merit of faith, mention is made only of mercy. What is substantially said then is, — that as God purposed to show mercy to the Gentiles, the Jews were on this account deprived of the light of faith.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(29) Without repentance.—Not to be revoked or withdrawn, not even to he regretted.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. gifts] Gr. charismata; gifts of grace. The word is frequently used of “miraculous” gifts (see on Rom_1:11); but here, obviously, it refers to all the “innumerable benefits” of Divine Salvation.

calling] See on Rom_1:6-7, Rom_8:30.

without repentance] without change of mind, i.e. on the part of the Giver. This profound fact of the Divine Way of Mercy is here applied to the case of an elect race. Elsewhere (see e.g. Rom_8:30; Joh_10:28;) the same mysterious law is plainly indicated with regard to elect persons. The two cases are largely illustrative of each other.

The word rendered “without repentance” (same word as 2Co_7:10; E. V. “not to be repented of,”) is strongly emphatic in the Gr. order.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the gifts and calling of God,.... By "gifts" are meant, not the gifts of nature and providence, as life, health, strength, riches, and honour, which God sometimes gives, and repents of, and takes away; as he repented that he had made man upon earth, and Saul king of Israel; which must be understood by an "anthropopathy", after the manner of men, and that not of a change of the counsel of his mind, but of the course of his providence: nor do gifts here design external gifts of grace, or such gifts of the Spirit, which qualify men for ministerial work, for public service in the church; for these may be taken away, as the "parable" of the "talents" shows, Mat 25:29; see Co1 13:8; but the special and spiritual gifts of God's free grace, which relate to the spiritual and eternal welfare of the souls of men, even that, grace which was given to God's elect in Christ before the world was, and all those spiritual blessings wherewith they were then blessed in him: these

are without repentance; that is, they are immutable and unalterable; God never revokes them, or calls them in again, or takes them away from the persons to whom he has made such a previous donation: the reasons are, because that his love from whence they spring is always the same; it admits of no distinction, nor of any degrees, nor of any alteration; and electing grace, according to which these gifts are bestowed, stands sure and immovable; not upon the foot of works, but of the sovereign will of God, and always has its sure and certain effect; and the covenant of grace, in which they are secured, remains firm and inviolable; and indeed, these gifts are no other than the promises of it, which are all yea and amen in Christ, and the blessings of it, which are the sure mercies of David. Whatever God purposes, or promises to give, or really does give to his people, whether into the hands of Christ for them, or into their own, he never repents of or reverses. Agreeably to these words of the apostle, the Jews say (g).

"that the holy blessed God, after , "that he hath given a gift", , "never takes it away from the receiver"; and this is the "Gemara", or doctrine of the Rabbins (h) , "that giving they give, but taking away they do not take away"; the gloss upon it is, , "after it is given":''

the meaning is, that what is once given to men from heaven, is never taken away from them up into heaven: and elsewhere (i) they ask,

"is there any servant to whom his master gives a gift, and returns and takes it away from him?''

Moreover, the apostle here says the same of the "calling of God", as of gifts; by which is meant, not a bare external call by the ministry of the word, which oftentimes is without effect, and may be where persons are neither chosen, nor converted, nor saved; but an internal effectual call, by special, powerful, and efficacious grace; and designs either actual calling, to which are inseparably annexed final perseverance in grace, and eternal glorification; or rather the purpose of God from eternity, to call his people in time, and which is never repented of, or changed. The apostle's argument here is this, that since there are a number of people among the Jews whom God has loved, and has chosen to everlasting salvation, and has in covenant promised to them, and secured and laid up gifts for them, and has determined to call them by his grace; and since all these are unchangeable and irreversible, the future call and conversion of these persons must be sure and certain.

(g) R. Saphorno apud R. Juda Muscato in Sepher. Cosri, fol. 43. (h) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 25. 1. (i) T. Bab. Erachin, fol. 15. 1.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Ver. 29. Are without repentance] When God is said to repent, it is Mutatio rei non Dei, effectus non affectus, facti non consilii, a change, not of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man is the change of his will; repentance with God is the willing of a change. But what a sweet comfort is this, that God’s favour is so constant that what he hath written he hath written, that there is no blotting out of the book of life ( Nulla litura in decretis sapientum, say the Stoicsno erasure of the decrees of the wise,), that it is, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed; and that his blessing is (as Thucydides saith of a well composed history), κτημα εις αει ξυγκειμενον, an everlasting possession.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the gifts - The favors or benefits which God bestows on men. The word χάρισμα charisma properly denotes any benefit which is conferred on another as a mere matter of favor, and not of reward; see Rom 5:15-16; Rom 6:23. Such are all the favors which God bestows on sinners including pardon, peace, joy, sanctification, and eternal life.

And calling of God - The word “calling” κλῆσις klēsis here denotes that act of God by which he extends an invitation to people to come and partake of his favors, whether it be by a personal revelation as to the patriarchs, or by the promises of the gospel, or by the influences of his Spirit. All such invitations or callings imply a pledge that he will bestow the favor, and will not repent, or turn from it. God never draws or invites sinners to himself without being willing to bestow pardon and eternal life. The word “calling” here, therefore, has not respect to external privileges, but to that choosing of a sinner, and influencing him to come to God, which is connected with eternal life.

Without repentance - This does not refer to man, but to God. It does not mean that God confers his favors on man without his exercising repentance, but that God does not repent, or change, in his purposes of bestowing his gifts on man. What he promises he will fulfil; what he purposes to do, he will not change from or repent of. As he made promises to the fathers, he will not repent of them, and will not depart from them; they shall all be fulfilled; and thus it was certain that the ancient people of God, though many of them had become rebellious, and had been cast off, should not be forgotten and abandoned. This is a general proposition respecting God, and one repeatedly made of him in the Scriptures; see Num 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he not said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Eze 24:14; 1Sa 15:29; Psa 89:35-36; Tit 1:2; Heb 6:18; Jam 1:17. It follows from this,

(1) That all the promises made to the people of God shall be fulfilled.

(2) That his people need not be discouraged or desponding, in times of persecution and trial.

(3) That none who become his true friends will be forsaken, or cast off. God does not bestow the gift of repentance and faith, of pardon and peace, on people, for a temporary purpose; nor does he capriciously withdraw them, and leave the soul to ruin. When he renews a soul, it is with reference to his own glory; and to withdraw those favors, and leave such a soul once renewed to go down to hell, would be as much a violation of all the principles of his nature as it would be to all the promises of the Scripture.

(4) For God to forsake such a soul, and leave it to ruin, would imply that he did repent. It would suppose a change of purpose and of feeling. It would be the character of a capricious being, with no settled plan or principles of action; no confidence could be reposed in him, and his government would be unworthy the affections and trust of his intelligent creation.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

These words, considered simply and abstractedly, afford this truth; That the special gifts of God, his election, justification, adoption, and in particular effectual calling, are irrevocable. God never repents of giving, nor we of receiving them. It is otherwise with common gifts and graces, 1Sa 15:11. But if you consider these words relatively, as you respect what went before, the sense seems to be this; That

the gifts and calling of God, whereby he was pleased to adopt the posterity of Abraham, and to engage himself by covenant to them, are inviolable, and are such as shall never be reversed or repented of.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Without repentance—On the part, or in the mind, of God. As God foresees the end of all possible courses from the beginning, so he prepares his own plan of conduct as to meet any result. (Introduc. note chap. 9.) He is, therefore, under no liability to retract. Of his gift of mercy to Abraham, and his calling, he will never repent.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance - God does not repent of his gifts to the Jews, or his calling of the gentiles.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

29. “For the gifts and calling of God are irretractable.” Repentance in E. V. is wrong in this sentence, the Greek having no such a meaning, but simply stating that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, i. e., they abide forever. Hence the fallacy of the conclusion that God has cast away the Jews.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of . [A corollary growing out of the axiom that the all-wise God makes no mistakes and consequently knows no repentance ( Num_23:19 ; Eze_24:4 ; 1Sa_15:29 ). Repentance and regret imply miscalculation ( Jam_1:7 ). The term "gifts" is of very wide application. God gave to the Jew certain spiritual endowments and moral aptitudes fitting him for religious leadership; God also gave to him manifold promises and covenants, and the general rights of the elder brother or first-born ( Luk_15:25-32 ), including priority in all spiritual matters ( Act_1:8 ; Act_3:5 ; Acts 26; Act_13:46 ; Rom_1:16 ; Rom_2:9-10 ; 1Pe_4:17 ). The calling is closely related to the gifts, for the Jews were called to be God's peculiar people ( Deu_7:6 ; Psa_135:4 ), and were thereby called upon to discharge all the duties and obligations belonging to their station and arising out of their endowments ( Luk_20:9-18 ); and likewise called to enjoy all the blessings and privileges of their stewardship, if found faithful in it ( Luk_12:35-48 ). Now, God has not changed his purpose as to either gifts or calling. The Jew's rights are temporarily suspended during the Gentile dispensation. They have never been withdrawn, and will be restored whenever the Jew becomes a believer. As pledge of the permanent nature of Jewish precedence, the twelve gates of the Eternal City bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel ( Rev_21:12 ), and the twelve foundations thereof bear the names of the twelve Jewish apostles-- Rev_21:14 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. For the gifts and calling, etc. God does not change his purposes or fail to keep his covenant. What he has promised concerning Israel will be fulfilled.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

29. ἀμεταμέλητα γὰρ κ.τ.λ. ἀμεταμ., 2Co 7:10 only.

τὰ χαρίσματα, only here of GOD’s gifts outside the Gospel dispensation; its use for the privileges of the Jew (Rom 9:4-6) is a remarkable instance of S. Paul’s sense of the unity of revelation: the use of the words marks the fact that the privileges of the Jew were the free gifts of GOD’s love, and, as such, could not be forfeited by rejection, though their operation might be suspended. The love which gave is still there. So

ἡ κλῆσις. The call to service, and ultimately to the kingdom, still holds, if Israel will hear.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29.] For (explanation how God’s favour regards them still, though for the present cast off) the gifts (generally) and calling (as the most excellent of those gifts. That calling seems to be intended ‘qua posteros Abrahæ in fœdus adoptavit Deus,’ Calv. A very similar sentiment is found ch. 3:3, where the same is called ἡ πίστις τ. θεοῦ. But the words are true not only of this calling, but of every other. Bengel says, ‘dona, erga Judæos: vocatio, erga gentes:’ similarly of κλῆσις, De W., ‘die Berufung durch das Ev.’ But thus the point of the argument seems to be lost, which is, that the Jews being once chosen as God’s people, will never be entirely cast off) [of God cannot be repented of, i.e.] are irretractable (do not admit of a change of purpose. The E. V., ‘without repentance,’ is likely to mislead. Compare Hos 13:14).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. St. Paul gives the reason for believing that God will not desert the people whom He has called, and chosen, and on whom He has showered His Divine blessings. It lies in the unchangeable nature of God: He does not repent Him of the choice that He has made.

ἀμεταμέλητα: 2Co 7:10. The Divine gifts, such as have been enumerated in 9:4, 5, and such as God has showered upon the Jews, bear the impress of the Giver. As He is not one who will ever do that for which He will afterwards feel compunction, His feelings of mercy towards the Jews will never change.

ἡ κλῆσις: the calling to the Kingdom.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Without repentance [αμεταμελητα] . Only here and 2Co 7:10. See on repented, Mt 21:29. Not subject to recall.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.