Romans 11:1–6 (NKJV)

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,“LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

We’re back to the theme of a remnant, but this time with a new wrinkle. Paul’s point here is that keeping a remnant counts as keeping Israel. As long as God keeps a remnant, He has kept His promise.

This is difficult to accept. We want everyone to be saved, even as we admit that no one deserves to be. Saving only a fraction is troubling and feels like less than total success. Surely that isn’t “just as good as” saving everyone, right?

No. Paul is saying that God’s covenant with His people works differently. God’s plan is to save Israel, not to save individual people. Sure, many individual people get saved, but that’s not how God keeps score. Even calling it keeping score misses the point.

We are individuals. We see things in terms of individuals. God does not. I don’t claim to understand God’s perspective, but it’s definitely something else.

This makes it sound like our getting into heaven is a side effect of the gospel. That’s not it—God’s love for us is a major driving force—but it’s hard to see how this all fits together.

God loves us more than we can imagine. Thus, our imagination can’t even begin to conceive of something even more important than that.

But His holiness, His covenant, and His glory are more important. All this exists on a scale we cannot fathom. As much as God cares about us, we’re still not the most important thing in the universe.

It’s not that we’re unimportant; it’s that the grand scheme of things is so grand.

This is humbling, but in an especially beautiful way. Instead of being humbled by how small, bad, or unworthy we are, we are humbled by how big, holy, and worthy God is. Instead of being shame-humbled, we’re awe-humbled.

As always, God’s glory is the point—and this is perfectly glorious.

The more we dig into the details, the more we see the grandeur of the gospel.

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