about is yet experienced by the nation only partially (Rom. xi. 25: άπò μépos). The number of those shut out from salvation may be ever so great as they will, so great that one may henceforward speak of the hardening of Israel, ie. of the nation as to the majority of its members (ver. 7), but there still always remains a remnant; and that only a remnant of Israel is delivered in the circumstances is what Isaiah has already predicted (ix. 27-29). But the hope of the apostle for his own nation does not continue to rest on them. The calling of the Gentiles, which became possible through the casting away of Israel, has for its object, not only to make the Gentiles partakers of salvation; it also points as its final result to provoke the Jews to jealousy (xi. 11: eis тò πapayyλŵσai AUTOús), and thus to reach by an indirect way God's saving purpose towards His chosen people. With all the zeal with which the discharge of his own peculiar calling lay on the Apostle of the Gentiles, he yet kept before his eye as the ultimate end, through the realization of salvation on the part of converted Gentiles, to stir up to jealousy his countrymen, whose deliverance is his most fervent wish and his constant prayer (x. 1; comp. ix. 3), and so to save some of them (xi. 13, 14). From this it is clear that even the judgment of hardening, passed on those members of the nation cast away for the present, is not final, and it by no means of itself hands them over to destruction (ver. 11); it rather leaves them room for that repentance which, in consequence of the new wondrous leading of God, may even yet quite well come. As soon as they turn to the Lord, the blinding

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5 Even in the history of Elias it was foreshadowed, that even at a time when all seemed lost, God had yet reserved a remnant of 7000, who had not bowed the knee to Baal (xi. 2-4). And were there but himself, the Apostle of the Gentiles, this Israelite of purest birth (ver. 1), who formed the remnant, then the proof lay before their eyes that God had not cast away the people as such (ver. 2). But even yet there abides a remnant, which His grace has selected (ver. 5); and works are as little taken into account in their election (ver. 6) as in the hardening of the others (note c), and this remnant has obtained salvation (ver. 7): it is they, therefore, who, according to note b, are appointed to be that portion of the natural ripua which are to receive the full rights of children, as Isaac among Abraham's, and Jacob among Isaac's sons; they are the Israel of God (Gal. vi. 16; comp. § 90, d, footnote 2) in opposition to Israel after the flesh (1 Cor. x. 18).

6 From what Paul has explained of the possibility, even the certainty, of the

veil, which now lies upon their hearts, will be taken away from them (2 Cor. iii. 16), and then they, through the same mercy of God which the Gentiles have now obtained, will obtain mercy (Rom. xi. 31). As soon as they cease to be unbelieving, those branches that have been broken of will be again grafted in; yes, it is at any rate relatively easier to re-engraft the natural branches, than it was to engraft the branches of the wild olive tree into the noble one; and He who was able to do the one, is all the more able to do the other (vv. 23, 24). And this ultimate deliverance of Israel is not only possible, it is to the apostle certain, because of the divine promise (vv. 26, 27),-as certain as the election of the people as such, which sprang from the patriarchs, and the calling to salvation therein involved, cannot be repented of (vv. 28, 29). When the full number of the Gentiles shall have entered into the fellowship of the elect people, then shall all Israel be saved (vv. 25, 26). As little, to be sure, as that entrance of the fulness of the Gentiles excludes the idea that individuals may remain in unbelief, or by falling away may draw down upon themselves the judgment of a

conversion of the Israel presently hardened, one must by no means draw general dogmatic conclusions as to the nature of the election (comp. on the other hand, § 88, a, footnote 3), as this rests on the entirely peculiar election of Israel as a nation. To be sure, there is here no contradiction to Paul's doctrine of election elsewhere. The ultimate conversion of Israel comes about as little without the working of God's grace, as conversion does anywhere else, the grace which is here perfected by the wonderful leading of God, in which He, according to His faithfulness to His promise, so long follows after the members of His chosen people, who are now hardened, until He succeeds in working in the nation that susceptibility presently awanting, on the ground of which they finally believe. That this must ultimately succeed depends on this, that God has foreknown (xi. 2) the nation as of such a character that in spite of their obstinate resistance they can yet ultimately be won as a people.

7 At the time of the great split between him and his nation, in which Paul expected the final falling away of Judaism and the rise of Antichrist from their midst (§ 63, b, c), he had not ventured to entertain this hope, and we have seen that he knew how to reconcile it with the promise, even though only a remnant of Israel, however small it might even be, should be saved. But now he has come back to the hope of the early apostles, of a conversion of Israel as a whole (§ 42). To be sure, it is not so that, according to the insti tution of God as originally intended, and for whose fulfilment, moreover, the first apostles laboured, Israel should be first converted, in order that then from them salvation might come to the Gentiles. Through their guilt a partial and temporary casting away of Israel has taken place, in consequence of which salvation has already now and first come to the Gentiles.

second exclusion (vv. 20-22), so little does the deliverance of all Israel exclude the idea that individual members may remain unconverted, and fall under condemnation (note b). But it will then be no longer the case, as at present, that a small remnant of delivered ones shall stand opposed to Israel in its majority rejected (ver. 7), but Israel as a people, according to the promise, will be converted and delivered.8

CHAPTER IX.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH.

§ 92. The Church and the Gifts of Grace.

Of the Jews and Gentiles that have been called, there is formed a new community, the Church of God, in which God dwells by His Spirit, and which, in virtue of its really living fellowship with Christ, forms His body (a). With a view to the further upbuilding of the Church, her organism is furnished with a manifold variety of members, by means of the different gifts of grace, among which prophecy is the most important for this end (b). Along with this Paul mentions the gift of teaching in its various forms, simple exhortation, speaking with tongues, along with the gift of interpretation

* Paul praises the wonderful ways of the divine wisdom (Rom. xi. 33-36), which has made it possible that the sins of men, which seem to thwart the plan of their salvation, must help directly to realize it in a yet more comprehensive way, while the calling of the Gentiles has even now been incorporated with it. The temporary hardening of Israel has brought it about, that salvation has even already come from the Jews to the Gentiles; and this must finally only serve this end, that salvation will come back from the Gentiles to the Jews, and thus the promise of the elect nation will be perfectly fulfilled. Yea, finally, this method of fulfilment must contribute to the making known more gloriously the divine mercy. Had Israel presently become believing, then had they received the salvation, as God was bound by His faithfulness to fulfil the promise to them (xv. 8). But now by their disobedience they have put themselves on an equality with the former Gentiles, and forfeited the fulfilment of the promise; on the other hand, His simple mercy remains for them, the mercy which has realized salvation to the Jew as to the Gentile in spite of their disobedience (xi. 30-32; comp. ix. 23, 24),-even He Himself exercises it on the ground of fidelity to His promise (vv. 28, 29).

and the gift of miracle-working faith (c). If Paul mentions also the gift of service and of government, that does not exclude the idea that the possessors of these gifts were commissioned to use them officially; the conduct of the apostle, however, in reference to the organization of the churches, does not seem to have been quite uniform throughout (d).

(a) The distinctions of the pre-Christian religious fellowships are removed by living fellowship with Christ (§ 90, a), and thus over against those fellowships a new fellowship is formed of Christians; and this is expressly designated, 1 Cor. x. 32, as the ẻккλŋσía тоû Oeoû, consisting of Jews and Greeks. This fellowship therefore belongs in a special sense to God; for it has come into existence through the fact that God chose each individual; and by the power to work faith which He has given to the preaching of the word among them, He called each, i.e. gave him entrance into the fellowship, and it consists clearly of such as have been consecrated (§ 84, d) by the participation of the Spirit in baptism, or as have become ayol. But while the Spirit of God dwells in all the members of the Church, and with Him God Himself, He consecrates not only the body of each individual (1 Cor.

1 Although in the LXX. the national community of Israel is designated as the ixxancía simply (Acts vii. 38), and in conformity with this in the words of Jesus, the particular fellowship of His disciples (§ 31, 6), with Paul this name scarcely corresponds with the idea that he saw in the Christian Church the true Israel (§ 90, c). With him the expression ixxλnvía does not designate primarily the collective community, but, conformably with classical usage, it is used for the national assembly (Acts xix. 32, 39, 41), the assembly of Church members (1 Cor. xi. 18, xiv. 28, 35), as these are to be met with in any definite place ( xar' oixov ixxancía: 1 Cor. xvi. 19; Rom. xvi. 5; comp. Col. iv. 15; Philem. 2). Then a single congregation is called izzanoía, as Jas. v. 14, i.e. the collective body of Christians in any definite city ( xxλncía ǹ oloa iv Kopiye 1 Cor. i. 2; 2 Cor. i. 1; Rom. xvi. 1; comp. ☆ ixxλnvía @sooa2ovinśwv : 1 Thess. i. 1; 2 Thess. i. 1; Col. iv. 16), or in a country (ai ixxλnoías rūs Taλarías: Gal. i. 2; 1 Cor. xvi. 1; comp. Gal. i. 22; 1 Cor. xvi. 19; 2 Cor. viii. 1; 1 Thess. ii. 14: iv rỹ 'Ioudaía). Yet the expression already occurs to denote the collective community of Christians (1 Cor. xii. 28). There is implied in the expression ixxλncia nothing to designate the Christian fellowship as such. This takes place only by the addition of rs еie,—an addition which characterizes at times the single community (1 Cor. i. 2, xi. 16, 22; 2 Cor. i. 1; comp. 1 Thess. ii. 14; 2 Thess. i. 4), sometimes the collective community (Gal. i. 13; 1 Cor. x. 32, xv. 9), as a community belonging to God.

2 Hence Paul naturally looks upon all the members of the Church as elected and called; and, according to § 88, d, that by no means excludes the idea that

vi. 19), but also the Church herself (iii. 16; comp. Eph. ii. 21, 22) to be His temple, which, as such, is holy (ver. 17).3 By participation in the Spirit all the individual members of the Church are, according to § 84, b, put into a real living fellowship with Christ (1 Cor. i. 2: n erkangia Tôi Đâu, ἁγιασμένοι ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ), and it depends on this directly, according to Gal. iii. 28, that all who have put on Christ in baptism (ver. 27) have put off all the distinctive marks of pre-Christian religious fellowships, and are become one (comp. vi. 15). By this living fellowship especially all are equally connected with a living centre, and so have become one organism (σŵμa), in which each member stands in living fellowship with every other, each member is serviceable to the whole, and so also to each individual (Rom. xii. 5: oi πολλοὶ ἓν σῶμά ἐσμεν ἐν Χριστῷ ὁ δὲ καθ' εἰς ἀλλήλων μέλη). But while Christ by this living fellowship rules each individual by His Spirit, and thus makes use of their owμara for the performance of His own ends, they also may be designated, 1 Cor. vi. 15, His members. As, now, the natural body is a unity, and yet has many members, but all the individual members, although they are many, yet form a single body; so

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they may yet fall away. Were a member of the Church to become guilty of gross sins, or of persistent disobedience to the apostolic commands, then every blessed fellowship with him is broken off (1 Cor. v. 11; comp. 2 Thess. iii. 14), without there being at the same time any giving up of anxious efforts to bring Him to repentance (2 Thess. iii. 15). Hence especially the rule meant by Paul to have a disciplinary effect on the incestuous person (1 Cor. v. 5). That person was eventually formally thrust out of the Church (vv. 2, 13) till he repented (2 Cor. ii. 6-8).

For Paul also as for Peter (§ 45 a) the prophecy of God's dwelling in the midst of His people (comp. Lev. xxvi. 11, 12) is perfectly fulfilled only in the Christian Church (2 Cor. vi. 16); but Paul has explicitly realized for himself this early apostolic idea by reflection on the possession of the Spirit by the Christian, and he has thus set it in closer connection with his doctrine of salvation.

4 By baptism, which transplants into this living fellowship, are all, Jews and Gentiles, baptized into one body (1 Cor. xii. 13). In another way the organic unity of the many is effected by the bread in the Lord's Supper, which transplants into fellowship with Christ (more exactly with the body of Christ broken for us) (x. 17; comp. § 85, c, footnote 5); and from this side one may say that Paul sees in the Lord's Supper, as he does also in baptism, a constitutive moment for the true nature of the Church. But this way of looking at it is nowhere else carried farther by the apostle, and therefore it is not fit to connect the doctrine of the sacraments with the doctrine of the Church (comp. § 85, a, footnote 1).