11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God’s reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.”
— Romans 11:1-10, ESV

In this great section of Holy Scripture, Romans 9-11, we have gone back and forth between the sovereignty of God in election and the responsibility of man in evangelism.  No one will be saved apart from the gracious choice of God in election.  No one can be saved unless they are given the choice to confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ through proper evangelism.  Election and evangelism go together in order to gather God’s people.

So just who are God’s people, whom He will never forsake?  God’s people are not the Jews, at least not all of them, at least not anymore.  There is no question that two thousand years ago and more, faithful Israelites were the Old Covenant people of God.  The purpose of the Old Covenant, however, was to bring forth the New Covenant, presented and purchased at the first coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Judaism is now a religion without Jesus, and no religion without Jesus can rightly claim to be the people of God.

This, however, does not make Israel’s past relationship with God insignificant.  Israel is like God’s ex-wife.  She got to keep the land, and has a right to live there securely.  She is still the  mother of our children, for there would be no Christianity if it were not for Judaism.  Therefore, Israel should be valued, loved, respected, and protected.  But, Israel is not the people of God.

God’s people are not the church, either, at least not the visible church in its entirety.  There are far too many heretics, hypocrites, hucksters, and hoaxers to make the whole body the true bride of Christ.  It is only the church within the church that proves to be the real people of God, a mixture of Jews and Gentiles with remarkable characteristics that are delineated in these verses of Scripture.  So, let’s identify the people of God.

God’s people are a small group.

Verse 5 is the key verse in this paragraph, and a key word in this key verse is “remnant.”  It is a common word in the Bible, appearing almost a hundred times.  A remnant is a very small group taken from a much larger group.  

As a young Pastor I served in northwest Georgia, an area commonly called the carpet capital of the world.  A good number of our members worked in the industry.  In carpet country, you would often see remnants sold cheap or given away.  The remnants were small, discarded pieces cut away from the larger rolls of carpet.  They made good throw rugs, door mats, or linings for pet cages.

What the world throws away, God values highly (ref. 1 Corinthians 1:28).  This is especially true when it comes to people, God’s people.  God’s people are a highly prized, beloved, and small “remnant” of souls saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Paul mentions his own conversion to Christianity.  Indeed he was one of the few Israelites of his day, especially pharisaical Jews, to come to Christ.  Paul mentioned Elijah, the greatest of Old Testament prophets, who was one of 7,000 faithful followers of Yahweh, in an Israel population of over two million and a world population up to a hundred million.  Real Christians today are probably less than a tenth of the two billion or so who profess faith in Christ out of a world of eight billion.  Any way you cut it, God’s people are a small remnant cut from all of the people on earth.

Jews are in this remnant, all who faithfully trusted in God as they awaited the first coming of the Messiah.  Paul was Jewish when he met the Messiah on the Damascus Road.  Most of the small, early church were Jewish, and still today there are Messianic Jews who call upon, worship, and serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

Church members are in this remnant, all who faithfully trust in the Lord and long for His second coming.  If you have genuinely come to faith, like Paul, and seek to be genuinely faithful, like Elijah.  Remember faith without faithfulness is fruitless and phony.  But if you believe and “have not bowed the knee to Baal,” that is, you live for Christ instead of this present world and its lusts for pleasure and power, you may have confidence you are among the people of God.

So, if you are one of God’s people, you are special!  You are part of a very small group.  And, you are part of a very select group. 

God’s people are a select group.

Again let’s go to verse 5.  God’s people are described as “a remnant … chosen by grace.”  To understand the significance of being chosen, we have to look at ancient times to interpret the biblical text.  

In the modern age, it is actually the bride who picks the groom.  Guys will go out with anybody.  We are willing to love any girl who lacks good sense to love us first.  So, ladies, you make the call.

In the biblical era, the groom chose the bride.  Moreover, the groom’s father chose the bride for his son.  Abraham chose Rebekah for Isaac, Isaac chose the family of Rachel for Jacob, and on an on it goes.  Some Jewish fathers and families still practice this ritual, as I observed first hand at the King Solomon Hotel in Jerusalem in 2008.  

When it comes to God’s people, our sovereign God chooses every single member of the bride of Christ.  He does so personally, powerfully, and permanently.  The words Paul uses in this text pan this out.  Consider two verbs and one noun:

“Foreknew” (vs. 2) means to love, select, and determine to have a relationship with beforehand.  Beforehand refers to before the object of such love, selection, relationship every had a thought or a prayer.  It is what Jesus meant in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.”  God loves and selects His own people!

“Kept” (vs. 4) means to keep in place, keep in relationship, keep from falling away.  It is what Jesus meant in John 10:28, “No one will snatch them out of my hand.”  God selects and secures His own people!

Both of these verbs are aorist active indicative.  This means God’s people are formed by the past action of God which will reverberate and endure for all time.  God selects His own people!

The one noun appears twice.  It is “chosen” in verse 5 and “the elect” in verse 7.  God chooses, elects, the chosen and elect, His people.  And it is by sovereign “grace” (vs. 5-6), not human “works” (vs. 7).  God’s elect become God’s people by God’s grace alone through God-given faith alone in God’s Son Jesus Christ alone!

So, if you are one of God’s people, you are special!  You are part of a very small group.  And, you are part of a very select group.  And, you are a part of a people who are permanently saved!

God’s people are a saved group.

The Old Testament references at the end of this New Testament text paint a bleak picture.  They are references to the larger group, not the remnant.  They depict the reprobate, the passed over, those not selected.  They show the unsaved, not the saved.  

People are not saved because they choose not to be saved, not to believe, not to repent, not to give their lives to the God who gave them life.  People who are not saved are sinful, rebellious, ungrateful, and “bend the knee to Baal,” in other words, live their lives for the false idols of this present world rather than for God and His glory.  People who are not saved get what they deserve, not grace.  They get justice, not mercy.  They get from God what unsaved people get.

So, if you are one of God’s people, consider what He has saved you from.  He has saved you from a fate far worse than any bodily disease. Like the late, great Jim Valvano said, “Cancer can destroy my body, but it cannot touch my soul.”  Look at the things which do destroy the soul, and from what God has saved His people from.

God has saved you from being “hardened” (vs. 7), a callous that comes over your heart when you trust in salvation by your own works rather than the grace of God.  God has saved you from living in “stupor” (vs. 8), a lack of understanding of God’s word because you do not have God’s Spirit to guide you.  God has saved you from an eternity of “retribution” (vs. 9) and “dark[ness]” (vs. 10), and instead you will have rewards in an everlasting kingdom of light.  

Lost people get more lost every day.  But never give up on anyone.  Who was more lost than the Pharisee Saul before God surprisingly transformed him into the Apostle Paul?  

Saved people are full of surprises.  It is surprising to learn what a small group we really are. It is surprising to read in some texts the fullness of the sovereignty of God in salvation.  It is surprising to learn how safe we have always been, since we were chosen by God before creation and destined to spend eternity with Him in the new creation.  

It makes you want to exalt the name of God, which is the purpose of election and evangelism.  It makes you want to make your calling and election sure.  It makes you want to share the gospel with others.  It makes you glad to be one of God’s people!