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SUBJECT: Romans 11:29
QUESTION: Please explain Romans 11:29 (calling and
gifts).
ANSWER:
Romans 11:29
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[For the gifts] The favors
or benefits which God bestows on men. The word [charisma] (grk
5486) properly denotes any benefit which is conferred on
another as a mere matter of favor, and not of reward; see
<Romans 5:15-16; 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" [kleesis (grk 2821)] 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?" <Ezek.
24:14; 1 Sam. 15:29; Ps. 89:35-36; Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18;
James 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. ~from
Barnes' Notes
It may be even clearer in the JFB...
Romans 11:29
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
[For the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance], [ametameleeta (grk 278)]--
`are 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 special 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 Israelite 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-- as if to preclude that supposition, the apostle
expressly states that the very Israel who, as concerning the
Gospel, are regarded as "enemies for the Gentiles' sakes,"
are "beloved for the father's sakes;" and it is in proof of
this that he adds, "For the gifts and the calling of God are
without repentance." ~from
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary
The phrase, "Both these, says the apostle, are irrevocable"
clearly point to the higher calling of God calling us to
Himself and giving us the gifts of the gospel such as
repentance, forgiveness, mercy and eternal life.
The verse is not specifically talking about a calling to be
a preacher or a gift of speaking both of which may be
revoked and/or taken back.
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