Deep Dive

Romans 11:32

A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →

For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone.

Commentaries

Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brownv. 32

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief--"hath shut them all up to unbelief" that he might have mercy upon all--that is, those "all" of whom he had been discoursing; the Gentiles first, and after them the Jews [FRITZSCHE, THOLUCK, OLSHAUSEN, DE WETTE, PHILIPPI, STUART, HODGE]. Certainly it is not "all mankind individually" [MEYER, ALFORD]; for the apostle is not here dealing with individuals, but with those great divisions of mankind, Jew and Gentile. And what he here says is that God's purpose was to shut each of these divisions of men to the experience first of an humbled, condemned state, without Christ, and then to the experience of His mercy in Christ.

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Matthew Henry Bible Commentaryv. 32

The apostle, having reconciled that great truth of the rejection of the Jews with the promise made unto the fathers, is, in this chapter, further labouring to mollify the harshness of it, and to reconcile it to the divine goodness in general. It might be said, "Hath God then cast away his people?" The apostles therefore sets himself, in this chapter, to make a reply to this objection, and that two ways: - I. He shows at large what the mercy is that is mixed with this wrath (v. 1-32). II. He infers thence the infinite wisdom and sovereignty of God, with the adoration of which he concludes this chapter and subject (Rom 11:33-36).

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Tyndale Open Study Notesv. 32

11:32 have mercy on everyone: Everyone has the sense of “all kinds of people.” In the context of Romans, and especially this chapter, it refers to the inclusion of Gentiles alongside Jews.

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