God did not reject His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
Truth to Learn
God does not reject or desert any of His children whom He has chosen.
Behind the Words
The words translated “did not reject” are the Greek words ouk apōsato. The word ouk is a form of ou, which we talked about in the previous verse. It expresses the absolute negative. The word apōsato is a form of apōtheomai, which means “to thrust away from oneself, to cast off, or to reject.”
“Foreknew” is translated from the Greek word proegnō, which we talked about back in Romans 8:29. It is a compound word made up of pro, which means “before, in place or time” and a form of ginōskō, which means, “to know in a completed sense, that is, to have full knowledge of.”
The word “pleads” is from entugchanō, which is made up of en, meaning “in or by” and tugchanō, which properly means “to affect or to obtain.” Entugchanō refers to “meeting with someone for the purpose of obtaining a request.”
Meaning Explained
In the previous verse Paul asked the rhetorical question, “Did God reject His people?” Then he immediately answered it with the declarative, “No way!” He is now giving more clarification as to why he said that. He starts off this verse by stating, “God did not reject his people.” Paul is saying that God absolutely did not thrust away or reject His people.
The next phrase describes an attribute of God’s chosen people, those whom He did not reject. They are those, “whom He foreknew.” You may recall that in Romans 8:29 Paul said:
Because whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
In other words, these are the elect, the chosen ones of God. Paul is saying that God did not reject His people whom he foreknew and chose as His children. In fact, God can’t reject those whom He has chosen, which Paul pointed out in the earlier chapters of this book. Next, Paul will quote a passage from Elijah, but since this is so closely tied to the next verse we will cover it there.
The thing I want us to get from the current verse is the fact that God chose some of the Jews to be saved, but not all of them. And even though He will turn from Israel as a nation, He will not turn away from those Israelites whom He has chosen. God does not change! Let me repeat that, God does not change!
Application
If God did not reject his chosen ones from the Old Testament dispensation, He is not going to reject those whom He has chosen in the church age. That’s another way of saying, “Once you are saved, you are saved for good.” That means that no amount of grieving the Spirit or willfully sinning against God is going to cause you to lose your salvation. Remember that you did not do anything to get it in the first place (God chose you), so there’s nothing you can possibly do to lose it (God won’t reject you).
That’s eternal security!
In God's service, for His glory,
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