11:1. I say then: Hath God cast away his people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
11:2. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know you not what the scripture saith of Elias, how he calleth on God against Israel?
11:3. Lord, they have slain thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars. And I am left alone: and they seek my life.
11:4. But what saith the divine answer to him? I have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to Baal.
Seven thousand, etc… This is very ill alleged by some, against the perpetual visibility of the church of Christ; the more, because however the number of the faithful might be abridged by the persecution of Jezabel in the kingdom of the ten tribes, the church was at the same time in a most flourishing condition (under Asa and Josaphat) in the kingdom of Judah.
11:5. Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.
11:6. And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
It is not now by works, etc… If salvation were to come by works, done by nature, without faith and grace, salvation would not be a grace or favour, but a debt; but such dead works are indeed of no value in the sight of God towards salvation. It is not the same with regard to works done with, and by, God's grace; for to such works as these, he has promised eternal salvation.
11:7. What then? That which Israel sought, he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it. And the rest have been blinded.
11:8. As it is written: God hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, until this present day.