The Remnant

Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

— Romans 9:27–29

As we continue in the Apostle Paul’s epistle to the Romans, we have more about God’s sovereignty in His dealings with the nation of Israel.

The doctrine of the remnant is critical in understanding some things that were happening in the outworkings of God because there was a transition from dealing with Israel as His covenant people to His freely offering salvation to all nations, apart from all covenants, and purely by grace through faith alone. This grace is extended to all based on the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.

Now make no mistake here: the Israelites, God’s Old and New Covenant people, would not receive any blessings apart from the finished work of Christ. Under the Old Covenant, they were to walk before the LORD as their God and the faithful Israelite would walk faithfully under the Law.

There is much to say about how righteousness before the LORD was always by faith, and there are arguments to be made, but we do have to deal with this from Moses in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:25 — “And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.”

The Nation of Israel would fail, but there were provisions for the sins of the nation, and for the sins of the individual Israelites in that Law.

The faithful Israelite walked by faith as his father Abraham did, but make no mistake, his faith was shown by his obedience to the Law. James, in his epistle to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (James 1:1), speaks of this righteousness according to the law, that faith without works is dead, James 2:14–26¹.

The full provision for the individual Israelite and the nation would be met in Christ. We see that clearly in Isaiah chapter 53, where the prophet laments:

Isaiah 53:5–6 — “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

We, over two and getting near to three millennia removed from this prophecy, and having all that Christ accomplished for us on the cross revealed can see this clearly. But the prophets themselves did not understand all that they wrote (1 Peter 1:10–12), and the Israelites to whom they wrote these prophecies also did not². The faithful Israelite would believe even without understanding, and “the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

The failure of Israel under the Law would necessitate a new covenant, which is hinted at throughout “the Law and the Prophets”, and expressly foretold in Jeremiah chapter 31:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 — “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

At the cross, the blood of the new testament³ was shed, as the Lord said in Matthew 26:28. After the death and resurrection of our Lord, everything was ready for the new covenant to be put into operation for Israel. Everything was ready except for Israel.

Peter preached to the whole house of Israel in Acts chapter 2 with the powers of the world to come, stating plainly that “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16; Joel 2:28–32). He quoted it speaking about the Spirit of God being poured out on all flesh. This is the new covenant.

Ezekiel chapter 36 should always come to mind with the preaching of Peter on that feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) in Israel after Christ’s resurrection and ascension.

Ezekiel 36:24–28 — “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

As we continue through the book of Acts, it is plain that Israel nationally rejected the message of the Twelve Apostles. There was, however, a remnant, as there always had been through all the times of apostasy in the nation’s history.

In the section in Romans that we are now studying, the Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 1:9 — “Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.”

This spoken in the past about Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:1), was a time of apostasy, where the LORD used the prophet to speak to His people. But His people, while they were supposed to be His nation of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6), might as well have been Sodom and Gomorrah, nations first known as “wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly” (Genesis 13:13). These nations were destroyed⁴ and Israel might well have been destroyed, except that there was a remnant “according to the election of grace” (Romans 11:5).

In the verse after the one previously quoted from Isaiah, the LORD calls these rulers in Judah and Jerusalem, well, sodomites:

Isaiah 1:10 — “Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.”

In the book of the Revelation, we hear the Holy Spirit again calling the city of Jerusalem “Sodom”. The two faithful witnesses are slain for their testimony for the Lord.

Revelation 11:8 — “And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually⁵ is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”

But all that so far was about those that fell away. What about the remnant?

Even in the present day, there are faithful Israelites that do follow after the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in His finished work on the cross to save them. Those who were faithful during our Lord’s time on earth — faithful because they believed on God’s sent Savior, His Christ — He called them His “little flock” (Luke 12:32), and they were promised a kingdom. Many of this remnant may well have still been living at the time when Paul wrote Romans chapter 9. There were relatively few believers compared to the entire population, but there was this remnant who we would learn later were made part of the Body of Christ, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, but all are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 3:11). They were, in a word, Christians. Some might prefer the term “Messianic”, but let’s face it, it means the same thing. They were following God’s Messiah, which is to say “Christ” (John 1:41).

Many of us today think of ourselves as “the remnant”, especially in times where even in Christendom there is great evil and apostasy. There is little faithfulness in the religions going under the guise of “Christian”. But in a strict scriptural sense, we are not the remnant. That belongs to the faithful of Israel who were circumcised in heart and ears to hear the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. They were the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), who were Jews inwardly (Romans 2:29).

There will be more on this remnant when we study Romans chapter 11.

There will also be a remnant in the future during the time covered in the book of the Revelation, when the day of salvation will have given way to the great and terrible day of the wrath of God against this whole world that spurned His grace.

We who are saved today are the Body of Christ, not merely a remnant, nor strangers and pilgrims wandering through the wilderness, nor exiles⁶ as some seem to think, but the “elect of God⁷” (Colossians 3:12). As such, Christians (true believers) are ambassadors for Christ here. We are representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ in a hostile world that really does not appreciate the grace of God that He is showing in not immediately bringing His sword of judgment against it.

Like the remnant of Israel, let us remain faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word revealed to us. For those reading who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ to salvation, why not?

God has done everything on His side to save you. Jesus Christ His Son shed His blood on Calvary’s cruel cross to secure complete redemption for you, and is calling you — all of you — to turn to Christ in faith and obedience to the gospel⁸. Your own way — walking according to your own way — only leads to death, to hell, and to the lake of fire. Jesus Christ died for you and He arose from dead. Jesus Christ is all that you need, but you do need Him. When you believe in His Gospel, all that He accomplished on the cross of Calvary will be applied to you freely. Will you accept His gift to you?

End Notes:

1. Note how James speaks of the “many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the law” (Acts 21:20). ↩︎
2. In the four gospel records, even all of the Twelve Apostles did not understand this, as seen in Matthew 16:21–22, Luke 9:44–45, 18:31–34, etc. ↩︎
3. Testament and covenant are translated from the same Greek word διαθήκη (diathḗkē). In Hebrews 9:20, we have the quotation from Moses “This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you”. This is quoted from Exodus 24:8—“Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” ↩︎
4. Read the entirety of Ezekiel 16 before arguing that the sin of Sodom was “lack of hospitality”. ↩︎
5. The word here is “pneumatikos” in all the texts. It means spiritually, like it does when used about spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are gifts given by the Holy Spirit. The word spiritually used here means that the Holy Spirit calls Jerusalem Sodom and Egypt, and in Isaiah chapter 1 is one place He did it. It does not simply mean “figuratively” (NIV), or “symbolically” (ESV), or “allegorically” (RSV), or “mystically” (NASB 95). It means that the Spirit literally calls it that. ↩︎
6. The exiles, or “strangers and pilgrims”, would be Israelites sent away from their homeland. This does not accurately describe the Church which is His Body. We are seated already in heaven with Christ with a heavenly hope, not exiled but here with a purpose. We would never consider soldiers who are deployed as exiles, but representatives of our nation on mission. ↩︎
7. We become the elect of God when we are saved by believing the gospel of Christ. No one is the elect of God before he is saved. ↩︎
8. The scriptural meaning of the word “repent” if it is to be used in context with the gospel of salvation. Stop fighting against God and His Word and His Christ. ↩︎