Romans 11:5, Remnant According to Grace

Romans 11:5 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

God will not leave Himself without witnesses. There is a remnant whom God will choose to be His ambassadors in every age even amidst great apostasy among His own. The Apostle Paul is confidently citing God’s reassuring words to the despairing Elijah that He has reserved to Himself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal (Rom. 11:4). Elijah was not alone contending for the faith.

AW Tozer observed, “Great industrial concerns have in their employ men who are needed only when there is a break-down somewhere. When somethings goes wrong with the machinery, these men spring into action to locate and remove the trouble and get the machinery rolling again. For these men a smoothly operating system has no interest. They are specialist concerned with trouble and how to find and correct it. In he kingdom of God things are not too different. God has always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown, the decline in the spiritual health of the nation or the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah and Malachi, and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke and exhort in the name of God and righteousness. A thousand or ten thousand ordinary priests or pastors or teachers could labour quietly unnoticed while the spiritual life of Israel or the church was normal. But let the people of God go astray from the path of truth, and immediately the specialist appeared almost out of nowhere. His instinct brought him to the help of the Lord and of Israel…To such men as this, the church owes a debt too heavy to pay. The curious thing is that she seldom tries to pay him while he lives, but the next generation builds his sepulchre and writes his biography, as if instinctively and awkwardly to discharge an obligation the previous generation to a large extent ignored.”

God raised Jewish Apostles to carry the gospel far and wide under the banner of the universal church even though Israel was delinquent in her witness. The witnesses Christ that have begun from Jerusalem (Acts 1:8) has indeed carried the gospel torch globally. It is marvellous in our eyes!

Has God called you to serve you in your generation? Do not resist but submit to His call of service. Amen.