To God be the Glory Forever
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Introduction
Introduction
We arrive now at one of the most compelling and simultaneously controversial passages in all Scripture. This is a passage that has been convoluted, misinterpreted, proof-texted, and abused in just about every way possible. Social and political worldviews and movements have been read into this passage, and it has been held up as justification for all manner of strange teaching and even stranger behavior.
My aim this morning is to cut through the noise, let Paul speak for himself, and demonstrate the reason that Paul had confidence in the future salvation of Israel, and therefore how we also might have that same confidence.
With that in mind, knowing that my typical delivery method is what I would call a lermon - half lecture, half sermon - I confess this morning that we will lean more into the lecture side of that divide.
We need to deal with a number of pressing issues that Paul brings to the table here. So let’s work verse by verse through this text and, by the illuminating grace of the Spirit, come to clarity on Paul’s point here.
Verse 25
Verse 25 has a couple of pressing items that require our attention this morning.
The Mystery
First, Paul’s concern is that his readers be informed of this mystery. He is teaching the mystery in two ways. He already taught it by way of the imagery of the olive tree in verses 16-24. He now lays it forth expressis verbis, in plain language, in case the parabolic language in verses 16-24 was not clear enough for our eyes.
What is the content of the mystery? To use the language of the parable, it is that the natural branches have been cut off of the olive tree temporarily, until all of the wild branches sovereignly chosen by the vine-dresser, that glorious Gardener, that almighty Arborist, have been properly grafted into the vine.
To use the plain language of verses 25-26, the mystery is that after the fullness of the Gentiles have been brought in, all Israel will be saved.
Conceited Wisdom
We also want to ensure we’re clear on the reason that Paul has informed these Gentile believers of this mystery. He’s said it before back in verse 20: do not be haughty but fear. Being wise in your own estimation is essentially the same thing. Haughty arrogance has no place in the mind or heart of the saved Gentile as they ponder their own salvation in the midst of Israel’s hardening. The response of the Gentile Christian must be humility and fear, the kind of joyful trembling that marvels at the grace of God poured out upon the greatest of sinners.
Partial Hardening
This is, again, the simplest expressis verbis Paul can give to the ideas he has already expressed in chapter 11:
I say then, has God rejected His people? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but the chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened;
I say then, did they stumble so as to fall? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
Quite right! They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be haughty, but fear,
And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
What Paul has been saying all along, at varying levels of simplicity, is that while Israel has been “rejected for their rejection,” this rejection is not absolute or eternal, but partial and temporal. What God has cut off, He can and will graft back in.
We must affirm therefore that the hardening and rejection of ethnic Israel is only temporal and partial, and will come to an end one day when God grafts them back in.
The Fullness of the Gentiles
The trigger for the removal of the hardening is that the fullness of the Gentiles have come in. In other words, all of the non-Jewish people that God has chosen save by His grace, must receive Christ and be converted prior to “all Israel being saved.”
Now there is some dispute over what is meant by “the fullness of the Gentiles.” There are three main views.
The first view says that God will continue to save Gentiles at an ever-decreasing rate, because evil will continue to grow and become more prevalent. Once there are no more Gentiles left to save because they have all turned aside to their wickedness, then Christ will return and beam the all the Gentiles up to heaven with him, and then that triggers all Israel being saved.
The second view says that God, with the help of the church, will continue to save Gentiles at an ever-increasing rate, because, through the spread of the gospel, good will continue to grow and become more prevalent. Once all 6.4 billion non-Jewish people are saved, and all world governments and institutions are Christian-ized, that indicates that the fullness of the Gentiles have come in.
I believe both these views are erroneous. They rely on proof-texts and bad principles of interpretation, and ultimately fail to understand the nature of the kingdom of God.
The final view, and the one I believe to be most accurate, is that God, through the fulfillment of the Great Commission, will continue to build His church, at this time primarily composed of Gentiles, but with some Jews sprinkled in. Once the church has been built; in other words, when the Spirit has converted every Gentile soul that was granted to Christ by the Father in eternity past, the fullness of the Gentiles will have come in.
This gathering of the fullness of the Gentiles brings about the most important part of this sequence for Paul:
All Israel Will Be Saved
This is one of the most hotly contested and widely discussed phrases in the entire Bible. It’s important that we understand what’s going on here so let’s take some time to consider word by word what Paul says here.
“And so.” It’s important to grab hold of even this small phrase and understand what’s meant here. We might also render it “accordingly” or “in this manner.” This ties back to what Paul said back in Romans 11:11
I say then, did they stumble so as to fall? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
and Romans 11:14
if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.
Paul is clarifying that the manner in which all Israel will be saved is according to a righteous, soul-crushing jealousy that looks upon the great blessing and benefit afforded to the Gentiles, and brings the Jewish people to their knees in recognition of their needs for the same Messiah that so richly poured out blessings upon the Gentiles. Paul sees the fullness of the Gentiles as the jumping-off point for the jealousy of Israel, and the jealousy of Israel as the jumping-off point for the grief described in Zechariah 12:10-14
“And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
“In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
“And the land will mourn, each family alone; the family of the house of David alone and their wives alone; the family of the house of Nathan alone and their wives alone;
the family of the house of Levi alone and their wives alone; the family of the Shimeites alone and their wives alone;
all the families that remain, each family alone and their wives alone.
And when Israel grieves and mourns in this way, with a heart of true repentance and faith, then they will be like those of whom Jesus spoke:
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
And that comfort is the comfort of salvation. The fullness of the Gentiles coming will trigger a cascade of events leading to the salvation of Israel.
Next, let’s consider all Israel. What is mean by all Israel?
There are three prevailing views here.
By all Israel, Paul intends “true Israel,” or the descendants of Abraham’s faith that we discussed all the way back in 9:6-10. These are both Jews and Gentiles, and really ought to be understood as the church. This is not the preferable view for two reasons. First, in the immediate context of verse 25, Paul has made a distinction between Israel and the Gentiles. By suddenly changing the definition of all Israel in verse 26, Paul would be writing inconsistently and senselessly. The most natural and literal way to read all Israel is to read it as all ethnic Israel.
By all Israel, Paul intends all to be understood in an absolute sense, in other words, every single individual Jewish person on the face of the planet will be saved. This is not practically plausible. I believe the reason for this is because Israel’s salvation ought to be understood in equal but opposite terms to their rejection. Just as in the midst of the rejection of Israel, a remnant was preserved, so also in the midst of their salvation, there will still be those who remain, on an individual level, hardened toward the gospel. Here is John Murray:
The Epistle to the Romans C. The Fulness of the Gentiles and the Salvation of Israel (11:25–32)
It may not be interpreted as implying that in the time of fulfilment every Israelite will be converted. Analogy is against any such insistence. The apostasy of Israel, their trespass, loss, casting away, hardening were not universal. There was always a remnant, not all branches were broken off, their hardening was in part. Likewise restoration and salvation need not include every Israelite. “All Israel” can refer to the mass, the people as a whole in accord with the pattern followed in the chapter throughout
By all Israel, Paul intends Israel as a corporate, ethnic body of people. We understand this by way of common sense. We speak differently about groups than we do about individuals. We might say “The United States is a federal republic” but we know full well not every single individual American would identify themselves as a federal Republican. Much of America probably doesn’t even know what that means. What Paul intends here then is to speak of Israel as an ethnic group in a corporate sense, rather than individually. Here is Charles Hodge:
A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans Commentary
Israel, here, from the context, must mean the Jewish people, and all Israel, the whole nation. The Jews, as a people, are now rejected; as a people, they are to be restored. As their rejection, although national, did not include the rejection of every individual; so their restoration, although in like manner national, need not be assumed to include the salvation of every individual Jew.
Now we must consider what is meant by “will be saved?”
First, “will be” indicates a future reality. Paul’s statement has eschatological significance. In other words, this fullness of the Gentiles and this salvation of Israel is connected to the conclusion of history. How do we know this? I believe Paul intended us to take him at his word back in verse 15. Some people may say that he’s using a figure of speech, but I think it makes good sense to interpret Paul in verse 15 as telling us that the restoration of Israel marks the conclusion of world history culminating in the final resurrection of the dead to glory.
Second, we need to determine what Paul means by saved. Interestingly, this is a fairly major point of contention as well.
There are folks in the church today who insist that this salvation is not primarily spiritual but actually geopolitical. This view presses in on salvation here meaning a massive Jewish return to the geopolitical land of Israel, along with the removal of non-Jewish people from Jersualem and from Israel as a whole. This interpretation places a premium on the theological significance of the re-institution of Israel as a nation in 1948.
There are a number of problems with this view. The first is a logical problem. If Israel’s geopolitical salvation is triggered by the fullness of the Gentiles coming in, as we saw in verse 25, and then subsequently being beamed up to heaven, the “Rapture” should have happened in 1948, and Christ should have returned and established his earthly kingdom. None of that happened.
Secondly, there are hermeneutical problems with this view. Nowhere in Paul’s argument thus far has he mentioned anything about Israel as a geopolitical entity. He has been concerned with Israel as an ethnic entity, but Israel as a geopolitical entity is simply not part of Paul’s argument at all. In order to find geopolitical Israel in Romans 11, you have to import it in from elsewhere. But the problem is, you can’t find it anywhere else in the Bible, which we’ll get into in our third problem with this view on the theological side. Hermeneutically then, we have to affirm that Israel as a geopolitical entity and Israel’s geopolitical salvation is simply not part of what Paul presents anywhere in Romans.
So we know what Paul is not saying. What is he saying? I believe he is saying this: in a miraculous stroke of divine providence, at the end of this age, vast numbers of ethnic Jews will be brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ. This will be what Jonathan Edwards might have called a revival of religious affections.
This is what Zechariah decribed in Zechariah 13:4-9
“And it will be in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive;
but he will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I am a cultivator of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.’
“And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds struck here between your arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was struck in the house of my friends.’
“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd
And against the man, My Associate,”
Declares Yahweh of hosts.
“Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered;
And I will turn My hand against the little ones.
“And it will be in all the land,”
Declares Yahweh,
“That two parts in it will be cut off and breathe their last;
But the third will be left in it.
“And I will bring the third part through the fire
And refine them as silver is refined
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are My people,’
And they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
Yes, God will judge Israel. He is presently doing so. But in the end, this third group, this remnant, refined and brought through the fires of judgment, will call on the name of the Lord and be saved. This remnant will explode, according to Paul, so that Israel as a nation, as a corporate body, will confess with their mouths Jesus as Lord and believe in their hearts that God raised Him from the dead.
Israel’s future is not geopolitical. Israel’s future is glorious.
It is a future of blessing and benefit poured out for God’s ancient covenant people.
What are those blessings?
And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the lowly, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Israel will inherit an eternal kingdom, eternal comfort, eternal land, eternal satisfaction, eternal mercy, eternal sight of God Himself, and eternal sonship, just as they were originally declared to be back in Exodus.
By faith in Christ all Israel will be saved, just as all God’s elect will be saved.
What this means functionally then is that as Gentile Christians we ought to pray and wait for revival among the Jews. Because if we are to take Paul at his word, when major revival starts to take place among the Jews, we know that the end is near. Christ is coming soon, and the resurrection is just around the corner, and glory is nearly ready to be revealed.
How does Paul know this? He proves it from the Old Testament, quoting a tapestry of psalms and prophecies to prove his point.
Someone read Psalm 14:7
Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When Yahweh restores His captive people,
May Jacob rejoice, may Israel be glad.
Someone else, Isaiah 59:20
“A Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares Yahweh.
The Psalms and the Prophets and Paul himself are all confident that God, in His grace, will cause ethnic Israel to return to Himself, and will bring them into the covenant of grace. Why? Paul tells us in verse 28.
For the sake of the fathers. God will be faithful to the covenant of grace he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He will apply that covenant, by His grace, so that the descendants of Abraham’s flesh become the descendants of Abraham’s faith.
Then in verse 29, for Paul, those gifts that he mentioned back in Romans 9:4-5
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,
whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
These things are irrevocable. God, for His own sake, will bring the prodigal son home.
Verses 30-32 bring us back to the heart of the gospel, but also give us some insight into God’s entire purpose for human history.
Verse 30 shows us that Gentiles owe the mercy they’ve received to the disobedience of Israel, and then verse 31 shows us that Israel owes the mercy they’ve received to the abundance of mercy that’s been poured on on the Gentiles, and then verse 32 shows us that all of us owe the mercy we’ve received the good hand of a loving God who does not reject His elect forever.
Paul teaches us an important truth about God here. God shuts up in disobedience so that He might show mercy. If disobedience did not happen first, there would be no mercy, because it would not be necessary. This is why the Latin scholastics used the phrase o felix culpa, oh fortunate fall, oh happy fault, that made mercy and grace and redemption necessary. How little we would know of God’s goodness or mercy and grace if it were not first for our disobedience. How little we would taste and see of the goodness of the Lord if we had not first felt the gloom of His judgment which lay upon us outside Christ. How little our senses would yearn for the great and free feast of grace if we had not first wallowed in the pig sty of our own sin and wretchedness.
It is only right then, that in view of majestic saving purposes of God for both Jews and Gentiles, that he would burst forth into song:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!
For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR?
Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE REPAID TO HIM?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
The threefold format of the book of Romans is this: Guilt, grace, and gratitude. Guilt in chapters 1-3, grace in chapters 3-11, and gratitude in chapters 12-16. This song then is the transition, the connecting piece between grace and gratitude: a song of worship. How fitting it is, in light of all we have seen of the good grace of God with Paul in these chapters, that he would sing a song of praise to God.
To Him be the glory forever, amen.