Romans 11:16-24
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
The text before us is one of the most controversial regarding the Jews and ethnic Israel. The big question is not simply how will the Jews be saved? It is particularly, how will all Israel be saved? Here is the mystery of all Israel’s salvation. There are three main interpretations to answer that question. But the main question is to ask, who is “all Israel”? Because this forms the basis for the three major views.
1) ‘All Israel’ is the mass of all Jews living on earth when Christ shall return. It is said that the full number of the elect Gentiles will be saved and gathered in after that a mass of the Jews – Israel on a large scale will be saved at the time of Christ’s return. This is the most popular view adopted by most and especially dispensationalists.
2) ‘All israel’ is the total number of elect Jews, the total number of all Israel’s remnant, and this is the parallel of the term, ‘the fullness of Gentiles” in verse 25. William Hendricksen and many others hold to this view.
3) ‘All israel’ is the sum total of the elect of God throughout history from among the Jews and Gentiles, in the Old and the New Testaments. John Calvin who holds this position states, “I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning: when the Gentiles shall come in, and thus will be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both…”
Which of these views do you regard as the most plausible? Let us just follow the leading of the passage before us to come to a conclusion on which of these views is the most biblical in light of the truths of God’s word before us. But the question remains, How will all Israel be saved?
We must rejoice that the text is clear that “all Israel will be saved.” None will be left out of the great salvation. All within the term Israel will be saved. This is shows that our Saviour is Great… Halleluiah, what a Saviour!
1. There is a Partial Hardening upon Israel (v.25)
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Lest you be wise in your own eyes, directed at the Gentiles (in Rome) is meant to tell them “Lest ye proudly imagine that your own ideas of the destiny of the Jews are correct; or Lest ye be proud and elated, as though you were better and more highly favoured than the Jews.” The former is perhaps the most preferable in accordance with the literal meaning of the words.[1]
1) Warning to the Gentiles: Do not be wise in your own eyes. This is addressed to the Gentiles brothers, beginning with his readers in the church of Rome. They must neither be arrogant nor ignorant. And as we approach this text, the same warning is given to us because we are equally brothers. Paul calls the Roman Christians brothers, very fondly and affectionately. We must not approach these verses with conceit, with arrogance, with ‘know it all’ attitude, with a prideful heart. He wants us to take to heart what God has for us in his word.
2) Exhortation to the Gentiles: I want you to understand. The Lord will not want us ignorant, instead He wants us to understand. The Lord does not want us to be unaware or uninformed of this mystery. There is a high possibility of jumping into conclusions ignorantly and proudly. But the Spirit says through Paul, “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.” We must not come to the text with preconceived ideas and notions. We must come to the Word of God with eagerness to learn and be guided in the right direction.
3) Truth about Jews: A partial hardening upon Israel. This truth is called the mystery. There is a mystery connected with what follows regarding the Jews. Mystery does not mean something secret or hidden or incomprehensible to the human mind. Rather it is something that was once hidden but is now revealed. We Gentile Christians need to especially know, so that we do not entertain our own folly or end up with a wrong attitude regarding the Jews. No one of us should rejoice this morning because Iran has joined the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Their drones were shot down by the American soldiers earlier today. There is nothing to rejoice about this sad and tragic developments in the Middle East. But this text is not about that – it is that there is a spiritual hardening against.
The truth is that a partial hardening has come upon Israel. This partial hardening can also be translated as temporary hardening and fractional hardening. This hardening is temporary in that it has come upon Israel. There was a time when it was not there.
This hardening is partial in that is not absolute. For this petrification is not absolute and unqualified – there is always a saved remnant. This partial hardening was true in the past, is true now, will still be in the future but it is not absolute in that there has always been Israelites who were saved. Israel’s rejection is not absolute but partial, and temporary not final. Israel has experienced a partial hardening (v. 25b) see verse 7. It is God who hardens as a judicial process/act (9:18). This is the veil in 2 Cor. 3:14.
It is partial in that it is fractional not whole. Not all the Jews have been hardened but there is the remnant saved by grace. Partial hardening which is described in Mark 3:5, “And he (the Lord Jesus) looked round at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…” This hardness of heart or blindness is partial in its extent, and will continue partially, and temporarily or for a while! The blindness of Israelites is to continue until something else happens – until the fullness of the Gentiles come in.
4) Question to us: How long is the hardening upon Israel? Remember what has already been said, Israel as a nation stumbled and was rejected because of their unbelief, since they would not believe in Christ Jesus and be saved. Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews (1 Cor. 1:23). The gospel is proclaimed to all the Gentiles and the elect Gentiles embrace Jesus Christ who is freely offered in the gospel and these believing Gentiles are saved. Then God will use the salvation of the Gentiles to make the Jews envious. The result is that the elect Jewish remnant embraces Christ, in accordance to the eternal purpose and plan of God. Through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles (11:11). This seems to be the divine process that the Lord has planned – that the ethnic Israel will harden their hearts in rebellion (even as the Lord judiciously hardens them).
How long will their hardening be?
5) Answer from the Bible: Until the Fullness of Gentiles has come in. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. it is for a while, demarcated by the word, ‘until’. The hardening of Israel will not last forever – it is temporal and for this we praise the Lord! But, sadly, this hardening will continue to for a while, until the full number of the elect Gentiles has been gathered into the flock of Christ. It is a reality that more Gentiles are embracing Jesus Christ offered in the gospel more than the Jews. It is a reality that many Jews are viciously opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, even though He is their son according to the flesh. Even though Jesus Christ is descended from David and is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament… yet they reject and so stumble in their unbelief.
And when will this be? Clearly, until the glorious return of Christ, for this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matt. 24:14). There is no time when the gospel will cease to be proclaimed throughout the whole world of both Jews and Gentiles until Christ returns, and then the end will come. The Jews and the Gentiles will ever have the testimony of Christ as their Saviour. And as long as the gospel is proclaimed, the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes is unleashed. It is good news to know that the fullness of Gentiles will come into the Kingdom of Christ. It is good news to know that the Jews will not be hardened for ever but that it will come a time when their hardening will be melted by the grace of God.
Does this mean that in the future there will be a mass conversions of the Jews? Is this the full number? We hope that there will come a time when many Jews will embrace Christ and submit to his rule. We pray and long for it. Yet, even if this was to be the case, this can barely be called “all Israel”. Does this mean that all Israel is the fullness of all the elect Jews? Maybe!
6) The Fact: And in this way all Israel will be saved… Partial (ethnic) Israel + Fullness of the Gentiles = ALL ISRAEL! If there is a misunderstanding of the opening clause in verse 26, for some translate it, “And so” (KJV, NRSV, Darby, etc.) but the best translation is, “And in this way (or manner)” The way in which all Israel is saved is, through this partial hardening of Israel, and the conversion of the fullness of the Gentiles, leading to the envy of the Jews, and leading to conversion of the Jews and in this way, all Israel is saved. So there is a possibility that the Jews will indeed get to a point where their envy will lead to a good number of them, perhaps most, (if not all the living Jews) to salvation! But what Paul has been saying is that there will always be a remnant chosen by grace (11:5). It will always be grace not works, or blood or lineage – grace alone, out of faith alone and in Christ alone and for God’s glory alone.
If 11:26 teaches mass conversion of the Jews at the end, would it not seem as if Paul is saying, “Forget what I told you previously?” Further if Paul is here predicting such a future mass conversion of Jews, is he not contradicting, if not the letter, the spirit of, of his earlier statement found in 1 Thess. 2:14b-16[2]: For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displease God and oppose all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved—so as always to fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last!
Will all the Jews living at the time of Christ’s return be converted? In response to this position, Lenski responding to Meyer says, (if) “when Christ comes to judgment, he will not find a single unconverted person, Gentile or Jew! Christ was, then mistaken when he asked, “When the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8; Matt. 24:11-14). According to Meyer he will find nothing but faith. A few advance beyond Meyer. Does not “All Israel” include also all the dead hardened Jews? So they, too, will be converted, being raised up for this very purpose when that final univesal Jewish conversion takes place.
We must remember that the term Israel has already been explained in 9:6-8 as follows; But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “through Isaac shall your offspring be named”. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. Therefore, the term Israel (though mostly used to refer to ethnic Israelites or Jews in this text) refers to the elect in this verse just as in 9:6. The remnant chosen by grace, the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16) = all the people of God, both Jews and Gentiles. Granted that the term Israel is used here mostly to refer to the ethnic Israelites (Jews), yet there is a compelling reason to adopt this interpretation because the phrase, “And in this way all Israel is saved” includes both the fullness of the Gentiles and the remnant Jews who are both and equally the elect of God and therefore the people of God.
It should makes us praise God to know that God is no respecter of persons – He is just and holy. And holy and true are all his ways. He shows no partiality on the basis of anything in any human being – Jews and Gentiles alike. It should encourage our hearts and enliven our souls to know that none of the elect Jew or Gentile will be forgotten. It should encourage us to know that He is not just the God of the Jews, He is also the God of the Gentiles too. He is therefore the Saviour of all (both Jews and Greeks) who have faith in Jesus Christ.
What is the outcome of this salvation?
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
“and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
The Deliverer is the Saviour and the Saviour is Jesus Christ who is the eternal Son of God. He, the Son of God became man and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures yet one person forever. He is the only Mediator between God, and men. He will come from Zion, not the earthly Zion but the glorious Zion for He left the glory to come to his elect on earth in order to save them from their sins. He came from Zion because He came from Israel and was descended from the lineage of Judah through to David. "From their race according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever. Amen!" (Romans 9:5)
The Deliverer will do the following;
a) He will banish ungodliness from Jacob: Christ came to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. The reason why the Son of Man appeared was to save people from their sins. He came to deal with lawlessness and iniquity and transgression and sin. He came and lived a perfect life on earth. He obeyed the law of God perfectly and fulfilled all righteousness. But then He also died our death. For he took our place and by his death propitiated our sins. He assuaged the wrath of God having satisfied all the demands of the law of God. No sin will remain for He promised, "I will take away their sins!" So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28).
b) He made the new covenant with us. Hear his promise, "This will be my covenant with them..." The Lord has brought us to be in covenant with him! He took the cup after supper saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood!" His blood sealed the covenant of grace and of life and of salvation and of eternal blessing. As it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second...
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 8:6–7, 10-12)
Therefore the sign of being in the new covenant is law-abiding. Obeying the law of the King of kings is a clear evidence of being in his kingdom. We are in the covenant and enjoy all the blessings and privileges of the king.
Conclusion
I rebuke those who think that our God is biased or partial. I reproof them for assigning God a wrong doing. You should repent for attributing evil to God – He is the one who chose the Israelites as a nation to accomplish his purpose of election. He now includes the Gentiles, not because of anything better with the Gentiles than with the Jews, but only because He chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
O you proud, abase yourself to the Lord. Humble yourself because you did not deserve salvation – none deserves salvation – not me; not you; not anyone; ever! Pride and salvation cannot sleep on the same bed. This has already been said so clearly in Romans 3:27–31 “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.”
This also means that doubting Thomases have to believe and receive the word of God with meekness. To doubt the decrees of God is the same as murmuring at his wise decrees or complaining against God’s prerogatives. It is God to determine what is the best for his people – He made us all, we all bear his image and though we fell into sin with Adam, yet Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even doubters, even liars, even criminals. Anyone who will sincerely plead with the Lord of salvation will be saved. Do not remain as a Jew in unbelief because the main character of most Jews is unbelief. Doubting that Christ is the Saviour of sinners is the same as remaing like a Jew who though have the light of the gospel in the Scriptures they insist that Christ is not the Saviour against all reason. Turn to Christ. Believe in him. Trust in Him. Confess your sins of unbelief to Him now!
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