Loving Brother (Bill Randolph) says: 31. Sincere Questioner asks: What is the meaning of the phrase in Romans 11:26 and so all Israel shall be saved? Answer: God may indeed have a future plan to convert an entire generation of the nation of Israel. The point of this writing is to demonstrate that Romans 11:26 does not say that. God can do anything He wants to. And it does not have to be in Romans 11:26 in order for Him to do it. However it is true that this is the main verse in the New Testament that Bible teachers use to prove that there will be a divine saving of all of the Jews who will live during the Tribulation. It is Romans 11:26. “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written; ‘The deliverer will come out of Zion. He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’” Romans 11:26 says: . . . and so all Israel shall be saved. The right understanding of that is the following: “And so all Israel shall be saved”. This means simply that “in this manner (by some Jews and some Gentiles being grafted into the olive tree) all true Israel (those who are foreknown, from both Jews and Gentiles) are to be saved. For the explanation of this please read on. 1. Every verse in the Bible must be read in its context. Any text without a context is a pretext. If one is to understand a verse in the Bible he must understand the context in which it is found. So, here is the context of Romans 11:26: a. The greater context of which Romans 11:26 is part, begins with Romans chapter 9. That chapter should be called, “God is Right in His Dealings with Israel.” (1) In the first few verses of chapter 9, Paul shows his concern for physical Israel. He says that God has blessed them immeasurably. (2) Then the Holy Spirit says in 9:6-13 that God, in the New Testament, is not abandoning His promise to Israel. Paul is anticipating an objection by the Jews that he should not be preaching justification by faith to the Gentiles. Some Jews thought that Gentiles could only be saved by coming under the law, and thus, becoming members of the nation of Israel. The Jews teach the following: Look, God promises salvation to Israel. The way to God runs through Israel. The Gentiles must be circumcised and become Jews. (Quotation marks mine) So, Paul says in Romans 9:6 “It is not as though God’s word had failed”. This word is His word of promise that Israel would always be blessed and that they would be the blessers of the world. (3) Paul answers this by saying, “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel”. In other words, he defines Israel. And, he explains them differently than the Jewish religious leaders. He says there are two Israels, one who is really Israel, and one who is not really Israel. There is the Israel of the flesh and there is the Israel of the Spirit. If a person has the genes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he is Israel. But, if he has the faith of those patriarchs, he is truly Israel. This is important to Romans 11:26 because it says “and so, all [Israel] shall be saved.” This demands the question, Who is Israel? (a) The truth of spiritual Israel is taught many other places in the Bible also. The author has already said in Romans 2:28, 29 that “No man is a Jew if he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly;” Other Scriptures on this are in John 8:39 ; Galatians 3:29 ; 4:28-31 ; 6:16 ; Revelation 3:9 . (b) Paul explained that all the descendants of Abraham were not necessarily the true seed. God promised that Abraham’s seed would be a great multitude. He pointed out that Ishmael was not part of the seed. So, to Paul, the Jews of his day, unless they were in Christ, were not the true seed. This is in Romans 9:7 where he quoted Genesis 21:12 “In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” (c) Also, if you were a son of Isaac you were not necessarily really Israel (Romans 9:10-13 ). Paul’s point was that Esau, the oldest twin was not Israel. He explained why the promise was made before the twins were born: “That the purpose of God in accord with His elective ways might stand (be unchanged).” The point was that God did not always save those that it appeared that He would save. Everything pointed to Esau. He was older and had the birthright. But God said He loved Jacob. As a matter of fact, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel. Paul explained this in order to prove that they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel. (4) Furthermore in Romans 9:24-29 Paul shows that the true seed of Israel are not only physical Jews but are also Gentiles. (a) Romans 9:24 says “even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.” So, a Gentile can be a real Jew. What determines if a person is a true Jew or not is God. And those who are God’s have faith. God favors Jacob over Esau. Jacob believes God. Jacob imitates Abraham’s faith. The Gentiles imitate Abraham’s faith. (b) Romans 9:25 substantiates this by quoting Hosea 2:23 “I will call them my people who were not my people; and I will call them beloved who were not beloved” During Old Testament times God overlooked Esau and also the Gentiles. In the New Testament the elect Gentiles were equally accepted with the Jews as the seed. (c) Romans 9:26 quotes Hosea 1:10 to show that God’s way of fulfilling the promise of Abraham’s seed being a great multitude is the salvation of the Gentiles. Loving Brother says, Yes, the elect Jews and Gentiles are the Israel of which Hosea spoke prophesied. (d) Also in Romans 9:27-29 the point is that the original promise did not include all physical Jews. He quoted Isaiah 10:22, 23 to show that only a remnant would escape the destruction by the Assyrian. “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants (seed) we would have become like Sodom”. Remember the context. It was about whom was God speaking when He promised to always bless Israel? This context originated in the first part of Romans chapter 9. The issue was whether God’s word of promise to Israel has failed. Paul’s answer was no, God’s word of promise to Israel had failed. God knew whom He meant by Israel. In truth, according to this chapter Christians were viewed as Israel. And Paul, led by the Holy Spirit, substantiated that by many quotes from the Old Testament. This truth was written in both testaments. One cannot inject meaning into the word “Israel” in Romans 11:26 that Paul has already spent all of chapter 9 explaining differently. Romans 11:26 absolutely must be read along side of Romans 9:6 . By “Israel” Paul does not mean all of the physical Jews. And there is certainly nothing in the entire section (Romans 9, 10, 11) that speaks of a future generation of physical Israel suddenly becoming believers all at one time. It may happen, and it would be a glorious thing. But does Romans 11:26 teach that? Certainly it does not. Chapter 10 of Romans is also in the context of Romans 11:26. In this chapter God shows the human reason why all physical Israel is not saved. He points out that Israel has zeal for God but no righteousness. He shows that they must believe in Christ. Unbelief is their problem. Here are some points made in the end of chapter 10 that are important to the subject at hand. 1. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21 in Romans 10:19 to show that it was prophesied that another nation (the Gentiles) would be privileged instead of Israel “I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.” This Deuteronomy 32:21 Scripture is also prominent in chapter 11. The idea of the Jews being stimulated to emulate the godly Gentiles is mentioned several times. This thought originates in Deuteronomy 32:21 and is quoted as follows: “They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding. Paul warns the Gentiles not to be wise in their own conceits but to understand that God, by saving them, is making friendly overtures to physical Israel. See Romans 11:11 . 2. Paul quotes Isaiah 65:1 to the effect that God would find the Gentiles, even though they do not seek Him. “I was found by those who did not seek me; I was made manifest to them that asked not of me”. It is easy to see that “Israel” can be defined as physical Israel. But in a much grander sense Israel includes the Gentiles if they are the spiritual seed. Those who neither seek nor ask for God are the believing Gentiles. 3. Many well-meaning Christians today tend to define Israel as the Jews do in John 8:39 “John 8:39 “They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did,” It would behoove all believers to study each of the promises from God to Abraham and answer the following question: How do the New Testament writers interpret the promises made to Abraham? Note: This is easy to do by simply reading the Genesis account, making note of each individual promise, and then by looking up the quotation of it in the New Testament. The New Testament quotation of it appears in the margin of a good Bible. The results are most revealing but are somewhat beyond the scope of this treatise. Loving Brother says: To understand the meaning of Romans 11:26, “and so, all Israel shall be saved”, the larger sense of Romans chapter 11 must be explored as follows: 1. The Apostle opened with a question: “Has God cast away His people” Romans 11:1 )? Paul knew that his Jewish opponents would ask that question. This was the big argument that was used to say that Paul was preaching a false gospel. So he anticipated it and answered it for them. a. Exhibit “A” is Paul. He said that God is not casting away his people. Evidence is that Paul is a believer in Christ named Paul. Paul is a Jew. If there is even one Jew who is saved, God is not disposing of His people Israel. As previously explained, an Israelite is not a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, unless he has faith in Christ. (See Romans 9:6 and following.) And there is nothing in the covenant made by God to Abraham that says how many Israelites are intended in the promise. b. But again, Paul, in Romans 11:2 defines who God’s people are. They are the ones He “foreknows”. “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew”. Notice that this foreknowledge is not knowledge about his people, as if He knows something that they would do. No, it goes back to Jacob and Esau again (in chapter 9). God knows Jacob, and He does not know Esau from eternity past. He knows all of His real people before their births. It is like a bachelor who thinks of his bride before he meets her. But in this case the bachelor is God, who knows all. He already knows all. True Israel exists before the world, but only in the mind of God. He foreknows them from eternity past. But it is the same matter as in the context. “They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” Israel is not who it appears to man that they are. True Israel is known by God. c. Now he uses Elijah’s intercession in 1 Kings 19:10 , 18 where God tells Elijah that there is indeed still a remnant seed, even after Jezebels persecution. But it is only by Gods preserving grace that the remnant seed exists. “I have reserved to myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal”. The point is that most all of the people of Israel are not the foreknown people of God. They are not the seed. They are not really Israel according to the Romans definition of the word. According to Romans 11:5, 6 , the real Israel is the foreknown remnant. d. In Romans 11:7 the author returns to the common definition of Israel and says, “What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain, but the elect did.” (1) Just as God saw to it that Jacob overcomes all adversity, just so, the elect (those that God knew before they were born) also overcome. (2) Paul quoted from Psalm 69:22, 23 . David spoke of Israel’s privilege with God as being their “table”. But he said that their privilege became a trap. Israel, like Esau, had blessings. But they spurned those blessings and God pronounced judgment upon them. That is what He did with unbelieving Israel. e. Paul speaks of the fullness of Israel in Romans 11:11-24. The point is that Israels rejection by God is not final, in that God is still saving true Israel. (1) The question was posed in Romans 11:11 . “Have they stumbled that they should fall?” What was God’s purpose in letting them stumble? Did God intend to bring about their fall? Was it God’s purpose to simply set them up to destroy them?” How do these questions fit in with the other questions Paul mentioned? Where were these questions mentioned? (a) Romans 9:6 (implied) “Has God’s word of promise to Israel failed?” (b) Romans 11:1 “Did God reject His people? (c) Romans 11:11 “Was it God’s intention to completely destroy them?” (2) The answer to the question of Romans 11:11 is also in Romans 11:11. God let them fall to bring salvation to the Gentiles with the goal of provoking the Jews to jealousy. God’s judgment on Israel is evangelistic in nature. Jews should see the love of God in the believing Gentiles and follow their example (Deuteronomy 32:21 ). The answer is not that a future generation of Israel is suddenly to be converted. (3) In Romans 11:12 , Paul emphasizes the fullness of Israel. He points out that, if through their fall, the world becomes wealthy (in Christ), this guarantees that Israel also gets a fullness. But the question is, “What is that fullness?” (a) What is the fullness of the Gentiles? The “fullness of the Gentiles” is a key to understanding what the “fullness of Israel” is. In Romans 11:25 He says, “blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in”. The word “fullness” here means the total number of Gentiles that are to be saved. It is a number that is in the mind of God, just as Jacob is in the mind of God before his birth. So then it follows that the fullness of Israel is the same concept as the fullness of the Gentiles. One is compelled by the context to say that the fullness of Israel is the total number of foreknown and elected Jews. This text speaks only about the total number of Jews that are to be saved. It is a stretch to project it into the future Great Tribulation. Paul is not speaking of a future national quickening. He is dealing with why God let them fall. He is explaining that the Jews’ fall is not final, since there is a foreknown seed of them being saved during his days. Fullness is fullness because it means that God says that the full number of those whom He foreknows is to be saved. It is the fulfillment of His actual intention during the His initial promise of this to Abraham. (b) The point of this context is that through Israel’s fall the Gentiles become enriched spiritually by salvation. Much more, through Israel’s fall, the elect Jews are blessed. God is not casting away His people. He is still saving Jews. And He is saving the same Jews that He eternally intends to save. This is the fullness of Israel. (c) In Romans 11:13-15 Paul exalts his office as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He likes to speak of God’s work through him and of God’s salvation of the Gentiles. He does this to “provoke Israel to jealousy”. He believes that when the Jews see God’s grace working in the Gentiles, it will be an evangelistic tool for God to use to save them. So, a Jew who sees God in the life of a Gentile should praise God for it rather than becoming angry because the Gentile seemingly takes the place of the Jew. If their hearts are right, they rejoice in the salvation of the Gentiles. If not, they become jealous. (d) Romans 11:15 speaks of the “receiving of the Jews” being like resurrection from the dead. Please note that in this context, the “receiving” takes place when individual Jews repent and receive Christ. And, the fullness of Israel in Romans 11:12 is the same as the receiving of Israel in Romans 11:15. Paul is speaking of Jews seeing Christ in the lives of Gentiles, repenting, and becoming Christians. Read prayerfully Romans 11:13, 14 with 11:15. Christians should live among Jewish people in such a manner that the Gospel of Christ can be seen in their lives. (4) The Apostle now makes use of two illustrations to show that God’s grace for both Jews and Gentiles flows through the promises that God made to Abraham. This is because he believes that the descendants of Abraham are not just the Jews but also the Greeks . (a) In Romans 11:16 he makes use of an Old Testament truth to show that the first of the dough is given to the Lord and thus consecrates the whole lump. In other words, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are holy. These three are the first fruits. So, all of their true seed are also holy. And how are they holy? They are all delivered by grace through faith, unlike Ishmael and Esau, the mere physical seed. . (b) The Holy Spirit uses an olive tree to illustrate the same truth. The root is the patriarchs. All of the branches are holy. But there are branches in the tree that appear to belong to the tree, but they do not. This is physical Israel. Physical branches do not continue in a spiritual tree. This is a spiritual tree. Those who are like the patriarchs in their hearts are the ones who are the persevering branches. He says that the Gentiles must not boast as if to say that God broke off the Jewish branches so that they (Gentiles) might be grafted in. He does not want the Gentiles to think that they are physically more important than the Jews. He tells the Gentiles that God is the one who does the grafting. And he emphasizes that all who are in the tree “stand by faith”. The big factor is that God can surely graft in the Jewish (natural) branches (Romans 11:24). (c) Notice that this context Romans 11:1-24 is actually about the Church age. It is not about some event in a future age. 2. In Romans 11:25-32 Paul moves to conclusions and applications of his previous words. Notice that he does not shift into the future. a. First, he says that he does not want the Gentiles to be “wise in their own conceits ”. This would be to be “puffed up against the Jews” as in 11:20 . He does not want them to scorn the Jews as if they are nothing and the Gentiles are everything. Gentiles are not to have a haughty attitude toward Jews. b. Then he says that part of physical Israel is blind and part of them can see Christ. He says that this is the situation until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in (Romans 11:25 ). “Fullness means the total number of foreknown Gentiles. The context shows this to be the same as the grafting of the Gentiles into the olive tree. God knows exactly whom he plans to save. When that number is filled the tree is a completed product. c. Now here is the verse in question. Romans 11:26 says, “And so all Israel shall be saved”. This means simply that “in this manner (by some Jews and some Gentiles being grafted into the tree) all true Israel (those who are foreknown from both Jews and Gentiles) will be saved. Here is the explanation: (1) Very clear in the context is the fact that “Israel” is not all of the descendants of Israel. Esau and Ishmael are descendants but they are not saved. Esau and Ishmael are in the tree by physical birth but they are broken off. In Pauls language, to be truly Israel you must be righteous before God by faith. The natural reading of this, in the context, is that God is saving the Israel that was in His mind when making the promise in the first place. It would be an error to spend almost three chapters explaining that they are not all Israel who are of Israel, and then to read Romans 11:26 as if it means all physical Israelites. (2) The little word “so” needs some consideration. It says, And so, all Israel shall be saved. The Greek word for so is houtos. This word is translated “even so” in Romans 5:18 , 21 ; 6:4, 19; 11:5, 31. Many people erroneously think the conveyed understanding should be “. . . until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, and then all Israel will be saved”. However the best rendering of houtos is “even so” or “in this manner”. Notice that houtos is translated so also in Romans 5:18 . The point in Romans 11:26 is that “blindness in part is happened to (physical) Israel (some of them are blind and some of them see) until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in and even so (or thusly) all true Israel shall be saved.” (3) “Blindness in part”, if observed from the optimistic standpoint, means “seeing in part”. So if one thinks of physical Israel as some who can see spiritually and some who cannot, the sense is clear. Some can see and in this manner all true Israel is saved. (4) So, compare Romans “they are not all Israel who are of Israel”, with Romans 11:25 “blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in and even so (or in this manner) all (true) Israel shall be saved. (5) It must be remembered that Paul is summarizing the fact that God is indeed keeping His promises to the Jews right now. The Jews charge Paul with teaching that God is abandoning His promise to Israel. Paul says no, Israel is blind in part until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in. So, all true Israel is to be saved, just as in the original promise of God. Paul is not suddenly leaping into the future to teach something that is not in this context at all. He is not saying that the partial blindness is someday to be lifted. Just as Abraham’s children, Ishmael and Isaac, have a partial blindness (Isaac can see; Ishmael cannot see.), so his seed in the New Testament era have the same “blindness in part”. (6) The reason to believe that Paul is speaking of spiritual Israel is that he says they are to be saved. True Israel is the olive tree. Unsaved branches are broken off. (7) Some interpreters think that this salvation of Israel is yet future because they believe that Romans 11:26 speaks of the second coming of Christ. But Paul here references Isaiah 59:20 and Psalm 14:7 by quoting “There shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” However this is a reference to the first coming of Christ and not the second coming of Christ. To substantiate this please consider the following factors: (a) Paul, along with the above quotation, also follows in Romans 11:27 by quoting from Isaiah 27:9 and Jeremiah 31:31-34 . And this is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins.” His point is that Jesus’ coming establishes the New Covenant. “For this is my covenant with them when I shall take away their sins.” If indeed this verse is about the second coming, Israel does not even have a New Covenant until the second coming of Christ. Does a Jewish person need to wait for the second coming of Christ to have his or her sins removed? No, there is a New Covenant for them now, as the whole context of Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11 clearly demonstrates. (b) For a clear explanation of the meaning of the New Covenant as prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-34 one has only to examine Hebrews 8:8-13 . The fulfillment of this prophecy of the New Covenant does not await the second coming of Christ. It is ratified by the death of Christ at His first coming. And its benefits are clearly said to be “to the Jew first and also to the Greek ”. (c) Notice also that Paul does not go into the future to explain what he is saying. In Romans 11:28 he evaluates physical Israel two ways. From the perspective of the Gospel, the unbelieving Jews are enemies. But from the perspective of election God loves them. God’s love for the Jewish people is twofold. He loves them because they are descendants of his beloved patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But for those who are in Christ He accepts them “in the beloved”. God loves both Jew and Gentile in Christ, so He loves His children with the same love with which He loves His beloved Son. Even though the Jews are fallen, God continues His covenant with them to save a seed of their nation. He also saves a seed of their nation during Old Testament times. As God is said to be saving the world by saving certain ones from among the Gentiles (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19), so, in this same way, He is saving Israel by saving a seed of their nation. So, there is a “fullness” of Israel and there is a “fullness” of the Gentiles. But both are in this age. Maybe there is yet to be a quickening of mass quantities of Jews. This would be good to see. But Romans 11 plainly teaches that God is still saving Israel, as He promised. He is not casting away His people. And if an entire nation is to be saved all at one time it must be by repentance and faith in Christ. (d) An objection to taking Romans 11:26 as the first coming of Christ is that Romans 11:27 uses the future tense, The deliverer shall come from Zion . . . But, it must be remembered that the future tense is used because the verse is quoted from the Old Testament. The prophet, writing hundreds of years before Christ, anticipates the first coming of Christ. Commonly, when the Old Testament is quoted in the New Testament, the tenses remain as originally written. This writing demonstrates that the chapters that precede Romans 11:26 and also verses that follow it, speak of truth in the New Testament era. To lift a verse out of its normal context and to infuse it with future meaning is, questionable, to say the least. To make it say “until the fullness of the Gentiles is come in, and then all Israel will be saved”, when houtos never means then, is fallacious interpretation.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 02:27:24 +0000