Romans 11:25–32, deserves especially careful treatment because of the famous statement:
“And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
Our job here is not to rush to either conclusion—neither “this proves a future national conversion of Israel” nor “this obviously means the church.” We should first ask what “in this way” points back to, what Paul has meant by Israel throughout chapters 9–11, and what the olive-tree illustration has just shown us.
AND SO ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED
Romans 11:25–32
Paul has just described one olive tree.
Some natural branches were broken off because of:
unbelief.
Gentile believers were grafted in and:
stand by faith.
Those Gentiles must continue in God's kindness or they too can be cut off.
And the broken-off Jewish branches can be grafted in again:
“If they do not continue in their unbelief.”
Now Paul says there is something he does not want the Gentile Christians to misunderstand.
“I DO NOT WANT YOU TO BE UNAWARE”
Paul writes:
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.”
— Romans 11:25
Notice why Paul tells them this.
He does not want Gentile believers to become:
“Wise in your own sight.”
That continues the warning he has just given:
“Do not be arrogant toward the branches.”
Gentile Christians must not look at unbelieving Israel and conclude:
God is finished with them. We have replaced them because we are better.
No.
Paul has already warned against exactly that kind of pride.
ISRAEL'S HARDENING IS PARTIAL
Paul says:
“A partial hardening has come upon Israel.”
— Romans 11:25
That word partial matters.
Paul does not say:
Every Israelite has been hardened.
That couldn't be true.
Paul himself was an Israelite.
There was a Jewish:
“Remnant, chosen by grace.”
So the hardening was not universal.
Some Israelites believed.
Others did not.
Paul has already described them as branches that were broken off because of unbelief.
“UNTIL THE FULLNESS OF THE GENTILES HAS COME IN”
Then Paul says the partial hardening continues:
“Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”
This phrase has produced many interpretations.
Some see a future point when the complete number of Gentiles has entered, followed by a large-scale conversion of ethnic Israel.
Others understand Paul as describing the continuing process by which Gentiles come into God's people while Jewish unbelief remains only partial.
We shouldn't decide merely because one interpretation fits a system we already hold.
We need to keep reading.
Especially important is Paul's next expression.
“AND IN THIS WAY”
Paul says:
“And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
— Romans 11:26
Some English translations have:
“And so all Israel will be saved.”
That can sound like Paul means:
First the Gentiles come in, and THEN all Israel will be saved.
But the Greek expression kai houtōs normally carries the sense:
“and in this way,”
or:
“and thus.”
That shifts our attention from merely when something happens to how it happens.
So we should ask:
In what way?
Paul has just spent several verses describing a process.
Some Jewish branches are broken off because of unbelief.
Gentiles are grafted in through faith.
Jewish branches can be grafted back in if they cease their unbelief.
And:
“In this way all Israel will be saved.”
At the very least, we should let that immediate context control our interpretation.
WHO IS “ALL ISRAEL”?
This is the difficult question.
Paul certainly uses Israel in these chapters to speak of his fellow Jews.
He began Romans 9 saying:
“My kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites.”
Romans 10 speaks repeatedly of Israel.
Romans 11 begins:
“Has God rejected his people?”
And Paul answers:
“I myself am an Israelite.”
So we should be cautious about suddenly making “Israel” mean something entirely different without textual reason.
But Paul has also already made an important distinction:
“Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.”
— Romans 9:6
So physical descent alone has never guaranteed salvation.
Whatever “all Israel” means, it cannot contradict that.
DOES “ALL” HAVE TO MEAN EVERY INDIVIDUAL ISRAELITE?
No.
Paul certainly cannot mean that every Israelite who has ever lived will eventually be saved regardless of faith.
That would contradict almost everything he has just said.
Some Israelites:
stumbled.
Some:
did not believe.
Some:
did not obey the gospel.
Some branches were:
broken off because of unbelief.
And Paul says they can return:
“If they do not continue in their unbelief.”
Faith still matters.
So “all Israel” cannot reasonably mean salvation of every physical Israelite irrespective of response to Christ.
THE DELIVERER COMES FROM ZION
Paul supports his statement from Scripture:
“The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”
— Romans 11:26
And:
“And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
— Romans 11:27
Paul draws from Isaiah 59 and Isaiah 27.
Notice what the Deliverer does.
He deals with:
ungodliness
and
sins.
That is exactly the problem Paul has been addressing throughout Romans.
Salvation comes through God's work in Christ.
The hope of Israel is not a separate salvation apart from Christ.
Their Deliverer is Christ.
DOES PAUL GIVE ISRAEL A SECOND WAY OF SALVATION?
No.
That would contradict Paul's entire letter.
Paul has already said:
“There is no distinction between Jew and Greek.”
And:
“The same Lord is Lord of all.”
The olive tree has one root.
Gentiles do not have one way into God's people while Jews have another.
The issue remains:
faith or unbelief.
That is why Paul could say of the broken Jewish branches:
“If they do not continue in their unbelief, they will be grafted in.”
They don't need another covenant of salvation.
They need Christ.
ENEMIES—AND YET BELOVED
Paul continues:
“As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.”
— Romans 11:28
That describes their present opposition to the gospel.
But Paul immediately adds:
“But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.”
God has not forgotten the historical people through whom His promises came.
Abraham.
Isaac.
Jacob.
Israel.
The Messiah Himself came through them.
Paul refuses to allow Gentile Christians to despise the Jewish people because many have rejected Christ.
“THE GIFTS AND THE CALLING OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE”
Then comes another famous statement:
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
— Romans 11:29
This verse is sometimes removed from its context and applied to an individual's talents or personal ministry.
But that isn't what Paul is discussing.
He is discussing:
Israel
and
God's faithfulness to His promises.
God does not abandon His purpose.
Israel's unbelief did not make God's promises fail.
That has been Paul's argument since Romans 9:6:
“It is not as though the word of God has failed.”
Romans 11:29 belongs to that same argument.
THEN PAUL PUTS JEW AND GENTILE SIDE BY SIDE
Paul turns directly to the Gentile Christians:
“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience...”
— Romans 11:30
Gentiles should not become arrogant.
Why?
Because they too had once been:
disobedient.
Their standing before God rests upon:
mercy.
Then Paul says of Israel:
“So they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.”
— Romans 11:31
There is Paul's hope again.
Mercy for Gentiles.
And:
mercy for Jews.
THEN COMES AN EXTRAORDINARY SUMMARY
Paul says:
“For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”
— Romans 11:32
Look at where Paul has brought us.
Romans began by showing that Gentiles were sinners.
Then Paul turned to Jews.
His conclusion was:
“All have sinned.”
Now, near the end of this long discussion about Israel and the Gentiles, Paul again brings everyone together.
All need mercy.
Jewish ancestry cannot eliminate that need.
Gentile faith gives no reason for boasting.
Nobody stands before God and says:
I earned my place here.
Everyone who is saved stands there because of:
God's mercy.
DOES “MERCY ON ALL” MEAN EVERYONE WILL BE SAVED?
Again, context matters.
Paul cannot mean that every human being will finally be saved regardless of faith.
He has just described branches being broken off because of unbelief.
He has warned Gentile believers that they can be cut off.
And he has said Jewish branches can return if they cease their unbelief.
The “all” emphasizes the universal need and availability of God's mercy across the Jew-Gentile divide.
Both groups have known disobedience.
Both depend upon mercy.
SO WHAT DOES “ALL ISRAEL” MEAN?
We should admit that good Bible students disagree about the exact expression.
There are several major possibilities.
It may refer to a future widespread turning of ethnic Israel to Christ.
It may refer to the complete saved remnant of Israel across God's saving work.
Some understand it more broadly as God's complete covenant people, Jew and Gentile together.
But there are several things the text makes much clearer than the disputed phrase itself.
Whatever interpretation we choose must fit these facts:
Not all physical descendants of Israel are God's faithful Israel.
A remnant of Jews has believed.
Some Jewish branches were broken off because of unbelief.
Gentiles were grafted in through faith.
Gentiles must continue in God's kindness.
Jewish branches can be grafted in again if they cease their unbelief.
There is one olive tree.
And salvation comes through:
Christ.
Any interpretation of “all Israel” that contradicts those things is probably asking the phrase to say something Paul did not intend.
ONE THING PAUL CERTAINLY DOES NOT TEACH
Paul does not give us:
one salvation for Gentiles through Christ
and
another salvation for Jews through physical descent.
That would destroy his argument.
Romans 10:12 said:
“There is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all.”
The Jewish branches return to the tree the same way anyone stands in the tree:
faith rather than unbelief.
READ PAUL BEFORE READING A SYSTEM INTO PAUL
Romans 11:26 has become a battleground.
People sometimes arrive already knowing what:
“All Israel will be saved”
must mean.
Then they make the surrounding verses fit that conclusion.
Let's reverse the process.
Start with Paul's argument.
Follow it from Romans 9.
Watch the remnant.
Watch faith and unbelief.
Watch branches being broken off and grafted in.
Watch God's mercy toward both Jew and Gentile.
Then interpret:
“All Israel will be saved”
inside that argument.
That's exegesis.
Read first. Conclude later.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Ask the text:
Was all Israel hardened?
No.
The hardening was:
“Partial.”
Does “in this way” necessarily mean “after that”?
No. It naturally directs attention to the manner or way Paul has been describing.
Can “all Israel” mean every physical Israelite regardless of faith?
That would conflict with Paul's repeated statements about unbelief and broken branches.
Is there a separate way of salvation for Jews?
No.
There is:
“The same Lord...Lord of all.”
Why should Gentiles never boast over Jews?
Because Gentiles themselves once lived in disobedience and received:
mercy.
What do Jews need?
The same thing:
mercy.
And Paul ends this entire difficult discussion by putting both groups together:
“God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”
After three chapters of difficult questions about Israel, election, hardening, faith, unbelief, Jews and Gentiles, Paul does something beautiful.
He stops arguing.
And he worships.
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!”
That is where we go next.
NEXT: OH, THE DEPTH!
Romans 11:33–36
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
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