The Redemption of Israel - Part 1 (Romans 11:25-36)
INTRODUCTION:
Paul made an astounding revelation at the end of our passage last week, the end of Romans 11:11-24. In the last two verses Paul wrote that branches that were broken off because of unbelief, representing the unbelieving Jews of the nation of Israel, could be grafted in again. This grafting back in came with a condition if they did not continue in their unbelief. If God were able to take a wild olive branch, representing the Gentiles, and graft it into a cultivated olive tree which is contrary to nature, then how much easier to graft broken or cut-off branches back into their own tree, the cultivated tree from which they had been removed.
Paul now moves into the summary section for all that he wrote in chapters 9-11. Paul is going to finally wrap up for us Israel’s part and place in God’s eternal plan of redemption. We know that God has reserved for Himself a remnant of believing Jews throughout history, but now Paul has spoken of unbelieving Jews being grafted back into the covenant of salvation that God made with Abraham if they do not continue in unbelief. In this summary passage, Paul will reveal to us this mystery of God, he will expound on the mercy of God, and finally his theology will become doxology as theology should always do. Let’s pray and get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:25-36, our passage for this morning. Please stand, if you are able, in honor of the reading of God’s Word. Listen and follow along as I read Paul’s closing remarks on chapters 9-11.
Romans 11:25-36,
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’ ‘This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’ From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the 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 paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:25–36, NASB95)[1]
THE REVELATION OF A MYSTERY (Romans 11:25-29)
Paul begins his summary by telling his readers that he does not want them to be uninformed, in other words, he is saying that he has included these three chapters to inform them of a mystery, to clear up any confusion, to keep them from becoming conceited and proud that they had been offered God’s grace and had put their faith in Jesus Christ because the Jews had rejected God’s offer of grace through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul warns them again to not become conceited, because God has a purpose and an objective in bringing salvation to the Gentiles in this way, and Paul is going to make clear to them what that objective was and to what end it would serve.
A mystery in God’s Word is not like we think of a mystery in our day. To us a mystery is something to be solved by looking for clues and when enough clues have been gathered, then the mystery can be solved. A mystery in Scripture is the revelation of a truth that has been hidden or not fully disclosed in the Old Testament. Paul describes it in the end of Romans as “the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested (revealed).” (Romans 16:25b-26a, NASB95)[2] Paul wants to fully disclose this revelation to them so that they do not think that they have it all figured out and become wise in their own estimation, thinking they know more than they really know.
There are two parts to this mystery that Paul is now going to reveal to them. The first part is that a partial hardening has happened to Israel. The great majority of Jews that make up the nation of Israel have been spiritually hardened, but it is a partial hardening because not every Jew has or will be hardened, because as mentioned before, God has kept for Himself a believing remnant of Jews throughout all of redemptive history. We learned this truth in the first part of this chapter, there is always a remnant. The second part of this mystery is that this partial hardening will continue and remain until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. The fulness of the Gentiles refers to all those chosen and predestined by God in eternity past to be saved, when the complete number of God’s people among the Gentiles is reached, when each Gentile person who was chosen, predestined, called and justified through faith in Jesus Christ has been fulfilled, then Paul writes, “and so all Israel will be saved.” (Romans 11:26a, NASB95)[3] When the last Gentile is saved then a chain of events will begin to take place that will end in all Israel being saved which will usher in the millennial kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This was a truth that must have thrilled the heart of Paul, knowing the concern and burden that he had for his own people. What is the event that will set off the chain of events that will lead to all Israel being saved? The rapture of the church will be the event because then the church will be complete and taken to be with the Lord.
There is no way to get around this phrase “all Israel” to make it mean anything other than what it says, it means the nation, the entire nation that survives God’s judgments during the Great Tribulation will be saved. This cannot refer to the remnant that God has preserved for Himself throughout all of redemptive history, because all Israel is set in contrast to what Paul has already written about the Jewish remnant. Remember in the section before this one Paul wrote that some branches were broken off referring to unbelieving Jews, that they were not all broken off indicates a believing remnant of Jews will continue to exist until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. These believing Jews are not a part of the spiritual hardening that has come upon Israel because of her rejection of her Messiah. This is why Paul referred to it as a partial hardening.
This does not mean that every individual Jew will be saved, but the nation of Israel that goes into the millennial kingdom will be a nation of all Jewish believers in Jesus Christ. The prophet Ezekiel speaks of God’s judgment in separating out the unbelieving, ungodly members. Ezekiel writes, “‘As I live,’ declares the Lord God, ‘surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,’ declares the Lord God. ‘I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord.’” (Ezekiel 20:33–38, NASB95)[4] God will judge the peoples and those who pass safely under God’s rod of judgment will make up the nation of Israel, they will be a nation completely of believers who are ready for the millennial kingdom of their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The prophets had written of this day when all Israel would be saved, Paul quotes from Isaiah 59:20-21 when he writes in verses 26-27, “…and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’ ‘This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.’” (Romans 11:26–27, NASB95)[5] The Deliverer refers to Jesus Christ and when He returns He will come to Zion, which is Jerusalem, Jacob (the nation of Israel) will be cleansed, their sins will be taken away through their faith in Jesus Christ. The prophet Jeremiah also spoke of this new covenant that God would make with the nation of Israel, a covenant that as Gentiles we are privileged to be included in, this new covenant Jesus Christ spoke of on the night He was betrayed when He ate the Passover with His disciples. There He instituted the Lord’s Supper with the bread representing His body of flesh and He said of the wine, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” (1 Corinthians 11:25b, NASB95)[6] This new covenant is the covenant referred to in the Isaiah passage that Paul quotes. Jeremiah speaks of this new covenant as well in the words Timothy read to us this morning in Jeremiah 31:31-34, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’” (Jeremiah 31:31–34, NASB95)[7]
God is sovereign and we see this in His control of history, just as He predicted that He would cut off unbelieving Israel from His tree of salvation, He also predicted that He would graft believing Israel back in, God’s Word never fails, He is faithful to fulfill it and one day when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel will be saved, a nation completely restored and completely saved.
God will do as He says, Israel as a nation will be saved, God will remove ungodliness from Israel, and He will take away their sins. This promise is unconditional, it does not depend on Israel deciding on its own to come back to the Lord, but God in His sovereignty will bring back Israel to Himself. This is the unconditional promise that He made to Abraham and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. All the promises made to Abraham must ultimately be fulfilled.
Paul goes on to explain the current situation and that this was all a determined purpose of God. Paul explains, “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;” (Romans 11:28, NASB95)[8] Paul has already spent considerable time explaining about Israel being set aside for a time, becoming God’s enemies because of their rejection of the Messiah. When they became the enemies of God this allowed salvation to come to the Gentiles. This was the temporary situation from the standpoint of the Gospel, the nation of Israel rejected the Gospel and became God’s enemies, it was offered to the Gentiles and they accepted it by faith. This is the view from the standpoint of the Gospel, but from the standpoint of God’s choice, God’s sovereign election, the nation of Israel is now and forever will be the beloved of God for the sake of the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
God when He sovereignly chose the nation of Israel to be His own nation, His own people, He bound Himself to them by His own promises to bring them to salvation and for them to be His beloved and holy people forever. During the time from their rejection of the Messiah until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, the nation of Israel might be called the beloved enemies of God. Because of their unbelief, just like all unbelievers they are at enmity with God. But because of God’s sovereign election this is not a permanent situation for the Jews, there is coming a time when their enmity with God will come to an end and they will be reconciled to Him through faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for them on the cross.
This cannot be a permanent situation as Paul writes in verse 29 reminding us again of the faithfulness of God to keep His promises, Paul writes, “…for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29, NASB95)[9] The term “gifts” may refer to the promises that God made to Israel through Abraham, promises that were based on His grace as this word gift is based on the Greek word for grace. If you remember grace is God’s unmerited favor, it is nothing we can earn, it is what God has already done for us, the promises made to Abraham were the same, they were not based on who Abraham was or because of something he did or did not do, they were based on the fact that God chose Him to be the recipient of God’s promises and that choice was based on God’s unmerited favor to Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. The calling mentioned in this verse refers to God’s sovereign choice, His divine election of Israel to be His holy people. God knew exactly what the people of Israel would do and in spite of that He still chose them. His word to them is eternal, His promise to them and His calling of them did not change and will not change, all Israel will be saved.
We should clearly understand after almost 11 chapters of Romans that God’s sovereign grace and His sovereign election cannot be earned, it is not based on our race, our social status, on who we are or what we will be, or what we have done or will do, or what we have not done or will not do. God’s sovereign grace and His sovereign choice are based on His sovereignty, and just as they cannot be earned, they also cannot be rejected or opposed. As Paul writes here the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable and neither can they be altered. In other words, Paul is saying that nothing can stop all Israel from being saved and restored, nothing, not even her own rebellion and unbelief. Paul had just declared, quoting Isaiah that her ungodliness would be removed, and her sins taken away by a sovereign and gracious act of the Deliverer who will come to her. The same One who sovereignly and graciously elected believers in eternity past is the same gracious and sovereign God that elected Israel and what is true of elected believers is also true of elected Israel, Paul declared this truth in the end of his letter to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, he wrote, “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24, NASB95)[10] The gifts and the calling of God is irrevocable, in other words God never retracts them, what He has promised and whom He has called He is faithful to fulfill, He will bring it to pass.
CONCLUSION:
This morning we began looking at Paul’s summary to the three chapters he has devoted to Israel’s place and part in God’s plan of redemption. This morning in the beginning of his summary he sets out to inform us so that we will not be uninformed and think we know more than we do, he warns us again not to be wise in our own estimation. In other words, there are some truths that you may not know, they were not fully disclosed in the Old Testament, they were there, but they needed fuller revelation from God to be fully clear. Paul then went on to reveal to us one of these mysteries that would inform us. He plainly told us that the spiritual hardening of Israel was partial, it is not total because God has preserved a remnant for Himself of believing Jews throughout redemptive history, and it is not permanent because he tells us that this partial hardening of Israel will last until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. Once the salvation of God’s people among the Gentiles reaches completion this will set into motion the events that will bring about the salvation of all Israel. Even though at this time Israel is at enmity with God, she is still beloved by God for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel has a future where she as a nation will be saved and restored. God’s gracious gifts and calling are eternal, are irrevocable, what He has promised He will do and whom He has called He will save by His grace. Just as the fulness of the Gentiles will begin the chain of events that will lead to the salvation of the nation of Israel, the salvation of the nation of Israel will set off a chain of events that will end in the millennial kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a future for both the Gentiles and the Jews.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.