Romans - Lesson 46

Romans 11:25-32

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number 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 turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

A. Post-Holocaust Hermeneutics:  

It is clear that verses 25-26 are the climax of the chapter now. Paul turns to them and says that he doesn’t want them to be ignorant of this mystery. When Paul uses the word mystery, he usually uses it in the sense of something that was hidden in the Old Testament but now revealed in the New Testament. The mystery is this – and note his purpose again – “so that you may not be conceited.” He is worried about this arrogance, particularly among the Gentiles. “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” Israel hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. We see a reflection of this sequence one more time. 

And then verse 26, “And in this way, all Israel will be saved.” The question is which of these moments does this language refer to? One way of viewing this is to see it as referring to the entire process, but another way of understanding it is seeing it to refer to this particular stage in the process. Let me look at the options and explain a little bit more about how it works. 

“All Israel will be saved.” First of all, quickly, simply mentioning it to dismiss a view, there are those who say that this is a verse promising that the people of Israel will be saved by their own covenant, apart from Christ. In academic theology, there is this thing people call post-holocaust hermeneutics, which basically says in light of the holocaust, what happened in the Nazi regime during World War II, we need to rethink the way we are interpreting Scripture with respect to the people of Israel. We need to remove any possible anti-Semitism from our interpretation. 

So, one thing that we should do in light of that is to recognize Israel’s valid relationship with God through her own covenant. Sometimes this is called bi-covenantialism because of the idea that God has established two distinct salvific covenants; one with the people of Israel who are saved by their covenant which is focused on the Torah, and another covenant that is focused on Christ and is for the Gentiles. 

I mention this because it has become a popular view in some circles, appealing to our era of tolerance and pluralism. But this is plainly not what Paul is teaching. No, Paul doesn’t specific say that all of Israel will be saved by believing in Jesus, but he has defined salvation clearly enough throughout Romans that it is entirely valid to think that is implied here. In other words, throughout Romans Paul has made clear that the salvation God now offers people for all human beings, and remember how often Paul has said, Jew and Gentile right back to 1:16, is tied to Christ, God’s righteousness in Christ, and faith in Him. I bring that up to say this is a view that we should be aware of, we may hear it at some point, but which needs to be rejected.

B. Who Is Included and When: 

More interesting is the question of the who and when. “All Israel will be saved.” Does that mean that all Jews and Gentiles who are elect by God will come to salvation throughout history? Does it mean that all elect Jews will be saved throughout history? Or is it referring to an end-time salvation of a large number of Jews? These are where the options are. Good evangelical interpreters hold each of these views. It is one of those matters where we can’t be certain about as to what Paul intends. 

For me, it is likely that the reference is to the third view as you would know, I assume, by reading my commentary on that, but this is one I remember struggling with. The evidence isn’t as clear as one might like it to be. 

A couple of other things get involved in this. There is the question of Israel and the church. The first view takes the reference to Israel as referring to the entire church. Calvin, Luther, and many of the reformers along with Tom Wright in our day argue that view. That assumes that the word Israel can be applied to Gentile Christians. The question is whether that is a valid thing that Paul does or not.

Personally, I think he does do that in Galatians 6:16 where Paul talks about the Israel of God. I think that is a way of saying the whole people of God who now can be called Israel in the sense that the church inherits in the New Covenant age the blessing and benefits that God had promised to Israel. I think there is basis for that. 

The first view is the one that has been maintained by traditional dispensationalism where that particular movement, that particular way of reading Scripture clearly distinguishes always between Israel and the church. 

Traditional covenant theology tends to move more toward the second way of reading Israel and virtually equate the two. My former colleague Greg Beale for instance argues this very strongly. 

The third view, a kind of mediating one, saying sometimes Israel does refer to national people of God, the Jews. Sometimes, however, Paul uses it in the theological sense and I am more in that third camp. For me, it is possible that Israel in verse 26 might include the Gentiles. I can’t rule that out, I think Paul does do that. But in this context where Paul in verse 25 distinguishes between Gentiles and Israel, it is very unlikely that verse 26 suddenly shifts to a different meaning of the word.

Student:  
This all turns on the meaning of “thus” right? If “thus” refers back to verse 25, then you can make the case for the “all.” This is the way God works out His salvation for the church. 

Dr. Moo:  
The word there at the beginning of the verse probably should be translated ‘in this way.’ People who hold each of these views are happy in arguing that. Some who hold the third view want to translate it as “then,” in other words, to make it a clear sequence. This is possible meaning for the word but it is not the normal meaning to the word. 

If you translate it “then,” you have the sequence here: Israel experiences a hardening until the full number of Gentiles comes in and then once the full number of Gentiles come in, then all Israel is saved. That makes a neat sequence where the salvation of Israel is something that is yet future. 

In my view, as you know from reading the commentary, I tend to agree with people like Greg Beale who think that the fundamental way in which we see the testaments related is that the promises made to Israel are now being fulfilled in the church. However, I do see in Romans 11 a place where Paul says that God still has a future for some of the people of Israel; that He is going to save a significant number of them at the end. I do think that the subsequent text here, “The deliverer will come from Zion” probably refers to Christ’s coming at the end of history. So, as I put it together then, at the end of history when Christ returns again, God in His grace is going to reach out to save a significant number of Jewish people demonstrating His continuing faithfulness to His promises to them. 

Student:  
If, at some point in history, say two or three generations a substantial majority of Jews within those generations come to Christ, then you better start thinking that the end is nigh?

Dr. Moo:  
Part of the problem is, when and what is the sequence of events. I don’t think Paul is specific enough to say. Some say that it is the Parousia itself, the appearance of Christ that is going to trigger the salvation of the Jews. The salvation of the Jews may not precede the coming of Christ’s glory. We are just not sure of what that sequence is. 

Student:  
Israel in this case is going to be the descendants of Abraham? 

Dr. Moo:  
The phrase, ‘all Israel’ is used quite widely in Scripture, not in the sense of every single Jew, but in the sense of a representative and significant number of some sort. It is certainly not promising salvation for every single Jew or every single Jew that is alive when Christ returns. Paul is saying that in contrast to the small number we see now, there will be a greater number coming in at the end. 

Student:  
The thing that gets me is that it certainly is calling for a great faith in the providence of God and His remembrance of who actually is a descendent of Israel.

Dr. Moo:  
Right. There are long discussions by Jews as to what it means to be Jewish. The State of Israel has had to set up very strict qualifications in terms of what it means to be a Jew. That could be left with God from the standpoint of what Paul is saying.

Student:  
Could that slide be changed to be “all the faith-filled Jews.” Could a word like that be used?

All May Not Mean All: Dr. Moo:  
I guess. I think that we – Arminians and Calvinists – all agree that people are elected; the question is on what basis. 

Student:  
You learn very quickly that the word all doesn’t always mean all, like we often use it. At the beginning of the letter, it does seem to mean all, and it seems to be stressing it, that we’re all under sin. But now he doesn’t mean all, he means a great number. This seems to be a pretty big change right there in the same letter. 

Dr. Moo:  
There is no neat mathematical rule when you come to the word “all.” You have to look at its context, see how it is used elsewhere. Often, we have an implicit restriction when we use the word all. All of the group that I’m talking about but not all unrestricted. 

We use that everyday language; all the people were upset. Are you saying every single human being who has ever lived was upset? No, what I mean is all the people I am talking about and even then I mean the majority, a lot of them, some vocal ones, maybe not even the majority. You have to look at every text in Scripture that way and figure out what is intended. 

Student:  
You kind of see that in “all were shut up under lawlessness so that He might show mercy to all.” 

Dr. Moo:  
Right. In verse 32 we have this very same issue here. Another text cited for universalism where again the issue is, what does all mean. 

Student:  
It seems to me that the Jews are jealous that God is interested in the Gentiles. And the Gentiles are jealous of the Jews. And neither one realizes that the root system of God is big enough to accommodate both. Both the branches that were grafted on as well as the ones who grew naturally.

Dr. Moo:  
That’s exactly right. This kind of mirrors the situation in the Roman church. Do you see how this is setting up Romans 14-15? This whole theology about Israel and the Gentiles; Paul is going to bring that home when he talks to these two groups in the Roman church and tells them to stop fighting with each other. You Jews need to recognize that the Gentiles are part of the picture because God is bringing them in, and you Gentiles, rejoicing that you have been brought in, need to stop being prideful and arrogant. You need to stop looking down at the Jews as if God is done with them. All of this theology is building up to what Paul is going to say in Romans 14 and 15 when he talks to the community there. 

Student:  
Is he saying this about the attitude towards the unbelieving Jews might spill over on the believing? 

Dr. Moo:  
I think that is related, yes. It is a little difficult to know when Paul is talking about not boasting over the natural branches, is he talking about Jewish Christians or Jews? It is probably a little of both.

D. The Mystery of Salvation History:  

I want to talk about the mystery finally as we look at this text. I think is a sort of an interesting Old Testament issue. If we are doing our work carefully, we come to Paul’s quotation in verse 26, “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.” 

What does Isaiah 59:20-21 say? Anyone know? Let’s look back there, this is what Paul is quoting. Isaiah 59:20-21. “The Redeemer will come to Zion,” Paul says that deliverer will come from Zion. The Hebrew of Isaiah 59:20 can either mean the sense of either come to or come for the sake of. The Hebrew there can’t mean from and yet that is how Paul quotes it here. 

Once again what we find Paul doing here is that we find, not infrequently a New Testament use of the Old Testament, a quotation of the Old Testament in light of the fulfillment in Christ. Paul has changed the ‘to’ to the ‘from’ and the question is why? 

In Isaiah, you have this kind of typical sequence that the prophets talk a lot about. Isaiah talks about Israel’s sin at the beginning of the chapter and then says how God is going to intervene, He is going to judge Israel’s enemies, He is going to gather together the exiles, and the deliverer will come to Zion. God will manifest Himself for His people. He will come to Zion to deliver the people and to judge God’s enemies. Yet Paul says that the deliverer is coming, the Redeemer, the Deliverer, is coming from Zion and I think what that means, Paul is reflecting on what that means in light of the coming of Christ. 

In the Old Testament, you have a fairly common sequence; God will deliver Israel, He will rescue the people from their enemies, He will exalt Jerusalem, He will make the land fruitful again. This will be something that will bring Gentiles in; Gentiles will then join in with Jews in a restored Zion. This is a typically familiar theme in Isaiah. 

Paul, now looking at what God has done in salvation history, sort of reverses that theme. Gentiles have already come into Zion as he suggests in 9:33, “I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble, a rock that makes them fall and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Remember Paul quotes this later on in chapter 10, with an “anyone who believes in Him” including the Gentiles. 

There is this puzzling turn that salvation history has taken that Paul continues to comment on again and again. In fact, Gentiles are coming in first and making Jews jealous whereas people would have thought that God was going to deal with the Jews first and make the Gentiles jealous. 

So, there has been a reversal which leads Paul to change the wording of this verse. Gentiles have streamed into Zion. Israel is still in sort of in exile because they have not responded to the grace of God in the Gospel. So, the deliverance of Israel will come from Zion since God has already restored Zion by bringing the Gentiles in.