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25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
In this passage, Paul concludes the matter he raised in Romans 9:1-6. What about Israel in the gospel-church age? Has God’s Word pertaining to Israel failed? Does the Israel that exists today have no future with God? Has “the church” inherited Israel covenants?
The answer to this very important question is that God is not finished with Israel, and His covenants with Israel have not been given to the church. The Israel that exists today is the Israel God created by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; it is God’s chosen people; but as a product of her sin and the rejection of her Messiah, Israel is blind during this present age while God is creating the church. When God is finished with the business of the church, His covenants with Israel will be fulfilled. Words could not be plainer that God is not finished with Israel. The church has not replaced Israel. The church is something different. God’s covenants with Israel will be fulfilled literally in the future.
“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. ... God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew” (Ro. 11:1, 2).
“Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?” (Ro. 11:12).
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Ro. 11:15).
“And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again” (Ro. 11:23).
“blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Ro. 11:25-26).
This is a key passage on the proper interpretation of Bible prophecy. It clears up a massive amount of confusion that exists today about Israel. It plainly teaches a literal method of interpretation and refutes the allegorical or spiritual method. The prophecies pertaining to the Antichrist, the day of the Lord, the conversion of Israel, the New Covenant, Christ’s millennial kingdom, and such, are to be interpreted literally.
It is false Christianity that has created the great confusion that exists today about Israel. It was the Roman Catholic Church and its founders (e.g., Origen, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great) that invented the allegorical method of interpretation to support the heresy that the “church” is the new Israel. The Eastern Orthodox Church that split from Rome in 1054 held to this heresy. This resulted in terrible persecution of Jews by “Christianity,” but it is the false Christianity that was prophesied in the New Testament itself (e.g., Mt. 13:33; Ac. 20:28-30; 1 Ti. 4:1-3; 2 Ti. 3:1-5, 13; 2 Pe. 2; Jude 1). The Crusaders were false Christians. The Protestants did not reject the great error of replacement theology but rather perpetuated it.
Romans 11:25-27 teaches that the Israel that was judged of God, blinded, and scattered among the nations by Babylon and Rome is the same Israel that exists today, and a remnant of this Israel will be converted and blessed.
A “mystery” (Ro. 11:25) is truth that was hidden in Old Testament times and is revealed in the New Testament. It is defined in Romans 16:25-26, “the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest.” Israel’s blindness and conversion was revealed by the Old Testament prophets, but the church age, with the calling out from the nations of a heavenly people, was not revealed. The mystery is that “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in” (Ro. 11:25). The fullness of the Gentiles is the completion of “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23). In the church age, God is visiting the Gentiles “to take out of them a people for his name” (Ac. 15:14). He is doing this by the preaching of the Gospel and the operation of the Spirit. Church age saints are a trophy people who will be on display before the universe for all ages as a testimony of God’s grace. “That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (Eph. 3:21). The Church is not Israel and has not inherited Israel’s covenants.
“blindness in part” (Ro. 11:25) means not all of Israel is blind. The first believers in Jesus as Christ were Jews, like Paul, and there were many thousands of them. There were 3,000 at Pentecost, then another 5,000 (Ac. 2:41; 4:4), and many others in those days. Many Jews have believed since then, but they are the extreme minority.
“all Israel shall be saved” (Ro. 11:26) must be defined according to the prophecies. All of the true Israel will be saved. “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Ro. 9:6). All of Israel that repents and believes in Jesus as Christ will be saved. This is clear in the Scripture that Paul refers to in Ro. 9:26, which is Isaiah 59:20, “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.” It is those who turn from transgression who are the saved Israel. In the day of the Lord a remnant of Israel will repent of their sins against God (Eze. 20:43). Their repentance will be dramatic and thoroughgoing: “ye shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.” They will receive Jesus as the Messiah. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him” (Zec. 12:10-14). The unbelievers and impenitent will not enter Christ’s kingdom (Eze. 20:38). God calls them “rebels.” Zechariah says that one-third of Israel will be saved (Zec. 13:8-9). Isaiah says, “For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return” (Isa. 10:22).
The “covenant” (Ro. 11:27) is the glorious New Covenant, as summarized in Isaiah 59:21. “As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.” The New Covenant is God’s promise to convert Israel, restore her to her own land, and bless her forever. God will cleanse Israel and write His laws into their hearts and they will all know Him. Ezekiel describes it (Eze. 36:25-29, 37). See also Isa. 44:1-3; 44:21-23; Jer. 31:10-14, 31-34; 32:38-40; 33:7-8; Eze. 11:17-21; 16:60-63; 20:33-44; 34:11-17; 36:12-14; 37:15-27; 39:25-29; Mic. 7:18-20; Zec. 13:8-9; Mal. 3:1-6.
“God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all” (Ro. 11:32). This is not saying that all men will be saved universally. We know this by interpreting the passage in light of the rest of Scripture. The Lord Jesus warned that the way of life is narrow and “few there be that find it” (Mt. 7:14). Multitudes will be cast into the lake of fire in the last judgment (Re. 20). In Romans 11:32, Paul is saying that the offer of salvation is universal. A parallel passage in Galatians 3:22 explains, “But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”
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