Welcome to this final episode of Series 3 in our study on the book of Romans which carries the exciting heading, ‘All Israel Will be Saved’ - a phrase from Paul that we are going to read in a moment. I want to explain how Paul gets to that conclusion and what he means.

Recap and Background

We are now at the end of Series 3. There are four series in this study. Series 1, chapters 1 to 4, focused on the gospel: the presentation and explanation of the gospel; and particularly the need for it. Paul made the point very clearly about the depth of sin and how it had captured the hearts of all types of people all over the world throughout all time. Then in Series 2 Paul teaches the Romans how to live the Christian life, introducing our status in Christ, our freedom from sin, the way we should think about our past and our present, and in Romans 8 he introduced to us the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit who is the dynamic power within us who helps us to live the Christian life. At the end of Series 2, Paul makes a rather sudden change into Series 3. He decides he is going to talk about the complex and controversial issue of the place of the Jewish people in God’s purposes. This is what we have been studying all the way through this series.

I am going to summarize some of the key things that Paul has said and then we are going to come to his astonishing conclusion – a prediction of something massive that was going to happen in the future amongst the Jewish people. This was going to have a big impact and be a sign of the end times and God’s purposes being fulfilled in the world.

At the beginning of Romans 9 Paul, in a very personal way explained how distressing he found the fact that most of the Jewish people had rejected Christ, and had rejected him personally and persecuted him. Most of his persecutors were Jewish rather than Gentile in the course of his life. In Romans 9:6, he makes a very important distinction which is that ethnic Israel - the Jewish people - are not the same thing as believing Israel. Within the ethnic group of Jewish people throughout history, Paul says, there has always been only a minority of people who are true believers. He develops this idea through chapter 9, and picks it up again particularly at the beginning of chapter 11. He calls these people ‘the remnant’. He gave one very dramatic example from the Old Testament in chapter 11 - the era of Elijah the prophet. When Elijah was battling against the pagan religious establishment under the leadership of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, he reckoned he was the only true believer left in Israel and God said, ‘No you’re not. There are seven thousand people that I have reserved who have not bowed the knees to these idols - those are the remnant.’ Paul says that all the way through Jewish history there has always been faithful Jewish believers and there are faithful Jewish believers now that the Messiah has come. ‘I’m one of them,’ Paul explains in chapter 11. ‘Look at me. Has God finished with the Jews? Look what he is doing with me; he is using me at the forefront of advancing his Kingdom and look at how he is using all the other Apostles and all the other Jewish evangelists and prophets who have come from Jerusalem and Judea and whose influence has spread around the Gentile world’.

In these chapters he makes it clear that we should not think for a moment that God has finished working with the Jewish people just because the majority failed to follow Christ. He said they ‘stumbled’. But did they stumble beyond recovery? ‘Not at all - they stumbled temporarily. This is a phase in history,’ says Paul.

In the last episode, he used a very powerful image to explain the purposes of God. He described God’s people like an olive tree - a very familiar tree in the Ancient Mediterranean world. The roots of the tree were God’s covenant purposes in the Old Testament. The tree itself, and the branches, represented the Jewish people. Then he described a strange process by which some of the branches were broken off when Christ came. These branches represented the Jewish people who said, ‘No I’m not going to believe in the Messiah; he’s not the Jewish Messiah.’ God broke them off and they became separated from their heritage. Paul described, in the image of the olive tree, how Gentiles who were like wild olive branches and had grown on wild trees on the hillside somewhere, and were not very productive and not cultivated, were grafted into the tree. Gentiles were now joining the people of God just as some of the Jewish people were putting themselves outside the people of God. He expressed the fact that this is a paradox; the Jewish people are enemies of the gospel and yet still chosen. God still has a purpose for them in the future; if they believe they too will be saved.

The Mystery Revealed

“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 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.’”

Romans 11:25-27, NIV

Paul uses the word ‘mystery’ here. Mystery means something previously hidden but now revealed. There was a lady who was very friendly with my parents and took a keen interest in the children and didn’t have any children of her own. She used to look after us when we were young giving us financial gifts, and visiting us at school because she didn’t have any of her own children. She wasn’t able to have children; so she kind of adopted our family. When I grew up I lost touch with her and only had occasional contact. When she died her brother phoned me from America; she was an American lady and died in America. He said, ‘We have just looked at her will and you are in her will.’ I was so shocked to be someone receiving a small amount of money from this kind lady’s will. I hadn’t seen her for about 25 years. Now that was a mystery - something hidden that was suddenly revealed. She wrote the will many years ago but it was hidden in her solicitor’s office in the USA. Nobody knew, not even her brother, who was the executor, what was in the will. The will was opened up and the mystery was revealed. A mystery as Paul describes it here, is something that is hidden now, but then is going to be revealed in the future, or has been hidden in the past but is revealed now. He uses this word ‘mystery’ to describe several aspects of the gospel and the revelation of Jesus - something that was previously unknown but now known. Quite suddenly I found out about this will. Some months later the money arrived in my bank account. The mystery was unravelled. Paul says there is a mystery about Israel; there is a truth about what God is going to do with the Jewish people in the long term, which up until that point in the life of the Church had been unknown, and was unknown in a real sense in the Old Testament. But Paul, as an apostle, claimed that he had revelation; God had revealed to him that something remarkable, and life-changing, and fundamental was going to happen to the Jewish people at some time in the future. He did not expect to see it in his lifetime. This wasn’t something that was going to happen quickly and he describes it here.

God’s Mission Strategy

In verse 25, Israel has experienced a ‘hardening’; that means a hardening of hearts. They have stood against the gospel. He has been explaining this all the way through and has been giving examples of this. They have experienced a hardening in part, meaning some Jews have believed like Paul, but most haven’t; they have been hardened; they have resisted the gospel and it is going to stay that way, says Paul ‘until the full number of Gentiles has come in’. In other words at this point in history God’s focus is not on the Jewish people, it is on the Gentile mission. This is exactly what we would expect because that is what Jesus commanded the Apostles. When he commissioned them, he didn’t say stay in Jerusalem amongst the Jews. In Matthew 28: 18 – 19,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.”

That wasn’t what they expected to do; they expected to make disciples of their fellow Jews, to go to the people they lived with but Jesus said, ‘No, you are going to all nations’. In Acts 1: 8 he tells them the strategy that they are going to follow:

“You’ll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you’ll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8, NIV

The energy of mission in that era was away from the Jewish people. Paul himself was a representation of that trend. When Christ met him on the Damascus road, he called him to be a witness primarily to the Gentiles. Paul spent all his ministry years travelling around the Gentile areas and now he wanted to come to Rome.

Paul says, ‘the full number of the Gentiles has got to come in’ and the process that started in the first century has continued for 2000 years in the Church; the Holy Spirit’s intention, God’s intention is the gospel reaches every ethnic group. There have been periods in Church history where the Church has not been pursuing this mission. But God will always raise up those who are willing and able to pioneer mission to new nations. This has been happening for centuries until we reach the position now in the 21^st century where everywhere in the world, to some degree or another, there is a Christian presence. There are hardly any places where there are no Christians at all, although there are many countries which are very hostile to the gospel and many places where the Church functions underground, in private homes, secretly. But ‘the full number of Gentiles must come in’, says Paul. He is expecting a time when the gospel will have reached the ends of the earth. It is interesting that in the 20th century was the first time that the Church began to feel that the gospel had reached all the different nations. It took two thousand years to really have the sense that that actually happened.

All Israel Saved

This is the mystery, this is the secret thing that nobody knew until this time: verse 26 ‘And in this way,’ (or at this time,) ‘all Israel will be saved.’ This statement predicts a mass coming to Christ amongst Jewish people at the end of history, when the Church is extended all over the world. The expression, ‘all Israel,’ does not mean every Jew; it means representatives of all Jewish communities. This same expression is used in the Old Testament and when it says, for example, ‘all Israel gathered in order to fight’, it doesn’t mean every single person came. It means representatives of all the Jewish community. What we are seeing described here is a mass conversion amongst Jewish people wherever they live in the world. This will take place in Israel, of course, and in Jewish communities in North America, in Europe and in other nations of the world where Jewish people are gathered. Paul predicts a mass conversion of the Jews. This is truly astonishing and there was nothing in his experience to suggest that it was likely. The exact opposite was his experience; they were hardening themselves; they were putting up the barriers; kicking Paul out of the synagogues; trying to persecute him; trying to assassinate him; trying to murder him; and they were trying to cause Paul to lose reputation amongst the Jewish people by spreading rumours about him around different Jewish communities. That was his experience and we can see that described in the book of Acts, as Jewish conspirators against Paul are instigating opposition to him in all sorts of different places. So nothing in Paul’s experience suggested that this was going to happen but he knew by revelation that God had a greater purpose.

The interesting thing is this: in the 20th century for the first time we have the feeling that the Church is reaching all ethnic groups. At exactly the same time, in the 20th century, we have begun to see significant numbers of Jewish people coming to be born again and believe in the Messiah. This process started roughly in the middle of the 20th century and has been continuing and gradually increasing ever since then and has produced a religious movement which is now called Messianic Judaism - Jewish people who identify as Jews but identify also as believers in Jesus, the Messiah. This process has not happened for two thousand years. The number of Jewish people who have converted to Christianity in the last two thousand years up until the middle of the last century has been very few indeed. There has been great hostility between Jews and churches in many cultures; and anti-Semitism which has been part of the cause of that.

So we, in the 21st century, are living at the first time in history where this prophetic prediction begins to make sense and we can anticipate that it could actually happen. That is very remarkable and it is even more remarkable that Paul could see this prophetically in the future.

God’s Mercy

“As far as the gospel is concerned, they’re 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 are 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.”

Romans 11:28-32, NIV

Paul points out here the great difficulty for the Christians to understand that two things are happening at once. First of all, the Jews (verse 28) are enemies of the gospel; they are against the gospel. But on the other hand, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. In other words, God’s covenants in the Old Testament are still true even though the Jews are opposing now. God’s love is still upon them and he is going to redeem them at some stage in the future. Paul is asking the Roman Christians to keep those two things in mind because both are true at the same time.

Here is an illustration that might help you to understand what that really means. Imagine that you are the mother of a young man in his twenties who has broken the law, has fallen out with his family, and been involved in violent crime and theft. He is caught by the police and brought to trial. You, the mother, are sitting in the courtroom while the evidence is given. Then the verdict is he is sentenced to three years in prison. You cry out for all to hear, ‘But he is still my son.’ That captures the tension. The mother knew he was a wrongdoer; she knew she was going to be separated from him for three years in prison, but she cried out, ‘He is still my son’; the relationship between mother and son was not broken by his disobedience and his criminal activities. She hoped for a time when he came out of prison where he would be a reformed character. The sort of tension that she felt, is the sort of tension that is in this text here. Paul explains to the Roman Christians that the Jews are your enemies now but they are still loved by God and so you need to be open to them.

Worship

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay them?’ For from him and through him and for him are all things. And to him be the glory forever! Amen”

Romans 11:33-36, NIV

Paul says nobody could ever have imagined how God was going to bring salvation to the world. No one could ever imagine what he was going to do with the Jewish people. We just don’t know about God’s plan in advance of it happening. Unless he reveals it, we can’t know.

Summit Point

As we come to an end of this episode with this very exciting passage, we have now reached the fifth high point, or summit in Romans. These statements summarize the key things in the book of Romans. We started with Romans 1:16 – 17 stating the gospel. Then we had Romans 3:21-26 which gives a more extended understanding of the gospel. In Romans 5:1 - 2 describes justification by faith. Then Romans 8: 1-2 describes the new life in the Spirit. Now in Romans 11: 26 and 27, we have our fifth key statement. “All Israel will be saved.” It is a key moment in Paul’s argument.

Reflections

Some reflections now, as we continue: let us pray for Jewish people to find salvation. Let us add our prayers to the process that God has already started all over the world. Let us understand that the end times, the coming of Jesus Christ again to this world, is getting closer. God’s work with the Jewish people at this time is one of those indicators that that time is getting closer.

Let us thank God that he takes the initiative with different nations. He is taking the initiative with the Jewish people now but many nations, represented by those listening, will have had periods of our history where God moved in our country: God moved in China in the 20th century; God moved in South Korea in the 20th century; God moved in all the countries of Latin America in the 20th century, in a remarkable way. God is moving in many African countries at this time, as the Church continues to grow rapidly. There are remarkable moves of the Holy Spirit in some Islamic countries and in the Arab world. God is Sovereign and he moves with different nations at different times.

Our response should be to thank him for his mercy, to worship him for his initiative, and to go with the flow of the things that he is doing in this world. One of those things right now, as Paul has indicated here, is the work that he is doing amongst the Jewish people.

At this point Paul will leave this topic and then we will come to our fourth series. In our fourth series, he is going to address all sorts of practical issues in the church. So we are going to have some very interesting material coming up as we move into the last series, and the last section of the book of Romans. Do join us for Series 4.