Romans 11:22-27 - All Israel Will Be Saved?
- Chad Werkhoven
- Jul 29
- 4 min read
Your opinion on today's passage informs your politics, but don't fight over it.
Romans 11:22-29
CONTEXT: Romans chapter 11 comes in a section of the book in which Paul works through the complexities of God's sovereignty in our salvation. The first 22 verses of the chapter show that Israel’s rejection is not total or final, but part of God's unfolding plan to bring salvation to the Gentiles and preserve a remnant by grace.
22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And if they [Israel] do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!
25 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, 26 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.
27 And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”
Canons of Dordt
Point 4 - Irresistible Grace
Article 7: God’s Freedom in Revealing the Gospel
In the Old Testament, God revealed this secret of his will to a small number;
in the New Testament
(now without any distinction between peoples)
God discloses it to a large number.
The reason for this difference must not be ascribed
to the greater worth of one nation over another,
or to a better use of the light of nature,
but to the free good pleasure and undeserved love of God.
Therefore, those who receive so much grace,
beyond and in spite of all they deserve,
ought to acknowledge it with humble and thankful hearts.
On the other hand, with the apostle they ought to adore (but certainly not inquisitively search into)
the severity and justice of God’s judgments on the others,
who do not receive this grace.
Article 7: The Earnest Call of the Gospel
Nevertheless, all who are called through the gospel are called earnestly.
For urgently and most genuinely God makes known in the Word what is pleasing to him:
that those who are called
should come to God.
God also earnestly promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who do come and believe.
Summary
Looking at how God sovereignly works out our salvation in Romans 9 - 11 is always a study in contrasts: God's justice and mercy; power and compassion; wrath and forgiveness. Today we read of His kindness and sternness (ESV: severity NET: harshness).
Furthermore, it seems here that God's kindness is doled out only to those who continue in His kindness, while His sternness is given to those who fell, as if salvation is only achieved by those who are strong enough to hang on. Yet back in chapter 9, he wrote that salvation doesn't depend upon man's desire or effort, but upon God's mercy.
These opposites are not meant to convey the idea that sometimes God is merciful, compassionate and kind, while at other times He's filled with wrath and sternness. God is always all of these - as we've read so often, He's always fully merciful while also always being fully just. It's just that as limited human beings we often only see one aspect or the other at work, which makes seem that God is so arbitrary and unpredictable, as if some days His grace is stronger than we are, but then on other days it's up to us to hang on.
Paul lays out all of these contrasts to show you that you must live in tensegrity (the integrity achieved by holding on to ideas in tension). This same principle applies to understanding the status of the original members of God's covenant people, Israel. It sure seemed at the time Paul wrote this epistle, and still does today, that God had rejected Israel and they had rejected His salvation that comes through Christ. But not so fast, warns Paul, having opened chapter eleven emphatically denying such a conclusion.
Dig Deeper
Verses 25-26 represent one of the most contested passages in the entire Bible:
...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...
The division over how to understand these words doesn't follow the typical fault lines (Catholic vs. Protestant or Calvinist vs. Arminian). We'll find good, solid Reformed teachers on both sides of this divide:
R.C. Sproul: “I take ‘all Israel’ to mean the full number of the elect, including both Jews and Gentiles.” In other words, inasmuch as you and I are members of Christ's Church, we are now 'Israel,' so all Israel = the whole Church, including both us and the Old Testament saints.
John MacArthur: “At [the appointed] time, God will sovereignly and miraculously bring salvation to the Jews as a people in fulfillment of His covenant promises.” Johnny Mac looks forward to the day when the nation of Israel will confesses Christ.
If you know Sproul and MacArthur well, you know that although this was a major theological difference, it was not something that prevented their collaboration on all sorts of good things. Such should be the same for us; the way you interpret Romans 11:26 will have a massive impact on how you understand geopolitical politics, but it should not be an issue we split the church over.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who has shown us His kindness;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray for the strength to live in tensegrity as you live in the tension between seemingly contrasting truths.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 23
Comments