TEXT [Commentary]

  G.   All Israel Will Be Saved One Day (11:25-32)

25 I want you to understand this mystery, dear brothers and sisters,[*] so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ. 26 And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say,

“The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem,[*]

and he will turn Israel[*] away from ungodliness.

27 And this is my covenant with them,

that I will take away their sins.”[*]

28 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 29 For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. 30 Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. 31 Now they are the rebels, and God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share[*] in God’s mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.

NOTES

11:25 I want you to understand. Lit., “I do not want you to be ignorant.” This is a common Pauline phrase that is rendered variously by the NLT; it occurs also in 1:13; 1 Cor 10:1; 12:1; 2 Cor 1:8; 1 Thess 4:13.

this mystery. For Paul, the word “mystery” (mustērion [TG3466, ZG3696]) refers to a long-hidden truth or “secret” that has now been revealed (see note on 16:25; cf. 1 Cor 15:51; Eph 3:3-11; Col 1:26-27; 4:3). Here the truth that is now revealed is that when the full number of Gentiles has been converted, “all Israel” (presently blinded and unresponsive) will finally come to “see” and be saved—that is, they will come at last to believe in Christ and the Good News.

dear brothers and sisters. Gr., adelphoi [TG80, ZG81] (brothers); cf. NLT mg.

so that you will not feel proud about yourselves. Lit., “so that you not be wise in your own estimation.” The same phrase occurs in 12:16.

Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts. Lit., “a hardness (pōrōsis [TG4457, ZG4801]) has happened in part to Israel.” The implication is that God has brought this about. For other references to hardening, see 9:17-18; 11:7-10; cf. John 12:40.

the full number of Gentiles. Lit., “the fullness (plērōma [TG4138, ZG4445]) of the Gentiles.” See note on 11:12.

11:26 all Israel will be saved. The phrase “all Israel” means not every single Jew without exception but the Jews as a whole, in a general sense. In Paul’s understanding, the salvation of “all Israel” does not occur throughout history but seems to be linked to the end of the age and the second coming of Christ (see the OT quotation that follows; cf. note on 11:15).

from Jerusalem. Lit., “from Zion,” a traditional Jewish way of speaking of Jerusalem. This reference may suggest that Paul thinks of Jerusalem as the place of Christ’s return.

he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. Lit., “he will turn away ungodliness (asebeias [TG763, ZG813]) from Jacob.”

11:27 this is my covenant with them. This is God’s promise to them. The “new covenant” in Jesus is really the fulfillment of an old one (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Ezek 11:19-20; 36:25-27). Up to this point, in vv. 26-27, Paul has been citing Isa 59:20-21, LXX.

I will take away their sins. Here Paul leaves the text of Isa 59:20-21, LXX, and merges it with wording from Isa 27:9, LXX (“purge away Israel’s sin”) and Jer 31:34[33] (“I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins”). See comments on 7:6; 8:4.

11:28 Many of the people of Israel are now enemies of the Good News, and this benefits you Gentiles. Lit., “As regards the gospel, [they are] enemies on your account”—that is, for your sake.

Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Lit., “but as regards election, [they are] beloved on account of the fathers.” God will faithfully fulfill the promises he made to the patriarchs; cf. 11:29.

11:29 For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. This means they are irrevocable. For the meaning of “call,” see note on 1:1; cf. 1:6; 8:28, 30; 9:12, 24. God’s “gifts” and “call” may be taken as a single idea (Calvin, Käsemann) or as two distinct items (Cranfield); or (perhaps preferably) the “call” may be understood as a special instance of God’s “gifts” (Moo).

11:30 you Gentiles were rebels against God. Lit., “you were disobedient (ēpeithēsate [TG544, ZG578]) to God.”

but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead. Lit., “but now you have received mercy through the disobedience (apeitheia [TG543, ZG577]) of these.”

11:31 God’s mercy has come to you so that they, too, will share in God’s mercy. This is the reading of 46vid A D2 F G M. Other Gr. mss (א B D*) read, “so that now they will share in God’s mercy.” This is a difficult reading because Paul has been arguing that Israel will be saved in the future. It is possible that, due to a scribal error, nun [TG3568, ZG3814] (now) was accidentally carried over from the previous two clauses. The final clause is expressed as the purpose of what precedes it, but the logic is not clear.

11:32 everyone. Gr., tous pantas; this is the reading of א A B Dc M. Some Gr. mss (46vid D*) read ta panta (all things).

so he could have mercy on everyone. “Everyone” refers to all peoples, both Jews and Gentiles—that is, everyone without distinction, not everyone without exception. Paul is not thinking of those who persistently refuse God’s mercy.

COMMENTARY [Text]

At the end of this section, Paul expresses his confidence in the future return of the Jews to God. God will be faithful to keep the promises he made to his ancient people long ago. In spite of their present-day rejection of the Good News, they are still his special people because of the promises he made to Abraham and the patriarchs. And one day, when the number of Gentile Christians is complete, the Jews will surely come back to him—“all Israel will be saved.” Just as Gentiles have now received God’s mercy, so the Jews will one day receive his mercy because God desires to show mercy to all people.

Paul saw the tragic state of the Jews as only temporary—one day, after all the chosen Gentiles have been gathered in, the Jews will come back to God and receive his salvation, just as the prophets predict. “And so all Israel will be saved,” he concludes (11:26; cf. 11:12, 15). But exactly how he understood this—who will be included in “all Israel,” and how and when this will come to pass—is unclear. Unfortunately, he did not give us any details. (Note that he says nothing about a future Jewish government; see comments on 4:13.) Paul certainly did not conceive of this happening apart from the Jews coming to believe in Christ, for he consistently spoke of God’s judgment on those who reject the Messiah; but it is unlikely that he had any more idea than we do of exactly how and when this will happen. He simply knew that God made a promise to Abraham and his descendants and that God can be trusted to keep his promises; “For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn” (11:29). On this basis, he was assured that God would one day save his people, just as he had promised. The new covenant will not be complete until it embraces the people of the old covenant.

On the face of it, this statement about ethnic Jews still being God’s special people seems to conflict with his emphasis elsewhere that “true” Jews are not defined ethnically. (“You are not a true Jew just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision,” 2:28; “Not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. . . . Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God,” 9:6-8.) Here we seem to have two conflicting views of the Jewish people and their relationship to God— another example of Paul’s paradoxical thinking. Behind this lie two conflicting considerations, both of which are true. On the one hand, because the Jews have refused to recognize God’s Messiah, they stand outside of the promises God has made in the new covenant of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, because they are ethnically Jewish, they are still recipients of the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants under the old covenant. And because God honors his promises—and both promises are trustworthy—Jews end up in an ambivalent position in Paul’s thinking (11:28), very much like the ambivalent position of believers as partakers of the present age and the age to come simultaneously. When two truths conflict (e.g., God’s sovereignty and human responsibility), Paul seems to be able to hold the two in tension—that is, to affirm the truth of both simultaneously. The fact that this may be logically inconsistent is of no consequence, for, as we have observed, Paul’s view of God is sufficiently large to embrace the element of paradox.

Paul’s point is that God desires to show mercy to all. Just as disobedient Gentiles have now experienced God’s mercy, so disobedient Jews will one day receive his mercy. God’s desire is to pour out his mercy on both Jews and Gentiles—on all people, everywhere—for such is the nature of his kindness (11:30-32; cf. the story of Jonah, which emphasizes God’s desire to show mercy even on his enemies). Earlier Paul concluded, “All people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin” (3:9; cf. 3:23), and they therefore stand guilty under the judgment of God (3:19). No one, neither Jew nor Gentile, can lay claim to his favor—no one deserves it. The only hope for salvation lies in his mercy. God has so ordered things that both Jews and Gentiles have become imprisoned in their own disobedience. He has brought both groups into a situation where their sin against him must be acknowledged and brought to light so that he might pour out his abundant, forgiving grace on both. “God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone” (11:32). God’s desire is always that people recognize that salvation is a gift of grace and mercy.

As mysterious as the ways of God are, and as difficult and painful as they sometimes seem to be, the end to which they lead is mercy, pure mercy—for such is the nature of God. This accords with what God proclaimed to Moses, following a time of Israelite disobedience at Mount Sinai: “Yahweh! The LORD! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin.” (Exod 34:6-7). The sulking Jonah confessed the same truth: “I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love” (Jonah 4:2). And in a time of much suffering and pain, the author of Lamentations affirmed, “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning” (Lam 3:22-23). The biblical God, the God of Jesus Christ, the God of the Good News, is above all a God of mercy and grace—a God who delights in forgiving people and showing them mercy! And those who have put their trust in Christ to save them are the blessed recipients of his mercy.

One final note is in order. Though the wording of this passage seems to reflect a strand of universalism in Paul’s thinking (“so he could have mercy on everyone,” 11:32), the context makes it clear that it is a representative universalism that Paul is talking about—that is, a representative acceptance of the Good News by the different nations of the earth. Paul’s writing expresses the consistent conviction that salvation is only for those who put their trust in Jesus Christ.