Romans 11:25-27 “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
Many people take these verses to believe that in the end-times all of Israel is going to mysteriously be saved, even if they don’t have faith in Jesus. But is that really what these verses are saying? Absolutely not! To say that all of Israel will be saved in the end regardless of faith in Christ is to believe another Gospel, one that is nothing short of an erroneous Jewish-Universalism type doctrine. There is only one Gospel and in order for a person to be saved they need to have faith in Jesus. This applies to both Jews and Gentiles. The following scripture shows us just how clear the Bible is on this fact:
Romans 10:9-13 “…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
In Romans 9 Paul talks about his great sorrow for Israel because they are not saved. He even goes so far as to say that he wishes he could be cut off from Christ if it meant that all of Israel could be saved. Why would Paul say such a thing if he believed that all of Israel was going to be saved in the end anyway?
Romans 9:1-5 “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”
But what about this “mystery” that Paul speaks about in Romans 11:25 that he doesn’t want us to be ignorant of? That is the mystery of “that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in”. Now if you go strictly on the grammar, it may sound like this event has yet to happen, because it says “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” which is future tense. Some people then believe that once this has happened “in the future” only then the “Deliverer will come” and from this “all Israel will be saved”. However, grammar without the context can lead to a false conclusion. Context is the prevailing key in the interpretation of Scripture, and even in understanding the grammar used within a scripture. Though the grammar in this case makes it sound like a future event, the context actually reveals this has in fact already happened. The fullness of the Gentiles coming in and the blinding of Israel being removed has happened. It happened at the coming of Christ and the removal of the Law Covenant that was blinding Israel!
The period of Israel’s blinding is the period when Israel was under the law. The law was a veil that covered their minds so they could not see the glory of Christ, and so rejected and crucified Him. (See 2 Corinthians 3). This very act of rejecting and crucifying Christ is what lead to the fullness of all the Gentiles being able to come in.
Romans 11:11 “But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.”
Romans 11:17 “…some of the branches were broken off (Israel under the law), and you (Gentiles), being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree…”
When Christ was crucified He became the law on the Cross. Jesus became that very veil that was blinding Israel as He was nailed to the Cross.
Colossians 2:14 “having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
It was at the Cross that the veil or the blinding, was taken away. Now there is still a blinding effect that happens to anyone who wants to rely on the law/good works to be saved, whether a Jew or Gentile, however, the event of the “blinding until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in” has been fulfilled. How do we know that this “mystery” refers to Christ coming and dying on the Cross, and hence the fulfilment of the blinding and Gentiles coming in? Because it literally tell us in the next verse:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
The world is not waiting for a second crucifixion to take place in order for God to make a new covenant with Israel. There is only one crucifixion that takes away the sins of mankind and there is only one New Covenant. Christ being crucified and rising from the dead is the fulfilment of “The Deliverer will come out of Zion” and “take away their sins”. Once Christ was offered then He could turn away ungodliness from Jacob (Israel) by taking away their sins. This covenant God talks about making with Israel is the New Covenant that God has made available to Israel and the rest of mankind through the Cross.
Hebrews 8:7-12 “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
Hebrews 10:11-18 “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.”
There is no mysterious future salvation and special covenant for all of Israel. The fullness of time for when God was going to remove the blinding and include the Gentiles has come. The Deliverer has come and salvation has gone out to the Gentiles. The mystery of God’s will is no longer hidden but has been made known. The mystery is Christ removes the veil and brings in the Gentiles. That through Him God gathers both Jews and Gentiles to Himself in one new man, and this through faith.
Ephesians 1:9-10 “having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.”
Galatians 4:4-5 “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
And so finally, how is all of Israel going to be saved? The exact same way the Gentiles are now able to be saved, through having faith in the Deliverer who has come and who takes away our sins, Jesus Christ.
There are so many scriptures that show the need for Israel to have faith in Christ in order to be saved. This article concludes with these.
Romans 10:12-13 “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 11:23 “And they also (Israel), if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.”
Romans 3:21-30 “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.”
Galatians 3:26-29 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
By Ryan Rufus.
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