Biblion Bible Commentary
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All Israel Will Be Saved
Romans 11:25-29
25 For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, · WEB
The mystery has three clauses — partial, until, and so — and the ground under the hope is that God's gifts are irrevocable.
For I don't desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won't be wise in your own conceits: that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved.
The disclosure is labeled a mystery — a thing knowable only by revelation — and its stated purpose is humility: Gentile conceit Romans 11:18 dies best by learning the actual plan. The plan has three load-bearing words.
Partial — the hardening never covered the nation; the remnant stood within it all along Romans 11:5. Until — the hardening has a terminus, defined by an ingathering: the fullness of the Gentiles, the completed harvest of the nations the stumble opened the door to Romans 11:11. And so — in this manner: by this interlocking sequence of fall, riches, jealousy and fullness, all Israel will be saved. What all Israel denotes — the nation as a whole at the end, in contrast to the present remnant — the passage's own logic indicates: the fullness answering the fullness already promised Romans 11:12, the natural branches regrafted Romans 11:24. The letter gives no date and no scenario, and none is supplied here.
The citation grounds it in the prophets: there will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins Romans 11:26–27 — Isaiah's redeemer, and salvation in the letter's own terms: not national privilege but sins taken away, Jacob turned from ungodliness — the same gospel, arriving home.
Then the double status, stated without flinching: concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake Romans 11:28. Enemies and beloved at once — opposition to the gospel real, the covenant love unrevoked, both true of the same people in the same hour.
And the ground under the whole hope, six words that carry three chapters: for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable Romans 11:29.
Not-repented-of: God does not take back what he gives or unsay what he calls. The gifts are the list of 9:4-5; the calling is Abraham's. If God could revoke Israel's calling for unfaithfulness, no promise in chapter 8 is safe either — the security of the church stands or falls with the security of the promises to Israel, which is why these chapters sit where they do.
held with reason What this mark means