Romans 11: 25-28 and the Theology

Posted : 13 Oct, 2012 03:33 PM

Romans 11: 25-28 says "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

27. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

28. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes."



Those who are under the theology (called Christian Zionism or dispensationalism) start from the assumption that the second part of Romans 11: 28 is also about

those of all physical Israel who rejected Christ, that is, the statement "as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake." The interpretation is, for those in the theology, that the majority of physical Israel who rejected Christ remain beloved for the sake of the fathers of Israel.



The statement says "in regard to the election" they are beloved by the fathers. Not God the Father. Look in scripture and see what Paul means by the election. It is always election to salvation. Election in the New Testament cannot be twisted to mean anything other than election to salvation.



And Paul does not use the term election to refer to those saved by faith under the Old Covenant. He is not talking about salvation for a very few by faith under the Old Covenant.



A reason why Romans 11: 28 is difficult is because who THEY are in verse 28 hinges on who All Israel is in Romans 11: 26. In verse 27 he says "For this is my covenant with THEM, when I shall take away their sins." This is stated in Hebrews 8: 12, "...their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." This is about the New Covenant of Hebrews 8: 10.



In Romans 11: 25-26 Paul is not making a hyperbolic or highly exaggerated literary type statement that "All Israel shall be saved" as a prophecy. As in Galatians 6: 16 he is using the word Israel in a different way, almost as a play on words. All Israel shall be saved because all who are saved are of the Israel of God, as different from "they which are the children of the flesh" in Romans 9: 8. Romans 11: 25-26, because Paul does not spell out in detail what he means by All Israel shall be saved and does not cite again his revelation shown in other texts in Romans, Galatians and Ephesians, has been used by the theology as a prophecy when it is not a prophecy in the sense that it predicts that physical Israel sometime in the future will be saved. It is a statement of fact that all who are saved are of Israel. Their identity is in Israel, as the spiritual house of I Peter 2: 5 and born again as Christ in John 3: 1-7 insists must happen to Nicodemus who represents physical Israel there.



Paul in Romans 11: 28 is talking about that large part of physical Israel who rejected Christ being the enemy of the Gospel, and about the remnant who accepted him and became the elect who are beloved by for the sake of the fathers of physical Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.



Actually, in Romans 11: 28 Paul is talking about two different Israels as he does in Romans 9: 6-8, in Romans 2: 28-29 and in Galatians 4: 25-26. But this is a division only for purposes of beginning to show those who hold to the belief that only physical Israel can be Israel. There is really one Body of Christ, one saved group, not two, as Christ says in John 10: 16.



And Romans 11 is about individuals being part of Paul's good olive tree and being grafted into it, whose roots (verse 16) are Jesus Christ. This chapter is not about the entire

house of Israel, or part of that house living at one time in the future, being

grafted into Christ as the root after the majority of physical Israel rejected Christ. Yet to any individual Christ is still there for them to accept and become born again in him. Christ did not fail in his mission to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in saving those of physical Israel who accepted him. He did not fail in this mission, and have to put off saving "All Physical Israel" until some future time. And he fulfilled Hosea 2: 23, "...I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God." (Romans 9: 25)



"Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:

21. For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

22. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

23. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again." Romans 11: 20-23



In teaching that all physical Israel remain the chosen people of God the theology runs into Paul's

revelation which he expresses in Galatians 3: 16-29. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ."



"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

29. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."



Paul in Romans 11: 5 says God has not cast away his people which he foreknew, meaning physical Israel. But in verses 4 and 5 Paul writes about a remnant. What he is saying is that the remnant of physical Israel which accepted Christ shows that God did not cast off his people physical Israel. Paul is talking about a remnant of physical Israel not being cast off and this is verified in Romans 11: 17 and 11: 19-20 where Paul states that unbelieving physical Israel was cut off.



God included a remnant of physical Israel in the New Covenant, under the Gospel of Christ, and under the revelation that Christ gave to Paul after the Cross and after the Day of Pentecost, which became part of the Gospel. Paul says in Galatians 3: 16-29 that all who are in Christ - at the time Paul wrote Galatians - no matter what their genetics, are Abraham's seed. They are Abraham's seed, not by Abraham's physical seed, his DNA, but by Abraham's faith. This does away with the chosen people status by genetics. The chosen people become those whose entry into the chosen group seen in I Peter 2: 5-9 is by faith, by love of the truth of the Gospel, by being born again in Christ, having some of his mind, having the joy of the Lord, and becoming new creatures.



This revelation, some of which Paul gives us in Galatians 3: 16-29, does away with the chosen people teaching and also does away with the two house teaching. All are now on the same footing, and all who come to Christ can be grafted into him. There is no advantage now to having the DNA from Abraham, but those who have that DNA can be grafted into Christ if they are born again in him. There is no looking to the future for a house, a large group, a body of people having the right DNA to be saved by God, only individuals come to God one by one, and at Judgment Day we all stand alone before him, without support from a church or theology or the DNA of Abraham.

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