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Writer's pictureBill Schwartz

Romans 11: The Great Mystery

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion,” “What is the mystery that Paul revealed? That Israel was hardened? No, for this had been open knowledge since the ministry of Christ. Was it that only part of Israel had been hardened? No, because the separation of the two Israels, the true Israel and the hardened Israel, had been in view for a whole generation. Was it that the hardening of Israel was scheduled to terminate? No, for that is not stated, either here or elsewhere in the word of God. So that is not the mystery. What, then, is the mystery?” (Coffman Commentary)—that blindness IN PART (not in whole) has happened to Israel until the fullness (the full number) of the Gentiles has come in (become Spiritual Israelites).” (Romans 11:25) “He has already explained how and why this was true. It was by their being joined with the Messiah... And it was in order that it might provoke the unbelieving Jews to jealousy, so that they too might seek their Messiah. The hardening is, of course, that hardening which is the consequence of obstinacy and unbelief, which is… [eventually] seen as the work of God (Rom 9:18; 11:8-10).”(Pett)

“And so all Israel will be saved,”— “There is here no basis for the millennial dream of the final conversion of all Jews, but the apostle speaks of Israel in the same sense that he has employed almost exclusively in the entire letter. Paul had stated that the total hardening would not take place in the case of all the members of the Jewish race, but that there is a possibility of the conversion of some of them throughout the entire New Testament era.” ( Paul Kretzmann) “All the Jews. It was a maxim among the Jews that ‘every Israelite should have part in the future age.’ (Grotius.) The apostle applies that maxim to his own purpose; and declares the sense in which it would be true. He does not mean to say that every Jew of every age would be saved; for he had proved that a large portion of them would be, in his time, rejected and lost. But the time would come when, as a people, they would be recovered; when the nation would turn to God; and when it could be said of them that, as a nation, they were restored to the divine favor.” (Barnes)


As it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion,’ — The picture of the Theophany is continued—Jehovah comes as a Redeemer (Goel, as in Isaiah 41:14; Isaiah 43:1, Job 19:25) to the true Zion, to those who have turned from their transgression. The verse is noticeable as being quoted, with variations, by St. Paul in Romans 11:26.” (J C Ellicott) — “And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” — Romans 11:27.By which he declares that the true deliverance from sin and Satan belongs to none but to the children of God, whom he justifies.” (Geneva Study Bible)


“The very fact of their being ‘saved’ identifies Israel here as the spiritual Israel. And what Paul was saying was that when the Gentile harvest had been reaped, that reaping, or fullness, is the means by which the determination of the whole body of the redeemed from earth shall at last be concluded. Thus, in that manner, God's precious harvest of the earth shall be concluded. Or, as Paul stated that very truth, 'So (in that manner) all Israel (the entire spiritual Israel of Jews and Gentiles and whomsoever) shall be saved." (Burton Coffman)


“This is a combination of various prophetical sayings, Isaiah 59:20-21; Isaiah 10:11-12; Isaiah 27:9; Jeremiah 31:31-34. In the principal prophecy to which the apostle has reference those members of the Jewish race that persist in their rejection of the mercy of God are placed in contrast with those that will be converted to the Messiah. When Jesus, the Messiah, came to Israel, He brought deliverance, He turned away godlessness from Jacob. And His covenant consisted in the forgiveness of their sins; therein was His covenant realized. The benefit of the Messiah's work was therefore not confined to the children of Israel according to the flesh, but included all those that accepted the Redeemer as their Deliverer and entered into that wonderful covenant with Him whereby their sins were forgiven.” (Kretzmann's Popular Commentary)

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