“‘All Israel Shall Be Saved’ - God Fulfills His Promises - Part 3”

We are finishing our three part series on the teaching in Romans 9 - 11 that culminates with the mystery about the Gentile focus of God today changing dramatically to Jewish in God’s appointed timing.  Paul reveals in this section that when the last Gentiles are added to the Body of Christ, then and only then will God’s focus be changed back to his people Israel.  His dramatic statement: “All Israel shall be saved” in verse 26 is conditional on the profound statement in the previous verse that “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”  So there is what theologians have called a “Judicial” blindness on Israel today that will last until the Gentile elect are saved.  This does not mean that no Jew may be saved today, but it does mean that the Jewish nation will not be saved until the full complement of Gentiles (without any Jewish Covenantal distinction, whether of the seed of Jacob or not) has already “come in”.  So the issue of divine “election” is also the teaching underlying this section.  God determines the times and seasons and determines in advance when this dispensation will end.  Paul finishes the section with a song of praise in verse 32, “For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all”. In other words, Israel’s setting aside has been required so that even Israel’s disobedience through unbelief cannot not prevent an even greater salvation for the nation after our removal from this earth.  Praise God!