WWUTT 184 All Israel Will Be Saved?

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Romans 11 26 says, in this way all Israel will be saved.
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All Israel? So every ethnic Jew will be saved? No, not an ethnic group of people, but a spiritual people, when we understand the text.
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This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.
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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We have entered the home stretch of the orthodox portion of the book of Romans.
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The first 11 chapters deal with orthodoxy. The next six chapters, 12 through 16, deal with orthopraxy.
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Orthodoxy is simply right teaching and orthopraxy is the practice of that teaching.
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What is this supposed to look like in the life of a believer if we accept the doctrine of justification and all the theology that Paul has laid out in the first 11 chapters?
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How should that then look in the life of a believer? And that's what Paul gets into once we get into chapter 12.
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We'll start on that next week. But today we've got to finish up chapter 11, Romans 11 verses 25 through 36.
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Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
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A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved.
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As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
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And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.
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But as regards to election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
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For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience.
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So they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they may also receive mercy.
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For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
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Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.
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For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid.
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For from him and through him and to him are all things.
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To him be glory forever. Amen. Let's go back to verse 25.
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Lest you be wise in your own sight. Remember Paul said in verse 18, do not be arrogant in verse 20.
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Do not become proud, but fear. This has nothing to do with something that you have accomplished, but it is by the grace and mercy of God and the work that he is doing.
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Lest you be wise in your own side. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel.
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It's not because you're smarter than they are. It's because there is a hardening that has come upon them until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in. So God is the one that has caused this hardening. If we remember about how
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God will harden a people or a person based on what we read in Romans chapter nine, he has hardened the hearts of Israel, a partial hardening.
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So part of Israel is hardened. Not all of Israel, Paul using himself as an example. He is an
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Israelite that has received the promises, the grace of God through Jesus Christ. There are many of them that have been hardened until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in. And then in verse 26, and in this way, all
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Israel will be saved. Now there are several different ways that this verse is interpreted.
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Three main ones. Okay. Here are the three main ways that this statement in verse 26 is translated.
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And in this way, all Israel will be saved. Here's the first explanation.
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All Jews will be saved. All right. Very simply, all ethnic Jews will be saved. Here's the second explanation.
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All or at least a large number of ethnic Jews will be saved at a future prophetic time.
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And here's the third explanation. All of true spiritual Israel, God's elect, both
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Jew and Gentile will be saved in Christ over the course of human history.
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All of Israel is all of spiritual Israel here. Then in the context of verse 26, now
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I hold that third viewpoint. Let's go back through these and kind of look at them piece by piece here.
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All Jews will be saved. That is a false teaching. And in fact, I would even call that heretical because it would mean that a person is saved just by being an ethnic
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Jew. And it would contradict the thesis statement of Romans 1 16 where it says that I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.
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So a person is not saved by being a born in an ethnic line of anybody.
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They are saved because of faith in Christ Jesus. So scratch number one on off the list. That is not the explanation of verse 26.
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So it's got to be one of the other two. All or at least a large number of ethnic
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Jews will be saved at a future prophetic time. That is the most popular of the three viewpoints.
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And many of the teachers that I learned from hold that view. John MacArthur, John Piper, Votie Bacchum, Thomas Schreiner, just a few examples of some very popular teachers that hold that view, that there is a large number of ethnic
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Jews that will be saved at a future prophetic time. But I don't believe that that is the explanation of verse 26.
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First of all, Paul has not set the stage for that. He's not talking about something that's going to happen in the future.
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He's talking about a present reality, something that the Roman Christians would have understand understood right now in their present circumstance and something that we can understand right now as well.
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And we see the context of it being a present circumstance in the verses that follow.
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Look at verse 30 for just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience.
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So they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
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So we're talking about a present situation, not a future reality. It's also reading too much into the text.
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Like in order to get the idea that we're talking about something eschatological, something that is going to be fulfilled at a future point in time, you've got to draw from this verse and this verse and this verse and this verse.
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And that's just too complicated. That's not the way that Paul sets this out. So the simplest explanation is usually the explanation that is correct.
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All of true spiritual Israel, God's elect, both Jew and Gentile will be saved in Christ over the course of human history.
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That was the case with the Roman Christians that were hearing this read at that time. And it is still the case for us now seeing
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Jews and Gentiles in this spiritual Israel. Now I know that every reference leading up to that point, every reference of Israel leading up to verse 26 has been talking about ethnic
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Israel. And so how is it all of a sudden that I can say that Paul's talking about a spiritual
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Israel and not an ethnic Israel? Well, he's done this before. You go back to Romans nine, six, it is not as though the word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel, ethnic
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Israel belong to Israel, spiritual Israel. So then he does the same thing here in Romans 11, 25 and 26, lest you be wise in your own sight.
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I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel, ethnic
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Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way, all
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Israel, spiritual Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
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And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. So that, I believe, is the explanation of Romans 11, 26.
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We are talking about all spiritual Israel, God's elect, both Jew and Gentile saved in Christ over the whole of human history.
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Verse 28, as regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. Not that they're your enemies, they're enemies against the gospel.
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They hate the gospel by their heart and hearts. Talking about the Israelites who have experienced this partial hardening, they've become enemies of the gospel for your sake, that you might hear the gospel proclaimed, that you might see those who are being persecuted for the sake of the gospel.
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And even that is something that God is using to bring more to himself.
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But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. So we're talking about those
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Jews that would be elect. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. If God has called someone to salvation, nobody's going to change that plan.
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So if there are those among the Jews that are elect for salvation, they are going to come to Christ.
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God's plan will be fulfilled. That is not going to change. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
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So God has not wiped out the Jews for their disobedience, but rather has left a remnant that would come to salvation through Jesus Christ because of the mercy that had been shown to the
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Gentiles. For God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.
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And this goes back to, I mean, something that we read back in Romans chapter three, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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But are justified by his grace as a gift through Christ Jesus.
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So God has consigned all to disobedience that he may have mercy on all.
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And this is talking about all the elect in this sense. All of spiritual Israel has been consigned to disobedience.
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All have at one point disobeyed. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory that he may have mercy on all.
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All of us get to experience the mercy and the grace and love of God. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God.
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How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. It was
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Steve Lawson that said that man could not have devised the plan of salvation that God has executed through Jesus Christ.
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Oh, what a glorious thing that it is when we read of it here in the scriptures. And we have been called to proclaim it.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ. For how are they to believe unless they have heard?
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And how are they to hear unless someone preaches it to them? As we've talked about in Romans 10. So it is such a plan of salvation that a man could not just think of it.
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And this is another reason why we must go out with the gospel so that they might hear it. Verse 34, for who has known the mind of the
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Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?
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See, we've done nothing for God that he would give us anything. If our salvation had to do with our works, that means that God would owe us our salvation because we had worked for it.
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But that's not the way salvation is given. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ, our
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Lord. It is the work of God, not the work of a man. We've done nothing for God that he has to owe us anything.
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God, quite frankly, does not need us at all. But he has shown his love and his mercy and his grace to us.
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Praise to the Lord. For from him and through him and to him are all things.
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To him be glory forever. Amen. We're going to come back and look at that doxology a different way next week when we start in on Romans 12.
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Our Lord God, you are great. And we have received salvation because of your grace and your mercy.
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Lord cleanse us from our sins. Forgive us of our unrighteousness.
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Help us to always be humble before you and know that this righteousness that we have does not come from ourselves.
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This sanctification that we are in is not even our work. Even that is your work.
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And so, Lord, we humbly submit to you and ask for your cleansing grace and forgiveness that we may walk in holiness as a reflection of this righteousness that we have received in Christ.
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Oh, wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?
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Praise be to Christ Jesus, our Lord. In his name that we pray, amen.
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This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt
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.com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com
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and let your friends know about our ministry. Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.