Romans 11:26–32

Israel is the subject of God's plans. God does not cast away what He has foreknown and appointed to blessing. This rests on positive grace. God does not change His plans, even though Israel has no righteousness... The apostle gives three proofs of this truth. First, there was a remnant chosen by God. Next, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make the Jews jealous. Third, the Deliverer will come out of Zion to turn away the ungodliness of Israel.

It is the future national restoration and salvation of Israel. They will be restored to their place in the line of God's testimony and promises on earth; heavenly hopes do not come into view here... Plainly it is the Jews, the literal Jews, who are meant here. The chapter distinguishes them from the Gentiles, and contrasts them with the Gentiles, from verse 11 on, and very clearly in this verse 26. "The fullness of the Gentiles" means the complete number of Gentiles who believe — all the Gentiles who share in the blessing while Israel stays stubborn.

A chosen remnant of Israel is spared. God will bring them to believe and graft them back into their own olive tree — not into the Christian church, which was never their own olive tree. They will become the nation — the "all Israel."

As the Spirit interprets the prophecy there, we are not to look for it to be fulfilled in the salvation of all Israel until after the full number of the Gentiles has come in. That is only going on now, so it is not complete. So the moment has not even arrived to begin applying it to Israel. But faith can profit by it at any time.

But what will bring this about? "The coming of the Deliverer out of Zion," replies the apostle. But is not Christ the Deliverer? And has He not come? Yes; but not out of Zion. He has come out of Bethlehem, and out of Nazareth, and, thank God, out of the grave also. But not yet out of Zion. Zion is the royal city, David's city; and when the King of kings reigns there, then Israel's deliverance will be complete.

The apostle cites the prophecy of the Redeemer coming to Zion as His coming out of Zion. Both are true, and each fits its place. The Redeemer must come to that mountain of royalty in the Holy Land so that He can come out from there. He will come to the righteous remnant, to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, and He will also turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Their hearts will be converted before Jehovah appears at the worst of their distress and destroys their enemies. But that appearing will deepen all their feelings toward Himself, and bring them into peace and blessing fully and for ever.

The Redeemer is now called the Deliverer, for He will prove to be both. When He came as the humbled Servant of the Lord He did redemption's mighty work. When He comes to Zion in His glory, He will bring the deliverance that redemption made righteously possible.

Some try to read the church into every Scripture. They do not see that the glory of Christ will have an object of His love on earth as well as in the heavens. They have fallen into the Gentile conceit that Romans 11 denounces and corrects.

In Jeremiah's beautiful prophecy there is no "if." The words that mark it are, "I will." Israel and Judah do come into the picture. But they come as those who receive, not as the important actors. The new covenant will come when God acts in the sovereignty of His mercy. Its righteous basis was laid in the sacrifice of Christ, which Isaiah spoke of. God will put His law inside them and write it on their hearts. Keeping it will then be as natural to them as breaking it once was. They will come into the light of the knowledge of God. All their sins will be forgiven, and even the memory of them dropped. And all of it comes by an act of God's sovereign mercy, as the closing verses of Romans 11 make so plain.

Israel's hardening was true then and still goes on — though, we may bless God, only in part. It was announced long before. Yet the same prophet, and the rest of the prophets too, look ahead to the bright day for the earth when all Israel, as such, will be saved. The fullness — the full number — of the Gentiles who now believe will have come in. And so the long guilty, long chastened people of the Lord will turn to Him. They will own Him in the crucified Nazarene as their Lord and their God. It will be just like Thomas, who represents them here: he saw Him and believed.

But how is this to come about? By the Gentile Church preaching the gospel to Jews? Not at all. Their faith will not be in an absent Christ. It will be in One they see with their own eyes, coming out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. When they see, they will believe.

The heart of Jerusalem must be washed (Jer. 4:14) before God can place salvation in Zion for Israel His glory (Isa. 46:13)… But in that day a fountain will also be opened for the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. 13:1). Then His people will know the once-rejected Jesus as their Saviour. He saves them from their outward enemies, and from the sins they will then admit. The verse next following claims for Israel the full blessing of the New Covenant.

This is no doubtful issue: God's covenant with them was to send His Son to them in glory and majesty. True, He came once in lowliness, and they refused Him. But that cannot cancel God's promise about His coming in glory. At that time He will take away their sins — and of course Calvary laid the basis for it.

Mercy through the Lord our righteousness has raised us up and seated us in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). In the same way, in the day when all Israel will be saved, mercy will rejoice in the lower parts of the earth. Only one covenant takes away sin through the Deliverer. That covenant will establish Israel, just as it now establishes the saints.

It is the Jew, not the church, that is in question throughout. Zion measures the privilege and the guilt of Judah. Nowhere in Scripture is it applied to the church, which is Christ's body… And so it is with Rom. 11:26. To read the church into any New Testament use of Zion would yield no right meaning.

The Jews proved hostile to the gospel instead of being saved by it. God turns that, as we have seen, into His gracious call of the Gentiles in the meantime. But in the last days the love of election will still prove faithful to the sons for the sake of the fathers... He may regret creation (Genesis 6), but never what grace gave in promise to Abraham and to his offspring.

"As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake" — and God treats them as such. Their own distinctive promises are put on hold, so that He may gather the Gentiles into the church... These are words often quoted, but rarely applied the way the Spirit of God applies them here — to the calling and promises of the nation of Israel!

Instead of accepting it and believing themselves, they are enemies. The apostle says they hinder us "from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved."

As regards the gospel, they are enemies as a people, so that the Gentiles may be brought in. But as regards the election of the people, they are loved for the sake of their fathers. Clearly this is the election of the people. It stands in contrast with blessing through the gospel, and the ground of their being loved is the fathers — as we find again and again in the Old Testament, in places like Exodus 32:13 and Leviticus 26:42.

This does not apply at all to what people call the spiritual Israel, for they are friends as regards the gospel, and loved by God the Father — not because of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Take it as the literal nation of Israel, and everything is simple... The election spoken of here is the election of the beloved people Israel. It must not be confused with the election according to grace, by which, during the time of Israel's rejection, called Jews and Gentiles are taken for heaven. The first is a national election, the second an individual election, which sets us in far greater blessing, since its aim and result are to bring us into heaven.

In God's government of the earth, Israel, or a great part of it, may be cut off because of sin and unbelief. "Lo-ammi" — "not my people" — may stand written over the nation for centuries. But God's affection and final purpose never change, and Israel can never stop being the nation of His choice.

Through this unbelief they lose all right to the promises. So they must receive what the promise gives on the ground of pure mercy and the sovereign grace of God, just like the poor Gentile... Their apparent loss of everything is only the means of their receiving everything from sovereign grace, instead of having it by human righteousness or by a promise they never forfeited.

He loves Israel — loves them for the sake of their fathers. We can be sure He will not approve our meddling with their place, their portion, or their future.

If God is the giver of the blessing, He does not change. The gifts of God are without change of mind on His part. When it is not a gift or a calling of God, He may repent. So He repented of making the world (Gen. 6:6), as we are told; and He destroyed it. That was not a gift; it was simply an act, however immense. But in sovereign love He calls poor guilty men to Himself to make them His own. He gives eternal life, for instance, or forgiveness of our sins, or the place of a child. Such benefits are the gifts and calling of God, and they are without repentance. Here His mind never changes.

When it is a question of God's gifts and calling, which are according to His purpose, no change of mind is possible. When it is a question of His ways with sinful men, they vary in detail, though in the end all achieve His purpose. God tested Abraham, telling him to offer up Isaac, but when he had fully responded, God cancelled the order, having reached His purpose.

We Christians boast of this, that "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance"; well we may — it is a scriptural principle. But to whom does the apostle apply it? Not to us, but to the Jews.

The meaning is this. The Jews proved their hostility to the gospel instead of being saved by it. God turns that, as we have seen, into His gracious call of the Gentiles meanwhile. And election love will still prove faithful in the last days to the sons for the sake of the fathers. This is not the principle on which souls are blessed now, whether from Gentiles or from Jews. But after the actual unbelief of the Jews, sovereign mercy will step in at the end of the age. He never repents of what grace gave in promise to Abraham and to his descendants, nor of His call, first shown publicly in Abraham, the father of the faithful.

As to God's government of the earth, Israel, or a great part of it, may be cut off because of sin and unbelief; and Lo-ammi, "not my people," may be written over them for centuries. But God's affections and final purpose never change. Israel can never cease to be the nation of His choice.

The words "fallen from grace" are sometimes used wrongly. People take them to mean that a believer once stood in the grace of God, and God has now thrown him out of it because of his bad behaviour... In the case of a true believer being caught up in this, the fall, we repeat, is in his own mind and conscience. God's grace and the relationship that grace created stay the same, for "the gifts and calling of God are without repentance."

The Gentiles had no claim to salvation; they were dead in sins, in unbelief. God showed them pure mercy. Israel would not believe such mercy. They forfeited all their privileges through unbelief, so that God might at last save them as a whole nation — but as objects of mercy... Not one will be found in the church above or in the future kingdom of God on earth who has not been saved as an object of mercy.

"For as you were once disobedient to God but now have become objects of mercy through their disobedience, so they also have now become disobedient to the mercy shown to you, so that they also may become objects of mercy." (Verses 30, 31.)

The literal reading of verses 30 and 31 is important. It is very wonderful, and shows the principle — He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. The Gentiles had no claim to salvation; they were dead in sins, in unbelief. God showed them pure mercy. Israel would not believe such mercy, and lost all their privileges through unbelief, so that God might at last save them as a whole nation, but as objects of mercy.

So the Spirit of God shows the wonderful moral wisdom of God in these plans. The Gentiles had long been unbelieving, so now it was pure mercy to them. The Jews had rejected this mercy shown to the Gentiles, and were themselves in unbelief, so it had now become pure mercy to them too... The Jews had promises, and if they had received Christ, faithfulness would have fulfilled those promises in Him... But the Jews rejected Christ, and so came under mercy like the Gentiles.

First, God brings Gentiles — outsiders, without God and without hope in the world — into this mercy in a wonderful way, through the very unbelief of Israel. Let Gentiles learn well from this that they are only a second choice, having never been the chosen people of God. This dismisses all high thinking. God has conquered them by mercy.

The express point is to crush all conceit in both Jew and Gentile, and above all in the Gentile, who now enjoys light while the Jew sits under a dark and cold eclipse. Nowhere does Scripture hint that the mercy shown to the Gentiles is the means (or a means) of Israel's recovery... The Gentiles were warned that they must be cut off if they did not continue in God's goodness, so their sentence is to be cut off, not the honour of bringing Israel into the faith.

God's way in giving His gifts and carrying out His call is to use man's unbelief as the occasion to show His mercy. He shuts all up in unbelief so that He may have mercy on all. So the great truth stands: we owe all blessing to the sovereign grace of God.

If the Gentile Christians at Rome were justified and saved, it was through the mercy of God (see Rom. 11:30). It was so likewise with any Jews there. It was all the mercy of God. God will receive the nation back at last on the ground of mercy, after the Gentiles have turned away. Because of the tender mercies of God, we are to give up our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.

This says that the Jews as a nation will receive mercy through the Gentiles' mercy. No doubt that is what the translators thought. But it is a mistranslation... "These have now disbelieved the mercy shown to you Gentiles, so that they too might be brought in on terms of mercy." The promises had belonged to the Jews. But they forbade anyone to speak to the Gentiles so that they might be saved, and so filled up their sins... God shut up all in unbelief: the Gentiles by nature, the Jews now in His wise ordering of the ages. So both might come in on the same terms of mercy.

It clashes with the chapter, because the earlier argument treats the restoring of the Jews as life from the dead for the world. It does not make the full number of the Gentiles the means of restoring them. It clashes with the context, because the whole point here is to crush all pride in both Jew and Gentile... It clashes with Scripture as a whole, because nowhere does Scripture hint that the mercy shown to the Gentiles is the means of Israel's recovery.

As a nation the Jews rejected the Gospel just because it was mercy, sent especially to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21-22 shows this). In the end they will be deeply humbled. They will receive blessing on the same ground as the Gentile they had scorned as a dog.

But Israel would not believe. They refused the fulfilment of God's promise when He sent them His beloved Son. What claim can they dare to make now? The promises really were theirs. But since they refused them so proudly, it is plain that to receive them now they too must become mere "objects of mercy."... So the mercy given to the Gentiles is a lesson in humbling for Israel. It puts them on the same level.

This is what makes the apostle cry out at the depth of God's wisdom. The rejection of the Jews brought mercy to the Gentiles. And since they rejected Christ in unbelief, it brought the Jews in on the footing of mere mercy too. Yet God only showed Himself all the more true to His promise, which He carries out despite everything.

The Jews refused a mercy that took up Gentiles. So they lost all claim on God, and became objects of mere mercy just as much as the Gentiles. But this is how God could show them mercy — once it was clear that mercy was all it was. He will show this mercy in a day that is coming fast, and all Israel will be saved, that is, the nation itself. The words have nothing to do with universal restoration.

The Gentiles had no claim to salvation. They were dead in sins and in unbelief. God showed them pure mercy. Israel would not believe such mercy, and lost all their privileges through unbelief. So God will at last save them as a whole nation, but as objects of mercy... In the church above and in the future kingdom of God on earth, not one will be found who has not been saved as an object of mercy.

The failure of Jew and Gentile shuts up all the world to the mercy of God.

God's way of giving His gifts and carrying out His call is to take occasion by man's unbelief to show His mercy. He shuts all up in unbelief so that He may have mercy on all. So the great truth is established that we owe every blessing to the sovereign grace of God.

So they were all sinners. God dealt with them in holiness and love and truth. This only brought out two things: the stubborn refusal of both Jew and Gentile to submit, and the incomparable mercy of God. Man's claims, righteousness and privileges all ended in unbelief and rebellion. But God never shone out as God more truly than in His mercy that lasts for ever.

The application of "mercy upon all" is a complete misapplication. Here is what the apostle is teaching. The Gentiles had no promises, so mercy to them was sovereign mercy. The Jews had broken the law, and they rejected the promises when they rejected Christ, in whom those promises were held. So they too now come under mercy, just like a Gentile — though the promises will still be fulfilled. The "all" in verse 32 refers to the Jews and Gentiles of verses 30 and 31.

The Jews refused a mercy that took up Gentiles. So they lost all claim on God, and became objects of mere mercy just as much as the Gentiles themselves. But in that way God could show them mercy, once it was clear that it was mercy and nothing else. God will show this mercy in a day that is coming fast, and all Israel will be saved — that is, the nation as such. The words have nothing to do with universal restoration.

They rejected the Messiah and hated the good news going out to the Gentiles. This brought out the full measure of their guilt. If God shut all up in unbelief, it was so that He might have mercy on all... Even the Jew, who stood on the principle of righteousness, comes in on the ground of mercy.

You will not find one person in the church above, or in the future kingdom of God on earth, who was not saved as an object of mercy. In both cases the free favour of God reigns in triumph.

He must show in all His ways that man throughout is a debtor to mercy alone. This is what draws out the apostle's worship as he sees the "riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God." The plan is His. Man could never have worked it out this way. Left to himself, he would never take the very place where God's grace still finds him.

On the ground of mercy He can bless in a way and in a measure none of us could ever claim.