All Israel Will be Saved :- Romans 11:25-36
All Israel Will be Saved Romans 11:25-36
Have you made a promise to someone? Did you keep it? Perhaps someone made a promise to you and didn’t keep their word. The ultimate promise is called a covenant, a contractual agreement that is bound by law, that if one party breaks the covenant, the weight of the law will be administered to recompense the other party for damages and loss. The ultimate covenant and contractual promise was made by God Himself.
We know in Christ that a covenant between the Lord and the law could only be replaced by a better covenant, a better agreement. We know that was only possible through the death of God’s Son, our Saviour Jesus. We thank God because, even when we are faithless and break the covenant, through breaking God’s law through sin, Christ is the One who keeps the covenant. It is not dependent upon us, even though it was made on our behalf.
God has made us a promise in Christ that He will not allow anything to separate us from the love of God in Christ. So, to conceive of the idea that God would break this covenant over you and that one day He, for some reason, calls it quits – does not seem conceivable and indeed, scripturally, it is inconceivable. God loves you with an eternal electing love. When His seal/His covenant is over you, nothing can break that bond. Paul had just said to his readers 3 chapters earlier, “Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died---more than that, who was raised---who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (Romans 8:33,34)
Question. Is it therefore possible that God would break His promise to save Israel? We are told God doesn’t change. (Hebrews 13:5) Is it possible that God would forget or reject the promises He made to Israel?
Paul said in verse 25 that this is a mystery, and he wants us to understand it. A partial hardening has come upon Israel – most will not accept Jesus as their Saviour. It’s only partial because some do and will believe. Paul used himself as an example. But he said a period in history will occur – the Gentiles – all those who are not blood Jews will come in.
The covenant mystery, this mysterious promise is this. Paul quoted Isaiah which says “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." The Deliverer is the God Man Jesus – the Jews know Him as Yeshua – He made the covenant and by doing so takes away their sins. Only God in Christ can do such a thing. The Jews in antiquity and even today are stiff necked and a hard-hearted people. Jesus, a Jew in every sense, who fulfilled the Mosaic law perfectly, was on trial. The Jewish crowd shouted, “crucify, crucify – His blood be on us and our children.” Jesus, even at that point, said if they do this when the tree is green (when I am alive) what will they do when it is dry. I.E when He was no longer with them in the flesh. We know what they would do. They rejected his words and stayed locked up in Jerusalem from 67AD to 70AD; the Roman armies surrounded them and 1 million of them died.
We know during 1900 years of history after that, that they almost without exception, have followed Moses and yet rejected Christ. Paul said regarding the Jewish people in verse 32 that “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.”
They rejected Jesus when He was alive, they rejected Him in AD 70 and they have continued to reject him for 1900 years. Some have said, no it is all about the church, that the promises given to Israel have now been replaced by the church.
But Paul made the distinction by saying in verse 28-29, “But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” God in Christ is not done with Israel.
A miracle has been occurring in the last 70 years. The many promises in the Old Testament are being fulfilled: the Jewish people have become a nation again, indeed in a day (May 14, 1948) as Isaiah asked is it even possible: “Who has ever seen anything as strange as this? Who ever heard of such a thing? Has a nation ever been born in a single day?” (Isaiah 66.8) It was and it is a reality. The Jewish people are returning to Israel as prophesied. “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone … and bring them into their own land (Ezekiel 37.21). Jesus said “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21.24). Almost half of the world’s Jews live in Israel.
But are they returning to Christ?
When will these promises that Paul spoke about almost 2000 years ago, come true? Some encouragement: in 2017 (coincidentally the 100th anniversary of when the Australian light horse charged at Beersheba and won the battle, which was a significant step in Israel becoming a nation in 1948), I was in Israel and we were praying as a church about what ministry to support. I met some folk from Christ Community in Jerusalem, and they had an online ministry, Digital Harvest, giving the gospel in Hebrew to the Jewish people. They were in talks with One for Israel who they had joined up with to produce their gospel videos to Israelis. It was an obvious partnership for us. We have the incredible privilege of supporting a ministry that has the prophetic blessing by the Apostle Paul here in Romans 11, that one day there will be such a wave of revival in Israel that it will be as though “All Israel will be saved.”
Loving God means loving Israel. Israel is on the mind and heart of Jesus. If we love Him, we by default must have a heart for them. We can’t let our passions get in the way. Can I say, when I was there in 2017, I experienced first-hand many times a hardness to Christ and an arrogance to me as a goyim – a Gentile. But that is, of course, not to be compared with Israel’s rejection of their Deliverer, Jesus.
The promises to Abraham were that the land and nation of Israel would be established through an everlasting covenant. “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojourning’s, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God." (Genesis 17:7, 8)
That covenant is only found in Christ. One day, possibly soon we will see, as it were, all Israel being saved by turning to Christ. This is the promise to them. The Lord said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you.” As One for Israel promotes - our support of the gospel is the greatest blessing we can give.
We can make promises to each other. We can vow before God and man….and yet, we go back on our promise. Others can turn back on their promises to us, but Jesus never will. The promise is that He will never leave you nor forsake you. This is the God of Israel. Make Him your God this morning.