Romans 11
Romans 11 is all about God setting apart for Himself a “fullness” (a remnant) from these same Jews and Gentiles that Paul just referred to previously in Romans 9 and 10. And Romans 11 decisively concludes for us that it is all presently happening right "NOW" (vv. 5, 13-14, 30-31), even as in the past (v. 4), from Christ’s first coming to His second coming throughout every generation. There are not to be any end-time, en-mass conversions of either Jews or Gentiles. Paul says it is all happening right "NOW" as we speak (again, see vv. 30-31).
Verse 5 and verses 30-31 are very crucial to our understanding the time frame in which “all Israel” is to be saved. There is no margin for error here. These verses are safeguards for understanding the timeframe in which we are to understand here. And they are “safeguards” for which many have abandoned and cast aside for their own a priori theological biases and beliefs. In verses 30-31, three times Paul repeats the word “now,” not later! It is not to be some end-time en-mass conversion. It is “at the present time” (v. 5) or “now” (vv. 30-31), with the same Greek present tense adverb νΰν, pronounced “noon,” being used in all of these verses. This present tense adverb is translated “now” in a great majority of New Testament verses in the Bible. And in a couple of places it is even translated: “henceforth,” “from now on,” or “from this time on.” So, clearly, all of this has to do with the entire Church age—not just back then in Paul’s day, not just in our day, nor just in the future. So, in all honesty, none of this should even be up for debate. It is a non-sequitur. The “now” in verse 5, and the “now” (mentioned also three times) in verses 30-31 are like bookends for all that is to be said and understood in between. In verse 5, this present day “remnant” from the Jews are: (1) NOW recipients of God’s grace; (2) part of the “fullness” or full number in verse 12; (3) “some” for whom Paul saves in verse 14; (4) the “all Israel” (or all elect Jews) in verse 26, and; (5) the “all” who were disobedient but who also have NOW received mercy in verses 30-31. And the same goes for Gentiles as well. They too are: (1) part of this “remnant” in verses 17-24; (2) part of a full number (or “fullness”) of all the elect Gentiles who will be saved in verse 25, and; (3) they are “all” who were disobedient but have NOW received mercy in verses 30-31. Paul says all of this is going on now, now, now! Not later! I mean, really, how often does one really need to say “now” before we finally get it? We’ve often heard the phrase, “Play it again, Sam!” Music repeated gets under our skin. And advertisements repeated, replay themselves when we see their product. As such, the repetition of such things has a distinct effect on us. And things often have to be repeated more than once for them to finally sink into our heads. Paul’s redundant use of the word “now” should, by now (pun intended), have had its stated affect.
The more acceptable Nestle’s Greek text that we have today, used by all modern translations, says the word “now” three times (once in verse 30 and twice in verse 31), while the older Textus Receptus, used by the KJV, says the word “now” only two times (once in verse 30 and once in verse 31). But it doesn’t matter. Either way Paul’s point is poignant and to the point: Just as we Gentiles who were disobedient to God have NOW received mercy as a result of the Jews disobedience, in this manner also the Jews have NOW become disobedient in order that they too might receive mercy. Notice that I worded this just how the Textus Receptus words it, leaving out the third “now.” And as one can readily see, “now” means “now” no matter how you slice it here. The Jews now receive God's grace and mercy at the same time and in the same way as the Gentiles now receive it. And the Greek word noon (or “now”), also used in verse 5, squarely places the time as NOW (or better, from “henceforth) being the period for a remnant from the Jews to be saved according to the election of grace. This “remnant” theme is seen in a Elijah’s day and throughout the Bible, correlating even with Christ’s own words that “many are called, but few chosen” (Mat. 22:14). So the view of some brethren in the Church today who say that a day is coming when this rule will no longer apply—or that the remnant mentioned throughout the prophets is to be understood of the entire nation of Israel as a whole or who in totality will be saved—seems rather strange. Again, it is a Jewish ideology that has crept its way into the Church; it is not the ideology of God, of Christ, or of His apostles. Christ and His apostles were never “for” Israel in the way that many are now “for” Israel today. They promised them no hopes of “peace” outside of faith in God and in Christ. And they surely didn’t hold out to them what many in the Church today are holding out to them, that the Jews will one day in the future return to rebuilt temples, the Levitical priesthood, atoning animal sacrifices, literal circumcision or the keeping of literal festivals, new moons and Sabbaths and the like with God’s blessing—and all based upon a literal fulfillment of Ezekiel’s visions in chapters 40-48.[1] Those natural “types” and “shadows” passed away, never to be seen again. They had their place back then as being typological of the spiritual things that have now come upon us. And since Christ is now the reality for which those “shadows” and visions were cast, then it stands to reason that all of Ezekiel’s "visions" in those last eight chapters—as they relate to temple worship with water flowing from that temple and giving life to fish for men to fish for—has all to do with what Christ said about how that out of our belly’s (now God’s temple) would flow rivers of living water, and that as “fishers of men” we would “fish” for “men” whom God has given “life” to, not literal fish. And Ezekiel adds that “wherever the river flows everything will live” (47:9), to living creatures and to fish and fruit trees[2] “of all kinds” (vv. 9, 10, 12). But notice what he also says: “But the swamps (or miry places)[3] and marshes will NOT become fresh (or healed); they will be left for salt” (v. 11). Without going into all the details of what all of this means, basically what we have here is the election of God’s people verses leaving all the rest of God’s creatures in these “swamps and marshes” who are not to be given these life-sustaining waters; they have been left for “salt,” a euphemism or metaphor for being laid waste or made desolate and barren (cf. Jer. 48:9). It speaks of judgment for sin (cf. Deut. 29:23), and things just go from bad to worse for all such people. And if that were not enough, God in Ezekiel even describes a “land” (dare I say, “a heavenly country”) where spiritual Israel is to “allot as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you, and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites…. In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance, declares the Sovereign Lord” (47:22, 23). This is the “inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven” for us, beloved. (1Pet. 1:4). All of this isn’t to happen “literally” some day in the future. It is God using natural words and ideas in vision form that all point to spiritual truths and ideas.
Even Peter’s "vision" of unclean animals in Acts chapter 10 that he was told by God to kill and eat, though seemingly “literal,” was referring to something far more ethereal—shall I again say, “spiritual”? Likewise, when God told Ezekiel (43:11) to tell the people to do all that was spoken about in the visions, the Lord no more meant (nor expected) Ezekiel and the people to literally do all that, than He meant or expected Peter to literally apply what God had literally revealed to him of killing and eating unclean animals. And this is especially to be noted under the New Covenant where building literal buildings, offering up literal animal sacrifices, being physically circumcised and being told to literally eat, or not to eat, unclean animals would only be true under the law of Moses which all pointed to the spiritual realities that were to come. And since we are not under that old covenant any longer, then by the very nature of the case all of this has to be understood spiritually. Of note here is also the fact that, again, if Ezekiel is telling the people to literally observe all of the laws and regulations in his visions, he would then be telling them to do many things contrary to the laws of Moses. For, as many already know, many things mentioned in Ezekiel’s visions are different from the laws of Moses, either adding to or subtracting from those laws (any good commentary should be able to help you with this). And in Deut. 12:32, God himself had specifically told Israel that they were not to add or subtract anything written in the law. So, was God really instructing Ezekiel to establish new laws, with entirely new regulations and ordinances for the people back then? Or, was he foretelling a change in a figure that would one day take place that was only to be realized in Christ? The latter is to be preferred. Otherwise, the dispensationalists, in agreement with all unregenerate Jews, would have to be right in saying that all of this will take place with the Jews here on the earth after the Church is removed. And furthermore, the Jews weren’t going to literally do what Ezekiel said should be done, for, like I said, they would have been breaking the laws of Moses. And they most likely thought Ezekiel was crazy, as the Jews thought of all of God’s prophets, and they even later questioned whether to allow the book of Ezekiel in their Jewish canon or not. So it stands to reason that the Lord knew they wouldn’t do what Ezekiel said they should do, but nevertheless instructed Ezekiel to tell them anyway because, in God’s mind, He knew what He meant when He said what He meant. And He meant it to be understood in the same way that He meant for Peter’s vision to be understood—not literally!
Once again, just as Peter’s vision of literal objects and ideas was not to be literally understood and applied, neither is Ezekiel’s visions. Either all of these Old Testament services are finally over with, or Christ and His apostles got it all wrong. When Christ said, “the hour comes when you shall neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father,” did He believe that all this would change or revert back to the way things were before for the Jews in the future someday, in either a seven-year tribulation or in an earthly rule and reign? The answer should be quite obvious to anyone who is a sincere Christian. And if it is so obvious, then all those who say Jerusalem will one day again be the center of all worship are not really seeing things in the Scriptures as they really should be seeing them. They are just as blind as the Jews when reading the prophets. It was one of the capital errors of all natural thinking and reasoning Jews (as it is with many Christians in the Church today) to give too much importance to the mere externals of the temple and its worship, not discerning the spiritual truths and principles that lay hidden underneath them all and never to be established again.
Rebuilt temples, with all their attending sacrifices and worship, would now be a glaring and outright denial of the once-and-for-all sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ and of the efficacy of the blood of His atonement. He who sacrificed under the Old Covenant, confessed their Messiah to come who would actually take away sin and the need for any more sacrifices; whereas, he who would sacrifice now would most solemnly and sacrilegiously be DENYING Christ and His all-sufficient sacrifice. And is this not what the author of Hebrews tells us? It was one thing for Paul to observe Jewish ceremonies in order to save some Jews, but it is quite another thing to hold out in the future to them the reinstitution of all these ordinances as once again being mandatory, with dire consequences for non-compliance. And it is not enough for these individuals in the Church to say that all of these things will only be observed as a “memorial,” for God says the atoning sacrifices will actually be for the atoning of sin (43:18-27; 45:15, 17-20). Now even the literalists want to push aside being too literal here in order to make their “memorial” idea stick. But, again, God is only speaking in literal terms and ideas of what is to really and literally take place spiritually.
All that has been described above are spiritual truths expressed in spiritual words that Paul was referring to in 1Cor. 2:13. God means what He says, and says what He means. But not in the way that most of us would naturally think and reason. And even many things that Christ has already said to us should have made us all fully aware of this by now.
As with many today, Peter was dumfounded by the vision (vv. 17, 19). And it wasn’t until his encounter with Cornelius the Gentile, that he actually caught the vision: “God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean” (v. 28). This wasn’t about eating literal animals, but about people; just as Ezekiel’s vision is not about literal “creatures,” “fish” or “fruit trees,” but people—and lots of them! In fact, he says, “many kinds.”
We have got to get ourselves from thinking “naturally” here like all natural reasoning and thinking Jews (and even many Christians), and start thinking “spiritually.” And the same goes for understanding who the “children of the promise” are. It is not just about natural Israel, as many misguided Christians would have us believe today. It is about “spiritual” children who are God’s (or even Abraham’s) children by faith, regardless of natural ethnicity. It is about all (Jews or Gentiles) who are chosen by God and born of the Spirit, not born of the flesh. In God’s mind, it has never been about the natural but about the spiritual; the natural has always prefigured the spiritual; the literal types were to give way to the spiritual antitypes.
Now, if Rom. 11:26 is teaching an end-time en-mass conversion of all natural Jews, would it not seem as if Paul is now saying, “Forget what I just told you about previously”? Are we to really understand what Paul is saying here about the Jews then and now being disobedient, that it was only so that they will all receive God’s mercy some 2,000 years later? How absurd is that! One would have to insert “later” for the mercy to be shown to these Jews, rather than “now.” But, au contraire! Paul’s use of these Greek present tense adverbs translated as, “at the present time” in verse 5 and “now” in verses 30-31, along with the fact that he says he hopes to save “some” of these Jews in his own lifetime in verse 14, leaves us with no doubt as to the timeframe in which Paul is referring to. This is a sincere biblical exegesis of these passages, not an eisegesis. One would have to remove all these adverbs in these verses to say that “all Israel” is an end-time latter day conversion; and even all the verses in the entire context of Romans 9-11 in order to say that “all Israel” is all Jews en-mass at any given point and time. Not only are these ideas not taught in these passage, but such an idea is not even taught in the entire Bible. It is unheard of and unprecedented in the Bible to think in such a manner as this. To do so would be to overlook the obvious for that which is oblivious and non-existent in these passages and in the entire testimony of the Scriptures. Like I said before, it is a Jewish ideology and philosophy that has subtly and deceitfully crept its way into the Church. But we shouldn’t be surprised, for “savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:29f); for, “In the last times some will turn away from the true faith; they will follow deceptive spirits and teachings that come from demons” (1Tim. 4:1, NLT). And have no doubt about it, someone in the Church here is not speaking the truth. Someone is teaching “teachings that come from demons.” They are the commandments and teachings of carnal reasoning and thinking men, evoked by seducing spirits. I will let you decide who is on the side of truth here. It is either what I am teaching you here in this article, or it is what others are teaching you, which is absolutely and unequivocally “Jewish” in nature and carnal in spirit. The latter is not for Christ; it is antichrist.
Since we now know that Paul is talking about the time that we are living in right now, wherein all elect Israelites and all elect Gentiles will be saved, then Paul’s words in Rom. 11:26-27 of the Deliverer coming from Zion to turn godlessness away from Jacob, and making a covenant with them to take away their sins, can be none other than when Christ came to do what He did on the cross—first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. Christ coming “out of” Zion (“to” in Hebrew, or “for” in LXX) can either be understood literally or spiritually, for the word "Zion" is used of both the literal mountain of Zion, or the people of God (for the people of God, see: Psm. 2:6; 50:1-6; 87:1-6; 102:12-18; Isa. 2:2-5; 4:2-6; 60:14; 66:7-8; Zech. 2:7-13; Heb. 12:22; 1Pet. 2:6).[4] To be sure, Christ did in fact physically come “to” the physical Mt. Zion, even working His way “out of” this Zion. But “for” (or “on behalf of”) the literal mountain called “Zion”? This latter Septuagint rendering leads us to believe that we are talking about people here, and not about literal Mount Zion at all. And if this be the case, then all three of these ideas could work with regards to the people of God as referring to "Zion" here. Christ was born via a “child of promise,” which was Mary, and therefore came “out of” Zion.” But it was also “to” this Zion and “for” this Zion that Christ came. Clearly, this is the idea presented to us in Hebrews 12:22 where “Zion” is definitely understood in a spiritual sense of God’s spiritual “mountain,” which is His Church. This is the “huge mountain” that Daniel spoke about that was to fill the whole earth (2:35). A literal mountain cannot fill “the whole earth.” And anyone doing a study of the word “mountain” in the Bible can readily see that it was often used as a metaphor for a king or kingdom of people, with some being razed, while others were exalted. The prophets are replete with such imagery.
Like Romans 9 and 10, chapter 11 is all about God saving His elect from both Jews and Gentiles. Many Jews remain “blind” by Divine design (cf. 11:7); and will continue to be so right up until God saves every last Gentile (v. 25). And in Romans 10, not a single Jew is saved by keeping the Law. None, zilch, zip! Wow! what Israel sought so earnestly and zealously for in their futile attempt to keep the Law, they have not obtained (cf. 11:7). So, naturally, many Jews want to know if God has entirely rejected them? And so in Rom. 11:1, Paul brings up that question: “Did God reject His people?” And right off the bat many of us just think of all natural Jews as being God’s people. But as we all know by now, Paul has something much deeper in mind. A “mystery” to some, especially to all natural reasoning and thinking Jews (as well as to some supposed Christians), but revealed to those of us who have been given the eyes to see it, and the ears to hear it. “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (v. 2), says Paul. God might also just as well say here, “They are not My people which are of My people!” Or, as Paul says, “Nor because they are…descendants are they ALL Abraham’s children… In other words, it is NOT the natural children who are God’s children, but it is THE CHILDREN OF THE PROMISE” (Rom. 9:7, 8). And this is also why Paul says of us Gentiles in Gal. 3:29: “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according TO THE PROMISE.” “He [Abraham] is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised…And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had…. Therefore THE PROMISE comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to ALL Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law [or Jews] but also to those [Gentiles] who are of the faith of Abraham” (Rom. 4:11-12, 16). “All” Abraham’s offspring here are “all” these “children of promise” whom God “foreknew” before they were ever born, like Isaac, Jacob, and all who eventually exercise the same faith as their father Abraham. This group is exclusive of all others, whether they are pure-blooded Jews or not. And this is EXACTLY Paul’s point.
Again, all natural Jews in retaliation, might claim: What? And Paul’s answer again is: “What Israel is seeking, this it has not obtained, BUT THE ELECT OBTAINED IT. And the rest were hardened” (Rom. 11:7, Berean Literal Bible). And this hardening will always remain in part, while the rest are sovereignly chosen by God. And Paul says he is an example of this. God has not rejected all of His beloved elect ones whom He foreknew! This the “mystery.” For many of us who are saved, we completely understand this now. But for those who are not saved or who are blind to this truth, it still remains a “mystery” to them. Why is it that some of us in the Church “get it,” while many don’t? Your guess is as good as mine. It is either (1), they are not true believers, or (2) they have just been taught incorrectly since the time they were born again and don’t really know any better. But if you are a true believer, I believe you will truly “get it.” I believe that with all of my heart. In the words of Christ, some (i.e., believers) are meant to understand and know the “mysteries” of the kingdom, while others (unbelievers) are not (cf. Mk. 4:11f). Remember God’s words through Isaiah earlier? “Your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
This is the “mystery” that Paul everywhere talks about in his epistles as “the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together IN THE PROMISE in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:4-6). Again, it is “to enlighten ALL[5] (both Jews and Gentiles) what is the administration of the mystery having been hidden from the ages in God, the One having created all things” (v. 9, Berean Literal Bible). I like how the ISV translates this: Paul’s ministry was to “help everyone see how this secret that has been at work was hidden for ages by God, who created all things.” The NET Bible says, “God’s secret plan—a secret that has been hidden for ages in God who has created all things.” I mean, really, how clear was it in the Old Testament of God sovereignly electing individuals by grace (whether they be Jews or Gentiles) until now? It took the revelation of God to Paul (and to all the apostles) to unpack it all. And, with the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul skillfully articulates all of this for us in his epistles. For example, who would have known that “seed” meant “Christ,” and not many seeds (plural), if not but for a revelation from God to Paul? Or, even seeing a heavenly “Jerusalem from above” as opposed to the earthly Jerusalem from below? It’s there in the prophets, for all to see! But to this day a veil remains over the eyes of many individuals who are more carnally minded than spiritually minded—and who have not the Spirit of Christ! Many more examples of this kind of understanding from God to His holy apostles and prophets could be cited, too many to be cited here. Indeed, God’s “secret” sovereign election of certain individuals as His “children of promise” HAS BEEN AT WORK all along in ages past in the Old Testament, and Paul makes us acutely aware of this in Romans 9-11. And yet even for all that, we still have those in the Church today who as pastors and teachers over God’s flock adamantly deny all of this, reasoning more like a carnally minded and unsaved Jew, rather than as a true born-again Christian that they claim to be. It kind of makes you wonder who these so-called “brethren” really are, doesn’t it? They don’t see anymore in all of this than what an unsaved Jew actually sees in it! Could there really be a bunch of individuals like Judas in our midst, and we too don't even know it? God will be the Judge; He will divide the sheep from the goats, the saints from the aint’s.
Now this word “foreknew” that Paul uses in Rom. 11:2 takes us back to what he has earlier said in chapter 8, verse 29. Paul had just said that all things work together for the good to those of us who love God and have been called according to His purpose. And in verses 29-30, in the Greek, we have been in the past (aorist active indicative), before any of us were ever born—foreknown, predestined to be conformed to Christ’s image, called, justified and even glorified. What Paul has said is a done deal with God in the past, is actually worked out over time in the lives of all of us whom God has called to be His "children of promise," before any of us were ever born—just like Isaac! (cp. Gal. 28). The Bible goes on to say that we are all chosen, in Christ, before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4; Rev. 17:8). And the same is also said of Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (1:5). And the same is true of everyone of us whom God has chosen. We were “predestined” to be so.
With that said, the foreknowledge of God is not foreseeing what will be and then responding to it, which is sadly what is taught in many churches around the world today. God is not a prognosticator or fortune teller. What He foretells, He puts into action. He doesn’t respond to events, He is personally involved to see to it that all events go exactly as He wants them to go. For example, the Bible says that Christ was foreordained to do what He did in space and time, before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). God didn’t foresee this occuring, He did it based upon all of His forethoughts about what He planned beforehand to do; it was not an afterthought. None of this was God responding to what He foresaw in the future would happen; it was not reactionary, but visionary. What He did was by a determinate set counsel and purpose. This is plainly seen in Acts 2:23, which says, “This man [Christ] was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” And again, “Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.” And just in case anyone would venture to read into this last statement that God was just a good fortune teller or prognosticator, the former statement in Acts 2:23 says it was all done “by God’s set purpose,” not by man’s set purpose. This is why Proverbs says, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose (or plan) that prevails” (19:21). And we see this over and over again, especially in the Old Testament.
Foreknowledge is God’s prior knowledge (or plan) that is eventually in time put into action. What God plans, He does! The foreknowledge of God plans things to be certain, and His predestination destines or puts into action those plans, rendering them certain. Foreknowledge speaks of a destiny for all things; predestination of attaining that destiny, similar to an architect who plans things and then puts them into action. There are countless numbers of passages in the Bible that talk about this idea. And I don’t have the space and time to go over all of them. But I will give you a few of them. They are all self-explanatory.
In Dan. 4:35, it says, “All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him: ‘What have you done?’”
Isaiah 14:24 says: “The LORD Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.’”
Isaiah 46:10-11 says: “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill My purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.”
Isaiah 48:3 says: “I foretold the former things long ago, My mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”
Ezk.12:25 says: “…I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.” This one little sentence really does says it all.
Rev. 17:16-17 says: “...and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish His purpose by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule, until God’s words are fulfilled.”
See also: Gen. 45:5-8; 1Ki. 22:19-23; 2Sam. 17:14; 2Chr. 10:15; Pro. 16:1, 9; 21:1; Psm. 33:10-11. There are countless more verses like these.
To read more on the foreknowledge and predestination of God, I would highly recommend reading Lorraine Boettner’s book, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination. It is almost second-to-none. Arthur Pink’s book, The Sovereignty of God, is also excellent in this regards. Additionally, some good books and commentaries on Romans 9-11 are: William Hendriksen’s excellent New Testament commentary on Romans; Herman Hoeksema’s, God’s Eternal Good Pleasure; Herman Bavinck’s, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 4, p. 744; and Lewis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology, pp. 699-670. Also Lenski and Herman Ridderbos in their commentaries on Romans are helpful. And O. Palmer Robertson’s book, The Israel of God, is a good place to start on all of this.
Thank you for spending the time to read about this wonderful subject on who “all Israel” is. By now, it should come as no surprise that they are all God’s elect “children of the promise” who are born of Him in Rom. 9:6ff, and being no less true of us Gentiles as well according to Gal. 4:28: “And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.” And all this is happening with both Jews and Gentiles right NOW as we speak, not later. It is not some end-time en-mass conversion of all Jews in the future, nor of the Gentiles. It is a remnant or portion who are chosen by God’s grace to be His allotment and inheritance out of all of the harvest of the world throughout history; His designated sheave-offering from among the sheaves of the world. They are His holy tithe, firstfruits and firstborn-ones that all of those literal types and shadows pointed to.
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful, is my Savior’s love for me.
For you, brethren,
are become followers of the churches of God which are in Judea, in Christ Jesus:
for you also have suffered the same things from your own countrymen,
even as they [the believing Jews] have from the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus, and the prophets, and have persecuted us,
and please not God, and are adversaries to all men;
prohibiting us to speak to the Gentiles, that they may be saved,
to fill up their sins always:
for the wrath of God is come upon them to the end”
(1Ths. 1:14-16, DRB).
Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many;
and He will appear a second time,
not to bear sin,
but to bring salvation
to those who are waiting for Him
(Heb. 9:28, NIV).
Alleluia!
Footnotes:
[1] They even base this on misguided and overly-literal interpretations of many words of the other prophets, and more particularly of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Joel and Zechariah. But like Ezekiel, what these prophets predicted with literal words and ideas were to be understood in a non-literal manner in the times of the Church. And a lot of the older commentators such as Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Albert Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown understood it this way. Were these men able to perfectly describe all of the details? Not at all. But who can perfectly describe all the details of the tabernacle of Moses or the temple of Solomon? Are we to discount what they said as being of a symbolical manner, even though we cannot put a handle on all that is being said to us spiritually in those types? Of course not. Are not the same purposes served by the simple delineations of the prophets with literal words and ideas, as with the actual literal construction by Moses or Solomon? Whether literally built, or spoken of with seemingly literal words that are not to be taken literally, they all had the same ends in mind—what God was going to eventually do through Christ and His people. If the prophets were predicting the return of Judaism again after the Church is raptured, this would place them in a direct contradiction of Christ and His apostles. No other sense makes sense in our future, except for the spiritual sense.
[2] By now, it should come as no surprise to us what these fruit bearing trees of all kinds are. Scriptures are replete with this type of symbol or metaphor being used to refer to God’s righteous saints. For example, see: Psm. 1:3; 52:8; 92:12; Jer. 11:16; 17:8.
[3] One need not go too far in Scripture to understand the analogy here. In Psm. 40:2, David wrote this Psalm about Christ, who cried: “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings” (KJV). We sing a song about this to this day. Clearly, none of this is to be taken literally, just as in the verse we are talking about in Ezk. 47:11. In Psm. 40, verse 2, the words “horrible pit” are a bit of an understatement. The word “horrible” is the Hebrew, shaon, and means: “uproar,” as in “a roar (of waters, etc.), din, crash, uproar.” And God often refers to the raging or uproar of the waters of the sea, as the “raging” and “uproar” of the heathen coming against us and overwhelming us (cp. Isa. 8:7-8; 17:12-13; Jer. 46:7-8; 47:2; 51:55; Jude 1:13; Rev. 17:15). This Hebrew word is translated, the “roaring” pit in the Lexham Eng. Bible translation. The Hebrew word for “pit,” bore, literally means “cistern” or “well.” So the New English Translation is not far off when it translates these two words as: “the water pit.” And all of this could really be paraphrased as, “He brought me out of the uproar of the waters and miry clay.” I kind of like how The Wycliffe Bible translates Psm. 40:2: “he led me out of the pit of wretchedness, and out of the filth of dregs. And he ordained my feet upon a stone; and he directed my goings.” And The Expanded Bible is not bad either, “He lifted [drew] me out of the pit of destruction [or desolation], out of the sticky mud [miry/muddy pit/bog/swamp]. He stood me [placed my feet] on a rock and made my feet [step] steady.” (words in brackets theirs).
Now it all begins to make sense. in Psalm 40 Christ was being overwhelmed by the enemy, even Satan himself, who are the very dregs of the physical world and underworld. But God lifted Christ out of that miry, watery, clay cistern and set His feet in a firm, solid place. In Psm. 69:14-15, another Psalm about Christ, David likewise says: “Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me” (see also vv. 1-3). The “mire” spoken of here is synonymous with “those who hate me” and “the deep waters”; with the “floodwaters,” “the depths,” and “the pit” also denoting the same. David is just piling up metaphors. Again, the Psalmist cries: “Reach down Your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners” (Psm. 144:7). Here “the mighty waters” are “the hands of foreigners.” Clearly, “mire,” “waters,” “deep waters,” “the pit,” “mighty waters,” “raging waters” and “floodwaters” are all used as symbols or metaphors for ungodly people who are a cistern of quagmire and ill-repute; a well from which springs nothing drinkable. And this is no different in Ezekiel 47:11.
Additionally, in Isaiah 57:20, the Lord again says, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” And lastly, in Isa. 14:23 the Lord says of Babylon, “I will turn her into a place of owls and into a swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction.” “Owls” are another symbol or metaphor for the heathen who are unclean, something that is more common in Isaiah, especially as noted in the NIV translation. And it is these unclean birds (think of the Medes and Persians) that will settle in Babylon and turn it into a “swampland,” a place that is absolutely detestable. From oceans (or seas), to lakes, to rivers, to streams, to swamplands, to salt; that is the order of devastation that the Lord brings upon the ungodly. It is just like that of the old man in Eph. 4:22, whom Paul says, “waxeth corrupt” (ASV), or “grows corrupt” (NKJV). He just gets more worse by the minute, filling up the cup of God’s wrath (which tells us here that we are not talking about who we are now as the new man, but who we use to be as the old man; see my article Created In God’s Image, Not Adam’s! and esp. part 4 which deals with this verse). Additionally, for a good commentary on Ezekiel, I would suggest trying to get a copy of Patrick Fairbairn’s, An Exposition of Ezekiel; or even William Greenhill's, Ezekiel.
[4] Many Christian Zionists, Messianic Jews and dispensationalists (and not to mention all carnal thinking and reasoning Jews) see some of these verses I am referring to as a time in the future here on earth with the Jews. But they are reading more into these verses that the “natural” eye cannot see. God’s mountain, city, temple and Zion are now His people, the Church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles. The natural is behind us, the spiritual is before us. Those shadows are past, the reality in Christ is now upon us (read Col. 2:17 in the NET Bible).
[5] Some manuscripts omit the Greek word pantas for “all.” But it doesn’t matter. What Paul says about this “mystery” is indeed for all, i.e., not just for the Jew. And all the verses that I cite from Paul make this ever so clear.
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