Romans 11:25–32
“For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written,
‘There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.’
“Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
“For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.”
The olive tree left Paul’s Gentile readers with no reason to interpret Israel’s unbelief as evidence of their own superiority. Some natural branches had been broken off through unbelief, while wild branches had been grafted in through faith. Yet the broken branches were not beyond restoration. If they did not continue in unbelief, God was able to graft them into their own olive tree again.
Paul now describes Israel’s condition as a “partial hardening.” The qualification confirms what the chapter has already demonstrated. Israel’s unbelief is widespread, but it is not universal. Paul himself is an Israelite who believes in Christ, and a remnant remains according to grace. The hardening therefore cannot mean that God has rendered every Israelite incapable of believing the gospel.
Neither does Paul present the present hardening as though it were the final condition of Israel. It has happened “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The gospel is going among the nations while much of Israel remains in unbelief, but Paul has already connected Gentile salvation back to Israel. The nations receive mercy through Israel’s Messiah, their inclusion provokes Israel to jealousy, and Paul hopes through his ministry among them to save some of his fellow Israelites.
Within that movement Paul declares that “all Israel will be saved.” The statement belongs to the argument already underway. Paul has not introduced another means by which Israel can be saved apart from Christ, nor has he stopped distinguishing Israel from the Gentiles. The Israel experiencing partial hardening remains the Israel Paul has been discussing throughout these chapters, and its salvation remains the salvation he has desired from the beginning: the removal of sin through the Deliverer.
A Partial Hardening
Romans 11:25
“For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in”
Paul explains the mystery because misunderstanding Israel’s condition could produce the Gentile arrogance he has just condemned. The wild branches might look upon the broken natural branches and conclude that Israel had simply been discarded while the Gentiles had inherited its place. Paul instead describes a partial hardening that exists alongside the believing remnant and the possibility of restoration.
The hardening is real. Paul has already described those who failed to obtain the righteousness they sought, were given eyes that did not see and ears that did not hear, and were broken from the olive tree through unbelief. Yet “partial” prevents that judgment from being extended beyond Paul’s own description. Israel has not been hardened without exception.
Paul's own existence makes that impossible. So does the remnant he identified at the beginning of the chapter. The distinction is not between an Israel that God has rendered incapable of believing and Gentiles whom God has permitted to believe. It remains the distinction Paul gave in the olive tree: some natural branches were broken off through unbelief, while others remained, and those presently broken off can be grafted in again if they do not continue in unbelief.
The hardening also exists within a period Paul associates with “the fullness of the Gentiles” coming in. Gentile salvation has occupied an important place throughout the argument. Israel’s stumbling has become riches for the world, and Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles serves both the salvation of the nations and his desire to provoke his own people to jealousy.
“The fullness of the Gentiles” therefore belongs to the gathering of the nations through the gospel. Paul does not say that Gentile salvation ends when a predetermined numerical quota is reached, nor does the expression itself tell us how many Gentiles constitute this fullness. His concern is the relationship between the present gathering of the nations and the partial hardening of Israel.
Gentiles must therefore understand their own inclusion within this larger work of God. They have not inherited the tree because Israel became worthless. They have received mercy while many Israelites remain in unbelief, and the mercy shown to them can itself serve God’s purpose of bringing mercy to Israel.
And So All Israel Will Be Saved
Romans 11:26–27
“and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written,
‘There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.’”
Paul has maintained a consistent distinction between Israel and the Gentiles throughout the immediate argument. Israel has experienced partial hardening while the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. In the olive tree, Israelites were the natural branches and Gentiles the wild branches. Both can participate in the same tree, but their participation does not make their histories identical.
There is therefore no textual reason to make “Israel” in verse 26 suddenly mean the church composed of Jews and Gentiles when “Israel” in the preceding clause referred to Israel in distinction from the Gentiles. Paul continues speaking about the people whose unbelief has occupied him since Romans 9.
“All Israel,” however, does not require the salvation of every individual physical descendant of Abraham. Paul has repeatedly spoken about Israel corporately while recognizing distinctions within Israel. Israel pursued righteousness and failed to obtain it, although some Israelites did obtain it. Israel stumbled, although Paul himself did not remain in unbelief. Israel has been hardened, although the hardening is explicitly partial.
Paul can therefore speak of Israel corporately without making a claim about every Israelite without exception.
The wording connecting the partial hardening with Israel’s salvation is also significant. Paul says, “and so all Israel will be saved.” The Greek houtōs ordinarily means “thus” or “in this manner.” Paul does not simply write “and then all Israel will be saved,” as though he were giving nothing more than a chronological sequence in which the Gentile mission finishes and an unrelated Israelite program begins.
The manner in which Israel is saved has been unfolding throughout the chapter. Israel experiences partial hardening. Through Israel’s stumbling the gospel goes among the Gentiles. Gentiles receive mercy through Israel’s Messiah. Their salvation provokes Israel to jealousy. Paul uses his Gentile ministry in the hope of saving some of his own people. Natural branches presently broken off through unbelief can be grafted into their own olive tree again when they no longer continue in unbelief.
“All Israel will be saved” belongs within that movement.
Paul confirms the nature of this salvation by appealing to Scripture:
Isaiah 59:20–21
“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says Yahweh.
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says Yahweh. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says Yahweh, “from now on and forever.”
Paul draws upon Isaiah’s promise of the Redeemer and combines it with the covenantal promise of sins being taken away. The salvation of Israel is therefore described in the same categories that have governed Romans from the beginning: ungodliness must be turned away and sins must be forgiven.
The Deliverer accomplishes that salvation. Israel is not saved alongside Christ, around Christ, or by virtue of physical descent from the patriarchs. The people Paul has spent these chapters praying might be saved are saved through the one who takes away their sins.
Beloved for the Fathers’ Sake
Romans 11:28–29
“Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Paul can describe the same people as enemies concerning the gospel and beloved concerning election because Israel’s present unbelief does not erase God’s faithfulness to the history he established through the patriarchs.
Concerning the gospel, many Israelites presently stand in opposition. Paul has never minimized that reality. They have stumbled over Christ, refused to submit to God’s righteousness, failed to obey the good news, and been broken from the olive tree through unbelief. Their opposition has accompanied the spread of the gospel among the Gentiles, making them, in Paul’s words, “enemies for your sake.”
Yet Israel's present hostility cannot rewrite the promises God made to the fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob remain the patriarchs through whom God established the covenant history that has occupied Paul throughout Romans 9–11. Israel’s unbelief cannot make God unfaithful.
That brings Paul back to the problem with which this entire section began:
Romans 9:6
“But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing.”
Romans 11 has been demonstrating why it has not. The unbelief of many Israelites has not destroyed God’s word. A remnant exists according to grace. The nations are receiving the promised blessing. The natural branches presently broken off are capable of being grafted in again. God continues accomplishing the redemptive purpose established through the fathers despite the unbelief of many of their descendants.
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” belongs to that argument. Paul is not offering a general statement that anything God ever gives an individual can never subsequently be removed. The gifts and calling in view concern God’s dealings with Israel and the patriarchal promises upon which Paul’s argument rests.
Neither does “irrevocable” mean that Israelite ancestry guarantees salvation regardless of unbelief. Paul has already ruled that out by describing natural branches broken from their own olive tree. The same Israelites who are beloved concerning election are presently called enemies concerning the gospel. If election meant that their ancestry already secured their salvation, Paul’s prayer that Israel might be saved and his desire to save some of them would make little sense.
God’s faithfulness does not eliminate the necessity of faith. It guarantees that human unbelief will not make his word fail.
That They May Also Obtain Mercy
Romans 11:30–31
“For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.”
Paul places Jew and Gentile within the same categories of disobedience and mercy. The Gentiles whom he has warned against boasting were themselves formerly disobedient to God. Romans 1 described the nations suppressing the truth, refusing to honor God, exchanging his glory for images, and exchanging his truth for a lie. The wild branches entered the olive tree with no history that could provide grounds for boasting.
They “have obtained mercy.”
That description exposes the absurdity of Gentile arrogance toward unbelieving Israel. Mercy cannot become proof of the recipient’s superiority because mercy begins with need. Gentiles who now participate in the richness of the olive tree did not arrive there because their history demonstrated greater faithfulness than Israel’s. They arrived as disobedient people upon whom God had mercy.
Israel presently occupies the position of disobedience, but Paul deliberately places that disobedience alongside the mercy already received by the Gentiles. Israel’s rejection contributed to the spread of the gospel among the nations, while the mercy now displayed among the nations serves Paul’s hope that Israelites themselves may obtain mercy.
The movement therefore does not end with one disobedient people being discarded and another taking its place. Gentile disobedience did not prevent Gentiles from receiving mercy, and Israel’s present disobedience does not place Israelites beyond mercy. The broken natural branches can be grafted in again because the same mercy that received wild branches remains available to them.
Their natural relationship to the patriarchs does not give them a claim upon that mercy. Paul has already excluded righteousness as a debt owed because of works, and the olive tree excluded ancestry as a guarantee against unbelief. Israel must receive mercy precisely as mercy: through the saving work of the Christ whom Paul proclaims to Jew and Gentile alike.
Mercy on All
Romans 11:32
“For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.”
Paul’s conclusion returns to one of the controlling arguments of Romans. Jew and Gentile differ in covenant history, but neither difference in history nor possession of privilege changes the fundamental human condition before God.
Paul established that point when he brought the opening chapters of Romans to their conclusion:
Romans 3:9
“What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.”
And again:
Romans 3:22–23
“For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 11 reaches the same ground through the language of disobedience. Gentiles were disobedient and received mercy. Israel is now disobedient and stands in need of mercy. The historical movement differs, but neither group can claim righteousness from itself.
When Paul says that God has “bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all,” the Jew-and-Gentile structure of his argument determines the sense of “all.” Paul has not suddenly introduced universal salvation. The same chapter has described branches broken off through unbelief and warned Gentiles of the severity of God. Romans as a whole has repeatedly connected salvation with faith in Christ.
“All” instead destroys the ethnic boasting Paul has opposed from both directions. The nations cannot boast over Israel because they too were disobedient and survive only by mercy. Israel cannot appeal to covenant ancestry as though descent from the patriarchs removes the need for mercy. Jew and Gentile alike have been enclosed under disobedience, leaving neither with a claim upon God as though salvation were owed.
Until the Fullness of the Gentiles Has Come In
Israel’s partial hardening does not mean that God has rejected his people or that his word has failed. A remnant already demonstrates that the hardening is not universal, while the possibility of broken natural branches being grafted in again demonstrates that present unbelief need not be permanent. The gospel has gone among the nations during this hardening, bringing Gentiles into the blessings promised through Israel’s Messiah and using their reception of mercy to provoke Israel toward the salvation it has rejected.
It is within that movement that Paul says “all Israel will be saved.” Israel does not need to be redefined as the Gentile church to preserve one people of God, nor does Israel need a second saving program to preserve God’s faithfulness to the patriarchs. Paul has already supplied the categories necessary for understanding the statement. Natural and wild branches share one olive tree, unbelief excludes, faith receives, and broken branches can be restored.
God’s irrevocable gifts and calling guarantee that Israel’s unbelief cannot overturn the purpose established through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They do not guarantee salvation to Israelites while they remain enemies concerning the gospel. The promised salvation is accomplished by the Deliverer who turns ungodliness from Jacob and takes away sins.
Paul therefore ends where the argument of Romans has repeatedly brought both Jew and Gentile. Their histories differ, their privileges differ, and their places within the unfolding history of redemption differ, but neither possesses righteousness as an ethnic inheritance or a reward that God owes. Gentiles who were disobedient have obtained mercy, and Israelites who are presently disobedient remain objects of that same mercy. Neither can boast over the other because both stand entirely dependent upon the mercy of God.