Christians have long sought to understand the relationship between Israel and the church, resulting in not a few disagreements throughout the last two millennia. Zooming out, the question concerns nothing less than issues of continuity and discontinuity between the Old Testament (i.e., Israel) and the New Testament (i.e., the church). Now that Christ has come and broken down the wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles so that there is one new man (the church) in place of the two (Eph. 2:14–15), is there any remaining role for ethnic Israel to play in God’s redemptive plan?
Zooming in, there are many texts that bear on this question, but perhaps none as significant as the Apostle Paul’s discussion in Romans 9–11. To focus even more, we must examine Romans 11:26, which has rightly been called “the storm center in the interpretation of Rom. 9–11 and of NT teaching about the Jews and their future.”[1] Understanding this single verse does not answer all of the larger questions, but it’s hard to imagine a satisfactory answer to those larger questions without an adequate analysis of Romans 11:26. What does Paul mean when he writes, “And in this way all Israel will be saved”? There are two parts to this question: to whom does “all Israel” refer and when will “all Israel” be saved?
1. Douglas J. Moo, The Letter to the Romans, 2nd ed., NICNT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018), 734. Moo specifically identifies the first clause of v. 26 as “the storm center.”
Four major interpretive views have been proposed concerning the identity of “all Israel” and the timing of her salvation (see Table 1 for a summary of the four views).[2] In Part 1 of this essay, I will consider the first three main options and argue for the most compelling. In Part 2, I will examine and critique a fourth interpretive option that is based upon a dispensational view of the Bible.
2. Though houtos (οὕτως) in Romans 11:26 indicates manner (not time), how Israel is saved will also indicate when it takes place. So, the issue of manner and timing will be treated together.
View #1: All Spiritual Israel
Many throughout the history of the church have argued that Paul is intending to describe “all spiritual Israel” in Romans 11:26, by which he means all believers, both Jews and Gentiles.[3] Paul is equating the people of God with the church, who is spiritual Israel. Though this view is not as prevalent today, it is theologically attractive and interpretively possible.[4] After all, Paul does apply the language of “Israel” to the church in other contexts (Gal. 6:16; cf. also 1 Pet. 2:9–10).[5]
3. Augustine (Patristic), Calvin (Reformation), and Barth (modern) are representative. See Augustine, “Letters 149” in ACCS, NT 6: Romans, ed. Gerald Bray (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1998), 298; John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, trans. John King (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993), 437; and Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, trans. Edwyn C. Hoskyns (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), 415–16.
4. O. Palmer Robertson switched from interpreting “all Israel” as “all elect Israel” (view #2) to “all spiritual Israel” (view #1). The former is argued in his “Is there a Distinctive Future for Ethnic Israel in Romans 11?” in Perspectives on Evangelical Theology, ed. Kenneth S. Kantzer and Stanley N. Gundry (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), 219–21. The latter interpretation is found in his The Israel of God: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2000), 187–92.
5. This interpretation of these verses is obviously disputed by dispensationalists, but besides the arguments in major commentaries on those passages, see especially Andreas J. Köstenberger, “The Identity of the ᾿ΙΣΡΑΗΛ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΥ (Israel of God) in Galatians 6:16,” FM 19:1 (Fall 2001): 3–18 and Brent E. Parker, “The Church as the Renewed Israel in Christ; A Study of 1 Peter 2:4–10,” SBJT 21:3 (Fall 2017): 41–52.
N.T. Wright describes this usage as a “polemical redefinition” of Israel which reaches a climax in the flow of Paul’s argument.[6] After all, the Apostle has already made the case earlier in the same letter that a true “Jew” is one who receives an inward circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:28–29; cf. Phil. 3:3). The true “offspring of Abraham” include all (Jews and Gentiles) who share in the faith of Abraham, who is the father of many nations (Rom. 4:9–18; cf. also Gal. 3:6–9, 26–29). And in the olive tree metaphor immediately preceding our key verse, the wild olive branches (i.e., Gentiles) are grafted into the same olive tree “among” the other natural branches of Israel (Rom. 11:17; cf. 9:24–26).
While Paul can use the language of “Israel” and apply it to the whole church, including Gentile Christians as members of the people God, that does not seem to be the focus of his argument in these chapters, especially the second half of chapter 11. In the verses both before Romans 11:26 (Rom. 11:11–25) and after it (Rom. 11:28–32), Paul is clear and careful to distinguish between Jews and Gentiles (see Table 2 below). In fact, this first view’s identification of “all Israel” as including both Jews and Gentiles would actually undermine the point the Apostle is seeking to make.
The problem that initiated these chapters in the first place was the failure of ethnic Jews to obtain salvation and therefore not be included in the Messiah’s people (Rom. 9:1–5). For the climax of Paul’s three-chapter argument to result in giving grounds for the Gentiles to brag to the unbelieving Jews that “we are the true Israel, and you are not” would only exacerbate the tension that Paul is seeking to relieve. From verse 13 and following in Romans 11, Paul is directly addressing the Gentiles. His burden in these verses is that the Gentiles “not be arrogant” towards the Jews (Rom. 11:18) and “not become proud” (Rom. 11:20) nor “be wise in [their] own sight” (Rom. 11:25) because they have experienced God’s kindness while much of Israel has experienced God’s hardening (Rom. 11:7–10). However, the Gentiles have no exclusive claim on the rights and titles of being considered “God’s people” because God has the power to cut them off (Rom. 11:22) and graft the Jews back in again (Rom. 11:23). Calling the Gentiles, along with the Jews, “all Israel” in this immediate context would seemingly subvert Paul’s purpose in these verses by “fuel[ing] the fire of the Gentiles’ arrogance.”[7]
6. N. T. Wright, Romans, in vol. 10 of The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander E. Keck (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 690.
7. Moo, Romans, 736. Moo points out that the “rhetorical situation is entirely different in Rom. 11” compared to the anti-Judaizing contexts of Gal. 6:16 and Phil. 3:3 (Romans, 736n806).
View #2: All Elect Israel
While most modern interpreters recognize that Paul utilizes an exclusively ethnic reference for “Israel” throughout Romans 9–11 which does not include Gentiles, it is also clear that not every reference to “Israel” includes every Israelite. After all, Paul begins answering the charge about whether or not God’s saving promises to Israel have failed by making an important distinction: not all physical Israel are spiritual Israel (Rom. 9:6). Not everyone who is physically descended from Israel is a believer in Christ. Ishmael and Esau were “children of the flesh,” but they are not “children of the promise” like Isaac and Jacob (Rom. 9:8–13). Therefore, not every ethnic Jew is part of the true spiritual Israel. Only those who believe in Jesus as the Messiah receive the saving promises. And the only ones to believe are those who are chosen according to “God’s purpose of election” (Rom. 9:11). View #2 interprets Romans 11:26 in concert with Paul’s discussion in Romans 9:6ff; therefore, “all Israel” does not mean every Israelite, but “all elect Israel.”
All of the elect (Jew and Gentile) will be saved, and so certainly all elect Jews are also saved (see Diagram A)[8]. But what distinguishes this view is the incorporation of the remnant theme that Paul develops throughout these chapters (see Rom. 9:27 and 11:5). Only the elect remnant of ethnic Jews are saved because “the rest were hardened” by God (Rom. 11:7). As a sentence of judgment, God has rejected the majority of the Jews (Rom. 9:27–28). When Paul rhetorically asks, “Has God rejected his people?” (Rom. 11:1), he answers “no.” But his evidence is to point to the remnant, himself being an example. Even in Elijah’s time, while seven thousand is a large number, it is comparatively small in relation to the several million in the nation as a whole (Rom. 11:2–4). The reason Paul is in anguish for his “kinsmen according to the flesh” is because, at this point in history, the church is composed primarily of Gentiles with very few Jews (Rom. 9:3). In this interpretation, the second half of Romans 11 is giving the same answer as the first half of the chapter, namely that “at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace” (Rom. 11:7). This ethnic remnant defines the “all elect Israel” of Romans 11:26 in view #2.
8. I’ve adapted the diagram found in Douglas J. Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans: A Theological Survey, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2014), 133. View #1 could still argue that Romans 9:6 is only referring to ethnic Jews, but also think that “all Israel” in Romans 11:26 is referring to both Jews and Gentiles. View #2 thinks that “the two different, yet overlapping, referents” for Israel in Romans 9:6 are paradigmatic for all of Romans 9–11, so therefore “all Israel” in Romans 11:26 means the elect of ethnic Israel throughout history. See Benjamin L. Merkle, “Revisiting Romans 11:26: The Salvation of the Elect of Ethnic Israel” in Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Theological Essays, ed. Douglas J. Moo, Eckhard J. Schnabel, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Frank Thielman (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Academic, 2023), 246–47.
What the Apostle does introduce in the second half of Romans 11 is the rationale for God’s rejection of Israel (Rom. 11:11ff). God’s purpose for the hardening of Israel was to bring salvation to the Gentiles. And then this Gentile salvation will actually result in the salvation of Israel as they are provoked to jealousy (Rom. 11:11, 14; cf. 10:19). Israel, in accordance with the hope prophesied in the Old Testament, fully expected that when the Jewish Messiah arrived, they would be the first in his kingdom. So, when they see the Gentiles streaming in while they are left out, they become jealous. But this provocation is the means God uses for Israel to follow the Gentiles’ example and also trust in Christ. There is a mysterious interdependence that God has orchestrated throughout all of redemptive history to bring the full number of his elect to saving faith. But instead of the simple (1) Israel’s salvation → (2) Gentile salvation, God’s redemptive-historical twist results in (1) Israel’s rejection → (2) Gentile salvation → (3) Israel’s salvation. Instead of Israel’s salvation leading to Gentile salvation, it’s actually Israel’s rejection that will lead to Gentile salvation, which in turn will lead to Israel’s salvation. “The three-stage process by which God’s blessing oscillates between Israel and the Gentiles is at the heart of this entire section”[9] (as seen in Table 2, which graphically portrays Romans 11:11–32).[10]
9. Moo, Romans, 702.
10. I’ve adapted this chart from Andrew David Naselli, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 137–38.
This three-stage process also explains the content of the “mystery” that Paul is revealing in Romans 11:25ff. In Pauline usage, a “mystery” refers to the current eschatological unveiling of previous revelation that was generally hidden in the Old Testament. With progressive revelation in light of Christ’s arrival, Paul now fully discloses in the New Testament a concept only partially revealed in the Old Testament.[11] From their reading of the Old Testament, the Jews generally expected a simple two-stage salvation when the Messiah arrived: Israel would be included in Christ’s kingdom, and then they would bring salvation to the Gentiles. Israel’s salvation (first) would lead to Gentile salvation (second). However, the “mystery” that Paul now reveals introduces a salvation-historical twist in God’s plan to save both peoples. In Romans 11:25–26, Paul describes the “mystery” by three clauses: (1) Israel’s partial hardening, (2) the “fullness” of the Gentiles (i.e., their salvation), and (3) the salvation of “all Israel.” Independently, each of these components is not new revelation. The combination of each of these components in this particular sequence is what is new.[12] Paul is not primarily concerned here with the fact of Israel’s salvation, but with the manner of her salvation as it relates specifically to the Gentiles. Israel’s partial hardening has presently led to the salvation of the full number of the Gentiles, and in this manner—namely the Gentiles provoking Israel to jealously (Rom. 10:19; 11:11, 14)—“all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11:25b–26a).
11. For a fuller definition, see Benjamin L. Gladd, “Mystery,” in Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G. K. Beale, D. A. Carson, Benjamin L. Gladd, and Andrew David Naselli (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 551–55.
12. D. A. Carson, “Mystery and Fulfillment: Toward a More Comprehensive Paradigm of Paul’s Understanding of the Old and the New,” in Justification and Variegated Nomism: A Fresh Appraisal of Paul and Second Temple Judaism, vol. 2, The Paradoxes of Paul, ed. D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 419–21.
Doug Moo points out in reference to this three-stage process that “a key issue is whether Paul envisions this sequence as a repeated historical pattern or as a single movement spanning the course of salvation history.”[13] View #2 argues that this three-stage sequence plays out repeatedly throughout history, while view #3 argues for this sequence happening only once throughout salvation history. The elect remnant view (#2) argues that it was never God’s plan to save a majority of Israel, but rather to save only the elect within Israel. While the majority of Jews continue to be hardened, the focus is on the Gentiles who constitute the majority of who are coming into the church through faith in Christ. But as some Jews (cf. Rom. 11:14)—who are an elect remnant (which constitutes a comparatively smaller number)—observe this Gentile inclusion, they are provoked to jealousy and seek to emulate the faith of the Gentiles and so too trust in the Messiah and come into the church. This is a repeated pattern because it continues “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom. 11:25), which (again) is the means by which all elect Israel are being saved presently and will be saved into the future until the full number of elect Gentiles and Jews is complete (see Diagram B).[14]
13. Moo, Encountering the Book of Romans, 153.
14. This diagram is not intending to communicate that Israel’s salvation is actually what leads to Israel’s rejection, only that this three-stage process is a repeated pattern that continues throughout this interadvental age.
According to view #2, “all Israel” in Romans 11:26 is the complete number of the elect remnant of ethnic Jews who are presently being saved, beginning with the first coming and completed by the second coming of Christ.[15] My critique of view #2 will come with my argument for view #3 below.
15. Kruse explains this view’s understanding of Romans 11:26 by writing, “Paul’s meaning is that a hardening of Israel will persist until the full number of Gentiles has come in, and as the Gentiles are coming in, many Jews will be coming in also and in this way, and by the time Christ appears a second time, the hardness will have disappeared and all Israel will be saved.” See Colin G. Kruse, Paul’s Letter to the Romans, PNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012), 443.
View #3: All Ethnic Israel
The difference between views #2 and #3 is relatively slight in my construal. Both views agree that not all physical Israel are spiritual Israel (Rom. 9:6–13). Both agree that God is presently saving the elect remnant from within Israel, and this is also proof that he has not rejected his people (Rom. 11:1–7). When answering Paul’s initial challenge in Romans 9:6 on whether God’s promises to save Israel have failed (since in Paul’s day Gentiles constituted the majority of the Messianic kingdom and not Jews), both views #2 and #3 affirm that (1) Not all physical Israel are spiritual Israel (Rom.9:6b–13), and (2) God is presently saving a remnant of Jews (Rom. 11:1–7). However, this view (#3) argues that there is a third step in Paul’s argument in Romans 9-11 that the word of God has not failed to save his people (Rom. 9:6a). Although presently the remnant (minority) of Israel is being saved while the remainder (majority) of Israel is being hardened (Rom. 11:7), that will not always be the case. In the future, near the second coming, God will remove the hardening that is upon Israel and pour out his saving mercy such that many, and even a majority of ethnic Jews, will come to faith in Christ (Rom. 11:30–31). This future mass conversion of ethnic Jews into the church will be so great that one can say that “all ethnic Israel” will be saved (Rom. 11:26).
This view also recognizes the salvation-historical twist that Paul has revealed in this “mystery” with a three-stage process of Jew-Gentile interdependent salvation (Rom. 11:25–26). However, instead of understanding this three-stage sequence (Israel’s rejection → Gentile salvation → Israel’s salvation) as being a repeated historical pattern throughout the church age (view #2), view #3 understands this sequence to be describing a single movement encompassing the whole interadvental age (see Diagram C).
16. See Moo, Romans, 732–33.
17. Moo, Romans, 733.
18. See the discussion in Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, BECNT, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018), 596–97. There is not some “special way” (Sonderweg) of salvation for any ethnic Jews. The only salvation available for Jews and Gentiles is through faith in Jesus as the Messiah and based on God’s electing grace (Rom. 11:32).
19. Schreiner, Romans, 582–83.
20. Moo, Romans, 739.
21. Schreiner argues, “The difficulty with the remnant-throughout-history interpretation is that the mystery revealed is stunningly anticlimactic.” He concludes, “The salvation of only a remnant isn’t the solution; it is actually the problem that called forth these chapters in the first place” (Romans, 599–600, emphasis added).
The current divine hardening on Israel is preventing the majority of Jews from being saved (Rom. 11:7–10). This hardening is partial, in that some Jews (the elect remnant) are presently being saved. But this hardening is not only partial, it is also temporary.[16] There is a temporal limitation to Israel’s hardening in addition to the numeric limitation. Israel’s hardening will only last “until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in” (Rom. 11:25) at which time there will be a reversal in the present situation. Moo explains that Israel will “one day experience a spiritual rejuvenation that would extend far beyond the present bounds of the remnant.”[17]
Those who experience the present hardening will not themselves be shown mercy, but a future generation of Jews will become the gracious recipients of God’s mercy. One is either a recipient of God’s mercy or God’s judgment (Rom. 9:18–23). Currently, the elect remnant are undeserved recipients of God’s gracious salvation, but in the future the number of God’s elect Jews will swell to be the majority of ethnic Jews living at the time before the return of Christ.[18] This future mass conversion of ethnic Jews will take place after the full number of Gentiles has come into the church, and that’s why most of this interadvental age is focused on the Gentile mission (cf. Acts 13:45–48 and the quote of Isa. 49:6).
22. View #3 interpreters don’t all agree as to the mechanism of bringing about this third stage of Israel’s salvation. As representative of those who argue for the second coming as the mechanism of Jewish salvation, see Mark Seifrid (“Romans,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, ed. G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007), 673, and also, Schreiner, Romans, 604, 619.
23. Frank Thielman, Romans, ZECNT (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2018), 547.
24. Moo correctly clarifies that while houtōs (οὕτως) in Romans 11:26 does not have “a temporal meaning, [it does have] a temporal reference: for the manner in which all Israel is saved involves a process that unfolds in definite stages” (Romans, 735, emphasis original). The clear time reference comes from the preposition axri (ἄχρι), with the relative, axri hou = axri xronou hō (ἄχρι οὗ = ἄχρι χρόνου ᾧ) in Rom. 11:25. See BDAG, s.v. ἄχρι, 160.1.b.
25. Christopher R. Bruno, “The Deliverer from Zion: The Source(s) and Function of Paul’s Citation in Romans 11:26–27,” TynBul 59 (2008): 127–28.
As one reads the second half of Romans 11, it becomes clear that the present reality of Israel’s fate will not be her final reality. In Romans 11:12, Paul compares the (1) present trespass/failure of Israel—which led to the (2) present salvation riches that have come to the Gentile world—with the (3) future “fullness” (i.e., full number) of Israel. Likewise, in verse 15, the (1) present rejection of Israel led to the (2) present reconciliation of the Gentile world, which will in turn one day lead to the (3) future “acceptance” of Israel. It is clear that Israel’s salvation has not yet occurred because her “acceptance” will trigger “life from the dead” which is a reference to the resurrection that takes place at Christ’s return.[19] Finally, Paul concludes his olive tree metaphor with the expectation that at some future time, the natural Israelite branches will be grafted back into their own olive tree (Rom. 11:23–24). Moo concludes, “Since Paul makes clear that this reintegration of Israel is in contrast to the situation as it exists in his own time—when Israel is ‘rejected’—it must be a future event.”[20] Israel is still awaiting the last stage in this three-stage salvation-historical process when “all ethnic Israel” will be saved (Rom. 11:26).[21]
While it’s possible that this dramatic future salvation of Israel is ignited by the return of Christ,[22] the emphasis in the context is that the salvation of “all Israel” will come about after and by means of the salvation of the Gentiles. The final salvation of Israel is not prompted by the return of Christ, but by their desire to emulate the Gentile believers who have preceded them into Christ’s kingdom.[23] Once “the fullness (i.e., full number) of the Gentiles has come in,” then God will save many ethnic Israelites.[24] When the full number of God’s elect Jews and Gentiles are all saved, then Christ will return as the climax to salvation history (Rom. 11:30–32; cf. 11:15). For both views #1 and #2, the focus for the timing of Israel’s salvation is the present age beginning with the first coming.[25] But for view #3 the focus is on the future salvation of Israel that will occur before (but near) the second coming.[26]
26. Most view #3 interpreters point to Paul’s quotation of Isa. 59:20a in Rom. 11:26b as a reference to the second coming (“the Deliverer will come from Zion”). My own view is that the (interpretively modified compound) quotation is grounding the whole “mystery” statement, both of which (the quotation and the mystery) refer to the whole interadvental period. But the last stage of this three-stage process occurs near the end of salvation-history, hence the emphasis on the time period near the second coming. See Richard James Lucas Jr., “Was Paul Prooftexting? Paul’s Use of the Old Testament As Illustrated Through Three Debated Texts” (PhD diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014), 21–103.
27. Schreiner, Romans, 606. Alternatively, Moo also notes, “Even if we adopt the viable alternative interpretation of ‘all Israel will be saved’ as a reference to the ultimate salvation of all the elect from the people of Israel throughout history, a great end-time conversion of Jews is not excluded” (Romans, 739).
28. Schreiner helpfully explains, “Paul’s answer as to whether Israel is part of the people of God is both yes and no. No individual Israelite can presume on God’s election, since God has always chosen some Israelites and not others. Yet it is also the case that he does not reject the people of Israel corporately, and he has promised to save the great majority of the end-time generation” (Romans, 585).
29. All three interpretative views (but not view #4) are compatible with progressive covenantalism. See Stephen J. Wellum, “Progressive Covenantalism” in Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies: Four Views on the Continuity of Scripture, ed. Brent E. Parker and Richard J. Lucas (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2022), 109–110.
30. For a fuller description and response, see Richard J. Lucas, “The Dispensational Appeal to Romans 11 and the Nature of Israel’s Future Salvation” in Progressive Covenantalism: Charting a Course Between Dispensational and Covenantal Theologies (B&H, 2016), 235–53.
Theologically and hermeneutically the first three views are all compatible. All three interpretive options agree that Paul can and does refer to elect Jews and Gentiles both as spiritual Israel. But views #2 and #3 disagree that this appellation fits the context specifically in Romans 11:26. And even this large ingathering of ethnic Jews in the future (view #3) is still just a remnant of Israel throughout history (in agreement with view #2).[27] God elects individuals into his church, so there are many Jews who experience his hardening and are thus never saved.[28] The salvation that the Jews and Gentiles experience in all three views consists in being brought into the church through faith in Christ during this present era of salvation history. Though I find view #3 most compelling and best able to account for all of the evidence, views #1 and #2 should be considered legitimate options.[29]
In contrast to the first three views, dispensationalists (view #4 below) argue for a different sort of “salvation” which happens after and outside of the church age. In Part 2 of this essay, we will turn to a description and critique of the dispensational argument from Romans 11.[30]
