Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 5 Study # 2
April 28, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Though the Old Testament does not reveal the "mystery" of Israel's partial hardening until the fulness of the Gentiles has come, it does declare a future time when "all Israel shall be saved".
Introduction: In our last study, we saw that Paul was still focused upon a major problem that was finding its way into the theology and attitude of the Gentiles regarding his preaching of the grace of God to them. This problem was both a bad theology as well as a bad attitude, both of which were blatant contradictions of the truth about the grace of God. The bad theology was that God's "grace" was actually "law": God's turn to the Gentiles with His message of redemption in the Jewish Messiah was rooted in a kind of moral superiority possessed by the Gentiles because they accepted Him Whom the Jews rejected. And the bad attitude was the inevitable arrogance that arises from any, and every, sense of "superiority". Wherever any sense of "superiority" exists, so also exists both "law" and "arrogance".
The latest form of this major problem was a firm confidence that the Gentiles possessed a superior, and inherent, wisdom that the Jews did not. Paul's response to that false confidence was a presentation of God's Larger Plan which He had kept hidden from the foundations of the world. It was, he said, a "mystery". It consisted of an allowance by God of a developing "hardness" within Israel so that a portion of Israel "fell" and became subject to "rejection" by God. However, this permission of "hardness" in Israel was to be only temporary. It would last until the "fulness of the Gentiles should come". The purpose for this "allowance" was for the "salvation of the Gentiles" and the "riches of the world and of the nations" (11:11-12).
The reason for Paul's persistent focus is that God's opposition to "law" and every form of pride that dismisses "grace" is absolute: He will reject any, and all, who embrace any sense of "superiority" over others because of something inherently "of them" in their theology and attitude if that "sense of superiority" actually settles into "theology and attitude" (no one actually totally escapes the pride of superiority because of the depth of its place in our fundamental human depravity, but there is a difference between occasional bouts of pride and enthroning it by some form of "theology" speaks "grace" but means "law" [Note 2 Corinthians 12:7]).
This evening we are going to continue our look into Paul's doctrine of the Larger Plan of God as it relates to God's plans for the eventual outcome for Israel.
- I. The Nature of "The Eventual Outcome".
- A. Paul's words are "all Israel shall be saved".
- 1. This does not mean that all of the physical seed of Jacob/Israel will ultimately be saved.
- a. He has already established that there are physical descendents of Israel who are not "Israel" (Romans 9:6).
- b. He is not writing about some "ultimate, out of time" salvation.
- 1) All of his words are set in real, temporal, history.
- a) Israel experienced a time-bound, gradual descent into "hardness", though not all were affected by it (Romans 11:1).
- b) The "fulness of the Gentiles" is a marked "time-bound" reality (Luke 21:24).
- 2) His description of the actions of God are set in real, temporal, history.
- a) He "rejected" those whose rejection of Him was "set" in time.
- b) He promoted the salvation of the Gentiles to provoke a future generation of Israel unto salvation "in time".
- 2. This does mean that a future time is coming when "Israel" will be purged of all of the non-Israel Israelites and "all" of those who remain will be saved.
- a. Israel is destined to be subjected to a terrible time of severe persecution that will be the catalyst for the separation of the wheat from the tares with the outcome being the destruction of the tares and the gathering of the wheat into the barn.
- b. According to Paul, this time is coming once the "fulness of the Gentiles" has arrived.
- 1) This phrase, taken in harmony with its twin in 11:12, means that when all of the Gentiles who are to be saved have been saved.
- 2) When God's purpose of provoking Israel by jealousy has been accomplished, this "time" in history will come.
- B. But Paul's "salvation" terminology is expanded by his appeal to Isaiah 59:20-21a.
- 1. It has a "timed" feature: The Deliverer shall come out of Zion [Note Zechariah 14:3].
- 2. It has a "salvation" feature...
- a. He shall turn ungodliness from Jacob (thus, solving the problem of "ungodliness" for the future).
- b. He shall take away their sins (thus, solving the problem of "ungodliness" regarding the past).