Without hesitation, I answered yes. The Bible says very clearly that all Israel will be saved, in Romans 11:26.
The question is not whether all Israel will be saved. The question is what Paul means when he says, "all Israel."
The book of Romans is all about salvation. Paul's central teaching about salvation in Romans is this: People are saved by faith in Jesus Christ and not by keeping laws. Specifically, Paul calls out the Jewish people again and again, warning them that they will not reach God through their obedience to the Law.
Now, this can be confusing to the casual observer, because faith in Jesus Christ is far more than mere mental assent to His existence, or even mental assent to the truth that He is God and that He died to make atonement for sin. A person who has faith in Jesus Christ has experienced a supernatural infusion of spiritual life into his formerly spiritually dead heart. The spiritual life that has entered his heart is none other than the divine presence of the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself (Colossians 1:27), and when the Holy Spirit lives in a person's heart, the person changes. As the Bible says, the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). A person who has the Holy Spirit living in his heart will live a life of ever-increasing obedience. Because his new heart leads him to do things that are righteous, it may look like he is "saved by observing the Law," but he is not! He is saved by grace, and the new heart he has received enables him to walk in the way of God (or, as Romans 8:14 says, the sons of God are led by the Spirit).
The Apostle Paul has spent chapter after chapter in Romans explaining that one's relationship with God--whether a person is counted as one of the people of God, a child of God--depends on the condition of one's heart towards God. In other words, it depends on faith, and not on outward acts.
Here are some points Paul has made:
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. (Romans 2:29)
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. (Romans 3:20)
[Abraham] is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. 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 before he was circumcised. (Romans 4:11b-12)
For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. (Romans 9:6b)
And Paul wrote in other letters:
Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. (Galatians 3:7)
If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Thus, it seems quite clear that when Paul writes, "And so, all Israel will be saved" (11:26), his point is that all the elect, to whom God has granted the gift of faith, whether Jew or Gentile, will be saved. As I wrote when I dealt with Romans 9:
1. Jews and non-Jews who have faith in Christ have salvation.
2. Jews and non-Jews who do not have faith in Christ do not have salvation.
When Paul says "all Israel will be saved," he means that all who believe in Jesus Christ will be saved. "Israel" is comprised of those who believe. I think Paul's personal astonishment was that believing Gentiles could be counted as part of Israel, and when he said, "all Israel," he used "all" to encompass the Gentiles whom he formerly never would have expected to be included as recipients of the blessings and promises of God. The previous verse tells us, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in" (Romans 11:25b). "All Israel" means the faithful, including the full number of the Gentiles who come to faith.
Now, you may be concerned about the whole idea of this hardening that Israel is experiencing. It is somewhat troubling, on the surface. Romans 11:8-9 is a sobering section of scripture, recalling an Old Testament theme about blind eyes and stopped ears (Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 6:9-10, Isaiah 29:10, Isaiah 43:8, Psalm 69:22-26).
Remember though, we have been studying Romans: We know that God is good, faithful, and full of mercy and love.
But God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)
God is not in the business of condemning. God is in the business of saving, rescuing, and delivering. God is not against us; He is for us! (Romans 8:31)
I am reminded of the beautiful passage in John 3:
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. (John 3:16-18)
God's purpose is never to trip people up and trick them into falling into sin so they will have to go to hell. Never!! That is the devil's goal, not God's! John writes, "whoever does not believe stands condemned already." This does not mean that we were all floating on a level playing field in neutral territory, and then Jesus came, and those who accepted Jesus were saved while those who rejected Jesus were condemned. Not at all! Rather, it means that we were all born in unbelief, and we were all "condemned already" until we experienced the saving work of Christ. Christ came to save all of us, because we were already condemned under the sin of Adam (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12). We desperately needed a Savior, and that is why God sent His Son.
Romans 10, which we studied right before we got to Romans 11, talks in detail about the process of coming to belief:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-15a)
It all begins with someone being sent to bring truth, light, hope and freedom to the captives (Luke 4:16-21).
This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
Jesus was the the Original Sent One. After Jesus completed His mission, He returned to the Father, and the Father sent the Holy Spirit:
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:26)
True believers are filled with the Holy Spirit of Christ and carry His presence wherever they go in the world, a witness and reflection of His glory. God's people, true Israel, the true church, are messengers of salvation throughout the whole world. God is always seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10), and He completes this purpose through His people who are tabernacles for His presence (1 Corinthians 6:19).
God is faithful. God is good. God is perfectly wise. God is love. God is almighty and has sovereign authority over everything. We do not need to worry about what He is doing. Romans 11 indicates that the hardening of Israel may be a temporary thing (Romans 11:23-24, and notice the word "until" in Romans 11:25).
Nobody will be saved apart from faith in Jesus Christ, but the ignition of faith is a mystery. We have no way of predicting or controlling God's acts of grace in bringing dead hearts to life through faith. The thief on the cross came to faith during the very last moments of his life (Luke 23:39-43). God is full of mercy and compassion.
What of the fate of the descendants of the patriarchs? We do not have any say over anyone's fate, but we should always hope for the salvation of everyone. If God hardens some for a period if time, in order to save others, we know that His ultimate goal is the salvation of many. He is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). He desires the salvation of all men (1 Timothy 2:3-4).
Long, long ago in the Old Testament, God promised:
I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. (Hosea 14:4)
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:25-28)
God heals the wayward hearts. God Himself transforms hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. He is the only one who can. We can trust in God's purpose, His ways, and His timing. Everything He does will be proven perfect and right. Even if He hardens and blinds some people for a period of time, we can trust in His unfailing love.
Romans 11 actually tells us:
For God has bound all men over to disobedience so He may have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:32)
I don't claim to understand exactly what that means: ". . . so He may have mercy on them all . . ." But, you have to admit, it sounds very hopeful for us.
God's ways are not our our ways. We should not try to figure out His psychology or predict how He will act. We certainly have no right to judge what He does, especially since our experience is so limited, our lives only a tiny slice in the middle of the story. We know little about the beginning of the story, and we know next to nothing about the end (except for the promise that God will one day utterly eradicate evil and bring His people home to paradise).
It was a shame that our BSF lesson stopped short of the doxology, because that really sums it all up:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)We don't know how He's going to do it all, but He is good, and it's going to be amazing.
*All quoted texts are from the NIV, and all emphases were added by me.
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