For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved.”
~ Rom 11:25-26
I'm the type of person who likes to read the last few pages of a novel first. I want to know what happens. When I do, reading is less stressful. But Paul does something similar in Rom 11:25-26.
Notice Paul says that he doesn’t want the Gentiles to be uninformed of this mystery. The word for uninformed there is ‘without knowledge’ - the Latin equivalent is ignorant. He doesn’t want them ignorant of the mystery!
And what is the mystery? He’s going to lay it out for us, isn’t he? And, in summary, Paul is going to lay out the whole history of the rest of the world until the coming of Jesus in a single sentence.
There are two components of the mystery.
The first is a partial hardening of Israel.
That’s what Paul has been talking about throughout these two chapters. This is national Israel — blood Jews — there is a partial hardening of the nation. They are blinded to the reality of their true Messiah! They can’t see Him!
And, this is partial, right? MOST of the Jews are hardened—but not all. So the nation of Israel—blood Jews—are hardened in part, and are unbelievers.
But Paul gives us a second time marker, right?
That hardening has happened UNTIL THE FULLNESS of the Gentiles has come in. Come in to what? Come into the tree that he has already identified. Come in to salvation. Come into the covenant made with Abraham and the patriarchs!
And then what will happen?
Look at v. 26 - And so all Israel will be saved.
God, in HIS providence, has a certain number of Gentiles that will be saved. It’s not a round number. It’s precise. We have NO IDEA how many that is, but it’s a number! And when the very last one is saved, THEN all Israel will be saved!
Who is All Israel? All Jews alive on the earth at that time. All Israel alive at that time WILL BE SAVED. Why? Because they’re better than other Jews? NO - Because, in God’s providence, they are elect by His gracious choice.
