In addition to listening to the recording for this program, you can now also purchase a booklet version of this message which is available in our bookstore. This text version is great for both group and personal study. It is also a great way to introduce others to this vital and timely subject.
You might also consider giving one to your pastor!
Click here to be taken to this item in our bookstore —–>
The topic of today’s program is “And so all Israel shall be saved.”
Paul Trask looks in depth at Romans 11:25-27.
- This is the most popular passage used to support the notion that near the end of time, God will miraculously convert the entire nation of Israel.
- But for many Christians, there is a silent “soundtrack” running when they read this passage, influencing their understanding of what the passage is actually saying. This “soundtrack” comes from an external system of theology, which is then superimposed on top of this passage, violating its natural sense.
- When we stop that “soundtrack” from playing for a moment, and just listen to what the text itself is actually saying, we walk away with quite a different understanding.
- And we have discovered that this different understanding is wholly consistent with other with other statements by the Apostle Paul, not only in the book of Romans itself, but in his other letters as well, namely Ephesians 2 and Colossians 1.
- We also learn that popular English translations do not always do justice to the underlying text, requiring a bit more work to flesh out rich meaning. And so a perfectly legitimate translation of this passage might read something like this:
“25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited:
Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.Part of Israel has been hardened, with the goal of bringing in the fullness of the Gentiles.26 And
soit is in this manner, or it is in this way or it is by this methodology thatall Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.””(Romans 11:25–27 NIV, as adjusted by Paul Trask)
- And importantly, we discover that the “mystery” to which Paul alludes in this passage is the awesome wonder of Gentile inclusion in the New People of God, the New Israel, which was God’s express purpose to begin with!
- Also importantly, this mystery has virtually nothing at all to do with the conversion of Jewish people, much less the entire nation.
The New Covenant people of God – the New Israel – the bride of Christ – has nothing at all to do with genetics, gender or geography. It has only to do with faith – the faith of our father Abraham. And all of us who have followed Abraham’s lead, and have expressed faith in our great Lord Jesus Christ, have become citizens in this New Israel of God, which Paul proclaimed in Galatians 6:16.
(Romans 11:25-17, 1-6, 13-14, 9:27-28, 6, 2:28-29, 12:1-8; Acts 18:1-2; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23; Isaiah 10:22-23; Ephesians 3:2-11, 2:11-22; Colossians 1:24-27; Galatians 3:23-29, 6:12-16; Luke 3:8)