A Complete Israel

25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written,

A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;
    he’ll clean house in Jacob.
And this is my commitment to my people:
    removal of their sins.

From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.

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All Israel Will Be Saved

25 I do not want you to be ignorant(A) of this mystery,(B) brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited:(C) Israel has experienced a hardening(D) in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,(E) 26 and in this way[a] all Israel will be saved.(F) As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;
    he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
27 And this is[b] my covenant with them
    when I take away their sins.”[c](G)

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies(H) for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs,(I)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 11:26 Or and so
  2. Romans 11:27 Or will be
  3. Romans 11:27 Isaiah 59:20,21; 27:9 (see Septuagint); Jer. 31:33,34