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The Future of the Jews
"As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your
sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’
sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as
ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy
through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that
through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded
them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." (Romans
11:28-32).
What
the apostle is saying in these verses is that a day is coming when the
bulk of the nation of Israel is going to believe the gospel. But there
are people who do not accept that and say that "all Israel" means the
total number of the elect, both Jews and Gentiles. Others say that "all
Israel" means the total number of the elect Jews. I want to try to show
you how the view that we hold on this matter will determine why the
apostle wrote the great doxology which starts in verse 33.
Remember
that whatever exposition you hold to with regard to "all Israel", it has
got to lead you onto this tremendous doxology.
First,
why do I say that this is not a reference to the total number of the
elect, both Jews and Gentiles? Well, if you say that the "all Israel"
of verse 26 is a reference to the total number of the elect of all
nations, including the Jews, it means that you are using the word
"Israel" in a different sense in verse 26 from that which it has in
verse 25. In verse 25 it is a reference to the nation of Israel and I
am arguing that the apostle does not suddenly change a meaning like
that without telling us first.
But,
says somebody, what about verse 6 of chapter 9: “Not as though the word
of God has taken none effect for they are not all Israel that are of
Israel”? They say, Is he not using the same word there in two different
senses? and my answer is, No, he is not! All he is showing in that
particular verse is that there is an Israel within Israel. No
Gentiles are involved at all. But according to this other argument, in
verse 26 he has brought in Gentiles to Israel and still calls them
Israel. The apostle does not do that sort of thing.
Then
somebody says, What about Galatians 6:16 where the apostle talks about
“the Israel of God”? Quite so. It is "the Israel of God" and not just
Israel. When he is talking about the nation he says "Israel" but when
he says "the Israel of God" he is letting you know that he is not
talking about the nation. He has not been discussing the nation in the
context of Galatians 6 at all.
But
then my second reason for rejecting this exposition is this: If "all
Israel" here in verse 26 simply means the total number of the elect
then, in a sense, the statement is bathetic. Instead of leading up to a
climax it becomes something ordinary. It does not seem to me to
complete the argument. He says, you see, in verse 25, “I would not,
brethren, that you be ignorant of this mystery, lest
you should be wise in your own conceits; but blindness in part has
happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And
so
all Israel shall be saved”, and on he goes leading to the doxology. But
if he is merely saying that a number of Jews and gentiles are going to
be saved, well, I say, there's no climax, it's almost a kind of bathos.
Why then does he say I have got to tell you a marvellous thing, a mystery?
It
seems to me to leave out the mystery and leave out the climax. It in no
way accounts for the statement of verse 15: "If the casting away of
them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them
be but life from the dead?". There's no room for the mystery. It has
disappeared altogether and yet that is the greatest thing that the
apostle is concerned to say.
My
third reason for rejecting that exposition is that it does violence to
the whole argument of the entire chapter. The issue, not only in this
chapter but in chapters 9 and 10, is the Jews as a nation. Has God cast
away his people, the nation? That is what he is talking about, that is
what he is interested in and so if it is just to end by saying that a
given number of Jews and Gentiles are going to be saved, the apostle
has not answered the question.
William
Hendricksen’s View
The
second alternative exposition is the one that says "all Israel" means
the total number of the elect Jews. This at any rate has the advantage
of not suddenly changing the meaning of "Israel" in midstream without
giving, as it were, any reason for doing so. This does
recognise at least that we are talking about Jews. The most convenient
way to deal with this interpretation is to read to you, and to answer
at the same time, a statement of this particular view given by a most
excellent modern commentator and writer, William Hendriksen, in his
book The Bible on the Life Hereafter.
He
says, "My objections to this explanation” - the explanation I’ve been
putting before you - “are as follows: The context nowhere speaks about
national salvation or even about mass salvation. On the contrary, it
speaks about mass hardening and remnant salvation.” Hendriksen’s view
really does astound me for this good reason, that the apostle goes out
of his way to tell us that the mass hardening is only temporary and he
keeps on contrasting what is happening for the time being (the mass
hardening and the remnant salvation) with what is going to
happen.
Here
is his second reason: "Our Lord nowhere predicted a national conversion
of the Jews". He is right in saying that our Lord in his teaching as we
have it in the Gospels did not deal with this question. But why not?
Well, we have a specific statement from our Lord to this effect in John
16:12, "I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them
now". There were things which he could not teach them before his
crucifixion and before the resurrection. Here in Romans 11, I am
suggesting, we have a perfect illustration of that very thing. Our Lord
says, "I am going to send the Spirit, he will lead you into all truth.
He shall tell you things to come". So revealed to the apostle
was this very prophecy of something that was going to come. Our Lord
said he could not teach such things at that point, they could not bear
it because we read that even after the resurrection
they were still in a state of muddle and confusion with regard to these
matters.
But
there is a most interesting statement in Acts 1:6,7 from the very lips
of our Lord himself which it seems to me again answers Hendriksen,
"When they therefore were come together they asked him saying, 'Lord,
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?', and he
said unto them, 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father has put in his own power'." Now if Hendriksen was
right, there was a wonderful opportunity for our Lord to say, "Look
here, do not ask about the restoration, in any sense, of Israel in
terms of the kingdom, for Israel is finished as regards the kingdom”.
He does not say that. That is a complete answer to the second objection
of Hendriksen.
Still a
Special People
But
let me go on to his third point: “According to the uniform teaching of
Paul, special promises or privileges for this or for that national or
racial group do not exist in this new dispensation.” Then he refers us
to the statements: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian nor
Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female"; "he hath made of twain one,
having broken down the middle wall of partition", and statements to
that effect. But there is a very complete answer to this opinion; none
of the statements that he quotes has anything whatsoever to do with the
matter that is being dealt with in Romans 11. All the apostle is
teaching in those other statements is this: that everybody has got to
be saved in the same way. All these statements say are that the Jews
are wrong to think that they alone are to be saved because they are
Jews. That is wrong, all have got to come through faith in Christ, Jew
and Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. That is not what we are
concerned with here.
The
apostle in this 11th chapter of Romans is saying emphatically that
everybody has got to be saved in the same way, but when Hendriksen goes
beyond that to say that God is no longer interested in this or that
particular national or racial group, he is blankly contradicting what
the apostle says. Where? In this chapter, first in verse 16: "If the
firstfruit be holy the lump is also holy. If the root be holy so are
the branches". That is a purely racial statement true only of Jews.
Then, of course, in verse 25, "I would not, brethren, that you should
be ignorant of this mystery; lest you should be wise in your own
conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel". Why does he
bother to treat Israel separately if there is no purpose in doing so,
if all this has ended? And then of course the statement in verse 28,
"As concerning the gospel, they (the Jews) are enemies for your sakes".
But listen, "but as touching election, they are beloved for the
fathers’ sakes, for the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance”.
Salvation
is by Grace
Now
here is his fourth objection: “God does not reward disobedience!”; as
if to say this other exposition is saying that God is going to reward
the disobedience of these Jews. But God does not reward obedience
either! That is the whole point of verses 30 to 32, "In times past you
have not believed, yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief;
even so have these now not believed, that through your mercy they may
also obtain mercy, for God has concluded all in disobedience. He is not
rewarding disobedience. God has concluded all in disobedience in order
that he may have mercy upon all." Mercy is entirely undeserved.
Hendriksen is ignoring completely the essential argument of the great
apostle.
But
then he comes to what he considers the right view; that throughout this
Christian era, as Gentiles believe in Christ there
will always be just a few Jews in every generation who also believe and
that will go on while the gospel is still being preached to the
Gentiles. He emphasises that just a few Jews will believe so that when
the time comes that the gospel era is finished and the fullness of the
Gentiles will have been gathered in, you will be able to add up the
total small number of Jews who have believed from age to age and
generation to generation and that constitutes "all Israel". That is his
explanation of this great "mystery".
But
the thing is fatuous for this very reason. There is no mystery
about that. Nobody could ever have foretold that the bulk of the Jewish
nation will one day be converted and come into the Christian church,
but everybody can foretell what we are being told by Hendriksen, that
just a few Jews will go on believing and be grafted back. You see, the
mystery and the marvel and the great climax has gone. In other words,
he completely fails to deal with the meaning of the word “fulness” as
it is applied to both Jews and Gentiles. Also, he completely misses
what is to me the main emphasis of the whole chapter, that the apostle
is all along contrasting now and then.
This is how it is now, this is going to
happen then. All Hendriksen’s exposition says
is that what has already happened will continue to happen.
I ask
you, do you designate a thing like that as a great mystery?
Would that, if that is all, lead to this tremendous doxology: "O the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God. How unsearchable are his judgements and his ways past finding out.
Who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counsellor or
who hath given to him and it shall be recompensed to him again. For of
him and through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory for
ever, Amen."?
It does
not lead to that. It is bathos. God on the whole has been defeated and
he has only got a little remnant of the people whom he has created and
produced for himself out of the fathers to whom he gave those great and
glorious promises. No, no, my friends, when you consider the
alternative exposition you surely must come to the conclusion I have
come to that there is only one exposition of this chapter, and
particularly of this section that we have been dealing with, which in
any way leads to the glory of the doxology. It is that at some future
time, and we do not know when, but there shall be a tremendous
conversion of the mass of the nation of Israel and when it happens the
church will be so amazed and astonished that it will veritably be like
life from the dead! The impossible has happened, and there is only one
explanation of it. The mercy of God and the riches of God's wisdom and
grace, passing comprehension, glorious in its wonder, filling us with
amazement and astonishment and praise. Amen.
Dr.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
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