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Jul 06
2010
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All Israel Will Be Saved - Paul's Astonishment in Romans 11Posted by: Dr. Stuart Dauermann Tagged in: Rabbenu
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In the Newer Testament, Romans 11 further explores aspects of this consummating purpose for the descendants of Jacob. Romans 9-11 ends in a doxology of astonishment. Paul is astonished at the outworking of God’s consummating purposes.
Who would have guessed that the people of Israel would turn down their Messiah when God sent Him?
And who would have guessed that the pagan nations of the world would come to a living relationship with the God of Israel without having to become Jews first?
And who would have guessed that at the end of history, God would bring the Jewish people back to covenant faithfulness through this same Messiah, with the Jews being regathered and renewed, in the power of the Spirit, and through the very same Messiah through whom the nations of the world turned to this same God, while for their part, not having been required to embrace Jewish life?
How astounding! How miraculous! How unexpectedly and uniquely the work of God!
Is it not clear that this is what is astonishing the Apostle? Or do we imagine that the best God can pull off at the end of history, when “all Israel will be saved,” is that vast numbers of Jews will become Baptists, Pentecostals, or Presbyterians?
To just ask the question is to answer it.
We must remember that in Romans 9-11, Paul is contrasting Israel and the nations as aggregates. He is not speaking of Gentile and Jewish individuals, but of these respective groups, the same dyad as is found throughout Scripture: Israel and the nations. God’s final act toward the Jews will be directed to us as a people—he will bring the Jewish people to covenant faithfulness and to repentance/renewal through the one despised by the nation.42
At the end of history God will clarify two realities, despite the widespread denial that has historically prevailed. Yeshua, whom Isaiah refers to as “the one despised by the nation,” the one “despised and rejected by men,” will be demonstrated to be everlastingly God’s beloved One, and Israel, the nation so long despised by the nations, will be demonstrated to be God’s beloved, His Chosen People.
Therefore the inreach responsibility of the Messianic Jewish Remnant includes the following:
- Our inreach is accomplished as we serve as a sign that God has a continuing purpose for the Jews, a consummating purpose of renewed covenant faithfulness in obedience to Torah in the power of the Spirit through Yeshua the Messiah.
- Our inreach is accomplished as we demonstrate communally that we are a demonstration of that purpose – a proleptic preview of that covenant faithfulness which
- Our inreach is accomplished as we catalyze and assist greater Israel toward this consummating purpose.










