Romans 11:25–27 provokes many questions for the interpreter of Scripture, including the phrase “And in this way all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:26), which one commentator calls “the storm center in the interpretation of Rom. 9–11.”1 What follows are a summary of many of those questions, as well as a summary of answers for… Read More »
Ever since its inception, Israel has never been a fully believing nation. Some of the Israelites were believers, however. Abraham has always had a spiritual offspring among his physical descendants (Rom 9:6–7). Even in the darkest chapters of Israel’s history, so it is today—“there is a remnant” (Rom 11:5; cf. 11:3–4). Generally speaking, however, Israel… Read More »
Romans 9–11 is central to understanding God’s plan for Israel. We learned in Romans 9 that a remnant of Israelites believe, thanks to the electing grace of God. From God’s perspective, He chose Israel for salvation, and specifically, a remnant within Israel who would be “truly Israel” (cf. Rom 9:6, 27). We then learned in… Read More »
In Romans 9–11, Paul addresses Israel’s present unbelief and future salvation. A quick sketch up to Romans 10:14–21 is that chapter 9 discusses this unbelief from God’s perspective while chapter 10 explains it from Israel’s perspective. Israel has rejected the righteousness of God in Christ because she pursued her own righteousness through the law, a… Read More »
Anyone who attempts to earn his own righteousness, however zealous he may be, carries out a fool’s errand. His attempts will only fail. Even using the Old Testament law this way will end in failure. The Law is not a ladder to heaven for us but acts more as glasses and a club to expose… Read More »
Although Romans 9–11 is primarily about God’s dealings with national Israel, Paul also talks about Gentiles along the way. Paul begins (Romans 9:1–5) and ends (Romans 11:25–32) these chapters with Israel, and he speaks of them in Romans 10 as well—he prays “for them” (Romans 10:1; cf. 9:31) and repeatedly identifies Israel as the subject… Read More »
Does God prepare people beforehand for heaven? If so, when and how? And does He likewise prepare people for hell? If He does, again, when and how does He do this? Or do unbelievers somehow prepare themselves for this unfortunate end? Questions like these are controversial, even among theologians who hold to the inerrancy and… Read More »
In a previous post, I began a series of posts to summarize Romans 9–11 passage by passage. In Romans 9:1–13, Paul begins to explain “God’s purpose of election” for Israel (Romans 9:11; cf. 9:4–5). In short, God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not mean that every ethnic Israelite was an Israelite who was… Read More »
Romans 9–11 is a difficult and debated section of Scripture in terms of God’s role in salvation and ethnic Israel’s role in the redemptive plan of God. Over the next few weeks, I hope to crystallize my own thoughts about these chapters into a few posts, passage by passage, as we work through this section… Read More »
Is eternal life really eternal? Does my salvation really last forever? Will my present standing in Christ truly result in glorification? Will heaven be mine one day? Romans 8:31–39 answers these questions in multiple ways. This passage powerfully teaches the doctrine of eternity security—that once we are saved, we will always be saved, thanks to… Read More »