The Salvation of the Jewish People

The Salvation of the Jewish People

and so all Israel will be saved.
Rom. 11:26(a)

The verse quoted above should say it all, but as with many Scriptures there are quite a few differences in opinion as to how best to interpret it.

There are many that take the Bible at face value — 'if it is speaking about a literal subject then it is to be interpreted as such and not to be allegorized'. This is the method that will be used to conduct this study.

First of all it must be recognised that "... it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel." (Rom. 9:6). So who then is the Israel that will be saved?

Israel is the name that was given to Jacob by God, first when Jacob had wrestled with a 'man' (Gen. 32:24-30) and confirmed later when God reiterated the promise of the Land to him and to his descendants:

9 God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him.
10 God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel." He named him Israel.
11 God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your loins.
12 The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your seed after you will I give the land."
Gen. 35:9-12

The nation of Israel was the result of a promise by God to Abraham:

1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you, and make your name great. You will be a blessing."
Gen. 12:1-2

This 'great nation' is Israel and as already seen, the promises were to be fulfilled through Jacob.

Although the Jewish people have been dispersed amongst the nations twice already, in fulfillment of Lev. 26:14-45, God has nevertheless promised to one day bring them back to their own land in spite of their rebellion and sin:

22 Therefore tell the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: I don't do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations, where you went.
23 I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
24 For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
27 I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.
28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will save you from all your uncleanness: and I will call for the grain, and will multiply it, and lay no famine on you.
30 I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.
31 Then shall you remember your evil ways, and your doings that were not good; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.
32 Nor for your sake do I this, says the Lord GOD, be it known to you: be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel.
Eze. 36:22-32

This giving of a new heart and a new spirit (v. 26) is in fulfillment of the promise made to Israel in Jeremiah:

31 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people:
34 and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Jer. 31:31-34

The accepting of the new covenant is of course based upon recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah and as a nation, Israel will come to faith — by the grace of God their blindness will be taken away, allowing them to repent and believe:

10 I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
11 In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
12 The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;
14 all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
1 "In that day there will be a spring opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
Zech. 12:10-13:1

To answer the question at the beginning of the study "So who is the Israel that will be saved?" we must turn to the Scriptures:

33 As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, will I be king over you:
34 and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;
35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face.
36 Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you, says the Lord GOD.
37 I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant;
38 and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and those who disobey against me; I will bring them forth out of the land where they sojourn, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze. 20:33-38


8 It shall happen that in all the land," says the LORD,
"Two parts in it will be cut off and die;
But the third will be left in it.

9 I will bring the third part into the fire,
And will refine them as silver is refined,
And will test them like gold is tested.
They will call on my name, and I will hear them.
I will say, 'It is my people;'
And they will say, 'the LORD is my God.'"
Zech. 13:8-9

There appears to be two separate Jewish groups in view; probably one is the diaspora and the other those already in the Land, even as it is today. Whatever the circumstances, God enters into judgement with the house of Israel and those that are left will be the faithful — those that have not continued in their rejection of Jesus, but have instead, by the grace of God, turned in repentance and have received their Messiah. It is these that are referred to when Paul states that "all Israel will be saved".

Israel and the Jewish people are in a constant state of persecution, mostly by the Arab world but also from a large part of the international community. Within the United Nations assembly there have been, and continues to be, a disproportionate number of anti-Israel resolutions.

Since God is Sovereign it must follow that these persecutions are being allowed by Him and since the [majority of] Jewish people are still in the same unregenerate position as they were in Biblical times, then we should expect that God will use similar methods that He used previously — if they will not listen then He will use the surrounding nations (now the international community and the United Nations) to bring them back to Himself. God loves them so much that He will allow these things to happen in order that the Jewish people will finally recognize that Jesus is their promised Messiah.
There are still unfulfilled prophecies which deal with difficult times for Israel and the Jewish people and we need to constantly watch and pray, calling on God to be merciful and to bring to fruition His plan of salvation for the Jewish people. catcmo2006