Dispensationalist Interpretation of Romans 11: 25-26

Bernard Pyron

Romans 11: 20 says "Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear:"

Who are they? Paul says in verse 14, "If by any means I may provoke

to emulation them whih are my flesh, and might save some of them."

Most of the Jews of Paul's time rejected Christ and they were broken off.

Now Paul says in Romans 11: 25-26 "For I would not, brethren, that

ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your

own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the

fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There

shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness

from Jacob."

Who is "Israel" in verse 26?

Dispensationalists say in the Bible Israel must always be physical

Israel, not some spiritual construct. Therefore by dispensationalist

definition, Israel in verse 26 must be physical Israel and therefore

Paul is predicting that at some time all physical Israel will be saved.

This interpretation contradicts Paul's statement in verse 20 that the Jews were broken off because of unbelief.

If all Israel is to be saved, then Israel here refers to Israel as

being all of God's people who are saved, no matter what their race, Jew

or Gentile. This interpretation is consistent with what Paul says in

Romans 2: 28-29, "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither

is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

29. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is

that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise

is not of men, but of God."

And this interpretation of Romans 11: 25-26 fits what Paul says in

Galatians 3: 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond

nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in

Christ Jesus."

Paul is pointing out that after physical Israel was reborn, or the

small remnant of physical Israel who were more faithful were translated

into Christians as spiritual Israel race no longer matters in the eyes

of God. And remember what Paul also says in Galatians 4: 22-26, "For it

is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other

by a freewoman.

23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants;

the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is

Agar.

25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."

Not only was race as a measure of acceptance by God done away with

at the Cross, but the Cross opened up Christians to receive the Holy

Spirit and operate in the Spirit. Operating in the Spirit, Christians

are not in bondage to the old law of Mount Sinai. Christians are in

Jerusalem which is free, not literal physical Jerusalem.