Deeper Reflection
THE APOSTLE PAUL WAS ADDRESSING GENTILE CHRISTIANS regarding the right attitude and perspective concerning the people of Israel. The Gospel has gone out to the Gentiles for a period due to the “partial hardening” (v.25) of the hearts of the Israelites. “Partial” because there have been many Jews who have turned to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ since His First Coming. Before the Lord’s Second Coming, the hearts of many more Jews will no longer be hardened and they will believe the Gospel. The full number of Jewish Christians will thus enter the Kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ: “In this way, all Israel will be saved” (v.26). Paul refers to “all Israel” because with his Godgiven perspective he understood that “not all who are descended from Israel [the patriarch Jacob] belong to Israel [the group of redeemed descendants]” (Rom 9:6). Just because a person is a physical offspring of Abraham does not automatically make him or her a spiritual offspring of Abraham (Rom 9:7). One is a spiritual offspring of Abraham if one shares Abraham’s faith in the Word of God, and is thereby a child of the promise and a child of God.³² “It is not the children of the flesh [of Abraham] who are the children of God” (Rom 9:8). It is the children of the promise who are counted as Abraham’s spiritual offspring and who are in fact the children of God (Rom 9:8).Therefore, let the Church not neglect to pray and work for the salvation of Abraham’s descendants – for their hearts to be softened and believe in the Gospel.

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³² See also Romans 4; Galatians 3.