Romans 11:25-36

Romans 11:25-36 (WEB) For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.” Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy. For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all. Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?” For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

🔑 Key Points

1. Forewarned Is Forearmed

Sproul opens by naming this the most difficult and controversial part of the most difficult chapter in Romans — and limits himself to just two verses, “and we’ll see if I am able to cover those verses in our time together.” His instinct is exactly right: Paul’s word *mystērion* here means once-hidden-now-revealed, not an unsolved puzzle — and Paul’s motive is pastoral: ‘I do not want you to be ignorant, lest you be wise in your own conceits.’ Ignorance is destructive to godliness; God gave us a massive Book so we would grow up in understanding.

2. The ‘Until’ Has a Terminal Point

The blindness in part that has happened to Israel is ‘until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.’ The word *until* (Greek *achri*) means ‘up to a certain point in time’ — it has a terminal dimension; beyond that point something changes. Sproul’s point: the fall of Israel is neither full nor final. The hardening has a historical limit. This is not forever.

3. The Times of the Gentiles

Sproul’s parallel text is Luke 21:24 — ‘Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles *until* the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’ The same word, the same structure: a set era with a set end. In redemptive history there is a time when the focus of God’s redeeming grace is on the Jews, and a time when it is on the Gentiles — and AD 70, when the temple fell and sacrifices ceased, was the hinge between them. But according to both Luke and Paul, *that is not forever*.

4. Jesus Predicted It — and Critics Hate That

Sproul calls Jesus’ prediction of the temple’s destruction ‘the clearest proof in recorded literature’ that He was a prophet sent from God — and notes the bitter irony that critics like Bertrand Russell use this same text as their favorite proof *against* Christianity, because of the timeframe references. ‘This generation will by no means pass away till all things take place’ (Luke 21:32)’ — to a Jew, a generation is about forty years. Jesus said plainly: not tomorrow, not next week — within your lifetime. And it happened, exactly as He said, in AD 70.

5. The Plērōma — a Saturation Point

The Greek *plērōma* (Latin *plentitude*) means a point of saturation — the moment when God’s ‘roundup’ of the Gentile nations reaches its fullness. After that point, God’s relationship to ethnic Israel changes. Before AD 70 the church was seen as a subdivision of Judaism; after, the two were severed in the world’s eyes. But ‘and so all Israel will be saved’ stands as the promise — Sproul says a future widespread conversion among ethnic Jews is the plain reading, whatever disputes attach to the timing.

6. Irrevocable Gifts and Calling

‘For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.’ Concerning the gospel, Israel is ‘enemies for your sake’; concerning election, ‘beloved for the fathers’ sake.’ Both are true at once. God does not retract what He has given. The mercy chain closes the loop: you were disobedient and received mercy through their disobedience; now they disobey so that through the mercy shown to you they may obtain mercy. ‘For God has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.’

💬 Discussion Questions

Sproul says Paul writes ‘I do not want you to be ignorant’ because ignorance is destructive to godliness. Where has comfortable ignorance crept into how you approach hard passages — and what would it look like to actually study one this week?
The word ‘until’ has a terminal point — the hardening is not forever. How does Paul’s promise ‘all Israel will be saved’ sit alongside the hardening warning from last week’s text, and what do both together say about God’s patience?
Sproul argues ‘this generation’ in Luke 21 meant forty years, not two millennia — and history proved Jesus exactly right in AD 70. How does a fulfilled prophecy that precise change the weight you give Jesus’ other promises — including the ones you are still waiting on?

Praise God for a word that steadies us: the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. He does not withdraw what He gives, and He does not forget whom He foreknew. History itself — the temple’s fall, the scattering, the return — has been bent around His covenant promises, and not one of them has dropped. Whatever season you are in today, the same ‘until’ that governs Israel’s story governs yours: it has a terminal point, and God keeps every promise He ever made. Rest in that.

📖 The Passage