. . . Continued
Now here Paul quotes the ancient prophecy about the nation of Israel having grown so large and yet only a small remnant of the entire nation would be saved, and that the destruction the Lord had decreed would be so consuming it would have completely wiped out the Jewish people had the Lord not limited the time it would last. This is a very old prophecy going back to the Law, which is why both Isaiah and Daniel (9:27) refer to the fact that it was “decreed” (see Deuteronomy 28 which discusses this judgment of the Law against the nation of Israel if they ever broke covenant with God. The men of Israel who were actually righteous men were few and far between. The majority of the people repeatedly fell into idolatry and all manner of wickedness, particularly the rulers of the people, those who had been entrusted with the things of God, even at times stoning to death the very prophets God sent to them. Religious authorities always seem to be especially susceptible to the error of self-righteousness, probably because their positions are so often attended by wealth and the trappings of power).
Anyway, Paul then begins to instruct us in what was the downfall of the Jewish people and it was this . . . that they stumbled at that stumbling stone which is Jesus (9:30-10:15 and then in 11:8-10 Paul goes on to explain that what made the Jews stumble over Jesus was that they were blinded by the glory of the things of the Old Covenant, which Paul teaches more fully in 2 Corinthians 3! And then Paul quotes the solemn Messianic Song Psalm 69 which speaks of Jesus being rejected and crucified because of the blindness of those who ate at “the Lord’s table” which is a Biblical term used for the things God provided the Jewish people under the Old Covenant, the very things which was intended for their good became a yoke and burden to them that the majority will never be free of, never know the liberty that is in Christ. Under the New Covenant, “the Lord’s Table” is the body and blood of Christ, which is the ultimate fulfillment of everything it took the whole Law with all its manifold commandments and ordinances to provide even a fleeting shadow of!
Then in 10:16 Paul returns to the subject of the gainsaying Jews who would not believe the Gospel and he again begins to quote the Law and the prophets which foretold this same judgment and destruction
Romans 10:16 quotes Isaiah 53:1
Romans 10:19 quotes Moses Deuteronomy 32:21 (which Paul again quotes a few verses later where Moses prophesied that God would provoke Israel to jealousy by saving the Gentiles)
And many other things about both the salvation of Israel and also about the judgment and destruction of Israel Paul goes on in these three chapters to teach, all the while quoting the Law and the Prophets which foretold it all.
The Dispensational view lifts one line of Romans 11:26-27 (which is the conclusion of a lengthy teaching on the salvation of Israel) out of its context and leaves behind all these other things Paul has already taught as well as the prophecy which that statement is based on (Isaiah 59:20) and gives a completely different spin to it than what either Paul or Isaiah spoke of. Romans 11:26 is predicated on (“And so all Israel shall be saved according to what is written” in Isaiah 59:20 which states: “And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” Which means that “all Israel” would be saved according to this prophecy, that Christ would come to all those Jews who turn from their transgression.” Nowhere is the idea that a whole generation of Jews would all be saved, but that instead the much more Gospel-compatible idea that “all Israel” is . . . Christian Jews, that saved, redeemed Jewish people who “follow the Lamb,” as the Revelation describes them. Blood bought, born again, washed and redeemed Christian Jews are the Jews God counts as His people Israel. Revolutionary idea, I know, but there it is!
No where in the Bible does it ever say that there will be one particular generation of Jews who will all turn to Christ. In fact, Paul gives a very lengthy discourse here and elsewhere in Scripture which contradicts that very idea, teaching instead that only a remnant of the nation will be saved, while the vast majority, like Israel of old, will die in the wilderness never even having seen the Promised Land.
All in all, I think this teaching of Paul on the salvation and judgment of Israel is what Paul was talking about with the vessels of mercy and the vessels of wrath. Nowhere else in these three chapters does Paul speak of the Gentiles or their judgment or cite any prophecies which do. And when you look at the historical events and prophecies which Paul cites to prove his case, as well as the other teachings I referred to, it makes a very strong case that “they are not all Israel who are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they heirs,” but it is those Jews who are in Christ who are counted for the seed.
In conclusion, Christ will come to all those Jews who turn from their transgressions, and He will save them all.
I apologize for the length of this post, but I never know how long I'll have available to engage in these discussions, but I said all that to show why I think Paul was in fact speaking of the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction as a reference to the soon-coming judgment of the Law which would destroy the nation of Israel and bring the Old Covenant to an end. In fact, I think that was the primary subject that Jesus and all the New Testament writers had on their radar when they spoke or wrote of those things which were yet to come, those were the things that were to come upon that very same generation, ergo the "imminency" of these events that are so obvious in their writings.
In Christ,
Pilgrimer