Expounding Romans 11:25,26, the 'target' of Romans 9:6-9
Dec 26, 2013 5:35:24 GMT
Post by Colossians on Dec 26, 2013 5:35:24 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
Of all passages in the New Testament, there has none been so misrendered, and with such diabolical consequences, as Romans 11:25,26.
Such error is largely due to the fact that the passage lends itself to the romantic mind: the idea of re-establishing a nation under God with all the nostalgia that goes with its miracle-filled history, is simply too much for the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed believer to resist – the believer who unwittingly places the Cross at the ‘more boring’ end of the spectrum of God’s kingdom and who instead seeks a show of outward force – the believer who, despite Jesus’ words to the contrary, declares that the kingdom of God will come with observation.
The result?
A fleshly-spiritual hybrid that goes by the name of “Israel” and which is predictably indefinable in terms of the Cross.
Tens of thousands of believers have wasted their energies and resources on such Theolywood epic, mistaking romantic idealism for the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And so we read:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hos 4:6.
Below we show the proper meaning of the passage.
Background knowledge
1. Pre-requisite reading: “Expounding Romans 9:6-9, the ‘gateway’ to Romans 9–11”.
2. The man Israel’s former name, was Jacob.
Constraints
In the above-mentioned exposition of Romans 9:6-9, we showed that:
1. God is ultimately concerned with only what He calls “the children of promise”, and that those children are a spiritual entity and thus not determined by one’s genealogy or background. And we showed that the title for that entity was “the Israel of God”.
However for the exposition at hand it will be necessary to add the following two constraints:
2. No-one is saved via his associations: salvation is necessarily pitted at the personal level.
3. God is not predisposed to limit anyone’s accepting Him as Lord and Saviour, based on the period in history in which he might live.
General
1. For the sake of context, the exposition will extend to v27-29, with v27 being included in the main body of the document, and v28 & 29 added as postscripts.
2. References to Jewishness and Israel of the flesh are presented as synonymous.
___________________________________________________________
EXPOUNDING ROMANS 11:25,26, THE 'TARGET' OF ROMANS 9:6-9
[25] “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;
Paul begins here by alluding to his earlier warning of v18 that Gentiles who have come to Christ are not to boast against Jews who have not come to Christ. This also echoes his earlier teaching at 3:9:
“What then? are we [(i.e. we in Christ, many of whom are Gentiles)] better than they [(the Jews)]? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin”.
that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
And so he now begins to explain to the Gentiles at Rome the scheme of salvation, with particular regard to the fact that the world’s population is divided into [those of Israel] vs [the rest].
:“blindness in part”
Some bible versions render this as “partial blindness”.
But partial blindness is not the same thing as being blind in part: in the current context the first had related that the sight of each and every person of Israel were somewhat diminished, but the second, which is what is written in the Greek, that some members of Israel were totally blinded.
We are therefore told here that some members of Israel have been totally blinded, which accords with the fact that one is either born again or one is not. (What "Israel" refers to, is explained below.)
: “fulness”
There are 2 vital ramifications here:
1. Because it is individuals who are the ultimate concern, this “fulness” speaks to none other than one’s individual welfare in Christ.
2. Commensurately, the (conspicuous) use of “fulness” rather than “salvation” to refer to what is manifestly in reference to salvation, relates that, although they are not yet born again, the particular Gentiles under consideration are already in marriage covenant with Christ by virtue of the Father’s betrothal of them to the Son before the world began. That is, they are part of the Israel of God, but not yet aware of it. Thus Paul uses the more accurate “fulness” to reflect a coming in to the realisation of that which is already theirs, rather than the more general “salvation” which would fail to relate such pre-existing covenant.
: “Israel”
By virtue of ramification (2) under our discussion of “fulness”, in conjunction with the fact that Paul is now beginning to wind up a subject which he emphatically constrained three chapters earlier with “not all are Israel who are of Israel” (see Constraint (1)), we understand this “Israel” at v25 (along with the instance of it which follows at v26) to be that which refers to the eternal spiritual entity known as “the Israel of God”.1
1 By virtue of what follows at v26 – “all Israel shall be saved” – it goes without saying that this “Israel” of v25 is not in reference to the (spiritually-indiscriminate) Israel of the flesh. However the weightier point is that it is also not in reference to those of Israel of the flesh who will come to Christ, for if that were the case then Israel of the flesh who are not in Christ were not entitled to the name in the first place, thus nullifying the very basis for ascribing the (same) name to those of Israel of the flesh who do come to Christ. And so we find earlier at v7: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded”, where it is clear that, rather than take the opportunity to declare this “election” who are within Israel of the flesh to in fact be the only ones entitled to the name “Israel”, Paul simply and rather singles out such elected folk from those who, although failing to attain to the spiritual state which was ostensibly their birthright, nevertheless continue to go by the name of their patriarch.
: “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in”
Paul does not here intend by virtue of this “until” to merely demarcate said (Jewish) blindness in time, but is rather and instead making tacit declaration as to the mechanism by which such blindness is reversed.
For hot on the heels of this conditional clause we find:
[26] “And so all Israel shall be saved
where this “so” comes from the Greek houtos, meaning “in this manner”, and where we are told that as a result of such manner all the Israel of God shall be saved.
That is, given that nothing other than the Gentiles’ fullness is listed as pre-requisite for the salvation of those of the Jewish part of the Israel of God who have been blinded, it is not only the case that such fullness constitutes a necessary condition for the corresponding fullness (salvation) of said Jews, but also a sufficient condition: the fullness of any Gentiles (whenever in history they exist) would provide a (self-inflicted) ‘obligation’ upon God to save said Jews (whenever in history they exist), which quasi-legal phenomenon is fully explicated a little further down in the chapter:
“For as ye [(the Gentile part of the Israel of God)] in times past [(i.e. previously in your own individual lives)] have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their [((certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God’s)] unbelief: Even so have these [((certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God)] also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all [(both the Gentile and Jewish parts of the Israel of God)] in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Rom 11:30-32
: God would always and without doubt save those Gentiles who are, unbeknown to themselves, part of the eternal Israel of God, and thus would of necessity provide for Himself an ‘excuse’ for the so doing: He would harden the hearts of (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God, thereby justifiably replacing them with said Gentiles, in turn providing for Himself the reciprocal ‘excuse’ for the opening of the eyes of said Jews (by virtue of their being no less deserving of mercy than said Gentiles).2
2 There can be no ‘net movement’ within the grace of God. For all grace is from the Head to the Body, and the Head and the Body together make up Christ, and Christ is God. That is, because all motions of God’s grace are necessarily internal to God, any net movement of grace is necessarily precluded.
And so in line with our understanding that the scheme of salvation is of its very substance pitted at the personal level, this “fulness” of the Gentiles (and corresponding in-principle saving of Jews) is necessarily fulfilled each and every time a Gentile comes to Christ: the “until” which introduces the conditional clause, does not demarcate according to time, but principle, and is thus a perpetuity.
as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob”
We are now provided with proof from the prophets that all the Israel of God will be saved.
But we will note immediately that Paul ‘misquotes’ the relevant prophecy, which in fact does not say that the Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from (an implied) all of Jacob, but from only a certain number within Jacob.
Paul again:
“There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from [(all of)] Jacob”.
Isaiah:
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD” Is 59:20.
Thus the Holy Spirit has led Paul to create an apparent inequation:
[All of Jacob](Paul) = [Some in Jacob](Isaiah).
We are therefore irresistibly informed here that the Jacob God has in mind, is not that which is delineated by the flesh, for else, and as we have pointed out in our subnote under “Israel” above, those of Israel of the flesh who remain in unbelief were no longer validly called by the name of their patriarch, and such is clearly not the case.
Given then that the only alternative to a determination along fleshly lines, is a determination along spiritual lines, we understand this “Jacob” which Paul mentions to be none other than the full and complete (unregenerate) precursor to the (regenerate) Israel of God, and therefore a Jacob who would also and necessarily not be determined on the basis of genealogy or background: he/they would be rather ‘she’ who was betrothed to Christ before the world began; only being not yet “Israel”, necessarily not yet in the realisation (“fulness”) of such.
[27] “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
The first half of this statement is a continuation of Paul’s quote from Isaiah above: it consists of the first portion of Isaiah 59:21.
The second half (“when I shall take away their sins”) is not literally present in scripture, but consists of a generalised version of an idea found throughout scripture and which therefore and importantly confirms to us that Paul’s own version of Is 59:20 is none other than the Holy Spirit’s determination that any of Israel of the flesh who repent, are subsumed under the non-ethnically-based Israel of God.
For we are informed here that the “Israel” of v25,26 with whom God has covenanted, is exhaustively determined by the fact that they have had their sins taken away. That is, the “Israel” of v25,26, is without a shadow of a doubt a reference to anyone for whom Christ has died.
The correct rendering of Romans 11:25,26
[25] “Although blindness will be the default spiritual state of (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God, it will in each instance be reversed in accord with the principle which states that if at least one Gentile has been saved because (any number of) such Jews have been blinded, then the same mercy must be extended to those particular Jews: they must have their eyes opened. [26] It is by this process that both the Jewish part of the Israel of God and the Gentile part of the Israel of God – “all Israel” – shall be saved.”
Thus:
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” Eph 2:12-15.
Amen.
(See also postscripts below.)
____________
Postscript: v28
“As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes”.
Most mistake Paul’s statement here to be that which determines the “Israel” of v25-27 to be in reference, at least primarily, to Israel of the flesh, and that because there is no ‘circuit-breaker’ between v25-27 and this “they” of v28 which is clearly constrained by physical lineage.
But his primary intent in this chapter has been to make sure that the Gentiles who have realised their part in the Israel of God, refrain from boasting against their Jewish counterparts who have been temporarily blinded for their sakes. So the fact that he has at v25-27 explicated things from the consummate end-goal viewpoint, and in so doing referred to prophecy which supports that end goal, should not mislead us into thinking that he is still here referring to the same (comprehensive) “all Israel” of v25-27. Rather, having seen fit to momentarily branch off to the consummate level of things, he has now returned to his primary focus: he is once again referring to those of the Jewish part of the Israel of God who were/have been (temporarily) blinded.
He is in fact saying:
“So given that you have just learned that (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God have been temporarily blinded so that your fullness in that Israel of God might come into being, you shouldn’t be boasting against any Jews, for included in the Jews you will be boasting against will be those who have been blinded (and who have therefore become enemies of the gospel) for your sakes, just as I once was. In fact you should make doubly sure you don’t boast against them, for unlike you, these individuals occupy a special place in the scheme of things in that God is reminded of His affection for their fathers such as David and Jacob, as He beholds them after they have come to Christ.”
Postscript: v29
“For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”.
In line with what we have shown at our preceding postscript, and in line with our understanding that any gift is by definition not only that which is offered but that which has also become the property of its target recipient, Paul is here necessarily not saying:
“For God’s calling of people based on the fact that they are Jews is without repentance”,
but rather:
“For although it appears that the particular Jews we have been discussing are cast away forever, they are in fact only cast away temporarily in order to give God an ‘excuse’ to include you Gentiles. So they will each still be saved just as you are, for the gift of salvation to the Israel of God cannot be taken back no matter what race its members are from.”
That is, we are not here being told that they will be saved because they are Jews, but despite the fact that they are Jews, and that because these particular Jews are, as well as being part of Israel of the flesh, also part of the Israel of God. For on the surface of things and apparently in the minds of certain high-minded Gentiles, because any and all Jews were of a lineage which failed to capitalise on the advantages given them, any and all Jews were perhaps also disqualified from salvation altogether.
So at v29 here we are in fact being told the very opposite of what is commonly thought we are being told.
Forward
Of all passages in the New Testament, there has none been so misrendered, and with such diabolical consequences, as Romans 11:25,26.
Such error is largely due to the fact that the passage lends itself to the romantic mind: the idea of re-establishing a nation under God with all the nostalgia that goes with its miracle-filled history, is simply too much for the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed believer to resist – the believer who unwittingly places the Cross at the ‘more boring’ end of the spectrum of God’s kingdom and who instead seeks a show of outward force – the believer who, despite Jesus’ words to the contrary, declares that the kingdom of God will come with observation.
The result?
A fleshly-spiritual hybrid that goes by the name of “Israel” and which is predictably indefinable in terms of the Cross.
Tens of thousands of believers have wasted their energies and resources on such Theolywood epic, mistaking romantic idealism for the leading of the Holy Spirit.
And so we read:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hos 4:6.
Below we show the proper meaning of the passage.
Background knowledge
1. Pre-requisite reading: “Expounding Romans 9:6-9, the ‘gateway’ to Romans 9–11”.
2. The man Israel’s former name, was Jacob.
Constraints
In the above-mentioned exposition of Romans 9:6-9, we showed that:
1. God is ultimately concerned with only what He calls “the children of promise”, and that those children are a spiritual entity and thus not determined by one’s genealogy or background. And we showed that the title for that entity was “the Israel of God”.
However for the exposition at hand it will be necessary to add the following two constraints:
2. No-one is saved via his associations: salvation is necessarily pitted at the personal level.
3. God is not predisposed to limit anyone’s accepting Him as Lord and Saviour, based on the period in history in which he might live.
General
1. For the sake of context, the exposition will extend to v27-29, with v27 being included in the main body of the document, and v28 & 29 added as postscripts.
2. References to Jewishness and Israel of the flesh are presented as synonymous.
___________________________________________________________
EXPOUNDING ROMANS 11:25,26, THE 'TARGET' OF ROMANS 9:6-9
[25] “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits;
Paul begins here by alluding to his earlier warning of v18 that Gentiles who have come to Christ are not to boast against Jews who have not come to Christ. This also echoes his earlier teaching at 3:9:
“What then? are we [(i.e. we in Christ, many of whom are Gentiles)] better than they [(the Jews)]? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin”.
that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”
And so he now begins to explain to the Gentiles at Rome the scheme of salvation, with particular regard to the fact that the world’s population is divided into [those of Israel] vs [the rest].
:“blindness in part”
Some bible versions render this as “partial blindness”.
But partial blindness is not the same thing as being blind in part: in the current context the first had related that the sight of each and every person of Israel were somewhat diminished, but the second, which is what is written in the Greek, that some members of Israel were totally blinded.
We are therefore told here that some members of Israel have been totally blinded, which accords with the fact that one is either born again or one is not. (What "Israel" refers to, is explained below.)
: “fulness”
There are 2 vital ramifications here:
1. Because it is individuals who are the ultimate concern, this “fulness” speaks to none other than one’s individual welfare in Christ.
2. Commensurately, the (conspicuous) use of “fulness” rather than “salvation” to refer to what is manifestly in reference to salvation, relates that, although they are not yet born again, the particular Gentiles under consideration are already in marriage covenant with Christ by virtue of the Father’s betrothal of them to the Son before the world began. That is, they are part of the Israel of God, but not yet aware of it. Thus Paul uses the more accurate “fulness” to reflect a coming in to the realisation of that which is already theirs, rather than the more general “salvation” which would fail to relate such pre-existing covenant.
: “Israel”
By virtue of ramification (2) under our discussion of “fulness”, in conjunction with the fact that Paul is now beginning to wind up a subject which he emphatically constrained three chapters earlier with “not all are Israel who are of Israel” (see Constraint (1)), we understand this “Israel” at v25 (along with the instance of it which follows at v26) to be that which refers to the eternal spiritual entity known as “the Israel of God”.1
1 By virtue of what follows at v26 – “all Israel shall be saved” – it goes without saying that this “Israel” of v25 is not in reference to the (spiritually-indiscriminate) Israel of the flesh. However the weightier point is that it is also not in reference to those of Israel of the flesh who will come to Christ, for if that were the case then Israel of the flesh who are not in Christ were not entitled to the name in the first place, thus nullifying the very basis for ascribing the (same) name to those of Israel of the flesh who do come to Christ. And so we find earlier at v7: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded”, where it is clear that, rather than take the opportunity to declare this “election” who are within Israel of the flesh to in fact be the only ones entitled to the name “Israel”, Paul simply and rather singles out such elected folk from those who, although failing to attain to the spiritual state which was ostensibly their birthright, nevertheless continue to go by the name of their patriarch.
: “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in”
Paul does not here intend by virtue of this “until” to merely demarcate said (Jewish) blindness in time, but is rather and instead making tacit declaration as to the mechanism by which such blindness is reversed.
For hot on the heels of this conditional clause we find:
[26] “And so all Israel shall be saved
where this “so” comes from the Greek houtos, meaning “in this manner”, and where we are told that as a result of such manner all the Israel of God shall be saved.
That is, given that nothing other than the Gentiles’ fullness is listed as pre-requisite for the salvation of those of the Jewish part of the Israel of God who have been blinded, it is not only the case that such fullness constitutes a necessary condition for the corresponding fullness (salvation) of said Jews, but also a sufficient condition: the fullness of any Gentiles (whenever in history they exist) would provide a (self-inflicted) ‘obligation’ upon God to save said Jews (whenever in history they exist), which quasi-legal phenomenon is fully explicated a little further down in the chapter:
“For as ye [(the Gentile part of the Israel of God)] in times past [(i.e. previously in your own individual lives)] have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their [((certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God’s)] unbelief: Even so have these [((certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God)] also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all [(both the Gentile and Jewish parts of the Israel of God)] in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.” Rom 11:30-32
: God would always and without doubt save those Gentiles who are, unbeknown to themselves, part of the eternal Israel of God, and thus would of necessity provide for Himself an ‘excuse’ for the so doing: He would harden the hearts of (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God, thereby justifiably replacing them with said Gentiles, in turn providing for Himself the reciprocal ‘excuse’ for the opening of the eyes of said Jews (by virtue of their being no less deserving of mercy than said Gentiles).2
2 There can be no ‘net movement’ within the grace of God. For all grace is from the Head to the Body, and the Head and the Body together make up Christ, and Christ is God. That is, because all motions of God’s grace are necessarily internal to God, any net movement of grace is necessarily precluded.
And so in line with our understanding that the scheme of salvation is of its very substance pitted at the personal level, this “fulness” of the Gentiles (and corresponding in-principle saving of Jews) is necessarily fulfilled each and every time a Gentile comes to Christ: the “until” which introduces the conditional clause, does not demarcate according to time, but principle, and is thus a perpetuity.
as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob”
We are now provided with proof from the prophets that all the Israel of God will be saved.
But we will note immediately that Paul ‘misquotes’ the relevant prophecy, which in fact does not say that the Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from (an implied) all of Jacob, but from only a certain number within Jacob.
Paul again:
“There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from [(all of)] Jacob”.
Isaiah:
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD” Is 59:20.
Thus the Holy Spirit has led Paul to create an apparent inequation:
[All of Jacob](Paul) = [Some in Jacob](Isaiah).
We are therefore irresistibly informed here that the Jacob God has in mind, is not that which is delineated by the flesh, for else, and as we have pointed out in our subnote under “Israel” above, those of Israel of the flesh who remain in unbelief were no longer validly called by the name of their patriarch, and such is clearly not the case.
Given then that the only alternative to a determination along fleshly lines, is a determination along spiritual lines, we understand this “Jacob” which Paul mentions to be none other than the full and complete (unregenerate) precursor to the (regenerate) Israel of God, and therefore a Jacob who would also and necessarily not be determined on the basis of genealogy or background: he/they would be rather ‘she’ who was betrothed to Christ before the world began; only being not yet “Israel”, necessarily not yet in the realisation (“fulness”) of such.
[27] “For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”
The first half of this statement is a continuation of Paul’s quote from Isaiah above: it consists of the first portion of Isaiah 59:21.
The second half (“when I shall take away their sins”) is not literally present in scripture, but consists of a generalised version of an idea found throughout scripture and which therefore and importantly confirms to us that Paul’s own version of Is 59:20 is none other than the Holy Spirit’s determination that any of Israel of the flesh who repent, are subsumed under the non-ethnically-based Israel of God.
For we are informed here that the “Israel” of v25,26 with whom God has covenanted, is exhaustively determined by the fact that they have had their sins taken away. That is, the “Israel” of v25,26, is without a shadow of a doubt a reference to anyone for whom Christ has died.
The correct rendering of Romans 11:25,26
[25] “Although blindness will be the default spiritual state of (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God, it will in each instance be reversed in accord with the principle which states that if at least one Gentile has been saved because (any number of) such Jews have been blinded, then the same mercy must be extended to those particular Jews: they must have their eyes opened. [26] It is by this process that both the Jewish part of the Israel of God and the Gentile part of the Israel of God – “all Israel” – shall be saved.”
Thus:
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” Eph 2:12-15.
Amen.
(See also postscripts below.)
____________
Postscript: v28
“As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes”.
Most mistake Paul’s statement here to be that which determines the “Israel” of v25-27 to be in reference, at least primarily, to Israel of the flesh, and that because there is no ‘circuit-breaker’ between v25-27 and this “they” of v28 which is clearly constrained by physical lineage.
But his primary intent in this chapter has been to make sure that the Gentiles who have realised their part in the Israel of God, refrain from boasting against their Jewish counterparts who have been temporarily blinded for their sakes. So the fact that he has at v25-27 explicated things from the consummate end-goal viewpoint, and in so doing referred to prophecy which supports that end goal, should not mislead us into thinking that he is still here referring to the same (comprehensive) “all Israel” of v25-27. Rather, having seen fit to momentarily branch off to the consummate level of things, he has now returned to his primary focus: he is once again referring to those of the Jewish part of the Israel of God who were/have been (temporarily) blinded.
He is in fact saying:
“So given that you have just learned that (certain of) the Jewish part of the Israel of God have been temporarily blinded so that your fullness in that Israel of God might come into being, you shouldn’t be boasting against any Jews, for included in the Jews you will be boasting against will be those who have been blinded (and who have therefore become enemies of the gospel) for your sakes, just as I once was. In fact you should make doubly sure you don’t boast against them, for unlike you, these individuals occupy a special place in the scheme of things in that God is reminded of His affection for their fathers such as David and Jacob, as He beholds them after they have come to Christ.”
Postscript: v29
“For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”.
In line with what we have shown at our preceding postscript, and in line with our understanding that any gift is by definition not only that which is offered but that which has also become the property of its target recipient, Paul is here necessarily not saying:
“For God’s calling of people based on the fact that they are Jews is without repentance”,
but rather:
“For although it appears that the particular Jews we have been discussing are cast away forever, they are in fact only cast away temporarily in order to give God an ‘excuse’ to include you Gentiles. So they will each still be saved just as you are, for the gift of salvation to the Israel of God cannot be taken back no matter what race its members are from.”
That is, we are not here being told that they will be saved because they are Jews, but despite the fact that they are Jews, and that because these particular Jews are, as well as being part of Israel of the flesh, also part of the Israel of God. For on the surface of things and apparently in the minds of certain high-minded Gentiles, because any and all Jews were of a lineage which failed to capitalise on the advantages given them, any and all Jews were perhaps also disqualified from salvation altogether.
So at v29 here we are in fact being told the very opposite of what is commonly thought we are being told.