ignorant of this mystery h (lest ye should be wise in i your own conceit), that blindness has come upon Israel in part, until the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in.1 Think not that God ever intended you to be the exclusive objects of his favour, or that Christ formed his church solely for your reception. On the contrary, I wish you plainly to understand, that Jewish blindness, however incurable it may now appear, will eventually be removed. Even at present, it has not affected the whole nation. You must only call it, therefore, a partial blindness. How long it may continue I know not but it will certainly come to an end when the great mass of the Gentiles shall have entered into the church of the Messiah. And now that this mystery is revealed to you; now that you know for certain h The certainty of the eventual conversion of the Jews to the faith of Christ was, of course, a mystery or secret, only to be known by revelation. 'Paul,' says Chrysostom, 'calls that a mystery, which was before unknown and undivulged, containing much that was strange and contrary to expectation.' The admission of the Gentiles into Christ's church is often called by the apostle a mystery. See, especially, Eph. iii. 1-7. 'Mysterium fuerat vocatio Gentium; nunc item mysterium est conversio Israelis.' (The calling of the Gentiles had been a mystery; now the conversion of Israel is a mystery too.).-Bengel. There is a very impressive description of Jewish blindness, and consequent opposition to Christ's gospel, in 1 Thess. ii. 15, 16. The apostle uses the softened expression in part (arò μepovg), although he well knew that the great majority of the Jews had blindly rejected the Messiah. See v. 17 of this chapter. The apostle means by the word 1 That is, into the that the Jewish nation is at last to share equally with you Gentiles in all the blessings of Christ's kingdom; you will be utterly inexcusable, if you do not henceforth renounce every vain idea of Gentile superiority and exclusiveness. Yes: when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have embraced the salvation of Christ, then shall all Israel be saved also. The obstinacy of my proud countrymen will then be able to hold out no longer and the whole nation, with one consent, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Then, in the complete triumph of the gospel over Jewish sin and stubbornness, will the prophecies of the Old Testament be accomplished in all the fulness of their meaning. Long ago was it promised, that the Redeemer should come out of Sion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob;m and that this should be God's covenant with the Jews, when he should take away their sins." These promises are m These words are apparently intended to be a citation from Isaiah, lix. 20, and are here used by Paul as applicable to the future conversion of the Jews to the faith of Christ. They do not, however, agree with either the Hebrew text or the version of the LXX, and are another instance of the apostle's free quotation of the general sense of a passage, without regard to verbal accuracy. In our translation from the Hebrew, the sentence stands as follows: And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans gression in Jacob.' In the version of the LXX, instead of to Zion (as in the Hebrew), or from Zion (as in the apostle's quotation), we find on account of (evεkev) Zion. n It is not certain from what part of the Scripture this passage is quoted by the apostle. Some suppose that it is made up from Isai. lix. 21, and xxvii. 9. Others prefer to regard it as an abridgment of Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. However this may be, Paul evidently employs the words to give expression to the idea, that the conversion of the Jews will not be brought about by the giving of any law, but by the free forgiveness of their sins, or, in other words, by their embracing the gospel of Christ. The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews clearly applies Jer. xxxi. 31-34, to the dispensation of Christianity. still waiting for the acceptance of my unbelieving nation. Some of us have already believed them, and have realized, in our own experience, their truth and blessedness. But, alas! to the great majority of my people Christ is yet a stranger. The Redeemer has not yet come to them out of Sion. Their ungodliness has not yet been turned away. They have as yet no share in the new covenant of that long-promised Saviour who takes away the sins of the world. But the promises are still uncancelled: and the time is coming when all Israel will believe them. • The expression all Israel (Taç 'Iopan) is evidently opposed to the words in part (άnò μépovç), and denotes the whole body of the Jews. This is acknowledged by the great majority of commentators. Some, however, both in ancient and modern times, influenced, apparently, either by the violent prejudice which existed generally in the minds of Christians against the Jews for so many centuries, or by a dread of seeming to countenance the carnal Jewish expectation of a complete restoration of Judaism, have expounded the words all Israel to mean all the spiritual Israel, including both Jews and Gentiles. This interpretation prevailed, especially amongst the reformers,* in consequence of their alarm at the progress, during the unsettled times of the Reformation, of the most unscriptural opinions respecting Christ's kingdom. Thus, Calvin writes:-'I extend the sense of the word Israel to the whole people of God, and interpret it in this manner. When the Gentiles shall have entered into the church, and the Jews, at the same time, shall betake themselves to the obedience of faith, and renounce their present revolt from the Saviour of the lost, the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be collected from them both, will thus be completed.' The utter impossibility of making such an exposition of the word agree with the evident object of the apostle in the whole of the context, must be apparent to every one. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that the apostle's announcement of a future conversion of the Jews to that faith of Christ, in which there * As a specimen of Christian pre- | devil-iron-hard, that in no wise can judice, Olshausen quotes, from the it be moved. They are young devils, writings of Luther, the following damned to hell. To convert these extraordinary opinion of that great devil's brats (as some fondly ween reformer respecting the hopeless-out of the Epistle to the Romans) is ness of Jewish conversion. impossible.' 'A Jewish heart is so stock-stone you But will perhaps ask me how it is possible that I can prophesy so bright a future for a nation which, by its inexcusable rejection of the gospel, has made itself God's enemy. I grant that, with respect to the gospel, the Jews are now God's enemies. In refusing to accept Christ as their Saviour, they have indeed placed themselves in the most direct opposition to Jehovah. If, therefore, you regard them only as despisers of the Messiah's gracious message, they are indeed the declared foes of God. And truly I may say, that they are God's enemies for your sake. You have reaped the advantage of their sin. Through their enmity to God you have become God's friends: for their rejection of the reconciling gospel was certainly the means of its being immediately and extensively preached to you. But you must remember that, though the Jews are enemies to God with respect to their present rejection of the gospel, they are nevertheless the nation of God's ancient election. They have indeed rejected God: but God has not finally rejected them. He has not forgotten their faithful fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The love, which he manifested to those pious patriarchs, he is ready to show to their descendants, as soon as ever they return to him, as they will one day return, in penitence and faith. While, therefore, under one aspect, they are, for your sake, God's enemies by their rejection of the gospel: under another aspect, is neither circumcision nor uncir- | ish anticipation of national glory cumcision, ought not to be con- and pre-eminence in the land of founded with the unscriptural Jew-Palestine. they are beloved by God, as members of the elect nation, for their fathers' sake. Indeed, it must be so: for the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. His love is unchangeable. Men may withdraw themselves from the blessings which he would fain bestow upon them, and turn a deaf ear to his gracious invitations, but God is always love. He still offers his blessings to those who will not be blessed: he still invites to his favour those who will not hear his voice. So is it now with the Jews. He loved them once: and therefore he loves them now. He called them once to be his Jewish people: and therefore he calls them to be his Christian people now. Think it not strange, then, that I predict for them a future of Christian blessedness; but be assured that they will yet return to the God of their fathers, and, in repenting of their own estranging unbelief, will joyfully discover that Jehovah has not repented of his goodness. P In these words the apostle lays down the universal axiom, that God, who is love, can never properly be said to withdraw his love from any of his creatures. They, formed as they have been, according to the Divine unfathomable wisdom, with a capacity for resisting his goodness, may choose to withdraw themselves from his gracious influences, and may abuse his kindness to their own destruction: but it can never be right for them to say of God's love, that it deserted them. The same axiom which the apostle here applies to the case of the Jews, may be applied quite as truly to the case of the Gentiles. With respect to them also, the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.' The love of The |