26.And so all Israel, etc. Many understand this of the Jewish people, as though Paul had said,
that religion would again be restored among them as before: but I extend the word Israel to all the
people of God, according to this meaning, — “When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall
return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of
the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews
shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first-born in God’s family.” This interpretation
seems to me the most suitable, because Paul intended here to set forth the completion of the kingdom
of Christ, which is by no means to be confined to the Jews, but is to include the whole world. The
same manner of speaking we find in Galatians 6:16. The Israel of God is what he calls the Church,
gathered alike from Jews and Gentiles; and he sets the people, thus collected from their dispersion,
in opposition to the carnal children of Abraham, who had departed from his faith.
As it is written, etc. He does not confirm the whole passage by this testimony of Isaiah, (Isaiah
59:20,) but only one clause, — that the children of Abraham shall be partakers of redemption. But
if one takes this view, — that Christ had been promised and offered to them, but that as they rejected
him, they were deprived of his grace; yet the Prophet’s words express more, even this, — that there
will be some remnant, who, having repented, shall enjoy the favor of deliverance.
Paul, however, does not quote what we read in Isaiah, word for word;
“come,” he says, “shall a Redeemer to Sion, and to those who shall repent of iniquity in Jacob,
saith the Lord.” (Isaiah 59:20.)
But on this point we need not be very curious; only this is to be regarded, that the Apostles
suitably apply to their purpose whatever proofs they adduce from the Old Testament; for their
object was to point but passages, as it were by the finger, that readers might be directed to the
fountain itself.
But though in this prophecy deliverance to the spiritual people of God is promised, among
whom even Gentiles are included; yet as the Jews are the first-born, what the Prophet declares must
be fulfilled, especially in them: for that Scripture calls all the people of God Israelites, is to be
ascribed to the pre-eminence of that nation, whom God had preferred to all other nations. And then,
from a regard to the ancient covenant, he says expressly, that a Redeemer shall come to Sion; and
he adds, that he will redeem those in Jacob who shall return from their transgression.^364 By these
of the passage is, “until the fullness of the Gentiles shall come.” What this “fullness” is to be has been much controverted. But
by taking a view of the whole context, without regard to any hypothesis, we shall, with no great difficulty, ascertain its meaning.
The “fullness” of the Jews in Romans 11:12, is determined by Romans 11:26; it includes the whole nation. Then the “fullness
of the Gentiles” must mean the same thing, the introduction of all nations into the Church. The grafting more particularly signifies
profession. It then follows that all nations shall be brought publicly to profess the gospel prior to the removal of the hardness
from the whole nation of the Jews. There may be isolated cases of conversion before this event, for “in part” as to extent the
hardness is to be: but all shall not be brought to the faith, until the faith spread through the whole world: and the effect of their
restoration will be a great revival of vital religion among the professing Gentiles, according to what is said in Romans 11:15.
This is clearly the view presented to us in this extraordinary passage, when all its parts are compared with each other.
Hammond tells us, that many of the Fathers wholly denied the future restoration of the Jews, and we are told by Pareus,
who mentions some of the same Fathers, that they maintained it. But it appears from the quotations made by the first, that the
restoration disallowed was that to their own land, and that the restoration referred to by the latter was restoration to the faith;
two things wholly distinct. That “Israel” means exclusively the Jewish nation, was almost the unanimous opinion of the Fathers,
according to Estius; and that their future restoration to the faith is here foretold was the sentiment held by Beza, Pareus, Willet,
Mede, and others, and is generally held by modern divines. — Ed.(^364) There is more discrepancy in this reference than any we have met with. The Apostle follows not literally either the Hebrew
or the Septuagint, though the latter more than the former. In the Hebrew, it is, “to Sion,” , and in the Septuagint, “for the sake
of Sion,”. Then the following clause is given verbatim from the Septuagint, and differs materially from the Hebrew, at