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In the early days of the church in Jerusalem, Peter and John were used by God to heal a man in the temple precincts. The public nature of this healing led to a confrontation with the Jewish leaders, who demanded to know on what authority they were displaying such power (Acts 4). Peter and John pointed to Jesus. And they went on to claim that salvation could be found through no other person, ‘ “for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ ” (Acts 4:12).

These bold words of the apostles are one of the clearest biblical claims for an important doctrine: that salvation comes only through Jesus Christ. Yet this doctrine is under siege in our day. Our pluralist society, in which Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, New Agers, and others rub shoulders in our neighborhoods, offices, and schools, has forced people of all faiths to grapple more seriously than ever before with the status of other religions. Some Christians are wondering whether they have the right to claim that their own religion is the only source of salvation. Believers are no longer so sure that Peter and John were right to assert that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

This skepticism is being fed by many theologians, who are opening up all kinds of new avenues for the scope of God’s salvific grace. These theologians ground their pluralist agendas not only in general cultural and philosophical considerations, but in the biblical text itself. For alongside verses such as Acts 4:12, we also find in the New Testament verses that seem to suggest that people other than believers in Jesus Christ might be saved. Two of the most important of these verses are found in Romans 11:

“All Israel will be saved” (11:26a).

“For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all” (11:32).

The former might suggest that all Jewish people, whether believers in Jesus or not, will be saved, while the latter can be taken to mean that God bestows salvific mercy on all human beings. But are these legitimate conclusions? Not at all. When these verses are considered in the context of Romans and of Paul’s theology, it becomes clear that neither is advocating universal salvation.

The most important contextual consideration is the larger argument that unfolds in verses 11–32. Both Paul’s notoriously difficult claim that “all Israel will be saved” in verse 26a and the apparently universalistic claim of verse 32 are directly tied to this argument. In this larger context, Paul describes an “oscillation” between gentiles and Jews as God works to accomplish His plan of salvation.

Paul’s initial statement of this process in Romans 11:11–12 reveals the three key stages in this process: “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the gentiles, how much more their fullness!” In the first stage, Jews have “stumbled,” suffered a “fall”; that is, the majority of Jews have refused to believe in Jesus and have been excluded from salvation. But the “fall” of the Jews also plays a positive role in the plan of God; because of it, gentiles are experiencing salvation. However, this second stage in God’s plan is not the final word. For the gentiles’ entrance into the kingdom of God stimulates the Jews to jealousy. And this jealousy may lead them, in turn, to respond afresh to God’s offer of salvation. At the third phase in the oscillation, therefore, the Jews will experience a “fullness,” a wider involvement in God’s salvation plan.

Paul’s promise that “all Israel will be saved” is another way of describing the third stage in God’s plan of salvation, which I outlined above. Exactly when this promise has been or will be fulfilled is debated by scholars. Some think that the back-and-forth process between Jews and gentiles takes place continuously. In this case, “all Israel will be saved” as individual Jews experience salvation. Other scholars think that the process Paul has described is a linear one, and that the salvation of “all Israel” will come only at the end of history.

In either case, we need to remember two things. First, the Old Testament reveals that “all Israel” rarely refers to every single Israelite. Usually this phrase denotes a representative number of Israelites. What Paul predicts is not, therefore, that every Jewish person will be saved, but that a representative number will be saved. Second, we must not interpret Romans 11:26 in isolation from the rest of Paul’s argument in Romans. And throughout Romans, Paul has made absolutely clear that salvation, for both Jew and gentile, comes only through faith in Christ.

If Romans 11:26 reiterates one step in the oscillation, Romans 11:32 summarizes the whole process. Because of human sins, God has “committed” all people to “disobedience,” handing them over to the consequences of those sins (see Rom. 1:18–32). But this is not the end of the story. As Paul has described the situation in verses 11–31, God is working to bring mercy to “all.” But here is the key point: In light of the context, that “all” does not mean “every single human being” but “every kind of human being.”

Neither Romans 11:26 nor 11:32, therefore, supports universal salvation. The message of Romans is clear: Faith in Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation for all human beings.

All for His Glory

A Vocabulary for Praise

Keep Reading Cut Off from the Law

From the September 2002 Issue
Sep 2002 Issue