Will you please explain the expression, "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles come in"? What is the meaning of "the fullness of the Gentiles"?
The expression occurs in Romans 11:25, and in that chapter we shall find the answer, which some other texts of Scripture will corroborate. I must ask you to read the entire chapter from your Bible, as it is too long to be quoted here. Supposing that you have your Bible open before you, I will briefly note the contents of this chapter. The apostle asks, "Has God cast away His people?" (Romans 11:1) and immediately answers in the negative. By "His people," he refers to Israel, and he is much concerned in the matter, for he speaks as "an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." (Romans 11:1)
No; God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. As in the days of Elijah, when the prophet declared that he was the only worshiper of the true God, it was told him that there were seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, "Even so at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." (Romans 11:5)
Note this last statement, Romans 11:5. The apostle is not speaking of the natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when he says that: "God has not cast away His people which He foreknew;" (Romans 11:2) for the remnant reserved is "according to the election of grace." (Romans 11:5)
The natural descendants of the patriarchs, according to the flesh, are never, either in the Old Testament or the New, reckoned as the seed of Abraham--the people of God. That is to say, no people are God's people by virtue of their nationality. It is only by receiving Christ that men have the right and the power to become sons of God. (John 1:12)
We have only to go back to chapters in the Epistle to the Romans, to learn of whom the apostle speaks as the people of God. "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall your seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." (Romans 9:6-8)
With this in mind, let us proceed with our reading of the eleventh chapter. The election is by grace, and not by works. Grace brings salvation; therefore when we are told that God's people, Israel, are such "according to the election of grace," we know that the real Israel is composed of such as are "being saved." (Acts 2:47) "What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded." (Romans 11:7)
Again we see that Israel is composed of the elect alone, and that blindness has come upon "the rest," that is, upon those who have the name of Israel, but who have not the faith that makes them actually Israel. Being blinded by unbelief, "the rest" have fallen. "I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but rather through their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" (Romans 11:11-12)
The question is, "Shall the number of God's people 'which He foreknew' be diminished? Shall there be only 'a remnant,' while all 'the rest' fall away and are lost?"
And the answer is, Not by any means. Many, yea, the majority, of those called Israel, are such only in name; but their places will be filled by those who were "in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; [Who,] at that time...aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," (Ephesians 2:11-12) and far off from them, "are made nigh by the blood of Christ, ... [And so] are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." (Ephesians 2:13,19)
Then follows the illustration by the olive trees. Contrary to nature, for by grace, the branches of the wild olive tree are grafted into the good olive tree, in place of its severed branches, and bear its fruit according to the root of the fatness of the good tree.
Those that have been cut off, "because of unbelief," (Romans 11:20) are as real Gentiles as those who never knew God, for: "If you be a breaker of law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision. For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew which is one inwardly." (Romans 2:25,28-29)
But, "They also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (Romans 11:23-27)
There you have the whole story. The coming in of the fullness of the Gentiles, the filling up of the number of Israel, the conversion of both Jews and Gentiles. Note well the statement that, "so all Israel shall be saved." (Romans 11:26)
How shall all Israel be saved? By the coming in of the Gentiles. Then will Israel be full, and the blindness will have passed away. Christ, the Deliverer, turns away ungodliness from Jacob, by saving Gentile sinners as well as sinners of the Jews.
The same truth is very clearly expressed in the fifteenth of Acts. At the great meeting in Jerusalem, Peter told how he had been chosen by the Lord to preach the Gospel to the heathen, and they had believed; "And God, which knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." (Acts 15:8-9)
Then James stood up and said, "Simeon has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, says the Lord, who does all these things." (Acts 15:14-17)
Here it is plainly stated that the house of David is restored and built up by taking from among the Gentiles a people for God's name. All Israel shall be saved, without the loss of one; but the number will be made full by the bringing in of every humble, contrite Gentile in the world. And this will be no new departure from God's original plan. "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." (Acts 15:18)
It will be the carrying out of the very plan with which He started, when He called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was a Gentile, but he believed God, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness while he was yet uncircumcised, "that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also." (Romans 4:11)
All Israel, from first to last, is composed of people called out from among the Gentiles. This is our hope. That which God did for Abraham, He will also do for us. And so, no matter what our nationality or condition, we may "have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city," (Revelation 22:14) although there is not a gate that has not on it the name of one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. (Revelation 21:12)--Present Truth, March 20, 1902.
The Times of the Gentiles
Since the article in the "Private Corner," [see above] on "The Fullness of the Gentiles" was written, the question has been asked, What is the meaning of "the times of the Gentiles"?
The question naturally accompanies the other, and we answer it here in the same paper, so that it will not be necessary to repeat what has already been written. Read that article first, and let this be considered the close of it.
The Saviour was answering the question of the disciples, as to the time of His coming and of the end of the world, beginning with the destruction of Jerusalem; and He said: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24)
Knowing that God's promises to Israel are fulfilled by the bringing in of the Gentiles through the preaching of the Gospel, and that when "This Gospel of the kingdom shall [have been] preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; then shall the end come," (Matthew 24:14) it is obvious that "the times of the Gentiles" are the times devoted to the preaching of the Gospel to them. Those times will be fulfilled when all the world has heard the message concerning Christ's coming in His kingdom, and all who are willing that He should reign over them have been taken out of "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelation 14:6)
Those who already believe are given for "a light to the Gentiles," (Isaiah 49:6) to be God's salvation unto the end of the earth; and: "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)--Present Truth, March 20, 1902.