THE REMNANT NOW, ALL ISRAEL THEN: PAUL’S EXPLANATION OF THE PROPHETS
For many Christians, wrestling through Paul the Apostle’s arguments in Romans 9-11 can be a challenge. What does Paul mean when he says that “all Israel will be saved”? What does he mean when he speaks of Israel’s “fulfillment” that will lead to “life from the dead”? The body of Christ is greatly divided over these things. The purpose of this article is to explain that Paul is simply expounding upon what the biblical prophets had already laid out rather directly. From the beginning, God has been telling a story of redemption. It is a story that is unfolding on the world stage. It is important that we understand this story.
The Old Testament prophets tell a recurring theme: When Israel falls into disobedience, the Lord chastises them, often quite severely. Israel is then reduced to a remnant—“those who survive,” “those left,” “those who escape.” The story of redemption culminates with this surviving remnant coming into covenant-faithful state described in sweeping, totalizing language (“all,” “everyone,” “from the least to the greatest”). What looks at first like a tension (remnant versus all) is actually no tension at all. It is the consistent logic of the prophets: judgment narrows Israel to a remnant, and then God saves that remnant so completely that “all” who remain belong to Him. It is both a remnant and it is “all.”
Paul’s argument in Romans 11 is built on this prophetic structure. He affirms that at this present time there is only a remnant of believing Israelites, and a current hardening on the rest. But he also speaks of a future moment when the hardening is lifted and “all Israel will be saved.” When Paul says “all Israel,” he is not denying that it is only a remnant; he is bringing the remnant pattern to its promised climax.
1) Judgment Produces A Surviving Remnant
The prophets regularly describe a future crisis that reduces Israel to a surviving population. God preserves a people through the fire. Isaiah frames this plainly:
Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, … will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.[1]
The remnant is defined as escapees and survivors who come through judgment and then rely on the LORD. Isaiah also describes “those left” as holy:
It will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.[2]
Isaiah does not say “some left are holy.” All who are left are called holy—a striking totality. (We will return to this).
This theme is not limited to Isaiah. Jeremiah also speaks of survivors finding grace and being gathered:
The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness—Israel, when it went to find its rest.[3]
Similarly, Ezekiel repeatedly speaks of God “leaving a remnant” and of “those who escape” remembering Him:
“Yet I will leave a remnant, for you will have those who escaped the sword among the nations.”[4]
“Then those of you who escape will remember Me.”[5]
Joel also makes “escapees” the decisive group:
And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape.[6]
Zechariah is especially explicit about only a portion remaining:
“It will come about in all the land,” declares the LORD, “that two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it.”[7]
So the prophets establish the first pillar of Paul’s argument: in the climactic time of trouble, Israel is reduced to a surviving remnant—those left, those who escape, those who survive.
2) The Remnant as “All”
Once Israel has been reduced to “those left,” the prophets describe the spiritual state of that surviving group with comprehensive terms. We saw above that Isaiah 4:3 already did this: those left are called holy. Elsewhere Isaiah says:
“Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever.”[8]
Notice how clean this is: Isaiah can speak of a remnant (a reduced group) and also say all your people will be righteous—because after the refining judgment, “your people” refers to the surviving, preserved Israel. Daniel uses similar language tied to rescue:
“At that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.”[9]
That “everyone” is covenantal totality: everyone who belongs to the delivered people at that time.
Most clearly, when Jeremiah describes the New Covenant, the promise is that “all” will be righteous:
“They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.”[10]
Ezekiel’s “one shepherd” promise also uses total obedience:
“My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them.”[11]
The many references to “all” are not in tension with it only being a remnant. It is the end-state of the remnant. e prophets are not saying: only a remnant survives and only some of that remnant is saved. ey are saying: only a remnant survives, and God makes that remnant wholly faithful.
3) God Himself Does It
The prophets ground this future obedience in unilateral divine action—God cleanses, changes hearts, pours out the Spirit, and causes obedience.
This begins in Deuteronomy:
“Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”[12]
Jeremiah describes the same reality from another angle:
“I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.”[13]
“I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”[14]
“I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.”[15]
Ezekiel may be the most explicit about divine causation:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.”[16]
“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you… and I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.”[17]
Zechariah connects national repentance directly to God’s outpoured Spirit:
“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him.”[18]
All of this is decisive: when the prophets envision a future moment where the remaining Israel is entirely faithful, they root it in God’s unilateral, covenant-keeping action—cleansing, regenerating, causing obedience, pouring out the spirit of repentance—weeping and supplication.
The prophets do not treat the outcome as uncertain. God Himself repeatedly guarantees it. Over and over again, He says “I will.”
4) Romans 11: The Remnant Now, “All Israel” Then
Romans 11 is Paul’s inspired commentary on this prophetic pattern. First, Paul affirms that only a remnant in the present age are faithful. Paul begins by refusing the idea that God has rejected Israel:
“I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!”[19]
He then points to Elijah’s day: Israel looked apostate, but God preserved a remnant of true worshipers.
“I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[20]
And then Paul draws the direct present-tense conclusion:
In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.”[21]
So Paul’s starting point is that “at this time” the saved within Israel are a remnant. None of this conflicts with Paul’s earlier comments in chapter 9 explaining that only a subset of Israel is Israel in the truest, inner sense.
Next, he makes the point that Israel’s hardening is real, but only partial and temporary. Paul never tries to soften Israel’s present unbelief. He says a divine hardening has happened:
What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.”[22]
But then Paul reveals what he calls a “mystery”:
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery… that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”[23]
We must note three critical elements here:
Partial: not total. A remnant exists.
Until: not permanent. The hardening has an endpoint.
Fullness of the Gentiles: the Gentile ingathering runs alongside Israel’s hardening in this age.
This aligns perfectly with the prophets: a period of stubbornness and judgment, followed by a climactic turning.
Then comes the controversial line, which becomes crystal clear when read within the prophetic framework:
“and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.’”[24]
Notice that Paul doesn’t say: “Israel means the church.” He says Israel will be saved. The same Israel that is presently hardened. The same Israel that is presently “enemies” of the gospel. And he anchors it in prophetic promise: The Deliverer from Zion, ungodliness will be removed from Jacob. He continues by speaking of the New Covenant promises:
“This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”[25]
This is God acting: I take away their sins. Paul’s citation grounds Israel’s final salvation in covenantal, divine action.
Paul is not contradicting himself when he speaks of a remnant now and all Israel later. He is tracing the same prophetic sequence:
Now: a remnant by grace.[26]
Meanwhile: a partial hardening.[27]
Then: a future moment when Deliverer-from-Zion removes ungodliness from Jacob.[28]
The end result: Israel as Israel is no longer split into a segment that is faithful and a segment that is unfaithful.
Paul explains that Israel remains covenantally significant:
“for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”[29]
That is a sledgehammer against any theology that treats the prophetic promises to Israel as nullified in a way that denies the original promises as referring to Israel (all Israel—both faithful and unfaithful). Paul’s point is not merely that God saves individuals; it is that God will be faithful to His historical promises.
5) How the OT and Romans 11 Interlock
The prophets repeatedly describe the pattern: First, judgment reduces Israel to “those who remain,” “the survivors,” “a remnant”.[30] Then “all / everyone / from least to greatest” is described as comprehensively being made righteous and faithful.[31] The fact that “God does it” provides the guarantee that it will happen. God promises to cleanse, regenerate, and cause obedience.[32]
In Romans 11 Paul lays out the apostolic harmonization of this process.
present remnant[33]
partial hardening until[34]
future national turning grounded in covenant and sin-removal[35]
irrevocable calling[36]
At present, God is saving a remnant within Israel by grace, while the nation as a whole remains partially hardened. Yet the prophets repeatedly describe a future crisis that leaves “survivors,” and then describe those survivors in totalizing terms (“all,” “everyone,” “from least to greatest”), because God Himself will cleanse them, give them a new heart, and pour out the Spirit of supplication. Paul calls this sequence a “mystery”: Israel is partially hardened until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, and then the Deliverer will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is how “all Israel will be saved.”[37]
[1] Isaiah 10:20–21
[2] Isaiah 4:3
[3] Jeremiah 31:2
[4] Ezekiel 6:8
[5] Ezekiel 6:9
[6] Joel 2:32
[7] Zechariah 13:8
[8] Isaiah 60:21
[9] Daniel 12:1
[10] Jeremiah 31:34
[11] Ezekiel 37:24
[12] Deuteronomy 30:6
[13] Jeremiah 31:33
[14] Jeremiah 31:34
[15] Jeremiah 32:40
[16] Ezekiel 36:25
[17] Ezekiel 36:26–27
[18] Zechariah 12:10
[19] Romans 11:1
[20] Romans 11:4
[21] Romans 11:5
[22] Romans 11:7
[23] Romans 11:25
[24] Romans 11:26
[25] Romans 11:27
[26] Romans 11:5
[27] Romans 11:25
[28] Romans 11:26
[29] Romans 11:29
[30] Isaiah 4:3; Isaiah 10:20–22; Zechariah 13:8; Joel 2:32
[31] Isaiah 60:21; Jeremiah 31:34; Daniel 12:1
[32] Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 31:33–34; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 36:25– 27; Zechariah 12:10
[33] Romans 11:5
[34] Romans 11:25
[35] Romans 11:26–27
[36] Romans 11:29
[37] Romans 11:5, 25–27
Joel Richardson is a New York Times bestselling author, internationally recognized Bible teacher, and tour guide with a passion for biblical history, prophecy, and the return of Jesus. With a special love for all the peoples of the Middle East, he travels globally, equipping the Church to face the great challenges of our time, living with courage and biblical hope. Joel lives in the United States with his wife and five children.