An important question comes in to us from Brooke, a listener. "Hi Pastor John, my pastor believes that the Jewish people, those who believe the Messiah is yet to come, will go to heaven because they are God's chosen people." Referencing some parts in Revelation. "I disagree with him because I believe that all must get to heaven through Jesus Christ.

Where do you stand on this issue and on this debate? Will all Israelites be saved in the end?" No, all Israelites will not be saved in the end. And more specifically to Brooke's concern, no Jews who are waiting for a Messiah and rejecting Jesus while they wait will be saved.

So let me take those one at a time. Will all Israel be saved and will specifically Jews who are waiting for a Messiah be saved? First some passages on the first one. When Jesus saw the faith of this Gentile centurion in Matthew 8, he said he'd not seen such faith among the Israelites.

And then he adds this in verses 11 and 12 of Matthew 8. "I tell you, many will come from east and west," that's Gentiles, "and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom," that's the Jews that are rejecting him in his own day, "will be thrown into outer darkness.

In that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Later in Matthew 23, he made it crystal clear what he was talking about when he said "outer darkness and gnashing of teeth." In verses 29 to 33, he says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees," so these are the Jewish leaders, "Woe to you, hypocrites, you serpents, you brood of vipers.

How are you to escape being sentenced to hell?" The apostle Paul makes it clear that this was what broke his heart, and that his Jewish kinsmen, with all their covenant privileges, were rejecting Jesus as Messiah and were going to hell. So he says in Romans 9, 3, or 2 and 3, I guess, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." So they were accursed and they were cut off from Christ, and Paul said, "I could wish that I could take their place." Now that creates for Paul an enormous problem, and he spent all of Romans 9 to 11 dealing with the problem and answering it, namely, how could the covenant people, en masse almost, perish and be lost forever?

And his answer, his central point in verses, in chapters 9 to 11 of Romans is, this is verses 6 to 8 of chapter 9, "It is not as though the word of God has failed." So he's answering his own concern. It looks like the word of God has failed.

So many Jews are lost. And he says, "It is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel." His answer is, "Not all Israel is Israel." That's Paul's basic answer. So from the beginning with the difference between Isaac and Ishmael right down to this very day, with the distinction between Jews who believe in Jesus and those who don't, there is a true Israel, and then there is an ethnic Israel.

And he makes that clear in verse 8, where he says, "This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of promise are counted as offspring." So the children of the flesh would be all ethnic Jews today, but not all of those are the children of God.

So Paul prays in chapter 10 of Romans, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved." And then he knows that only some will be. So he says in Romans 11, 14, "I magnify my ministry to the Gentiles in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them." So only some, he expects, will be saved.

Which will be saved? Who are those who will be saved? And he answers in Romans 11, 23, "Even if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in." That is to the true people of God, the Mosaic covenant. I mean, the Abrahamic covenant, which he talks about as an olive tree.

"For God has the power to graft them in again." So right now they're lying there broken off in unbelief. And he says, if they would just believe, they would be grafted back in. So Paul does, however, look for a day, and this may be, I don't know what the pastor was thinking.

There is coming a day, I think Paul says, where there'll be a great turning of Israel to Jesus, her Messiah, and the whole ethnic group of Israel will be saved by trusting in Jesus. I think that's what Paul is talking about in Romans 11, 23 to 26, where he says, "I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.

A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. And in this way, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion and he will banish ungodliness from Jacob." So my own view is that that refers to a future salvation of the great bulk of Israel.

But the point is, only through Jesus will that salvation come to any Jew, any time. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, 16, "When one," that is, one of the Jews, "turns to the Lord, the veil," that's been lying over their minds, "the veil is removed." When they turn to the Lord, Jesus, the veil is removed.

And when it's removed, what do they see? 2 Corinthians 4, 4, they see the glory of Jesus. Now with regard to that other part of Brooke's question, what about Jewish people today who are waiting for a Messiah, but in the process, they are not believing Jesus is the Messiah?

Well, that's exactly the situation in which John the Baptist found himself in his question in Luke 7, 19. He said, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" So that's John the Baptist's very question. And Jesus answers him by pointing to his miracles and the uniqueness of his preaching to the poor.

And then he says, "And blessed is the one who does not stumble over me." Because Jesus didn't look like, he didn't look like they expected the Messiah to look. And so they stumble over the stumbling stone. And he said, "Only those will be blessed who don't stumble over me." And that blessing is valid for all who embrace Jesus and the opposite will be condemnation.

So over and over again, Jesus tells us in the gospels, he tells the Jews that if they reject him, they reject God, the Father. If they don't love him and welcome him as Messiah and Son of God, they don't love the Father. They don't welcome the Father. So let me just give a few of those because they're really the very essence of the matter.

John 14, 7, "If you had known me," he says, "you would have known my Father." John 5, 23, "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father." John 5, 42, "I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I've come in my Father's name and you don't receive me." John 8, 42, "If God were your Father, you would love me.

I came from God and I'm here." First John 2, 23, "No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also." John 6, 45, "Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me." It's just hard to imagine how Jesus could make himself clearer that to reject him and wait for another Messiah is to show you do not have a saving relationship with God.

That's true for Gentiles, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, secularists. Jesus is the way, the only way to God because he is the incarnation of God. Amen. Yeah, sobering realities pointing us back to Christ as our only divine hope. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for the question, Brooke. If you have a question of your own that you just cannot figure out on your own or some issue or debate that seems confusing to you, email us your questions at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Of course, you can find our audio feeds and our episode archive all through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. Well speaking of perplexing Bible questions, will we see God one day or is he completely invisible? Biblical texts seem to say yes and yes to both questions, that we will see him and that we can't see him.

Pastor John will help us untangle these issues for us when we return on Monday. Until then, I am your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast and have a wonderful weekend. We'll see you on Monday.