NT Text: Romans 11:27
OT Source(s):
Source: Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Promise-Fulfillment + Longitudinal Theme
Anchor Text: Jer 31:31-34 — The New Covenant
Significance: Concluding his argument for Israel's future ingathering, Paul writes, "And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins" (Rom 11:27). The base citation is a composite of Isaiah 59:20-21 and Isaiah 27:9 (LXX), but the climactic sin-removal clause draws the forgiveness promise of the new covenant — Jeremiah 31:34's "I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more" — into Paul's vision of "all Israel" saved. Paul reads the prophetic covenant texts as one fabric: Isaiah's redeemer-from-Zion and Jeremiah's sin-remembering-no-more describe the same eschatological covenant now inaugurated in Christ and awaiting consummation. This is the "not yet" of new-covenant eschatology — the forgiveness already operative for believing Jew and Gentile will assuredly reach the future ingathering of Israel. The verse grounds Paul's hope for Israel not in ethnic privilege but in the certainty of God's covenant word. Its telos is doxological (Rom 11:33-36): the unbreakable forgiveness of the new covenant displays the depth of God's mercy, making the God who "takes away their sins" the object of wonder and worship rather than a guarantor of presumption.