Romans 11:15

‘For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what will the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?'

And if he is successful in stirring the Jews to seek the Messiah this can only be for the good of the world. For if their casting off by God has resulted in the reconciling to God of men from the world, that is, from the Gentiles, how much more will their being received back result in life from the dead, new spiritual and abundant life, both for them and for many more. Bringing Jews to Christ can only be beneficial for the church. It is clear from Romans 6:13 that being ‘alive from the dead' signifies the new spiritual life received when we receive Christ. There may also be in mind here that the dead branches which are cut off from the olive tree become alive again when they are engrafted in, and give renewed life, to the olive tree, which was the purpose of grafting in branches (Romans 11:17; Romans 11:23).

Some, however, see this as having the deeper meaning that as their casting away has brought salvation to many Gentiles, so the receiving back of them by God will hasten the final resurrection, and the following life of bliss. This thus being an indication that prior to Christ's coming and the general resurrection there will hopefully be a great turning to Christ of the Jews, something which will trigger the end of all things, and issue in eternal life for all God's people. But while the resurrection is regularly described as ‘from the dead', it is never described as ‘life from the dead'. And we notice in all this that Paul makes no such promises. What he does say is an expressed hope rather than a certainty. This does not sit well with his seeing his words, ‘all Israel will be saved' as signifying a huge revival at the end of the age. For in Romans 11:26 he speaks of certainty. Thus any interpretation of it which limits it to Jews converted in the final days of the age must be looked on with suspicion and must take into account the fact that Paul appears unaware of it until he gets to Romans 11:26.