Romans 11:12

Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?

The first two clauses here are parallel, "fall" and "loss" meaning the same thing, and "riches of the world" and "riches of the Gentiles" having reference to identical results of the fall and the loss of Israel (fleshly); but by means of this parallel, Paul brought forward a rich new idea bearing upon the hardening of Israel, which is in the word "loss." Concerning this word, Barrett said,

Paul uses a word which in strict etymology is derived from a verb meaning "defeat." Accordingly, some commentators, quoting from Isaiah 31:8, translate (this place), "Their defeat has lead to the wealth of the Gentiles."[14]

Whiteside especially stressed this, observing that:

The Jews were defeated in their efforts to destroy Christ and his teaching by crucifying him.[15]

The defeat of the Jews in their opposition to Christianity was complete and extensive. Their efforts did not stop with the crucifixion of Christ, but extended to savage persecution and martyrdom of the earliest disciples, and included the most sustained and destructive opposition to the spread of Christianity upon the mission field; and their opposition did not really desist until God's sentence upon Jerusalem was summarily executed by the legions of Titus and Vespasian in 70 A.D. Since Romans was written at least 12 years before that event, there might have been a prophecy intended in the word "loss" (defeat).

Their fullness ... Upon these words is built the platform containing a great superstructure of future events, including a projected return in the future of the old fleshly Israel to a spirituality and obedience they have been void of for thousands of years, accompanied by a massive and universal conversion of the whole world to Jesus Christ. Would God it could be so! But, alas, the scriptures teach no such thing.

Lenski's perceptive understanding of this place was expressed thus:

Paul does not say, "If their fall WAS or IS world riches, and their loss WAS or IS Gentile riches, much more WILL BE or SHALL BE their fullness in the future, at the millennium, or before the world ends." This is obviously untenable. What he writes is that already THEN (at that time), the Jewish fall and loss should be considered the world's and the Gentile's riches. Paul asks, If that is true, "by how much more" must not the fullness of salvation ATTAINED (already) by the Jewish remnant (the true Israel) be likewise considered the world's and the Gentile's riches, especially because their fullness (conversion) is void of the least trace of Jewish exclusiveness.[16]

"Fullness" is thus a synonym for conversion to Christ, and, as such, is an instructive metaphor indeed. How vain and empty are the lives without Christ! With such a meaning, therefore, it is impossible to apply this word to the old fleshly Israel.

[14] C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1957), p. 214.

[15] R. L. Whiteside, op. cit., p. 230.

[16] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 695.