Romans 11:23

And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

This verse is not an assertion that the fleshly Israel will cease from unbelief, nor a promise that God will graft them in again, but is a continuation of Paul's revelation at this place on the conditional nature of salvation. It works both ways. The wicked who believe and obey will be saved, regardless of who they are; the righteous who sin to defection shall be lost, no matter who they are.

The POSSIBILITY of Israel's return is stated here, but it is conditioned upon the cessation of their unbelief. No miracle or special manifestation on Israel's behalf, other than the continuing miracle of themselves and the Holy Bible, may be expected. Paul here stated that "the gospel is the power of God unto salvation" (Romans 1:16), for both Jews and Gentiles. No special way is promised for any man.

The very possibility of Israel's conversion and being "grafted in" again is an intoxicating thought. If Israel (ah, there is that tragic word "if"), at last worn out with frustrations and dead hopes of some other Messiah's ever arising to aid them, shall at last turn and believe in Christ, they would certainly be acceptable to God then, as always, upon God's terms, not as Jews but as Christians, there being no longer, in the sight of God, any covenant difference whatever between Jew and Gentile. As long as the unbelief of Israel holds, that long they shall remain without; but, if they believe, they may enter. It must not be thought, however, that any such thing as a state or nation could ever be converted. People do not enter Christ as races, nations, ethnic groups, or parties of any kind. Paul did not enter the church on the basis of his being a Hebrew of the tribe of Benjamin; he entered as a believing, penitent, and baptized sinner saved by grace. No one, so far as the scriptures reveal, shall ever enter any other way.