Romans 11:27 Meaning: When God Takes Away Their Sins
This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins.
and this to them is the covenant from Me, when I may take away their sins.'
And this is the covenant from me to them, when I shall have taken away their sins.
Meaning in one sentence
Paul quotes Old Testament promises to show that God’s covenant with Israel guarantees the full removal of their sins.
Context
Paul has spent three chapters wrestling with a painful question: if God made promises to Israel, has He now abandoned them? Romans 11 gives his answer. No. A partial hardening has come over Israel, but only until the full number of Gentiles comes in. Then, Paul says, “all Israel will be saved.” To back that up, he strings together threads from Isaiah and Jeremiah. Verse 27 is the core of that promise, a covenant that comes from God Himself, not from human effort, and its central act is the taking away of sins. Paul is not inventing a new idea. He is showing that the prophets already announced this ending. The covenant is still standing.
Key Words
Three Greek words carry the weight here. First, diathēkē, "covenant." It means a solemn arrangement, more like a will than a contract. This covenant does not bargain; it declares. Paul adds the phrase par’ emou, "from me", to emphasize that God is the sole source. You do not negotiate it; you receive it.
Second, the verb aphelōmai comes from aphaireō, "to take away, to cut off." It is the same word used for cutting off a branch or removing a burden entirely. This is not covering sins or pretending they are not there. It is removal. God takes them and they are gone.
Third, hamartias, "sins." The root image is missing the mark, like an arrow that fails to reach its target. Every failure, every shortcoming, is what God says He will take away. Not some sins. All of them. Together these words paint a picture of a promise that does not ask you to clean yourself up first. It announces that God will do the cleaning.
How Christians Read This Verse
Christians across traditions have found deep hope in this verse, though they emphasize different angles. Reformed commentators like Calvin and Matthew Henry see the covenant as unconditional, God pledges to remove sins without any precondition, grounded solely in His mercy. The Geneva Bible agrees, reading it as a guarantee that God will bring Israel to repentance. Gill, a Baptist, points out that the taking away of sins refers to the application of Christ's blood to consciences, not just the historical atonement. Anglican scholars in the Cambridge Bible link the verse directly to the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, seeing it as the fulfillment of God's promise to write the law on hearts. Adam Clarke, a Wesleyan, notes that Paul abridges the Old Testament passages but retains the essential promise. Across these readings, there is unity: the covenant is God's work from start to finish, and sin removal is its beating heart.
A common misunderstanding
Some readers assume Paul is talking about a separate plan of salvation for national Israel that does not involve personal faith in Christ. They imagine God will save all Jewish people in the future apart from the gospel. In fact, Paul has already explained that salvation comes through faith in Christ, whether to Jew or Gentile (Romans 10:9, 13). The covenant he quotes here is the same new covenant promised in Jeremiah 31: forgiveness of sins through the Messiah. When Paul says “all Israel will be saved,” he means that God will bring many Jewish people to faith, not that He bypasses the cross.
Living This Out
You may have a sin you have confessed many times but still feel stained by. This verse invites you to let God do what only He can, take it away completely. Not manage it. Not reduce it. Remove it. This week, instead of trying harder to earn God's favor, rest in the covenant He made. Tell Him one specific failure, and ask Him to cut it off from your record. Then walk as if He meant it. The covenant is from Him, not from you. You do not have to keep earning what He has already promised to give. That is freedom you can practice with every breath today.
Main takeaway: God’s covenant with His people rests on His promise to fully remove their sins, not on their ability to keep the law.
For Families
For ages 5, 8
God made a promise to take away your sins. That means He gets rid of them completely. You don't have to be perfect; He does the fixing.
For ages 9, 12
Have you ever tried to remove a stain from your favorite shirt and it just would not come out? That is what sin is like when we try to fix it ourselves. In Romans 11:27, God says He makes a covenant, a forever promise, to take away our sins Himself. He does not just cover them up. He gets rid of them. That means you can stop worrying about whether you are good enough and trust that God's promise is stronger than your mistakes.
Questions People Ask
What covenant is Paul talking about in Romans 11:27?
Paul is quoting and combining promises from Isaiah 59:21 and Jeremiah 31:31, 34. The covenant is the new covenant God promised to make with Israel, centered on the forgiveness of sins. Paul uses it to show that God's plan for Israel is not finished, He will fulfill His promise to remove their sins.
Does Romans 11:27 mean that every Jewish person will be saved?
Paul says 'all Israel will be saved' (verse 26), but he does not mean every individual without exception. Throughout Romans 9, 11, he distinguishes between the nation as a whole and a believing remnant. The promise is that God will bring many Jewish people to salvation through the Messiah, not that He will save everyone automatically.
How does this verse connect to the new covenant in Jeremiah 31?
The phrase 'I will take away their sins' directly echoes Jeremiah 31:34: 'I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.' Paul takes Jeremiah's promise and places it at the center of his argument. The new covenant, the same one Jesus spoke of at the Last Supper, is the covenant that guarantees sin removal for all God's people, including Israel.
What does 'take away their sins' mean in this context?
The Greek word aphaireō means to remove or cut off. It pictures a full separation between the person and their wrongdoing. Paul is not talking about covering sins or ignoring them. God removes them entirely through the work of the Messiah. This removal is both a future hope for Israel and a present reality for everyone who believes.
Is the promise in Romans 11:27 only for Israel, or does it apply to Gentile believers too?
Paul's main point is about Israel's future, but the covenant he quotes is the same new covenant that includes Gentiles. In Romans 11, he explains that Gentiles have been grafted into the same olive tree of God's people. The promise of sin removal is for all who belong to God through faith, Jews and Gentiles together.
For pastors & researchers
Greek interlinear, 8 commentaries & word study