By Terry Cropper
At the center of many debates today is the question of who is "the Israel of God." It is the belief of dispensations that God made a promise to Abraham (Genesis chapters 15 and 17) that he would give to him an earthly, national people with the result they view has always been God's intention to have such a people.
God was so committed to creating such an earthly, nationalistic people that this was the primary reason why God has never has been nor ever will be done with the physical seed of Israel. It is because is this false teaching that most Christians will not even preach the gospel to a Jews.
It is also an article of faith among dispensations that the creation of a modern state, of Israel in Palestine in 1948, is a providential confirmation of their claim that the Jews are God's earthly, national people and that further, God continues to work with the physical seed of Abraham.
Though it might be exciting to think that God is doing something spectacular with the physical seed of Israel in Palestine in our times,. Lest not confuse what is temporary with what is permanent, and what is permanent with what is temporary in scripture.
It is the argument of this article that Jesus Christ is the true Israel of God and that everyone who is united to him by grace alone, through faith alone becomes, by virtue of that union, apart of God’s true Israel. This means that it is wrong headed to look for, expect, hope for or desire a reconstitution of nationalistic Israel out side of fath in Christ in the future.
We cannot understand what God has done for us in history, apart from understanding one of the most important terms in scripture. (The Israel of God). The church is not plan B or something which God instituted until he could recreate a national people in Palestine, but rather, God only had the national people temporarily (from Moses to Christ) as a foreshadowing of the creation of the New Covenant in which the ethnic distinctions which existed under Moses were fulfilled and abolished (Ephesians 2.11-22; Colossians 2.8-3.11).
Christian mistaken identity has made nationalistic Israel the true Israel of God instead of the spiritual/eternal nation in the body of Christ that is taught in the Bible. As a result, this view teaches that the temporal, type or shadow standards serve as the fulfilment of itself. This view takes away the glory from what Jesus Christ has done.
In the Hebrew scriptures the expression "out of Egypt" occurs more than 140 times. It is one of the defining facts of the existence of national Israel. When God gave the Law he said, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:2) They were a redeemed people belonging to their Savior.
However national Israel coming out of the land of Egypt was a (type or shadow) that pointing to a greater spiritual truth to be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. The type or shadow was not the fulfillment.
If we will only let scripture show us it gives the very definition of God’s true Israel come out of Egypt. It most significant when Matthew quotes (Hosea 11.1) which says. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My.
Matthew's inspired interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures is our Lord Jesus, not the temporary, nationalistic, people who are the true Israel of God. When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son. (Matthew 2:14-15)
The only reason God orchestrated the first Exodus was so that he might orchestrate the second Exodus and that so we might know that Jesus is the true Israel of God and that all Christians are God's Israel regardless of ethnicity.
Herod was about to execute his bloody rage against the firstborn of the Jews. In Herod’s character, attitude, and actions we are to see an echo from the Old Testament. Herod, king of the Jews, is playing the part of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Herod is doing what Pharaoh did in opposition to God and His people. So what is Matthew doing here? How is he using Hosea’s words? He is saying that Jesus, God’s Son, is Israel, the true Israel. And that Jesus will retrace Israel’s steps. Israel is another proper name of Jesus Christ.
But wait there is more. A further reversal of roles is unfolds in scripture. God refers to the whole nation of Israel as if they were (one person), His ‘son’. We see this in Exodus 4:22-23: Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me”…’ Now, turning to the pages of the New Testament, we see Jesus is God’s one and only Son and the firstborn over all creation.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:15) Jehovah's Witnesses will use the Colossians passage to teach that Christ was physically created by God the Father. This is a misunderstanding of the text. A simple understanding of Old Testament and Jewish culture will help enlighten us in regards to the meaning of this passage. The word firstborn was a term to denote the special role of the first son. The firstborn was the preeminent one, the special one that would receive a double portion from the father. It was the important firstborn blessing from the father that Jacob had stolen form Esau. (see Genesis 27)
Therefore, Colossians 1:15 is declaring that Jesus is the firstborn, or special and preeminent One over all creation. Jesus is the only son of God and firstborn of God. And, being the divine first and last and King of kings, Lord of lords such would be true.
Consequently, if Christ is the true Israel, and I propose that He is, then all those who are in Christ, Jew and Gentile, must be the true Israel of God. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians. 6:15-16). Paul taught that since Christ has come only those who have a relationship with God based on faith in Christ are the "Israel of God." Thus, all those joined to Christ are to participate in and receive all the blessings that belong to Christ.
It is because Jesus is the true Israel of God that, in his infancy and indeed in his entire life, he recapitulated the history of national Israel. What rebellious national Israel would not do, Jesus did. He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and his neighbor as himself. (Matthew 22.37-40; Deu 11:1)
What rebellious national Israel would not obey the commandments of God. (Exodus 16:28; 2 Kings 17:18) Jesus God’s Israel did. (John 12:49) What rebellious national Israel would not shepherd and feed the sheep. (Ezekiel 34:1-2) Jesus God’s Israel did. (Mark 6:34; John 10:11) When the sheep were scattered because rebellious national Israel refused to shepherd over them. (Ezekiel 33:5-10) Jesus God’s Israel gathered them. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. " (John 10:11) Please take the time to read ((Ezekiel 33:11-15).
Whereas national Israel were law-breakers, Christ was the true law-keeper and this not for His own sake but for ours. And where the nation of Israel failed, Jesus the true Israel, and obedient Son, prevailed. When the axe was sunk through the root (Matthew. 3:7-10) of "Israel after the flesh" in AD70, all that stood was the superior eternal nation called the "Israel of God."
Does this mean God has shut out Jews from salvation? Not at all. He has placed Jews and Gentiles on an equal footing. As Paul teaches it, "There is neither Jew nor Greek...for you are all one in Christ Jesus". (Galatians 3:28)
With all this background in mind we ask the questions, "Who are Abraham's children?" The Apostle Paul argues very clearly that the promises to Abraham were fulfilled in Christ. Galatians 3.16 says, The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," (Singular) meaning one person, who is Christ. Paul explains what he means. The promises given to Abraham were NT gospel promises. They were given before Moses and they were fulfilled in Christ. Jesus is Abraham's true Son, he is "the seed" promised to Abraham. Thus Jesus is the true Israel of God.
Jesus also made a crucial distinction between the nationalistic seed of Abraham and the spiritual seed of Abraham. Jesus said to the Jews, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32) To which they respond by pointing out that they are physically descended from Abraham (v.33).
To this Jesus responds, "If you were Abraham's children...then you would do the things Abraham did" (v.39). This, then is our Lord's definition of a child of Abraham. One who does the things Abraham did. What did Abraham do? According to Jesus, "Abraham saw my day and rejoiced" (v.56).
According to Jesus the Messiah, a Jew, a true Israelite is one who has saving faith in the Lord Jesus before or after the incarnation. In fact, Jesus told the Pharisees of His day, that they were sons of the devil! (John 8:44) Thus it should not surprise us to find substantially the same teaching in the Apostle Paul's theology. In Romans 4, Paul says that one is justified in the same way Abraham was justified, by grace alone, through faith in Jesus alone (Rom 4:3-8). And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:29)
Part of the confusion which surrounds God's plan in history, and therefore part of the reason Christians are so confused about God's plans for the future of his people, is the misunderstand what Jesus came to do for national Israel. He did not come to set up a national, earthly Jewish kingdom, but he did come to be their Savior and the Savior of all of God's people whether Jew or Gentile.
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" This was John the Baptist's declaration in John 1:29 upon seeing Jesus for the first time. Our Lord, before he was incarnate, identified himself to Israel through the Prophet Isaiah (43.3) as "the Holy One of Israel," their "Savior."
Later, in sermon, Peter said that God has now "exalted" Jesus "to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. Christ did not come to reinstate and fix the Mosaic theocracy or to establish an earthly millennial Jewish kingdom, but to save Jewish and Gentile sinners and to make them, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, Abraham's children.
"It is not as though God's Word has failed" (Romans 9:6). The reason that only some Jews have trusted Jesus as Messiah is because not "all Israel are is Israel. Nor because they are his fleshly descendants are they Abraham's children." Rather, Abraham's children are reckoned "through Isaac" (9:7) What this means is that "it is not the natural children who are God's, but children of the promise" (v.8). How was Isaac born? By the sovereign power of God. How are Christians born? By the sovereign power of God. Every Christian is an "Isaac" in his own way.
The fact is confirmed in Scripture, most notably by the very definition of who is Israel. The role of natural Israel was a temporal picture of God’s true Israel Christ. It is declared early in the Bible, and is maintained throughout. In Hosea we read. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. And in Matthew 2:15, we read the fulfillment of this Scripture which speaking of Jesus Christ. And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
In Exodus 4:22-23 we read. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me”…Obviously, Christ is the only begotten son of God, and his firstborn. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15) Hebrews 12:23 refers to the saved as the "church of the firstborn"
Who is the Israel of God? Christ is the true Israel of God. Notice it Paul says (those IN Christ Jesus). For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians. 6:15-16).
Is God finished saving Jews? Not at all. Salvation is of the Jews, Gentiles, by God's undeserved favor, have been grafted into the true Israel of God which is Christ Jesus.
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