What about Israel?

 

And do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.

-Matthew 3:9

The only place in the New Testament where God's plans for Israel are spoken of is Romans 9 through 11.

All of the Bible passages that talk about Israel returning to the land are in the Old Testament.  The New Testament does not support this idea.  You cannot find anything in the New Testament that supports the idea of a future for the state of Israel.

When the New Testament begins, we have John the Baptist saying that being born Jewish will not save you.  In fact, it does not matter to God.  And when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he also said that being a good Jew is not enough.

John said that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from stones.  What did he mean by that?  He meant that tracing your lineage to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob means nothing, but having the faith of Abraham means everything.  And the seed of Abraham is Christ.

In John chapter 8:31-59 this issue came up again with people claiming righteousness because they were descendants of Abraham.  Jesus taught them that being God's children is more important than tracing one's lineage back to Abraham as a Jewish person.  This echoes what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John three and what John the Baptist preached to the Jews recorded in Matthew 3.

Paul talks about the children of Abraham in Galatians 3:16-29 who are people, Jew and Gentile, who have the Faith of Abraham.  Jesus and the Apostles teach us that being Jewish means nothing to God and certainly will not save you.

When we say that the Jews are God's chosen people, what does that mean?  It means that they were chosen to bring the Messiah into the world.  

There is a strange idea held that the church has somehow replaced Israel.  The background for this mistaken idea is that some people seem to believe that Israel, (and their definition of Israel is the nation of Israel and the scattered Jewish people) whom God has worked in and through; and somehow they believe that contrary to this idea, other Christians say God is done with Israel and is now working with and through the church.

Jesus said, "I will build my church."  That word occurs 112 times in the New Testament.  The Greek word for church is ekkelesia, which means the community or people of faith.

In the first century they had a Greek Old Testament called The Septuagint.  This same word, ekklesia, was used in The Septuagint to describe the gathering of the faithful people of God.

Kyle Pope, "The Use of the Word Ekklesia in the Greek Old Testament", wrote:

the “ekklesia of the LORD” was the covenantal assmbly of Israel (Deuteronomy 4:10). This body, when assembled, worshipped God (II Chronicles 29:28,31,32), appealed to God (II Chronicles 20:5), repented to God (Joel 2:16), and made choices for the nation as whole (I Chronicles 13:2,4; Ezra 10:12 [Lxx II Esdras 10:12]). To stand “in the midst of the ekklesia” was a significant responsibility (I Chronicles 28:2; II Chronicles 20:5). To face shame before the ekklesia was to be avoided (Proverbs 5:14). Not all who dwelt among the Israelites could enter the ekklesia (Deuteronomy 23:1-3, 8). To fail to come together in the ekklesia was a serious breech of duty (Judges 21:5; Ezra 10:8 [Lxx II Esdras 10:8]). Although the ekklesia could include men, women and children (Ezra 10:1 [Lxx II Esdras 10:1]), there is no example of a woman addressing what the Lxx calls the ekklesia.

And this anonymous author wrote:

"the same title given to believers from Genesis to Revelation. That was only a small selection of passages from the Greek Old Testament known as the Septuagint. The Greek word is used many times over and often in direct relation to Israel. From beginning to end there is only one called-out assembly, they are known commonly as the church and to God as Israel."

The claim that some Christians think that the church has replaced Israel is false.  Recall that Paul says in Romans 9:6 that "not all of Israel is Israel", and Paul closes his letter to the Galatians with, "For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.  And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:15-16)

In the New Testament, John, Jesus, Paul, and Peter, teach that the true sons of Abraham, the true Israel are the people who have become followers of Jesus Christ.

Peter writes this to Christians, Jews and Gentiles: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Jewish men who lived and wrote the scriptures we refer to as the New Testament have taught us that children of God who trace their faith back to Abraham can be from any ethnicity.  It is also a mistaken idea, or perhaps a "straw man" argument to say there are Christians who say "God is done with Israel".  God is not done as far as wanting to save Israel, just as God is not done with wanting to save any and all tribes of people.

What is done or kaput is the Old Covenant.  On the night he was betrayed, Jesus told the Apostles that the New Covenant that has been made through his body and his blood, was coming into affect.  And the New Testament in Hebrews talks at length how the Old Covenant has been replaced with the New Covenant through Christ.

Romans 9 through 11 can be better understood if we remember that the key to the whole Bible and the book of Romans is Christ.

Before we get to Romans 9, we have Romans 8, and an often quoted verse is Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

And then, towards the end of Paul's discussion about Israel, he says this in Romans 11:29, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

And in the middle of chapter 9, verses 24-26, Paul defines "called" by quoting Hosea:

"...even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 

 As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”
“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.

Paul defines called people as believers in Christ.  There is some confusion where some people think that Paul is saying, at the end of his discussion about Israel, that their salvation in guaranteed, because they are called or destined to be saved and it is irrevocable (Romans 11:29).  But that is not what it is saying because we know that no people group is guaranteed salvation outside of repentance and bowing to Christ.

And when Paul says, "...and so all of Israel will be saved"(11:26), we must look at the context of the chapter, the book, of Paul, and the whole New Testament.  How will all of Israel be saved?  By hearing the Gospel of Christ and repenting of their sins, just like everyone else.  And who is the Israel who are saved?  All who put their faith in Christ and bow to Him.  This is not a promise that every Jewish person will be saved, nor every person living in that modern state of Israel.  From John the Baptist, through Jesus and the Apostles, we have learned that the saved Israel are all the peoples, Jew and Gentile, who have put their faith in Christ.

Much of what I have written here are my notes from a talk Steve Gregg gave entitled, "If Jesus is the Messiah, Why is Israel Not Saved?