Israel and the church

Old Testament Israel and her mission to the nations

God chose Israel to be His people, a holy nation of priests to Him (Exodus 19:6 ). Within the Old World her mission was to serve God in the land, be obedient to God’s Law and then take this Law to the surrounding nations. In Deuteronomy 4 the Israelites were to obey the commandments and statutes of God when entering the land; and they were to shine forth the greatness of God before the surrounding nations. This would drive the surrounding nations to enquire as to the greatness of Israel’s God (Deuteronomy 4:6-7 ). In Exodus 19:5-6 Moses is told that “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” The entire world belongs to God and the nation of Israel is to serve God through being a servant to the nations as a nation of priests.

This is seen more clearly in the dedication of the Temple. When Solomon dedicated the Temple the text is clear that this nation of priests were to serve the world by obedience to the Word/Law of God. Solomon blesses the Temple and states; “the Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require: that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day” (1 Kings 8:57-61 ). Israel, the servant of God, was to be obedient to the ways of her Master so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God. Israel’s mission was to the world. Her obedience was to flow out of hearts that were inclined to God. There is no indication that this obedience was what we call external and not internal. Her mission was the salvation of the world.

In 1 Kings 8:43 the text states; “hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name.” The Temple was built for the Israelites to serve God and thus serve the surrounding nations. It was to direct all peoples to God.�

Israel’s mission typologically revealed

The number seventy is symbolic in the Scriptures and it usually refers to nations (Genesis 10 ). Israel’s mission was to be priests to the nations (Exodus 19:6 ). “Her water would cause their trees to grow. This was signified to all men when Israel came out of Egypt, for ‘then they came to Elim, where they were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters’ (Ex. 15:27). Seventy is the number of the nations of the world (Gen. 10). Israel, at the Feast of Tabernacles, sacrificed seventy bulls for the nations of the world, a substitutionary atonement for them offered by the priestly nation on their behalf (Numbers 28:13-32 ; Haggai 2:1-9 ; Zechariah 14:16-21 ).”[1] Further, the brazen sea of Solomon’s Temple rested upon the backs of 12 oxen (1 Kings 7:25 , 44). In Biblical imagery the twelve oxen symbolise Israel and the sea, as it often does, represents the Gentile nations (e.g. 2 Samuel 22:4-5 , Psalm 65:7-8 Isaiah 5:30 , 17:12-13, 57:20, Jeremiah 6:23 , Daniel 7:2-3 ; cf. Luke 21:25 , Revelation 13:1 , 11). Thus the priestly nation was to hold up, in worship, the other nations. She was to bring them to glorify God.

The evangelistic mission of Israel to the world was fulfilled in Christ the true Israelite, whose church is taking the Gospel to all the nations and thus bringing His rule (Psalm 2 and Matthew 28 ) to bare over all of life. As with many other Bible prophecies we find partial or initial fulfilments through the Old Testament. At Babel the nations were cut off and scattered but at Pentecost (Acts 2 ) they were regathered and the promise to Abraham was ultimately fulfilled. This promise, Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations (Genesis 17:5 ; 18:18), had been initially fulfilled:

In Egypt where Israel (through Joseph in�Genesis 45:8 ) converted Pharaoh (and presumably the nation)

When Ninevah repented through Jonah’s message

At the time Nebuchadnezzar repented via Daniel’s message.

There were many other examples of “saved/converted” Gentiles, who were fulfilments of Israel’s mission in the Old Testament; (1) Melchizedek was a priest and king of God Most High; and Jesus’ priesthood is after his order (Genesis 14 , Psalm 110 , Hebrews 5 ). He could not have been a priest serving nobody! To be a priest meant that there were people to minister to. (2) Jethro was a Midian priest of Yahweh, who blessed (Exodus 4 ) and advised Moses (Exodus 3 , 18). Again, a priest must have people to serve and minister too. Jethro’s people were certainly not Israelites! (3) Job, was a righteous man from Uz (Job 1 ), he was a patriarchal chieftain/priest. (4) Esther was influential in the conversion of the Persian King Ahasuerus and spreading the knowledge of God (and His Law) across the Persian Empire (Esther 8 ).

The picture of things in the Old Testament is that many Gentiles were “converted” and were ministered to by non-Israelite priests. These converts were not required to be circumcised, unless they wished to partake of Passover (Exodus 12:43-44 ). They lived apart from the land of Israel and none the less still worshipped Yahweh. The major imagery of the Old World is the land and thus agrarian examples are used as illustrations. This shifts in the New World. In the pages of the New Testament the imagery is transformed to the sea and associated fishing type examples are used. Babel’s curse begins to be reversed at Pentecost and the priestly nation is diversified into every nation.

New Testament Israel and Her mission

Western Christendom has become “very individualistic in nature.”[2] In this framework the Gospel is limited to the centrality of individual salvation. Everything is about me and my salvation; or me and my relationship with Jesus. God can be pictured as the cosmic, jolly, white-bearded, fat Santa handing out gifts per the whims of his subjects. An overemphasis on individual relationship with God leads towards a mindset of man centeredness. This is not the picture painted by Scripture. Rather, God is the Gospel and He has brought about a cosmic salvation.[3] All of creation was and is being won back to God in Christ (Colossians 1:15-20 ). All of creation revolves around God, who is redeeming the world (Genesis 3:15 , John 3:16-17 , Colossians 1:15-20 ). With the death, resurrection and ascension of the Second Adam God has reconciled the whole world back to Himself;[4] and He is working this out in history through the church (the body of Christ).

The Hebrews/Israelites/Jews were the special priestly people/nation of God in the Old Testament, the centre of the world, closest to God and they were to take the Scriptures out to the nations (Ezekiel 5:5 , 38:12, 1 Kings 8:43 ). Ethnic Israel failed by, covenantally rejecting God. Over and over again Israel played the spiritual harlot. She continued to commit spiritual adultery with the nations she was to be a light unto. Finally, Christ came, was rejected by the Jews and crucified. However, Jesus forgave the Jews for rejecting, persecuting and crucifying Him (Luke 23:34 ). In the book of Acts the Jews receive a second “chance,” to repent and accept their Messiah and enter His body, the church. God demands two or three witnesses to seal a case and thus the second witness of the Holy Spirit is sent to the Jews (first) in the book of Acts. However, throughout Acts the Jews continue to persecute Jesus by attaching His bride/body - the church. The Romans, in general protect the church, but the Jews reject the second witness and thus blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Thus in A.D. 70 Jesus returns in the Roman armies and vindicates Himself through taking the Kingdom from the ethnic Jews (Matthew 21:43 ), old Israel, and giving it to the new Israel (the church).

When Jesus came, died, resurrected and ascended, He created a new Israel (Galatians 3:27-29 ), a new priestly nation (Revelation 5:10 ) with a new High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-5:10 ). This new, transformed Israel was commissioned to go out and disciple the nations (Matthew 28:18-20 ) in the Word of God. The new nation/Israel was/is the church, the unified (Jew/Gentile) body of Christ; and therefore ethnic Israel was no longer the special, priestly people of God. All Jews/Israelites must now enter the kingdom of God through faith in Christ. The ceremonial (law) boundary markers dividing Israel from the other nations were torn down in Christ (Matthew 27:51 , Mark 15:38 , Galatians 3:27-29 , Colossians 3:11 ) to ensure that there was no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile, all in Christ are equally as close to God. In the first century the church was established as the unified (John 17:20 ) people of God. In context of this, the first century church issues largely revolved around the demand of the Judaizers/agitators for Christians to re-establish the boundary marker Mosaic Ceremonial Laws to become ethnic Jews. Paul sought unity in the body of Christ, apart from Judaism, for the church to disciple the nations of the world (Galatians 3:8 , cf. Genesis 1:26 , Matthew 28:18-20 ) in the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:9 ).

Themes in Galatians, Corinthians and Romans

The Gospel redefined the people of God through the resurrected and reigning Jesus fulfilling the promise that Abraham’s Seed would bless the nations. Paul often goes back to Abraham to establish the unified church in the Gospel. The first century church was being established as the new unified (Jew/Gentile) people of God. The old creation/covenant was being destroyed and the new established (Hebrews 8:6-13 ). The recipients of these letters were living in the last days of the old covenant (1 Corinthians 10:11 2 Thessalonians 2:7 , cf. Acts 2:17 , Hebrews 1:2 , 1 Peter 1:20 , 4:7, 1 John 2:18 ),[5] the end of the age/aeon (Matthew 13:39 , 49, 24:3, 28:20, Hebrews 9:26 ):

The Gospel/Jesus fulfils all of God’s promises (2 Corinthians 1:20 ) and establishes the new unified people (Jew/Gentile) of God, the church (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 ), who is the new Israel (Galatians 3:27-29 ). The apostate Jews in the first century persecuted the church for this universal Gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:16 ).

Galatians 1:7 – Paul is writing against “agitators”, who “were trying to get the Galatians to ‘Judaize.’”[6] They seek the Gentile Christians to be justified by the works of the law (Galatians 2:16 ). How? By “living like Jews” (Galatians 2:14 ) and separating from “the sinners of the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:15 ). “The Messiah’s faithful death…redefines the people of God,”[7] (Galatians 2:15 , 19-20) is Paul’s central message to the Christians in the church at Galatia. He defines the church as the true heirs of Abraham (Galatians 3:6-29 ), the new Israel who is made up of both Jew and Gentile.

Galatians 3:6-29 – Paul addresses who the children of Abraham are (v 6-7) by arguing that those who belong to the Messiah are Abraham’s seed (v 29). Galatians 3:16 , 19, 29 – Paul continues to argue for the universality of the Gospel as opposed to Jewish centricity. Abraham’s family includes Gentiles. This is the Gospel in Galatians - the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled in the Messiah and in Abraham’s seed all peoples (Jew/Gentile) are unified and nations blessed.

Galatians 3:27-29 – in Christ the wall of partition between Jew/Gentile (i.e. boundary markers of the Law, the works of the Law) was torn down (Ephesians 2:14 ). Baptism brings you into the new, unified covenantal family.

Thus the Galatian heresy was primarily division within the church. Agitators required Gentile faith plus observance of the Israelite boundary marker laws (e.g. circumcision). The heresy was not primarily over justification by works versus justification by faith. It was over unity.

The Gospel was not a place for lawlessness (1 Thess 4:7-8). The Law of Moses (i.e. the boundary markers between Jew/Gentile (ceremonial law), was abolished in Christ but the ethical standards (moral and judicial law) within the Law of Moses were to continue in shaping the life of the church and the world. Why? Those who are justified are the doers of the Law (Rom 2:13 ), for our faith does not nullify the Law but establishes/fulfils it (Rom 3:31 ).

All of Scripture and Paul’s overarching theme is “the single-plan-of-God-through-Israel-for-the-world;”[8] which is God’s covenant with man to fill the earth and take dominion (Gen 1:26 ). Jesus became a curse for us so “that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:14 ). Jesus was the true, faithful Israelite; sent because the Jews, who were given the oracles of God to take to the Gentiles, failed in their mission (Rom 3:3 ). Romans deals with “teaching which are timeless and which do not do not arise from contemporary Roman circumstances[:]…antinomian objections to Christian discipline (3:8, 31; 6:1, 15, 7:7ff)…a warning of Gentile arrogance over against the Jews (11:18ff), and a warning against people” [9] who deny unity by denying true doctrine (Romans 16:17 ).

Paul and all Christians are bondservants (slaves) of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1 ) because He purchased them at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19 ). This concept of being a bond servant is “not a hired servant who could come and go as he pleased…[but] a person who had been purchased, and once purchased he became his master’s possession…Everyone born of the Spirit is set free from slavery to sin”[10] to being a slave of Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:19 , 2 Corinthians 3:17 ).

1 Corinthians 15:14-17 Paul argues that the Gospel, and our faith, rests upon the resurrection. This is the cosmic impact of Christ entering heaven, sitting at the Father’s right hand and receiving rule.

Paul writes of Jesus who is the new King (descended from David – Romans 1 : 3) and His Gospel will be world conquering, through the mission of the Church in history. Only once all enemies have been subdued by the church through the Spirit will Jesus return again and deliver a completed kingdom to the Father (1 Corinthians 15:25 ).

In Romans 6 and Galatians 5 we are instructed that the Gospel justifies AND empowers believers to continue conquering sin. Interestingly the New Testament more often describes Christians as saints who sometimes sin not saved sinners.[11] We often emphasise this the other way round. Christians ought to believe that God has made us His people and given us the power to conquer sin. No, I am not advocating sinless perfection, rather that each member of the body of Christ will: strive to be united with the people of God (church), seek to be faithfully obedient to the written Word (Scriptures) and repent when they sin.

The scheme of Romans: “I. The doctrine of gratuitous justification: Chapters [1-11]…II. Christian ethics and morality: Chapters [12-16].”[12]

Themes in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon

In these letters Paul further establishes and exhorts the churches “he had founded”[13] by giving them the grand picture of the Gospel: all blessings are found in the church (Ephesians 1:3 ); the church, as the unified people of God, will fulfil God’s promises to bless the nations/cosmos (Ephesians 1:10 , 2:11-22) through administering the mystery of the Kingdom (Ephesians 1:9-10 ); the church is central to societal change as the people of God sit ruling in heavenly places with Christ (Ephesians 1:19-23 ; 2:6):

The centrality of the unified body apart from Judaism is again a central theme to Ephesians (2:11-22) and Philippians (3:1-12). The very mystery of the administration is “that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:3-6 ). The unified body of the Gospel taking the promises to the Gentiles is the mystery (Ephesians 5:32 ; 6:19).

In the letters to the Ephesian church Paul “offers a breathtaking view of the entire landscape. From here…you get a bird’s-eye view of one theme after another within early Christian reflection: God, the world, Jesus, the church, the means of salvation, Christian behaviour, marriage and the family, and spiritual warfare.”[14]

Paul takes the church through the cycle of justification and sanctification (Ephesians 4:1 , 22-32, 6:11-18, Philippians 1:9-11 ). These middle letters deal with sin and the church must stand against sin and exhort her members to continually repent and walk in faith.

Paul addresses the people of God as saints (Ephesians 1:1 , Philippians 1:1 , Colossians 1:2 ) who are to serve each other (Philippians 2:4 ) in the pattern of Jesus (Philippians 2:4-5 ). The church is to mature in Christ by elders teaching Her people to believe and live sound doctrine, together in unity (Ephesians 4:12-16 ).

Paul re-asserts that salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-10 ). Faith rests in the context of a unified body of Christ (Ephesians 4:4 , Philippians 2:1-9 ) through which the Gospel will go out to the nations, “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11 ).

The church is described as those who worship God in spirit; boast in the Messiah, Jesus, and who do not trust in the flesh (Philippians 3:3 ).

Christians are to “put to death therefore what is earthly in” them (Colossians 3:5 ) because they have died and been raised again with Christ (Colossians 2:20-3:4 ) & have the Spirit in them (Colossians 2:1-7 ). Thus, Paul lays out the Christian life pattern of death, to self, leading to life.

As Christians we ought not to believe that ethnic Israel or the ethnic Jews are still the special, covenant people of God. The New Testament makes it clear that they are not. The church is the new Israel, with Jesus as her head; and she is to take the Gospel to the nations, including Israel. Jews need the Gospel, not to hear that they will be restored as God’s people some time in the future when a temple is rebuilt to restart animal sacrifices. It is simply Biblically absurd to believe that Israel will be re-established as the people of God outside of the church. Jews cannot be saved apart from Christ and His church, there is no plan B.

End notes