NASB, 1977

Some scholars say Christ’s work at the cross concerning the Church is secondary to that of the future status of national Israel. They say the Church is merely a parenthetical phrase to be taken to heaven so God can deal with Israel and collectively bring them to faith in Him. That thesis may be well-meaning, but it is woefully inadequate. Their premise is based primarily on a futurist eschatology that says the Old Covenant promises to the patriarchs are in effect ad infinitum (that is, forever, to infinity). They cite the apostle Paul saying, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” [1] as their proof text.

However, it is crucial to understand that the gifts Paul mentioned refer to the promises God made to Abraham about the land and his seed.[2] The land Israel inhabits today is theirs, given to them by God. But because they displaced the earlier inhabitants, disobeying God orders to eliminate them, there will always be a struggle with their neighbors who, thus, have their own claims to the land.

The promise of Abraham’s seed is an entirely different matter and is the crux of our argument. To begin, basing a still future prophecy solely on the Old Testament can be risky as the writer of Hebrews reminds us that the Old Covenant had become obsolete and was ready to disappear.[3] That clearly came to pass because Jesus taught that He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets![4] However, the Jerusalem Temple, all that represented the Old still stood, and the old customs were being foisted upon the new faith. Thus, there was bitter disagreement and strife between the old and the new.

More importantly, because the Messiah finally had come and completed His work, Paul correctly and consistently argued that God makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile – that believers are one in Christ.[5] Peter had also said as much at the Jerusalem Council, at which Paul was present.[6] Paul even designates to the church the name, “The Israel of God” while contrasting those of the circumcision (Jews) with the uncircumcision (Gentiles).[7]

Of even greater importance is that both Peter and Paul’s teachings are based on those of Christ, who is our example. Thus, the kernel of Paul’s argument is founded on Jesus’ dispute with the Jewish leaders on precisely that issue. Jesus, in making His essential point, said, “If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” To that they cited Abraham, boasting that they were his descendants “and have never [never!] been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free?’”[8] (Did they forget about Egypt and Babylon?)

Thus, those Jewish leaders were not only incorrect in the narrow sense, but their entire premise was also faulty because Jesus was speaking in a spiritual sense. Granting that they were Abraham’s physical descendants, He still said His Word had no place in them. Jesus then went on to contrast the things He had seen with His Father with what they heard from their father, to which they again arrogantly retorted, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus simply said that if they were Abraham’s children, they would do the deeds of Abraham, but because they were seeking to kill Him, He again said they were doing the deeds of their father. Still not understanding what Jesus meant, they shifted slightly and said they had one Father, God, to which Jesus said, “If God were your Father, you would love Me.”[9]

Then He asked and answered His own rhetorical question, and in so doing, issued a scathing rebuke of them. “Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My Word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father!” Pulling no punches, and lest there was any doubt, He continued in that vein by saying their father, whom He just had called the devil, was a murderer from the beginning who does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Then He said, “Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. He who is of God hears the words of God, but for this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God!”[10] Ouch!

When Jesus said those damning words to the leaders of the Jewish people who boasted of being Abraham’s offspring, they were in the Temple – the center of Judaism – where all could hear what was said. So later, when Paul said, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel,” he was making the same familiar argument, which they had heard before.[11]

Our point is this, those who misunderstand Jesus’ larger context therefore misquote Paul in this matter, mistakenly turning his words into meaning all national Israel would be saved because God’s irrevocable gifts to the patriarchs are yet unfulfilled.  However, as we said, Paul consistently had been talking in the context of all who are in Christ. “There is neither Jew nor Greek,” he said. “There is neither slave nor free man; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”[12] The gospel truth is, from Christ’s resurrection onward, believing Jews, the remnant, i.e., the root – and Gentiles, those grafted in,[13] together are partakers in the promises.

We must understand that Christ the Messiah was the “seed” in God’s original plan when He said the seed of the woman would have enmity with the serpent’s [Satan’s] seed.[14] Paul clarified that for us in saying that the woman’s seed was Christ.[15]

 But by instead making it exclusively about national Israel results in quite remarkably different eschatological schemes. Those who see those things as still in the future in effect throw off God’s promises because they do not see themselves as the intended recipients. Thus, they think in terms of the exclusivity of national Israel. However, it was Stephen who, in that same vein, early-on implicated the Jewish leaders when he was hauled before the Sanhedrin. He reminded them that they had the holy writings that prophesied the Messiah, yet they rejected Him and had Him crucified! At that, they then ran him out of town and stoned him to death.[16]

Therefore, just as Jesus had said would happen, God took the kingdom from them, and gave it to a people producing the fruit of it.[17] That people are now the believing Jew and Gentile in Christ – His Church.

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[1] Rom. 11:29

[2] Gen. 12:1-3; 15:18-20; 17:4-8

[3] Heb. 8:13

[4] Matt. 5:17

[5] Rom. 3:22; 10:12; Gal. 3:22; Col. 3:11

[6] Acts 15:9

[7] Gal. 6:16

[8] John 8:31-33

[9] John 8:37-42

[10] John 8:43-47

[11] Rom. 9:6

[12] Gal. 3:28

[13] Rom. 11:17

[14] Gen. 3:15

[15] Gal. 3:16

[16] Acts 7:51-53

[17] Matt. 21: 33-46