Thesis 10/36: Israel Versus the Church

DOCTRIES OF FAITH
Doctrine 10 / 36: Israel versus the Church

With the exception of the first eleven chapters of Genesis, the entire Old Testament is essentially a group of books written by, to and for the nation of Israel. It begins with Abraham in Genesis 12 who is the father of the Israelites, and to whom God gave certain promises that were going to be fulfilled in Abraham's seed, the Jews. From there, the story of the Old Testament is the story of the Jewish nation for the subsequent 1,500 years or so. When Jesus comes, and the New Covenant is established, there is a very obvious shift from the focus being on the Jews, to the focus being on the entire world of Jews and Gentiles.

Some of the promises made to the Israelites through Abraham and through David had to do with things on earth. Abraham was promised a particular tract of land in the Middle East. This land was also promised to be his seed's inheritance for an everlasting possession (Genesis 15:18; Genesis 17:8). Promises made to David were that his throne would be established for ever (1 Kings 2:45). These are promises made to Israel that God made unconditionally to that nation.

There were also promises made to Abraham that were more than promises for Israel. God promised that Abraham's seed would be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). The fulfillment of this promise was in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:16). Romans 9 clarifies that not everybody that was born in the physical family of Abraham was to be a recipient of those promises that God made, but rather those that followed in the steps of Abraham's faith - which includes Gentiles.
1 Corinthians 10:32 distinguishes three groups of people that exist in the time of the New Testament. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God." Those of national Israel are distinguished from those that are of God's church. In Christ Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28). There are spiritual promises given in the New Testament that are particular to the members of the church, whether Jew or Gentile, promises such as eternal life, a hope in heaven, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. These are promises not made for Abraham's physical seed, but for Abraham's spiritual seed.

The Bible teaches that there is a period of time, in which the Jews, having rejected Christ, will be blinded. And even though there are some Jews that turn to Christ individually, the nation of Israel as a whole is not for God. Jesus came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 15:24), but as He knew they would do, they rejected Him, and so God opened it up to the Gentiles. "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob" (Romans 11:25-26).

"To the Jew first and also to the Greek."