HoHum:
My neighbor has a sign that says “We Stand With Israel”. I do stand with Israel, the new Israel. I believe that the modern day nation of Israel has a right to exist. However, many denominations put emphasis upon rallying politicians to Israel. More effort in evangelizing the Jews. We need to be more concerned with the souls in Israel than with political issues surrounding Israel.
One preacher has said this: "The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses. "I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption." "The law of Moses is sufficient enough to bring a person into the knowledge of God until God gives him a greater revelation. And God has not. "I’m not trying to convert the Jewish people to the Christian faith." "In fact, trying to convert Jews is a ‘waste of time. ‘The Jewish person who has his roots in Judaism is not going to convert to Christianity. There is no form of Christian evangelism that has failed so miserably as evangelizing the Jewish people. They (already) have a faith structure.’ Everyone else, whether Buddhist or Baha’i, needs to believe in Jesus, he says. But not Jews. Jews already have a covenant with God that has never been replaced by Christianity."
Thesis: Let’s talk about how the church is like Israel and how the church is not like Israel
For instances:
1. How the church is not like Israel
OT Israel was before Christ, the church is after Christ. The coming of Christ was a turning point in history where there was a change in many aspects of the life of the people of God.
Israel’s main purpose was one of preparation.
They prepared the way for the first coming of the Christ, the Savior of the world. God chose the nation of Israel as a farmer chooses a field for a crop, and he dealt with this nation as a farmer plows and works his field in preparing to sow his seed.
Israel had three things that made them God’s instrument to prepare people for the Christ:
They had special revelation from God. Romans 3:1-2: What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
From this special revelation, we have the messianic prophecies which fed messianic hope.
Moral and religious purity, in contrast with the idolatry and wickedness of the Gentiles.
C. When Christ came and the Old Covenant was fulfilled, Jerusalem, the temple, the sacrificial system, and the levitical priesthood reached its end.
D. The worship of the OT looked forward, whereas the worship of the NT looks backward.
E. The church of today is involved in proclamation not preparation. The church exists to proclaim that the Messiah has already come.
OT Israel was exclusive whereas NT church is inclusive.
From the beginning God planned that his NT people would be inclusive, embracing both Jews and Gentiles, indeed, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3 and Galatians 3:8: The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.”
Ephesians talks about the transition from the exclusiveness of Israel and the inclusiveness of the church in Ephesians 2:12-14.
This is indeed the great mystery not made clear in OT times, “that the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 3:6.
Shelley Jackson is a writer. Yet, you cannot read anything she’s written in a magazine, book or screen. Instead, you have to look at people. Her story is written on human skin. Her story is called “Skin.” Jackson calls it “a mortal work of art.” It is a fictional piece that is composed of 2,095 words. Over 2,000 volunteers have gotten one word from the story tattooed onto their bodies. Each volunteer got one word daily. It began in 2003 and we can view a version of this on YouTube. I wouldn’t recommend viewing this because it is bizarre, weird and foolish. But isn’t the church also a “mortal work of art” that puts flesh on the gospel that it becomes visible to a watching world?
OT Israel was a physical thing whereas the church is a spiritual thing.
Though God’s dealings with OT Israel certainly involved spiritual blessings and spiritual purposes, the people with whom the covenant was made was a physical nation; and God’s interactions with them were mainly on the level of the physical.
The New Israel, the church, is a spiritually defined people with whom God deals with mainly on a spiritual level.
The “health and wealth” that God guarantees the new Israel are mainly spiritual in nature.
The bottom line is that OT Israel and the NT church are not one continuous people of God. The church is the new Israel, but it is different in many ways from the Israelite nation of old. The New Israel is under a new covenant, is entered a new way, worships in new ways, and has a new hope (Christ’s second coming, not his first).
How the church is like Israel
When God set the Israelites apart from all other nations, he wanted every one of them to be his people not just on a physical level but on a spiritual level also. His plan and desire were that they would all serve him from the heart, and that when the Messiah came they would all embrace him in joyous faith. His plan from the beginning was never to exclude Israel from the New Covenant people by replacing them with the Gentiles, but rather simply to add the Gentiles to the Jews.
The gospel was always meant to be offered “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” Rom 1:16. In Paul’s olive tree illustration OT Israel is the root and trunk- the very basis- of the NT church in Romans 11:17-18.
Despite the many differences between the Old and the New, there is a continuity between them. This is best explained in terms of Paul’s statements in Romans 9:6-7.
In other words, many Jews chose to remain Jews on a physical level only, especially those who refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah when he came. But some Jews chose to relate to God also on the level of the spirit, especially those who believed in Jesus. This is talked about in Romans 11:20.
How is the church like OT Israel? To summarize, we are in unity with God’s way of salvation that has existed and been applied to all ages, namely, that sinners are justified by grace through faith in God’s promises. This is evident with Abraham and has existed throughout God’s covenant dealings with his people. Romans 4:1-3.
The true Israel is and always has been the God fearers of all ages. Romans 2:28-29.
This is how the Old and New Israel are the same. However, this does not diminish the points of how we are different.
Avoiding Extremes
The extreme of minimizing the differences between OT Israel and the church.
The Judaizers in apostolic times were guilty of this. Much discussion over circumcision.
Some today use this same idea when it comes to infant baptism. This teaching says that there has always been one covenant, one covenant people, and therefore, one covenant sign, which began in the form of circumcision and continues today in the form of baptism. Equating baptism with circumcision then opens the way to justify baptizing babies because on the 8th day all males were circumcised. Good thing to do but we are saved by grace apart from anything we do. Just a sign of the covenant and devalues baptism
This teaching is based on an extreme underestimating the differences between old to new.
The extreme of overemphasizing the differences between OT Israel and the church.
Some views of the end times are based on this extreme. Some say that the actual purpose for the first coming of Jesus was to establish an earthly Jewish kingdom. Because the Jews refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah, this step in God’s plan has now been postponed until Christ’s second coming, when the earthly Jewish kingdom will finally be established. The church is an apostrophe, a temporary necessity, similar to the halftime activities between the two halves of a football game. No, we are in the second half.
Also, this idea that God really wants to go back to the OT is ridiculous. Some have us in the millennial kingdom offering thank offerings to God in the restored temple. This is so against the book of Hebrews and the substitutionary atonement of Christ.
Jesus said in John 14:6: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Romans 9:2-4: I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel.
Why was Paul so concerned about his Jewish friends? Because without Jesus he knew they were lost. Romans 10:1-4: Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
Acts 4:12: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
