What Place Does the Nation of Israel Have in the Future of God's Plan?

(Transcript of the video above, edited for readability)

Some Christians believe that God at the end of history is going to restore national, political Israel, and there'll be even the rebuilding of a temple. Some Christians believe in the resumption of animal sacrifices and that Israel is going to be given the land of Canaan originally prophesied to Abraham.

I don't believe that's what the scripture teaches. I think the scripture teaches that all of the promises of God find their "yes" and their "amen" in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1), so that God does keep his promise to Israel, and two, ethnic Israel, meaning seed of Abraham, meaning Son of David, meaning tribe of Judah, all those promises are to the Jewish people, but not to all of the Jewish people. It's always to the obedient remnant among the Jewish people. So the Apostle Paul says in Romans 2, we all have always known they are not all Israel, who are called Israel because so many of the people who were ethnically Jewish in the Old Testament and who were circumcised fell dead in the wilderness. They did not inherit the promises of God.

Well, why not? Because they were sinners and because they're under a curse, so they forfeit those promises of God. Well, that's the entire argument of what the Apostle Paul is doing in the book of Romans. He starts out in Romans 1, all the Gentiles are lost. They're rebels against God and they're deserving of death. Everyone would've agreed with that, who believed the gospel. But then he comes along in Romans 2 and says, all of the Jewish people are also sinners, and their circumcision doesn't make them right with God. And he demonstrates that from the Old Testament all the way to Romans 3, everybody, every mouth is shut under sin. So now the question is not does God keep his promise to Israel? The question is, who is Israel? And that's the question that the New Testament is answering. And Israel is narrowed down to one man, which is of course how it starts in the beginning.

Israel starts with one man, Jacob, who wrestles with God and he's named Israel, and from him come these 12 tribes and then ultimately this great people. What God does through the conviction of sin is to ultimately narrow Israel back down again to one man: the obedient Israelite, the only one who keeps the law, the only one who is circumcised of heart, the only one who is able to say, "I come before you, God, with clean hands and a pure heart and a clean conscience. I have obeyed the law, therefore, I am the Israel of God." And what the prophets always promise is God says, "I'm going to show you. I'm going to show the nations who my people are when I raise you from the dead, and I put my spirit upon you." Well, God did that. He raised Israel from the dead. One man walked out of the grave, he placed his spirit upon Israel upon one man who bore the Spirit, the anointed one, and then what does Jesus do?

He pours the spirit out upon his brothers and sisters, and he ingrafts into himself with a head and a body, his people, so that, if I am in Christ, Colossians 3 says I'm hidden in Jesus. Everything that belongs to him now belongs to me. In the same way, if you were to give me a check for a million dollars today, I would not say to you, "Now, his million dollars, does that apply to my appendix? Does it apply to my toenail? Does it apply to my hand?" He would say, "Well, that's all part of you. It goes to you." So, yeah, that's the same thing that happens with our relationship with Jesus. We are Jewish because our head is Jewish, the Lord Jesus. And so we receive those promises. What Paul is doing in Romans 9-11 is to say, this isn't an accident that history has worked out this way.

And so some people would be tempted to say, well, why is it that God's working mostly now with Gentiles? And why is it that the Jewish people are not at the beginning of the gospel advance, receiving it? Paul says, God's doing this intentionally. He's taking these Gentiles and he is grafting them onto an already existing vine, the plant, the people of Israel, and in the end, he's going to engraft on some of those who are ethnically Jews, but it's all to the same plant. It's all that same olive tree to that same vine. And of course, what does Jesus do? Jesus takes that exact same language that the scripture uses continually throughout the prophets: that Israel is of mine, is a plant, but God says it's not bearing any fruit, and if it's not bearing any fruit, I'm going to uproot it. I'm going to prune it.

Jesus comes along and says to his disciples, "I am the vine. You are the branches. And so that life now comes through you." Those of us who are Gentiles by birth have been grafted onto that same vine of Jesus. We share in that same life, which means (Ephesians 2), we are no longer strangers and exiles. We are now part of the commonwealth of the people of God. So all of those promises that God gives to Israel in the Old Testament, they all belong to us because they belong to Jesus, and if they belong to Jesus, he is (Galatians 3), the seed of Abraham. We, in him, therefore, are the children of Abraham. So those promises belong to us. What God has given is not anything less than what he promised to Abraham, but a great deal more. He says to Abraham, "I'm giving you this land, the land of Canaan," and what he winds up giving to the children of Abraham is that land. But not only that land: also, the entire universe. It's Romans 4. Abraham becomes the heir of the world in Christ. So the question of whether or not God is going to restore Israel is a question that I think God has answered at the resurrection of Jesus, and the restoration simply answers the question, who is Israel? Jesus Christ, and all who are found in Him.

(First published on Christianity.com on January 25, 2013)

For more information about Russell Moore, visit: www.russellmoore.com

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Updated Jan 31, 2024

What Place Does the Nation of Israel Have in the Future of God's Plan?

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