by Douglas Goodin
For many Christians, the Jews are, and will always be, special to God. It is as certain as the deity and resurrection of Christ. In fact, disbelieving the one is as heretical as disbelieving the other. But is that what the Lord Jesus and His apostles say about the status of Israel? Consider the following Scriptural statements.
When confronting the Jewish leaders of His day, Jesus made the striking assertion, "The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to another nation" (Matt. 21:43). Mark that well. The crown promised to Israel would be removed from their head and placed on someone else’s. This from the lips of the King of God’s kingdom Himself! Later He declared, "Behold, your house is left to you desolate" (Matt. 23:38). Notice that He said, "your house." Always before it was "My Father's house," but Jesus wanted them to realize that God had moved on. The sign outside that once read The Temple of the Lord now says Vacancy. If God ripped the kingdom from Israel, and He no longer abides in their temple, what remains of their special relationship to Him?
In multiple NT passages, the apostle Paul explained who the true people of God are, emphasizing that it has nothing to do with biological ancestry or physical circumcision:
• For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. (Rom. 2:28)
• For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. (Rom. 9:6-8)
• Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we [believers] are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. (Phil. 3:2-3)
• For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. (Gal. 6:15)
• Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing. (1 Cor. 7:19)
• And have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Col. 3:10-11)
Peter gets in on the act when he says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession" (1 Pet. 2:9). Don’t miss the fact that he applied distinctly Jewish descriptors to Christians. Most of these terms derive directly from Exodus 19 where God chose the nation of Israel to be a people special to Him. By attributing these designations to Christians, Peter taught that God's particular people—the true Israel, as it were—are all who love the Lord Jesus.
So, what about the group of Israeli people in the Middle East who recently celebrated 60 years as a nation? Are they God’s chosen people? Peter, and Paul, and Jesus, would all say, “No! Biological Jews no longer stand in a special relationship to God.” In fact, they occupy the same relation to God as their Muslim neighbors. The only way for any of them to become special to God is to love His Son.
Now, our Dispensational brothers will argue that nothing the apostles (or even Jesus Himself) said changes what the OT prophets promised regarding ethnic Israel. Paul can assert that “circumcision is nothing” until he is blue in the face, but at the end of the day, circumcision is still something. Dispensational Interpretative Assumption Number One is—What God pledged in the OT cannot be altered, nullified, or transformed by the NT. However, if we allow Jesus (who also happens to be God) to explain God's promises to Israel, we will understand plainly that the blessings of Abraham are for the children of promise, not the children of procreation. If you belong to Jesus Christ, you are the Israel of God; the person who does not belong to Christ (an unbelieving Jew, for example) is not.