The covenant with Abram and his seed is an everlasting one, and is symbolised with circumcision…”I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you…”Genesis ch17,v.7.
These first covenants initiated by God are unconditional and ante-date the Mosaic covenant based on the Law,which Israel broke repeatedly. God’s covenant relationship of grace towards Israel has never been withdrawn:- “ Though the mountains be shaken…yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed.”-Isaiah,ch.54,v10.
“I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David..-Isaiah,ch.55,v3. “I will make an everlasting covenant with them; I will never stop doing good to them.”-Jer.ch.32,v40. “Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.”-Ezek.ch.16,v.60. “I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant .”-Ezek.ch.37,v26.
God’s covenant and His faithful dealings with Israel have continued despite their three exiles ( in Egypt,Babylon and the Dispersion.), and despite their unfaithfulness and law-breaking.
There is the promise of salvation for the people of Israel, as for all other peoples.-“For if their rejection is reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead.”-Romans,ch11,v.15.
For the Jew, the Old Covenant based on the Law has been made obsolete because it has been replaced by the New Covenant made by the shed blood of Christ, in which the law is written within the heart of every believer.,-“This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel … I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.”-Heb.ch.8,v.10.
The Gentiles who have faith in Christ are, in fact, grafted into the cultivated olive tree, which is the Israel of faith, which is those Jews who are “inwardly “ of faith, having the circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code..”-Romans,ch.2,v29.
There are clearly two distinct groups who are being saved now through faith in the atoning sacrifice made by Christ :- the church composed of Gentile believers, and the Israel of faith in Him as their Messiah.- “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus..”-Eph,ch.3,v.6.
This same though is brought out in Galatians,ch.6,v.15-16…”Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.” NOTE,- The conjuction here translated as “even” should read “ and “( which is how “ kai” is always translated.) There are two groups of believers, as the context of the previous verses make clear.
The two groups are :” all who follow this rule”( Gentile believers),and “ the Israel of God”, – those Jews who have a personal trust in Jesus as the Messiah.
This latter group are referred to again in Romans,ch.9,cv.6-8., which speaks of those Jews who are not merely descended from the line of Israel, but those who have faith in Jesus the Messiah,- these are “the children of the promise, who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.”
These are the two groups written about in Romans,ch.3,v.29-30,- the circumcised who are justified by faith,and “ the uncircumcised “ Gentlies who are justified “ through that same faith.”
IN THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE PLACE OF THE JEWS, THESE TWO GROUPS HAVE BEEN CONFLATED, WHEREAS THE TRUTH IS THAT THERE ARE TWO DISTINCT GROUPS OF BELIEVERS :- THE CHURCH COMPRISING GENTILE BELIEVERS, AND THE “ ISREAL OF GOD”. – all those Jews who have now believed in Jesus as their Messiah.
(TO BE CONTINUED….)
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