At the time I thought, “This conversation is getting too strange for me.” I was talking with a (Gentile) woman from Pennsylvania who was wearing a Jewish prayer shawl (that’s not the strange part). She had started by telling me that she followed all the Old Testament laws, including the dietary laws of Leviticus. Then, she threw the big one on me by telling me that Jews today aren’t saved by faith, but are still under the law. God has two ways for people to gain righteousness and entrance to heaven. One for Jews and one for Gentiles. I am not sure what disturbed me more, this American, suburban woman who was basically converting to Judaism, or the fact that she believed Jews are still under the old covenant.
The first thing we need to establish as we discuss the Jews is what Paul clearly states in the book of Romans. Romans 10:11-13 says, “For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” I don’t think it can be any clearer than that! Whatever we say about modern Israel, we can’t hold any thoughts that would mean that God’s eternal salvation plan for the Jews is any different than the Gentiles. The author of Hebrews also leaves little doubt that the whole old covenant is no longer binding. Hebrews 8:13 states, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
What is clear to me from Scripture is that though God doesn’t save the Jews in a different way, He still has a unique plan for them. The problem with full blown replacement theology is that it leaves no place for this in the New Testament or God’s plan. Paul states in Romans 11:28-29, “As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Yes, irrevocable means irrevocable. We can’t “un-Jew” the Jews or “un-choose” them. God has created this people group and given them special blessings, and no whining from Gentiles is going to change that.
The issue that is less clear in Scripture is what has become of the Abrahamic Covenant as regards the land of Israel. Spiritually, Paul explains that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promises made to Abram and the Jews in Genesis 12:1-4. Galatians 3:16, “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one,“And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” Jesus is the “seed/offspring” that “all the families of the earth” are blessed in. Through faith, we are all “children of Abraham”, both Jews and Gentiles. What does this mean for the physical promises then? We can’t quickly dismiss this covenant, because the New Testament never states that it has ended as we saw with the old covenant.
I have seen two answers to this issue. First, some say that God ALREADY fulfilled the promise to give them the land as seen in 1 Kings 4:20-21, and no longer needs to do that today. The problem with this view is that God keeps using the word “forever” to describe how long He has given the land to the Jews (Genesis 13:15, Exodus 32:13). While it is true that we can pull out passages where God uses the word “forever” in regards to the old covenant (Exodus 28:42, Leviticus 3:17), and that is clearly over, we still don’t have God declaring that about the Abrahamic Covenant in the New Testament. The second answer that I have heard is that the land is “spiritual” now and not physical. Jesus repeatedly told his disciples that he came to bring a spiritual kingdom and not an earthly one. God wouldn’t be going back to the physical anymore (Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 10:1).
The bottom line is that as inductive students of the Bible, I don’t believe there is enough evidence to say that the land doesn’t still belong to the Jews as promised by God. This still leaves many questions however, such as: who is a Jew? do we use the Biblical test or modern Israel’s? does Israel have to be following God to receive this promise, or is it unconditional? Most Jews today in Israel are not Christians, nor are they even following the laws of Judaism.
In the end, I believe both the verses from Paul about “irrevocable gifts” combined with the Abrahamic Covenant, make replacement theology hard to justify. Though it leaves us still with many questions about whether modern Israel is a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy or not, it is fitting more with what we see in Scripture. Next, we will examine the whole teaching on “spiritual Israel” and see what impact it has on our remaining questions. I realize that fitting stuff like this into a post is ridiculous sometimes. Any chance you guys would like to read a 50 page post? I didn’t think so.
The Bible Nerd 