Abraham and the People of God

In Romans Paul identifies exactly who the people of God are. He is very clear on how sinners become members of God's people and it is through faith in Christ; not through any nationality. Yet, this seems a hard concept for the Church to understand. Much confusion has drawn the body of Christ to the Middle East. A very odd thing since the early Church was always looking forward and not back. They were concerned with preaching the Gospel and "enduring all things for the sake of the elect" ( 2 Tim. 2:10). Paul understood that the people of God consist of those united with Christ through faith:

"He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.  For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,  as it is written, 'I have made you the father of many nations'—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist" (Ro. 4:11-17).

The most focused on aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant, by Paul, seems to be on Abrahams "seed" and the people of God. In the above passage he identifies Abraham's true "offspring" as those of faith in Christ. That is why Peter calls the Church, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Peter 2:9). The true people of God are not in the Middle East somewhere. They are all those people around the world whom have repented and placed their faith solely in the Law keeping, curse suffering, wrath satisfying, death defeating, raising from the dead- Savior- Jesus Christ. All trusting in Him alone are the spiritual offspring of Abraham and therefore the people of God. That is the point the Apostle makes in the Rom. 4:11-17, Rom. 2:28-29, Ro. 9:6 and Gal. 3. It is a matter of circumcision of the heart. We are a spiritual people, not an ethnic one.


Were the New Testament authors "spiritualizing?" It sure seems like it! "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise." (Gal. 28-29), "For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God (Ro. 2:28-29). The only way to understand the Old Testament teaching on this issue is to do what the New Testament authors did; understand them to have "spiritual" substance and fulfillment. A failure to understand to "spiritual" emphasis of the covenant made with Abraham has also led some to teach that the New Covenant (which flows out of the Abrahamic Covenant) is yet future, with the Church not participating in it (an assertion I find baffling concerning all the N.T. data!) since it was made exclusively with the "house of Israel" and the "house of Judah" (Jer. 31:31). A "literal" (in the Dispensationalist sense) understanding of that text would certainly lead to that conclusion. However, since the "literal" understanding was applied by Paul in a "spiritual" way, when he writes, "Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Co 3:4–6). Since this New Covenant includes Gentiles, the logical conclusion is that the Church (comprised of Jew and Gentile mind you) is the true "spiritual" Israel. Biblical authors were very fond of "spiritualizing" and we shouldn't avoid it, when it is called for. In fact, a failure to do so leads some to have all sorts of goofy interpretations. As Jefferey Johnson writes: "Dispensationlists make a great boast in their literal and historical interpretation of Old Testament Scripture. Yet, in so doing, they fail to interpret  literally every aspect of the Old and New Testament. Such as, the conditional nature of the promises of the Old Testament, and the new covenant spiritual fulfillments of the Abrahamic Covenant. If they desire to understand every prophecy of the Old Testament as literal, why do they not see the curses of the old covenant as literal curses, literal curses which must be carried out literlly upon the physical nation of Israel? Why do they not take Romans 2:28-29, 9:6-9 literally?" (The Fatal Flaw p. 230). And "What many Dispensationlists mean by the word 'literal' is something that is physical and earthly. However, a spiritual understanding of the Abrahamic Covenant is not a rejection of a literal interpretation of Scripture; it's a rejection of placing that which is conditional above that which is unconditional, and that which is temporal and physical above that which is spiritual and eternal" (p.231).

What about the "people of God" and the land promise?  I believe for Abraham's physical descendants this was both fulfilled ( Jos. 21:43-45 and Jos. 23: 14-15) and conditional (Deut. 8:1, 11:8, 30:16 and 1 Ch. 28:8). Yet, I also believe it was a type for the "heavenly" rest (Heb.11:16) that is for the true Israel of God (Christ and all united to Him by faith). According to the author of Hebrews the piece of real estate in the Middle East was not the real land of God's promise of rest, "For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his"(Heb 4:8–10 see also Heb. 3:9-11). It becomes very apparent that the land of Canaan was not the fulfillment of the true promise land. Even Abraham understood this (was he too a "spiritualizer?" ) as the author of Hebrews testifies in Heb. 11:8-16.

It's very tragic when God's people take what belongs to Christ and His sheep and give it to unrepentant, Christ rejecting national Israel and confuse what the promise is and whom it is for. Lest the charge of "anti-semite" arise (which it usually does), God's people consist of both Jew and Gentile- all that trust and rest in Christ and Him alone for their acceptance with God. The Lord tore down the wall of separation and made one people for Himself: "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility "(Eph 2:13–16). The idea of "two peoples" of God is foreign to the Scriptures.There has always been one people of God through all times. These people are the called, chosen- the elect of God.  It is not wise to erect what Christ has torn down. Soli Deo Gloria

For His Glory,
Fernando