My first objection is that that is a pragmatic approach. Just because God preserved them does not make them His people. The Lord has preserved many a country that has blasphemed and soiled His holy name. America has been blessed in high regard and protected by the sovereign hand of God but that no more makes us His chosen people than preservation of any other nation. All it means is that God is working out His plans with nations made up of people. The preservation of ethnic Israel doesn't tell us that they are His chosen people but it does convey that they most definitely have a prominent role in His plan for all of mankind. That is why I am not impressed with such argumentation. I don't start from outside of the Bible and fit it in. We must start in and look out. Perhaps I am out of my Gentile mind but that is only because I am led in that direction by the Word of God-
"So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree" (Ro 11:11–24).Notice in the above passage we Gentiles of the "wild olive tree" have been grafted in to the "cultivated olive tree" (believing Jews) we become one olive tree and not two.
This brings me to why ethnic Israel has been graciously preserved by God. Perhaps the end of v. 24 gives us the answer. God is a faithful God. He is loving, gracious and merciful. He promised them salvation and He will keep to that promise; that is what v. 24 is peaking about- salvation and not some earthly political kingdom. To this very day Jewish people are being brought back into the "cultivated olive tree" so that we are one olive tree. Ironically, the thing that Dispensationalists abhor is the idea of covenant theology. Yet, without the concept of covenant and God's covenant faithfulness they have no basis for their view of national Israel being God's chosen people. It is precisely because God is covenantally faithful that He has delivered the Jewish people out of so much adversity. There are still elect Jewish people out there waiting to be called by name and grafted into the olive tree! Perhaps, I am out of my Gentile mind. But if I am it is because I believe that the Sovereign Lord is covenantally faithful to His elect people- Jew and Gentile. Christ has one bride (the Church) where there is no ethnic superiority among God's chosen people (all believers). They still object, "But they have been preserved as a nation!" We respond- God is certainly gracious isn't He? We must remember two things-
4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (Ro 9:3–8).And-
As indeed he says to Hosea “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ ” 26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ” (Ro 9:25–26).I ask how many people does God have? The Biblical answer is only one! Again, God has preserved ethnic Israel because He is covenatally faithful and will call out His elect from among her as He said in Romans 9:27-29: "And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” And as Isaiah predicted, ,“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
The people of God are the elect- Jew and Gentile! Soli Deo Gloria!
For His Glory,
Fernando
I do not want to sound like a one note opera by only focusing on one portion of God's economy. That being said, I think that an argument can be made that the greatest percentage of the dispensational zietgeist is caused by rebellion (conciously or not) in opposition to the sovereignty of God. The clay shall not dictate its form; only unbridled arrogance suggests otherwise and One like a Son of Man who has the kingdom that will not be destroyed also has a rod of iron for unruly pots.
ReplyDeleteI like this post! BUT the odd anomaly here for you--according to me at least--is that good reformed COVENANT THEOLOGY requires that we grasp Paul's reason for articulating what he does so eloquently in Romans 9, for example. In that section, Israel’s identity is a point in question--Paul asks, “who is Israel”? The resounding answer is not a narrow Jewish few. Paul’s response is inclusivistic in that he broadens the scope of salvation for not a narrow few, but ALL who would place their trust in God --Jew and Gentile! =D
ReplyDeleteIn any case, good post!
I should have clarified that when Paul asks about "Israel", he is referring to a chosen, as you say, People of God viz. the church.. Jesus is actually the "chosen one"--those who receive Him are "in Christ" and receive the blessed inheritance Christ offers..
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ is the Israel of God, and He comes in the volume of the book. He is the Alpha and Omega, and is the One in Whom is contained all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is either the seed of the serpent, or the seed of the woman. Those who are of the seed of the woman, and of the faith of Abraham (who saw His day and was glad) are only found in Christ.
ReplyDeleteIn criminal law there is something called the exclusionary rule. In the deepest justice there is also an exclusionary rule: those who are found in Christ are the commonwealth of Israel. Those who are not are excluded.