People of God: Israel and Israel and the Church

Read the series so far.

When discussing the relationship between Israel and the church, the word continuity can be pretty slippery. In some discussions, to assert that one sees continuity between the church and Israel is virtually to assert that they are one and the same body. Nevertheless, the term does not have to be employed in this extreme sense. If someone suggests continuity between a Chevy Silverado and a Dodge Ram, the language means that they belong to the same class and are the same kind of thing (in this case, a pickup truck), not that they are numerically identical.

What I have argued is that the continuity between Israel and the church is a continuity that comes from analogy. They belong to the same class of things: peoples of God. Because they are both peoples of God, they exhibit marked similarities. Because they are not one and the same people, however, they also exhibit differences. Israel remains Israel, and the church remains the church.

Of course, the Scriptures can be read in ways that contradict my understanding. After all, there would be no debate among Bible believers if the entire Bible spoke with equal clarity on one side of the question. To this point, I have focused primarily upon Scriptures that appear to distinguish peoples of God. It is worth spending some time on Scriptures that appear to identify Israel and the church, or even to make the church into a new Israel.

Incidentally, we should not become distressed when the evidence in the Bible appears to be mixed. In any intellectual system whatever—not just theological systems, but systems of thought—some evidence will support and explain the system, while other evidence will need to be explained by the system. There is no such thing as a system of thought in which all of the evidence points uniformly in a single direction. Because of this phenomenon, patience is one of the premier virtues of theologians. One cannot simply abandon one’s system the first time that (apparently) contradictory evidence comes along. Evidence is always construed or interpreted within some framework, explicit or implicit, and theologians always need to ask what assumptions are guiding the appropriation of the evidence. They need to seek the framework within which the evidence speaks with the greatest clarity and consistency.

When discussing the peoples of God, one must take account of those passages that seem to deny that Israel is any longer a people of God or that use Israel-like language for the church. I would like to examine a few of these passages, though this series of essays would become too long if I were to discuss them all. I wish to begin by presenting one of the most obvious problems for those who wish to distinguish the church and Israel as two peoples of God.

One side of the problem arises from Romans 2:23-29. Here, the apostle Paul was dealing with persons of Jewish descent (Israelites) who bore the mark of God’s covenant with Israel (circumcision) and who boasted in the possession of God’s law. Yet, by breaking the law, these Jewish people had brought dishonor to God’s name and caused it to be blasphemed among the Gentiles (23-24). For Paul, this was no new phenomenon, but was the very problem that had already been addressed by the prophets (Isa. 52:5; Ezek. 36:20).

To these people, Paul stated that circumcision is only useful for law keepers, not for law breakers (25). Indeed, he argued that law breaking had the effect of nullifying circumcision. Theologically, the reasons seem apparent. Circumcision is the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, but the law is the substance of the covenant. To wear the badge that sets one apart to the covenant (circumcision) while violating the terms of the covenant (the law) is hypocritical and even oxymoronic. Consequently, a law-breaking Jew has no better standing before God than a Gentile. As Paul put it, “The one who is a Jew visibly is not [a Jew], and the one who is circumcised visibly in the flesh is not [circumcised]” (28).

Paul also addressed the opposite question. What about a Gentile (an uncircumcised person) who actually keeps the righteous demands of the law? What Paul probably had in mind is not a detailed observance of all 613 commands and prohibitions of the Sinai code, but rather a life that is consistent with the righteousness that the law sought to foster. The apostle concluded that for such a person, “his uncircumcision will be reckoned as circumcision” (26).

In his summary statement (29), Paul brought together two ideas. First, being a true Jew is an inward matter. Second, true circumcision is a matter of the heart, a matter of what is praised by God and not by humans. This summary statement leads to a number of questions for the reader.

• Does Paul mean to obliterate the distinction between Jews and Gentiles in general? Or, to put it in other words, is there any point to being Jewish?
• Is descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Israel completely irrelevant to the question of whether one should be reckoned as a Jew? Are Gentile believers hereby considered to be Jewish?
• When Gentiles believe on Christ, in what sense are they to be reckoned as circumcised? Does their circumcision “of the heart by the Spirit and not the letter” mean that they are now reckoned as Jews and recipients of all the promises made to Israel as a people of God?

These questions clamor to be answered. Before moving to answers, however, we first ought to consider additional evidence that God now sees church saints as circumcised in some important sense. That is the direction in which this discussion will move next.

Complaint of a general corruption of manners;
or, The promise and sign of Christ’s coming to judgment.
Psalm 12, metricized by Isaac Watts (1674–1748)

Help, Lord, for men of virtue fail,
Religion loses ground,
The sons of violence prevail,
And treacheries abound.
Their oaths and promises they break,
Yet act the flatterer’s part;
With fair, deceitful lips they speak,
And with a double heart.

If we reprove some hateful lie,
How is their fury stirred
“Are not our lips our own?” they cry;
“And who shall be our Lord?”
Scoffers appear on every side,
Where a vile race of men
Is raised to seats of power and pride,
And bears the sword in vain.

Lord, when iniquities abound,
And blasphemy grows bold;
When faith is hardly to be found,
And love is waxing cold;
Is not thy chariot hast’ning on?
Hast thou not giv’n this sign?
May we not trust and live upon
A promise so divine?

“Yes,” saith the Lord, “now will I rise,
And make oppressors flee;
I shall appear to their surprise,
And set my servants free.”
Thy word, like silver sev’n times tried,
Through ages shall endure;
The men that in thy truth confide
Shall find the promise sure.