"Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God. We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah's colorful language, the 'scarecrows in a cornfield' (10:5). They are portable and completely under the user's control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry."
- David F. Wells
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Read the following passage carefully:
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (I Peter 2:9-10)
I'm currently preaching through 1 Peter... and these two verses are next. My favorite commentary on I Peter so far is written by Wayne Grudem in the Tyndale series (TNTC). About this passage Grudem writes:
So in verses 4-10 Peter says that God has bestowed on the church almost all the blessings promised to Israel in the Old Testament. The dwelling place of God is no longer the Jerusalem temple for Christians are the new temple. (v.5) The priesthood able to offer acceptable sacrifices to God is no longer descended from Aaron, for Christians are now the true 'royal priesthood' with access before God's throne. God's chosen people are no longer said to be those physically descended from Abraham, for Christians are now the true 'chosen' race (v.9). The nation blessed by God is no longer the nation of Israel, for Christians are now God's true 'holy nation' v.9). The people of Israel are no longer said to be the people of God, for Christians - both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians - are now 'God's people' (v.10a) and those who have 'received mercy' (v.10b). Moreover, Peter takes these quotations from contexts which repeatedly warn that God will reject his people who persist in rebellion against him, who reject the precious 'cornerstone' which he has established. What more could needed in order to say with assurance that the church has now become the true Israel of God?
There it is. The church is now Israel.
Then I turn to Edwin A. Blum writing in the Expositor's Bible Commentary (EBC) and he says:
Peter applies to the church various terms originally spoken concerning Israel (cf. Exodus 19:5-6, Deut 4:20, 7:6, Isaiah 43:20-1). But this does not mean that the church is Israel or even that the church replaces Israel in the plan of God. Romans 11 should help us to guard against that misinterpretation. Why then does Peter apply OT terminology to the church? He does so chiefly because of the conviction of the church that the OT writings are for it (2 Tim 3:16) and that these writings speak of Jesus and his times. The functions that Israel was called into existence to perform in its day of grace the church now performs in a similar way. In the future, according to Paul, God will once again use Israel to bless the world (cf. Rom 11:13-16, 23-24).
Whoops. Maybe the church isn't Israel. :-) Grudem vs. Blum. Who will win?
Grudem responds to Blum in a footnote:
Blum, p. 231, says that these privileges given to the church do not imply that the church is Israel or that it replaces Israel, and that Rom. 11:13-16, 23-24 guards against such an idea. Certainly we can agree taht Rom. 9-11 affirms God's continuing concern for ethnic Israel and predicts for the Jewish people a great future time of blessing when many will be joined to the church ('grafted back into their own olive tree', Rom. 11:24). Peter's statements do not nullify that promise. But 1 Pet. 2:4-10 does affirm that God's covenant blessings are presently enjoyed only by those who are in Christ, just as Rom. 9-11 affirms that future enjoyment of covenant blessings will come only through being joined to Christ.
It's both fun and frustrating for me as an expositor when I find two books I am using DIRECTLY contradict each other.
So what do you think?
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Comments on "Will The True Israel Of God Please Stand Up?":
2. Jared
- 05/19/2011 7:29 pm CDT
I believe the Church is the "Israel of God."
As it happens, I am wrapping up our walk through Galatians this Sunday, preaching on Galatians 6:11-18, which also includes a reference to "the Israel of God," and plan to briefly outline my view (incl. from Romans) of the Church as "true Israel."
3. Jeremy
- 05/20/2011 9:00 am CDT
For me, Eph 1:15-16 makes it pretty clear. Israel and the church have become "one new man". To say that the church is somehow temporarily "filling in" until Israel gets its act together doesn't seem to fit with this passage. We are not now one new man only to be divided in two again at some point. It seems pretty clear to me that whatever future revival and blessing await ethnic Israel await it in the context of the "one body" of the church (which is the true Israel anyway).
4. Jeffrey Brannen
- 05/20/2011 9:15 am CDT
I would second Gal. 6 as the church being the Israel of God as well as Ephesians 3:1-4:6.
Paul's point is very clear in Ephesians that there aren't two peoples of God, but one. There are not two ways of salvation, but one. There are no longer distinctions between Jews and Gentiles in the church. In Christ, both have been united together to become one people, (as he says in Gal.) the Israel of God.
God may (and probably will IMO) save large numbers of ethnic Jews, but these Jews will not be a distince, separate people within the church, but rather these ethnically Jewish people will become Christians.
I believe that emphasizing national Israel in distinction from the church actually encourages the sort of pride that can keep Jews from converting. It also hurts mission work by assuming that it's either not the right time for Jews to be converted or for them to maintain their Jewish customs which continue to draw a dividing line between Jews and Gentiles.
O.Palmer Robertson has a helpful book on this subject entitled "The Israel of God"
5. damien
- 05/21/2011 12:19 pm CDT
for no one is a jew who is merely one outwardly...but a jew is one inwardly...by the spirit. (romans 2:28-29)
ultimately, i'm convinced that the church, i.e., god's people, i.e., israel, has always been, in essence, the same spiritual family. words are used in different senses in scripture, and context will usually indicate clearly what sense is intended.
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For those of you in the know...
It came as no surprise to me when I checked that Blum teaches at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Oh my, how we fight to preserve our schemes.