Western Wall, Temple Mount, JerusalemPhoto credit: Rafael Ben-Ari
Are the Jews of today heirs to the covenant made with Abraham? Are all Jews saved? Will the Lord ... allow resurrected Jews to accept Christ?
~ T. Anne Adams
God does not forget the people of His covenants or fail to provide for them.
When Jeremiah 31:31-37 prophesies of the New Covenant (the covenant established through Jesus's death), the Lord makes clear that not only is Israel heir to that covenant, but He gives the covenant specifically to Israel.
Jesus directed His Jewish followers to actively seek converts to the New Covenant. More Gentiles than Jews accepted it, and those New Covenant Jews assimilated with Gentiles and ceased practicing the Old Covenant. In time, New Covenant Jews were no longer distinguished as Jews, while Old Covenant Jews still are. This has resulted in a notion called Replacement Theology, which says the church of Jesus has replaced Israel as heir to the promises which God made to His chosen people.
Replacement Theology is not Scriptural. Although the covenant made with Moses was made obsolete by the New Covenant, covenants made with Noah, Abraham, and David are still in effect.
However, Jews are not heirs to God's covenants because of their human bloodline, but because of their faith:
Abraham "believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
~ Galatians 3:6-7 (NKJV)
Righteousness has always come by faith in the Lord and calling upon His name (Romans 10:11-13). All Jews are not saved, because not all Jews have the faith of Abraham. But there are many Jews with the faith of Abraham who do not yet know Jesus is their Messiah. God has promised a day when they will accept Jesus as their Lord.
Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.
~ Romans 11:25-26 (NKJV)
"All Israel" refers not to every Jew, but every Jew of faith. There are numerous interpretations of how Israel will be saved in connection with The Tribulation and end times. But the Bible indicates there is no second chance to come to faith after death.
The Lord has already begun to fulfill this last verse. He not only restored Israel as a nation just 63 years ago, after 1878 years with no country, but many Jews have come to faith in Jesus since that time. My own take on "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" is that a day will come when the Lord reveals to all of faithful Israel that Jesus is Messiah, and that the Holy Spirit will not bring any more Gentiles to faith when that point is reached.
I personally believe the end is very near.
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What questions do you have about Christianity or the Bible? You're invited to leave them in the comments below (anonymous questions welcome), or email buildingHisbody [plus] @ gmail.com.
© 2011 Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.
these are great questions and this is one post that i want to tear into. for a couple of the scriptures used here...it's like i've never seen them before. especially the one in Romans. the three covenants still in effect also really tweaked an interest and i want to look at them closer.(and will!)
ReplyDeletethis IS really interesting. thank you, Anne
btw....so in essence those of us of faith could call ourselves sons of Abraham? since there is now no distinction between Jew or Greek?
Bud ~
ReplyDeleteYes, the Gentile of Abraham's faith is counted as his child and heir, as I understand it. I'm glad to hear how interesting this is to you. You should probably read chapters 9-11 of Romans to get the full picture. If you do that, you'll better understand Paul's doxology of praise at the end of chapter 11, right before he launches into the exhortation at the beginning of chapter 12 which invites us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices of the New Covenant.
Love this! Such a loaded question, and I had forgotten I was the one who asked! This is the best answer I've ever received. Well done Anne. Your final lines brought a chill to my bones. Haunting.
ReplyDeleteT ~
ReplyDeleteThanks for the generous feedback. Sorry I took so long to answer. The other question you asked was so tough that I chickened out and did his one first. I'll try not to take so long on the other one.