Drippings from the Honeycomb
More to be desired are [the rules of the Lord] than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)
 *Many Christians have different views on this subject so please read with care and a charitable eye. What is the Church? Most people answer that question through the lens of the New Covenant initiated by Jesus, so they would speak of the New Covenant Church. This naturally raises the question of “what about Israel”? Many have sought to answer this in different ways[1] but I’ll answer it covenantally and seek to offer what I believe to be the argument of Paul found in Rom 9–11. In the blog series on “What is the Church” this is the highest level of answering that question, taking much more of a bird’s eye view than is usually taken. The question was anticipated by Paul after he had shared about the promises of the New Covenant, or Gospel, and the in-grafting of the Gentiles—had the promises to Israel failed and if so could the New Covenant be trusted? I’ll define covenantalism as: That there is one chosen people of God (the elect) represented throughout history under different covenants. The Bible is a record of God’s one continuous plan of salvation under different covenants involving one spiritual people. What does that look like? Paul uses the imagery of grafting and an olive tree. We all, as sinners, are by nature a wild olive tree. God, in His grace, chose one man’s family—Abraham—through whom He’d rescue a lost world through providing a Saviour. Thus arises ethnic Israel, the physical offspring of Israel (Abraham’s grand-son) to whom God’s covenantal promises are passed down. He chooses this family and turns them into a cultivated olive tree through which He will bless all nations in His plan of salvation (Gen 3:15 and Gen 12). They were the means to the Saviour. We also know that not all of Abraham’s offspring were spiritual descendants for though the promises of the Covenant came to them they needed to trust, exercise faith, to be the recipients of its blessing (Ro 4:11–2; Gal 3:7). Thus there was always a visible and invisible Israel. And the Old Covenant, or Testament/will as the division in our Bible declares, was not a permanent covenant. It was the guardian until Christ came (Gal 3:4), when the prophesied New Covenant (Jer 31:31–4) fulfilled the Old (Mt 5:17; Ro 10:4b; 2 Cor 1:20a; Heb 8:6). At this time the veil in the Temple was torn and later Jesus prophecy against the Temple was fulfilled with its destruction in AD 70. Thus Covenantalism speaks of fulfilment and recognizes the grand sweeping story of God’s plan across the covenants. The Bible says that Christ is the root of all of the elect, His sheep, those He died to save (Ro 11:16b; c.f. Rev 22:16). Ethnic Israel was the trunk of the cultivated Olive tree through which the promises of God (Christ) came. The problem is, like many orchard trees, that there arose dead [unbelieving] branches in visible Israel. At the time of Christ most visible Israelites were spiritually dead and trusting in works rather than the Covenantal promises. Few were looking for the Messiah. These were broken off by the master pruner (God) (Ro 11:17) from the visible covenantal people of God. Those who are described by the prophets of the OT as the “faithful remnant” where the ones who believed in their Messiah. They were the living branches built upon the trunk of their spiritual heritage, these remained faithful. Paul himself was part of this group. This was the beginning of the New Covenant Church as all early followers of Jesus were ethnic Jews (Pentecost; Acts 11:19). All along, however, it had been part of God’s plan to bring about a blessing to the nations and thus the Gentile (non-Jew) inclusion into the people of God had been prophesied through the OT and foreshadowed in Jesus’ ministry. These Gentiles could be grafted into the Covenant community of God through faith in the Messiah, not only for the ethnic Jews, but the whole world. Thus the New Covenant people of God is comprised of both Jews and Gentiles (Ro 1:17). In fact Old Testament terms are applied to this people (1 Pet 2:9–10) and many older hymns apply the term Israel and Jerusalem to the New Covenant Church. Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel, the true spiritual covenantal people of God, elect through the ages, continued in time under the New Covenant. It is therefore right to speak of myself as a spiritual Jew and the Church as Israel (The Greek version of the Hebrew Old Testament, the Septuagint/LXX, used the word “church” to speak of God’s people before Christ). So when we speak of Israel (modern state, geographic area, ethnic Jews), they are actually not Jews at all, in the spiritual sense, but false Jews. The Church, comprised of ethnic Jews and Gentiles, one people (Eph 2:11–22), is the true Israel, the New Covenant community of God’s elect, carrying on the story of God’s people through time. It is the culmination of the cultivated olive tree. But what of those dead branches pruned from the tree, unbelieving ethnic Israel? Paul says there is still hope insofar as they come to believe their Messiah. Many Jews since the time of Christ have trusted in Him as their Messiah and be engrafted themselves. So too, Paul seems to expect a time in the future when there will be a great ingathering of ethnic Jews into the Church/Israel. All of this causes Paul to break forth into praise. Why? Because no one is deserving to be God’s, yet in His grace He has called many men, women and children to Himself through faith in the covenant promises of God throughout the ages, which find their fulfilment in the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. So what is the Church? At the highest level it is the chosen, elect, people of God throughout all ages who have been redeemed from sin through faith in Jesus Christ. One day, we’ll all be together as one people, one Church, one Israel, in the New Heavens and New Earth. What a glorious plan of salvation our God has! Footnote 1- Other views:
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