THE ISRAEL OF GOD

Jesus said: Salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22.

This is a statement about spiritual reality, as Jesus said, “My words they are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). The spiritual point of the reference to the Jews as the conduit of God’s salvation is to put into focus the “salvation history” delineated in the OT.

In Romans 11 Paul portrays the people of God as an alive tree whose roots stretch back in Biblical antiquity to Abraham and earlier; these godly men constitute the holy root (Romans 11:16), rooted in a deep relationship with Yehovah. Jews are the branches of this olive tree, but because of unbelief some of them were broken off by God (Romans 11:17); but the believing Jews, including Paul, and the members of the early Jewish congregation, remain a part of the olive tree. The breaking off the unbelieving “branches,” even if many, did not mean that Yehovah had rejected Israel as His people. If is with this very fact that Paul started this part of his letter: “I ask, has God rejected His people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendent of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” (Romans 11:1,  2). In Yehovah’s wisdom and mercy, the breaking off of unbelieving branches created an opening into which believing Gentiles could be grafted into the olive tree; this olive tree represents the people Yehovah has chosen, also called “the elect” (Romans 11:5, 7). In thisway “through their trespass [unbelief], salvation has come to the Gentiles”

With this gracious provision of salvation for the Gentiles comes a stern warning:

“but if some of the branches were cut 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 [that were broken off because of unbelief]. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you (Romans 11:17, 18).

Notice: Salvation is portrayed as being grated into the olive tree [Israel] and drawing spiritual life and nourishment from its root. A branch stays alive only so long as it remains firmly grafted in the tree; no branch can survive being cut off from the tree. To remain in this tree is life; to be cut off from it is death. Jesus, the “deliverer” or “redeemer,” is an essential part of this tree (Romans 11:26; Isaiah 59:20); therefore, to be united with God’s anointed one Jesus through faith is another way to explain how one is grafted into the olive tree [Israel]. That is why in John 15:1 Jesus also speaks in terms of the Vine and its branches. Grafting is a regular procedure in viticulture; it is Yehovah who grafts in or cuts off, because He is the “vinedresser”: As Jesus said, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1). He also warned that unfruitful branches could be cut off and thrown away and wither; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:6, NIV); but “whoever abides in me and I in him, “he it is that bears much fruit” (vs.5).

What all this means is that to be cut off from the spiritual “olive tree” (or “vine,” Isaiah 5:1-7) of Israel is to be cut off from salvation, whether he/she be Jew or Gentile, which is precisely what Paul warns would happen, and has happened to unbelieving Jews (Romans 11:22).

Note: Romans 11:20-24: They (the Jews) were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud. But stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God; severity toward those who have fallen [because of unbelief], but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

On the other hand, those Jews who are willing to return to their God and believe in the one whom He has sent will be grafted back into the olive tree [Israel]: “And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in. 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 grated into their own olive tree [Israel] (Romans

Note the last words, “their olive tree,” for it was theirs by God’s grace in the first place, although it also becomes the Gentile’s by God’s grace, by their being grafted into the olive tree through faith; for it is through faith that we become members of “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). When we are grafted into the olive tree through faith, the “their olive tree” also becomes our olive tree”.

Galatians 3:7: Know that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

vs. 29: If you are the anointed ones, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

Romans 2:28, 29: For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

Romans 4:12: (The purpose was) to make him (Abraham) the father of the circumcised, who are not merely circumcised, but who walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Romans 9:6-8: But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ 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.

Philippians 3:3: For we are the real circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in the anointed one Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

It is through faith that a person becomes a descendant of Abraham, and “heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:39) It is by faith, not physical descent, that one becomes a child of God. Being a Jew is not a matter of race or religion but “a matter of the heart” (Romans 2:29), so being an Israelite is not a matter of physical descent from Israel; to belong to Israel is a matter of being “children of the promise” (Romans 9:8) through faith. So Paul tells the Philippians, a proportion who are Gentiles, “we are the real circumcision”. “Circumcision is another word to describe Jews (Ephesians 2:11; Colossians 4:11; Romans 3:30; 4:9), So Paul is saying to the Philippians, “you and I, we are the real Jews”. [Paul a Jew was grafted into the Israel of God when he was baptized].

The point is that the true believer is the real Jew before Yehovah, the spiritual Jew whose praise comes from Yehovah, not man (Romans 2:29). Becoming a believer is to become a true Israelite, a real Jew. Little wonder that Paul declared that in God’s anointed one Jesus “there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11) – there are only true Israelites.  The true descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29), the heirs of Yehovahs promises, the chosen people of of Yehovah, the spiritual Jews.

In the called-out Assembly of Yehovah there are only spiritual Israelites, all of whom are circumcised in heart (Romans 2;28,29; Philippians 3:3) even though not all were circumcised in the flesh.

The apostle Peter wrote to encourage persecuted believers by reminding them that “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own procession, that you may claim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (2 Peter 2:9). In this verse the terms applied to the Israel of the OT were applied to the Called-out Assembly (which at the time Peter wrote were largely made up of Jews); what Peter writes echoes a passage like Deuteronomy 7:6: “for you are a people holy to Yehovah your God. Yehovah has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession, out of all the people who are on the face of the earth” *(Malachi 3:17).

It must now be remembered that when speaking about “Jewish roots” we are not speaking primarily about Judaism in its various forms, but in particular about the Scriptures which the Jews have zealously guarded, preserved, and transmitted with the utmost care throughout the centuries. The unwavering commitment to the word of Yehovah and to monotheism is something that should put Christendom to shame. The Jewish root is the rich spiritual heritage made available to us, above all through the Jewish Scriptures [OT].

Yehovah has chosen in His wisdom and kindness to provide life through the Jewish root. Remember no branch can survive if severed from the olive tree (Israel). We who are in God’s anointed one are the real Jews grafted into the olive tree [Israel].

For the Jews, being a Jew was not exclusively or even primarily a mater of race or religion. The NT concept differs from theirs, not on the question of whether Gentiles can become Jews through conversion, but on how the transition is made. Paul proclaims that it is through faith in God’s anointed one Jesus. (Ephesians 2:11-13).

In God’s anointed one then, we are no longer “alienated from the people of Israel” (Ephesians 2:12), but are now members of Yehovah’s elect people.

“The Israel of Yehovah” is still His covenant people… into whom believing Gentiles are incorporated” (Dunn, Romans, p.540 – Romans 9:6).

The profound consequence of this incorporation into Israel is that the Gentile who is now a member of the real circumcision (Philippians 3:3), is no longer a “stranger to the covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12), but becomes “a Gentile convert entering into Israel’s promised blessing” Everything that Yehovah promised Israel becomes ours in God’s anointed one Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). So Paul could say that in God’s anointed one “all things are yours” (1 Cor:3:21), such are the unimaginable riches of our inheritance. “As it is written”: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has in store for those who love Him’ (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9); so there is abundant cause to give “thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:12).

Very few Christians today realize that the true believer is “the real circumcision,” the true Israelite. This shows how completely disconnected Christendom is from its Jewish roots, and from the NT teaching on this very matter.

Error leads to death: it is time t realize this and to heed the word of Yehovah: “come back to Yehovah your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and He relents about inflicting disaster” (Joel 2:13).

Yehovah the God of Israel, is not the God of the Jews only but of all who belong to “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16) God’s spiritual Israel, the true Israelite will love Him wholeheartedly (Mark 12:30) and learn to honour His name Yehovah, for “it is wonderful” (Judges 13:18; Isaiah 28:29).

Written by Eric Chang and edited by Bruce Lyon

The above is from Chapter 6 or Eric Change book “The Only True God”

http://www.christiandiscipleschurch.org/content/the-only-true-god