GOD HAS LEFT THE BUILDING

Study 5 — What Happened to God's Promises to Israel?

If God has left the old temple system behind, we immediately face another question:

What about Israel?

God chose Israel.

He made promises to Abraham.

He gave Israel the land.

He gave them the Law, the priesthood, the sacrifices, and the temple.

Jesus Himself was Jewish.

So if the Old Covenant has reached its appointed end, has God somehow broken His promises to Israel?

Paul faced essentially the same question:

“It is not as though God's word had failed.”
— Romans 9:6

His answer is important.

God did not fail Israel.

God accomplished through Israel what He had promised from the beginning.

And the story leads directly to Christ.

Start With Abraham

Long before there was a nation of Israel, God made a promise to Abraham:

“All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
— Genesis 12:3

That promise was bigger than one nation.

God chose Abraham and his descendants, but His purpose was ultimately to bring blessing to all nations.

Paul tells us exactly how he understood that promise:

“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you.’”
— Galatians 3:8

Paul calls Abraham's promise the gospel announced in advance.

God's plan was already moving toward Christ.

Who Is Abraham's Seed?

This is where Paul says something remarkable.

“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
— Galatians 3:29

Notice what Paul does not say.

He doesn't tell Gentile Christians that they need to become ethnic Jews.

He doesn't send them to Jerusalem.

He doesn't put them under the Law of Moses.

He says:

If you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's seed.

The promise reaches its goal in Christ.

But What About Physical Israel?

Paul was Jewish.

He loved his people deeply.

Listen to him:

“My heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.”
— Romans 10:1

Paul wasn't anti-Jewish.

He wasn't teaching Christians to despise Israel.

He was saying something much more important:

Physical ancestry by itself does not save anyone.

Earlier he wrote:

“For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”
— Romans 9:6

That distinction is essential.

Being descended from Abraham physically was a great privilege.

But salvation has never been obtained simply by having the right ancestors.

There Aren't Two Ways to God

This is where we must be especially clear.

God loves Jewish people.

And the gospel is still for Jewish people.

But there isn't a Jewish way to God and a Gentile way to God.

Jesus said:

“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
— John 14:6

Peter, himself a Jew, said concerning Jesus:

“Salvation is found in no one else.”
— Acts 4:12

Paul said:

“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all.”
— Romans 10:12

One Lord.
One gospel.
One Savior.

Jew and Gentile both come to God through Jesus Christ.

Christ Made the Two One

Ephesians 2 may be one of the clearest passages in this entire discussion.

Paul describes the former separation between Jew and Gentile.

Then he says of Christ:

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one.”
— Ephesians 2:14

And:

“His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two.”
— Ephesians 2:15

That doesn't sound like God intends two permanent covenant peoples running on two separate tracks.

Christ did something greater.

He made the two one.

And then, remarkably, Paul returns to our temple theme.

Jewish and Gentile believers together are:

“being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
— Ephesians 2:22

There is our theme again.

God has left the building.

And now Jews and Gentiles together are being built into His dwelling.

What About the Land?

God unquestionably promised land to Abraham's descendants.

We should not deny that.

But we should also notice what the Old Testament itself says.

After Israel entered Canaan, Joshua wrote:

“So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors.”
— Joshua 21:43

Then:

“Not one of all the LORD's good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”
— Joshua 21:45

Israel later lost the land through unfaithfulness and experienced restorations, just as the prophets described.

But something else happens as the biblical story develops.

The promise becomes larger, not smaller.

Abraham Was Looking Beyond Canaan

Hebrews tells us something remarkable about Abraham:

“He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
— Hebrews 11:10

And Abraham and the other faithful were:

“longing for a better country—a heavenly one.”
— Hebrews 11:16

The story doesn't end with Abraham finally receiving a better piece of Middle Eastern real estate.

It ends with a new heaven and a new earth.

The inheritance expands.

God's redeemed people inherit something far greater than Canaan.

Then What About Modern Israel?

The establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948 was an enormously important historical event.

But historical importance and biblical fulfillment are not automatically the same thing.

So we should ask a simple question:

Where does the New Testament identify a future modern political State of Israel as the fulfillment of God's covenant promises?

We shouldn't begin with a newspaper and then search the Bible for verses that seem to fit.

Read the text first.

The New Testament repeatedly directs us toward Christ.

That doesn't tell us what political position Christians must take concerning the modern State of Israel.

It tells us something much more important:

A modern passport does not establish someone's covenant relationship with God. Christ does.

Has God Rejected the Jews?

Paul asks exactly that:

“Did God reject his people? By no means!”
— Romans 11:1

And Paul immediately points to himself.

He was an Israelite.

He had come to Christ.

Jewish people were not barred from God's salvation.

Quite the opposite.

Paul describes Jewish branches that had been broken off because of unbelief, and then says:

“If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in.”
— Romans 11:23

Notice the condition.

Faith.

The door is open.

But the way back isn't through rebuilding the temple.

It isn't through restarting animal sacrifices.

It isn't through returning to the Mosaic covenant.

It is through Christ.

What Does “All Israel Will Be Saved” Mean?

Then we reach one of the most debated statements in Romans:

“And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
— Romans 11:26

Sincere Bible students disagree about exactly what Paul means.

Some understand “all Israel” as a future large-scale turning of ethnic Jews to Christ.

Others understand Paul to be describing the complete people of God—the saved people produced through God's work among Jews and Gentiles.

We should acknowledge that disagreement rather than pretending the passage is easy.

But notice something both interpretations must respect:

Paul never gives Israel another Savior.

If there is a future widespread conversion of Jewish people, they will be saved through Jesus Christ.

Romans 11 doesn't reopen the temple.

It doesn't restore animal sacrifices.

It doesn't create salvation apart from the gospel.

Paul has already said:

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
— Romans 10:13

God Hasn't Broken His Promise

God's plan did not fail.

Israel gave the world the Scriptures.

Israel gave the world the prophets.

And through Israel came the Messiah.

Paul writes:

“From them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah.”
— Romans 9:5

God's promise to Abraham reaches far beyond Abraham's physical descendants.

Through Abraham's Seed—Christ—the blessing goes to the nations.

And everyone who belongs to Christ becomes an heir of the promise.

God Has Left More Than the Building

Now we can understand our title more fully.

God has left the building.

But He has also brought the old national covenant arrangement to its appointed end.

That does not mean God stopped loving Jewish people.

It means something much better than maintaining permanent separation between Jew and Gentile.

Christ tore that separation down.

“You are all one in Christ Jesus.”
— Galatians 3:28

The old arrangement separated.

Christ unites.

The old temple contained barriers.

Christ removes them.

The old covenant centered God's people in one nation.

The gospel goes into all the world.

God hasn't abandoned His plan.

He has fulfilled it in Christ.

And He is gathering people from every nation into one family, one body, and one dwelling place for His Spirit.

The story is moving toward Revelation 21–22, where God's redeemed people from every nation live with Him forever.

No competing peoples.

No separate covenant paths.

No temple curtain.

God and His people together.

NEXT STUDY

Study 6 — Was the Kingdom Postponed?

Jesus said:

“The kingdom of God has come near.”

But some say Israel rejected the offered Kingdom, so God postponed it until Christ returns.

Did that happen?

Or did Jesus receive His Kingdom exactly when Scripture said He would?

Let's follow the King.