IF IT'S ALL ABOUT ISRAEL, THEN WHY THE CHURCH?
Some systems of prophecy make a strong distinction between Israel and the Church.
In classic dispensational teaching, God's promises to national Israel await their final fulfillment in a future earthly kingdom. The present Church age is sometimes described as a parenthesis between God's past and future dealings with Israel.
That raises a very simple question:
THEN WHY THE CHURCH?
Why the cross?
Why Pentecost?
Why take the gospel to the Gentiles?
Why make Jew and Gentile one body?
Why call the Church God's eternal purpose?
Before answering, let's start much earlier than the Church.
GOD'S PLAN BEGAN WITH A PROMISE
God told Abraham:
“All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
— Genesis 12:3
Notice the scope:
ALL PEOPLES.
Israel would have a special place in God's plan.
But Israel was never the final destination of the promise.
God intended to bless the nations through Abraham.
Paul later tells us something remarkable about that promise:
“Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham...”
— Galatians 3:8
Paul calls Abraham's promise:
THE GOSPEL ANNOUNCED IN ADVANCE.
The Gentiles weren't an afterthought.
They were already in the promise.
AND WHO IS THE PROMISED SEED?
Paul continues:
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed...meaning one person, who is Christ.”
— Galatians 3:16
That changes the center of the discussion.
The promises don't ultimately terminate in:
a nation
a piece of land
a Temple
or
an earthly political system.
They reach their fulfillment in:
JESUS CHRIST.
And then Paul tells us who inherits the promise:
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
— Galatians 3:29
Jew or Gentile—
if you belong to Christ, you are an heir.
WHY WAS THE CROSS NECESSARY?
Because Israel had the same problem the Gentiles had.
SIN.
Paul writes:
“There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
— Romans 3:22–23
Israel had the Law.
Israel had the Temple.
Israel had priests.
Israel had sacrifices.
Israel had the promised land.
But none of those things could remove sin.
Hebrews says:
“It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
— Hebrews 10:4
Israel needed Jesus too.
THERE IS NO SALVATION WITHOUT THE CROSS.
Not for Gentiles.
Not for Jews.
Not for anyone.
THEN JESUS SENT THE GOSPEL TO THE NATIONS
After His resurrection, Jesus didn't tell His disciples to wait until God resumed His real program with Israel.
He told them:
“Go and make disciples of all nations...”
— Matthew 28:19
That sounds remarkably like the promise made to Abraham.
All nations would be blessed.
Now the risen Christ sends His gospel to:
ALL NATIONS.
This wasn't a distraction from God's plan.
It was the plan moving toward its intended goal.
THEN CAME PENTECOST
Jesus ascended to heaven.
The Holy Spirit was poured out.
The gospel was preached.
Thousands responded.
Then the gospel began moving outward.
From Jerusalem.
To Judea.
To Samaria.
And eventually throughout the Gentile world.
Peter entered the home of Cornelius.
Paul became an apostle to the Gentiles.
Congregations containing Jews and Gentiles appeared throughout the Roman world.
Why?
Because God was doing exactly what He had promised Abraham.
BLESSING THE NATIONS THROUGH CHRIST.
BUT WAS THE CHURCH AN UNPLANNED PARENTHESIS?
This is where Ephesians becomes extremely important.
Paul does call what God revealed a:
“MYSTERY.”
So something had previously been hidden.
But what?
Paul tells us:
“This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
— Ephesians 3:6
There's the mystery.
Not that God suddenly invented another people.
The mystery was that Gentiles would become:
fellow heirs
members of the same body
sharers in the promise
IN CHRIST.
HIDDEN DOESN'T MEAN UNPLANNED
Paul says this mystery had previously been hidden.
But then he says God's purpose was:
“according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Ephesians 3:11
Read those words again:
ETERNAL PURPOSE.
The Church wasn't God's emergency response to something that went wrong.
People may not have understood beforehand exactly how God would accomplish His purpose.
But God did.
The mystery was hidden.
THE PLAN WASN'T.
WHAT DID THE CROSS CREATE?
Paul has already answered that in Ephesians 2.
Christ:
“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
Then:
“in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross.”
— Ephesians 2:16
This deserves careful attention.
Christ didn't establish one way of salvation for Israel and another for Gentiles.
He took both and reconciled them to God:
IN ONE BODY.
And He did it:
THROUGH THE CROSS.
ONE OLIVE TREE
Romans 11 gives us another picture.
Paul describes an olive tree.
Some natural branches were broken off because of unbelief.
Gentile believers were grafted into the tree.
But Paul warns Gentiles against arrogance.
The natural branches can be grafted back in again if they do not persist in unbelief.
Notice what Paul does not describe.
He doesn't show us:
a Jewish tree
and
a Gentile tree.
There is:
ONE OLIVE TREE.
Some natural branches remain.
Some are broken off.
Wild branches are grafted in.
Natural branches can be grafted back in.
But there is still:
ONE TREE.
SO WHO ARE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN?
Paul asks essentially that question in Galatians.
His answer isn't based merely upon physical ancestry.
He says:
“Those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
— Galatians 3:9
And finally:
“If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
— Galatians 3:29
That is why Christians sometimes use the expression:
SPIRITUAL ISRAEL.
The point isn't that Gentiles replaced Jews.
The point is that God's covenant people are now identified by their relationship to Christ.
Believing Jews belong.
Believing Gentiles belong.
Both belong because they belong to:
JESUS.
THE NEW TESTAMENT USES ISRAEL'S LANGUAGE FOR CHRIST'S PEOPLE
Peter writes to Christians:
“You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession...”
— 1 Peter 2:9
Those words come from the language God used for Israel in the Old Testament.
Now Peter applies them to Christ's people.
Paul says those who belong to Christ are:
Abraham's seed.
He says Jew and Gentile are:
one new humanity.
He says they are:
one body.
And Peter calls Christ's people:
a holy nation.
The continuity is difficult to miss.
GOD IS EVEN BUILDING A NEW TEMPLE
Paul tells Jewish and Gentile Christians:
“In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord.”
— Ephesians 2:21
Then:
“you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.”
— Ephesians 2:22
Think about that.
God doesn't merely join Jew and Gentile into one body.
He builds them together into:
HIS TEMPLE.
That makes our earlier Temple studies even more important.
God's dwelling isn't ultimately about returning to another stone building.
God dwells among His people.
WHY WOULD GOD MAKE ONE PEOPLE AND THEN DIVIDE THEM AGAIN?
This is the question we need to ask carefully.
The cross has made Jew and Gentile:
one new humanity.
They are:
one body.
They belong to:
one household.
They are being built into:
one temple.
They inherit:
one promise in Christ.
So where does the New Testament say that God's ultimate purpose is eventually to separate them again into two distinct covenant peoples?
That is a question the text deserves to answer.
WHAT ABOUT THE THOUSAND YEARS?
Revelation 20 speaks about a thousand years.
But read the chapter carefully.
It doesn't say:
Israel possesses Canaan for a thousand years.
It doesn't mention:
a rebuilt Jerusalem Temple.
It doesn't mention:
restored Levitical priests.
It doesn't mention:
animal sacrifices.
It doesn't say:
the Church has been removed so God can resume His program with Israel.
Those ideas have to come from somewhere else and then be brought into Revelation 20.
So before bringing them in, ask:
WHERE DOES THE TEXT SAY IT?
AND WHAT ABOUT ANIMAL SACRIFICES?
Some interpreters believe animal sacrifices will be offered during a future millennial kingdom as memorials of Christ's sacrifice.
But Hebrews says:
“We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
— Hebrews 10:10
And:
“Where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.”
— Hebrews 10:18
Perhaps future sacrifices would be called memorials.
But then we should ask a simple question:
WHERE DOES SCRIPTURE CALL THEM MEMORIALS OF THE CROSS?
We shouldn't put that explanation into the text unless the text puts it there.
THEN LOOK AT THE END OF THE BIBLE
Revelation finally shows us the New Jerusalem.
Something beautiful appears on its gates:
“the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.”
— Revelation 21:12
And on its foundations:
“the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.”
— Revelation 21:14
Look at the picture.
Israel's twelve tribes.
The Lamb's twelve apostles.
Not two eternal cities.
Not two peoples with separate destinies.
ONE CITY.
And John says:
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.”
— Revelation 21:22
The story doesn't end by returning to where Israel began.
It ends with something infinitely greater.
GOD DWELLING WITH HIS PEOPLE.
SO WHY THE CHURCH?
Now we can answer the question.
Because God's purpose was never merely to preserve one physical nation forever.
Israel had an enormously important role in God's plan.
Through Israel came:
the Scriptures
the promises
the prophets
and ultimately:
THE MESSIAH.
But the Messiah came to deal with the problem confronting Israel and every other nation:
SIN.
The cross was absolutely necessary.
And after the cross, the gospel went to the nations just as God had promised Abraham.
Those who come to Christ—Jew or Gentile—become one people.
That is why the Church exists.
THE CHURCH ISN'T A DETOUR FROM GOD'S PLAN.
It is the community created by God's saving work in Christ.
The cross wasn't Plan B.
The Gentiles weren't Plan B.
The Church wasn't Plan B.
The promise had said it from the beginning:
“ALL NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED THROUGH YOU.”
READ FIRST. CONCLUDE LATER.
If God's ultimate purpose is simply to return history to national Israel, we still have some questions to answer.
Why the cross?
Why Pentecost?
Why the Great Commission?
Why take the gospel to the Gentiles?
Why make Jew and Gentile one new humanity?
Why make them one body?
Why call them fellow heirs?
Why build them into one temple?
Why does Paul call this God's eternal purpose?
And why does Revelation end with the names of Israel's tribes and the Lamb's apostles on:
ONE CITY?
Perhaps the Church isn't an interruption between God's plans for Israel.
Perhaps Jew and Gentile together in Christ are exactly where God's promise to Abraham was heading all along.
ONE SAVIOR.
ONE CROSS.
ONE PEOPLE.
Read First. Conclude Later.