Q
Hello
I have been reading your collection of articles and where I agree with some of your points or the points of those who wrote articles I must differ with your over-all view of the condition of Israel and its future glory. God’s covenant with Abraham was unconditional and eternal. (Gen 12:1-3, 15:4-19) That’s why we read that Israel is loved ‘for the sake of the fathers.’ As a nation they don’t deserve God’s deliverance. But then none of us do! In the end it is perfectly clear to me that after the fulness of the Gentiles come in, according to Romans 11, then all Israel will be saved also.
A
Thank you for your email comment
First, I understand God's covenant was with Abraham and his seed. Paul points out that this refers to Christ and those who belong to Him.
Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise.
Second, I disagree that the covenant with Abraham was unconditional. Faith is the condition. This condition applied even to Abraham (Heb 11:8).
God did keep his end of the covenant even though the Jews were unfaithful. However, after God led them into the land they rebelled and God sent them into captivity, twice.
It seems there is a simple way to test this. If the land promise is unconditional then God could have never sent them out of the land. Yet God did exactly that. God sent them out because the land gift was not unconditional.
I do believe that the land promise still does apply to Christ and all believers and will be realized in the new heavens and earth. Paul in Romans 4 said: "For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world [kosmos]" Paul sees a much larger land given, the kosmos. Where did Paul get that idea from?
As for Romans 11;
Rom 11:28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
Rom 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Rom 11:30 For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience,
Rom 11:31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
I understand this to be saying that the Jews are not cast off, God is still holding out mercy through Christ and they can be grafted on again by faith. In other words, I don't take a dispensational approach that says the Church is what God is working on now and Israel is what God will work with after the Church age is over (as if to say Israel, in the Church age has no hope until the Church age ends). Instead I see the hand of God held out since the time the Messiah came and that call will never be revoked until the coming final judgment at the return of Christ. "The fullness of the Gentiles" is not in regard to a total number coming in but that by the Gospel of Christ their fulness is completed, thus all Israel will be saved. In other words it is by the Gospel alone that the identity of Israel is manifested through all races on earth.
