On October 7th 2023, Hamas executed a brutal attack against Israel. Since then, war and violence have spread across the region. In light of this, Christians have reasonably wondered about the role of Israel today. After all, God gave to ancient Israel his great promises, and Christ himself came through the line of Israelites (Rom 9:4–5).
But what does that mean for the modern nation of Israel? Are they the people of God dwelling in the land of God?
To answer that question, we need to look carefully at the Apostolic witness to Israel’s role in God’s plan of salvation, and we need to make the key distinction between Israel as a modern state and the ancient Israelites.
Answering this question is important. In our churches, Jewish and Palestinian Christians worship the one Lord Jesus Christ who came from the Father for us and for our salvation. How we speak about the people of God and their dwelling matters.
Who Are the People of God?
The people of God are those indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus, the Messiah (Christ) and king. As David Peterson says, “Allegiance to the glorified Christ is what determines membership of the true people of God” (Acts, 186). Anyone who trusts in Christ, then, constitutes the people of God.
What does this mean for modern day Israelis then? To answer this question, we need to understand Paul’s argument in Romans 9–11 because Paul explains how God’s promises to Israel remain true even when not every Israelite according to the flesh has accepted Jesus as the Christ.
Of the Israelites in his day, Paul tells us that “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises” (Rom 9:4). And more than that, “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen (Rom 9:5).
The people of God are those indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus, the Christ and king.
However, Paul is careful to say that Israelite heritage does not bring one savingly to Christ apart from faith. Paul explains:
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Rom 10:12–13)
And in particular, those who call upon the name of the Lord savingly become Christians, those who are in Christ, the Messiah.
While Paul does not have a specific replacement theology of the Church in place of Israel (see Rom 9:3–4), he does speak of Israel and Gentiles as peoples who become God’s people.
After talking about God calling both Jews and Gentiles, Paul confirms his observation by a citation of Hosea 2:23 in Romans 9:25–26. There, he indicates that the Gentiles become God’s people and sons of the living God. Consider Paul’s words:
As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’” “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (Rom 9:25–26).
Does this citation in Hosea within Paul’s argument indicate that Paul sees Gentiles as replacing Israel? That does not seem to be his argument. Rather, Paul sees both Jews and Gentiles as my people.
Paul clarifies his thinking on the question of God’s people in Ephesians 2. There, he explains that in times past, Gentiles were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. But in Christ, that has changed.
In Ephesians 2:15, Paul says that Christ has created in himself “one new [humanity] in place of the two [ethnicities].” In other words, from Jews and Gentiles, Christ has formed in himself a new creation, a new humanity: “put on the new [humanity], created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:23).
The word humanity above translates literally the Greek terms in those two passages, which points to Christ as re-creating humanity in his image through the church (Eph 2:18–22).
It is for this reason that many of the earliest Christians viewed themselves as a third race, a new creation, formed out of Jews and Gentiles. In Christ, early Christians were a new race, not marked by biology but by faith.
It turns out the people of God question does not follow our expected patterns. When Christ came, he made not only Jews but also Gentiles the people of God by creating in himself a new humanity, or what early Christians called a third race.
As Paul puts it, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15)
Where Do the People of God Live?
The people of God belong to the heavenly Mt. Zion above because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were always looking for a city not made with human hands but a city whose founder and designer was God (Hebrews 11:8–10, 13–16; Heb 12:22).
While many Christians understandably believe that God will renew the faith of Israel and grant his promises of geographical space, Hebrews 11 and 12 point to another way of looking at things. And I should be very clear: I do not believe Hebrews 11 and 12 rejects a dispensational view of the land. I, however, believe Hebrews 11 and 12 make it much more difficult to maintain that conviction.
For in this chapter, the author of Hebrews defines faith ultimately in what is unseen through what is seen (Hebrews 11:1–7). Then the author points to the seen realities of land promises as pointing to an unseen or future city of God:
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. (Heb 11:8–10)
And:
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. (Heb 11:13–16)
Where is that city? Apparently, no one named in Hebrews 11 received the promised city of God. As Hebrews 11:39–40 says, “And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
What is better and how will they be made perfect, as in, reaching their final end? Well, Hebrews 12:1–3 tells us that Jesus is “the founder and perfecter of the faith” (Heb 12:2). The article “the” sometimes translated as “our” here is key. Jesus not only founded the faith but perfected it by, it seems, being the forerunner of our faith (Heb 6:20).
The people of God belong to the heavenly Mt. Zion above because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were always looking for a city not made with human hands but a city whose founder and designer was God.
And because of Jesus, the Old Testament saints who were not made perfect (Heb 11:40) are made perfect. So Hebrews 12:23 speaks of the “spirits of the righteous made perfect” dwelling in the heavenly city. Because of Jesus, we have now all come
“to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect” (Heb 12:22–23).
Because of him, those who were not made perfect were made perfect. Since Jesus founded and perfected the faith, all the saints have become perfect in the heavenly city of God, the unseen city that the seen geography of Canaan has always pointed to.
Where do the people of God live? They live on earth in exile while they await their heavenly homeland (1 Pet 2:11). The people of God have their citizenship in heaven (Phil 3:20).
Conclusion
Out of Jews and Gentiles, Christ in himself created a new human race. So “neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal 6:15). By faith, we all become the people of God not by way of replacement but by way of a new creation.
And the people of God live in exile while they await their transfer into the city of God, Mt. Zion above, or heaven.
When it comes to the question of Israel today, we can affirm that Israel according to the flesh has many great privileges through their election (Rom 9:3–4). But they must trust in Christ to be saved, and thus become new creations alongside Gentiles, even Palestinian Gentiles! Both of their homelands are heaven.
While we can agree that the modern state of Israel may defend their borders, and we might even ally with them as a nation here below, we must not confuse ethnic identity as Jews or Gentiles as determinative for who are new creations in Christ.
Faith alone makes us into new creations in Christ Jesus, which alone brings us to the promised city of God.
Further Resources
“Will the Jewish People Eventually Turn to Christ?” by Paul Carter
“Does Anyone Actually Believe in Replacement Theology?” by Paul Carter
