LESSON 5 PART 3 NATURE OF THE COVENANTS

 LESSON 5 Part 4

Why We Ought Not Replace Israel

 

REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY (RT) – A Recap of previous mentions.

 

Why is it important to hold to a position that God has not replaced or superseded Israel?

 

This brief lesson bounces two systems of theology of which both reject Israel as relevant to God any longer. 

 

(There are previous lessons that go into detail, but this is simply a capture and surmise of what has been previously said.)

 

These two systems are “Covenant Theology” and “New Covenant Theology”.

 

Covenant Theology states that Israel has been rejected by God due to their disobedience…thus, disowned by God.

 

New Covenant Theology states that Israel is no longer relevant since the church has come. The church is superior, and Israel has faded away.

 

Points to counter RT:

 

1. We lose the meaning of an “UNCONDITIONAL” covenant.

            a. The covenants that God made with Abraham and David were not reciprocal, rather, they were ONE WAY…from God to man…NO CONDITIONS.

            b. The covenants that God made with Abraham and David were UNEARNED...Nothing about Israel Glimmered in God’s eye. Nothing attracted God to them.

            c. The covenants that God made with Abraham and David teach us about the irrevocable nature of Gods gifts and His call (Romans 11.28b-29).

 

2. We lose the FIDELITY of God to any or all of His Promises.

            a. The Character of God is on the line if Israel is rejected.

            b. The existence and dignity of man created in God’s image is at stake.

            c. God is reduced to the image of man.

 

3. For the Covenant Theology Community that believes God rejected His unconditional, irrevocable promises to Israel because they sinned against God:

            a. You are negating the very reason why He chose them! He chose them because they are unlovely, weak, and sinful…

“Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.” (Deut 9.6)

             “…so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…” (Rom 9.11-12)

 

 

 

Deut 7.7 “The Lord did not set His love on you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples,

8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt”
(continue reading Deut 7.8ff)

 

He keeps His covenant because of HIM, NOT because of YOU.

 

God chose a mouse of a people in order to magnify the attributes of His unconditional, eternal nature. 

 

The smaller we are, the greater He is.

 

In His striving with the rebellious nation of Israel, we see an unfolding drama, a cascading adventure into a marvelous display of the progress of redemption from an Almighty God!

 

If one kills Israel, then one kills the very access to the redemptive heart of God.

 

*Promoting the belief that the Church “superseded” Israel has made salvation man-centered, not God-centered.

 

*The society that rejects Truth is a society that embraces autonomy. Autonomy is idolatry. 

 

*When the church believes that it has “outgrown” the covenants of God, it is autonomous.

 

“AUTONOMY”

“AUTO-NOMY”

“AUTO” = SELF “NOMOS” = LAW

“A LAW UNTO ONESELF”

“SELF LAW”

 

4. God chose Israel not only to magnify Himself through an inadequate people, but for service.

 

Remember, God needs no other reason than Himself to do anything. He never errs, He never needs to start over. For what purpose did He choose Israel?

            a. “…because the Lord loved you…” (Deut 7.8)

            b. “…And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” (Gen 12.3)

            c. “You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, So that you may know and believe Me And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.

            “I, even I, am the Lord, And there is no savior besides Me.

            “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed,

And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “And I am God.”

            “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who

can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

(Isa 43.10-13)

            Israel was chosen to be witnesses of God:

                        1. He gave them His written word.

                        2. Through them to send His beloved Son to an alienated and estranged humanity, and

                        3. To herald a witness of the Living God to an idolatrous world.

Even though they are under chastisement by God, they will be brought back to fulfill the purposes of God in the last days after the time of the gentiles.

 

If Israel is God’s chosen people to do all of this, then why have they been set aside in this church age?

“You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth; Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3.2)

“For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines”

            (Hebrews 12.6,7)

Their discipline proves they are legitimate sons.

 

The greatest purpose for which God chose Israel is to glorify Himself through the lowliest of all people. 

 

Of course, His desire is to bless mankind, but the overarching purpose is to do it so that we will see Him at His greatest. 

 

Israel is the divine appointed means to that end. 

 

Thus, God’s faithful fulfillment of His promise as given to Abraham is for all those who believe and are the descendants of Abraham in the broadest sense.

 

God has given His oath and pledge in relation to His promises. In speaking of God’s Promises to Abraham, the writer of Hebrews indicated that “because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath” (Heb 6.13-18).

 

God has kept His promises because “it is impossible for God to lie.”

 

To sum it up…

 

IF God REPLACED Israel with the church because of their disobedience or allowed Israel to FADE away into oblivion upon the entrance of the church age, then God is not who He said He is.

 

God never says,

“Oooops!”

Link to 

LESSON 5 PART 3 NATURE OF THE COVENANTS

https://walkingtruth.blogspot.com/2022/09/lesson-5-part-3-nature-of-covenants.html