How do believing Jew and believing gentile co-relate? Why is ‘a bigger tent’ needed? Peter Sammons considers. Part 1, of a 2- part article.
A big family and a big wedding!
This article explores the Lord’s Salvation strategy as opened out in the Bible, in particular that aspect of enlarging His family through the adoption of those “outside”. Most people are at least vaguely aware that the Bible is divided into the so-called “Old Testament” and its counterpart “New Testament”. Neither Old/New title is, in fact, found in the Bible itself. A growing band of Christians today wonder just how “helpful” these two terms really are. Are they, in practice, somewhat confusing, tending to divide what God has given as a unified whole?
There is, indeed, a seamless story from Genesis to Revelation that God intends to be seen and understood in precisely that way. It has long been understood that God’s overall salvation plan is “worked out” over millennia, first through God’s relationship with His Chosen People and then extended to God’s “chosen people” whom He graciously incorporates within “true Israel” by election. We could back up the foregoing with a range of Bible studies that would help to illustrate this subject, but rather that dive straight in to a deep “study”, it is helpful to paint the background in broad brush strokes, only turning to particular Bible portions to reemphasize the points being made – and of course to justify them directly from Scripture.
Can we “map” the Bible’s overall message? What is the “shape” of the Bible in summary? The following illustrations are explored in “Last Days and End Times – Making the Connection”. Whilst these illustrations are not the final word on the overarching message of Scripture, nevertheless readers may find them workable and helpful. The Bible’s “big picture” can be plotted in this way:
“The Promise” is the promise of the Messiah, Whom God patiently and painstakingly sets out as His permanent solution to Mankind’s permanent and eternal problem – the problem of sin. The solution upon which God settled (and how God settled on this solution is nowhere explored in Scripture) was to send His Holy One, correctly titled “The Holy One of Israel” as prophet, priest, and king. This was in fulfillment of the earlier promise – Jesus the Messiah fulfils all the requirements of the “person specification” and “job specification” set out in the Tanakh. So the above illustrated ‘pattern’ reveals God’s holy purposes in this way:
God always intended that Israel would be His witness to the nations and that Gentiles should be incorporated with the Hebrews on an equal footing by faith e.g. Ex 12:48-49, noting that under the new covenant, circumcision is no longer required (Galatians chapter 5 refers specifically). We note that the Jews became exclusive in their theology, just as the church has all too often become exclusive in its theology, treating the Jewishness of the Hebrew people as irrelevant. Both exclusionary positions fall short of God’s purposes, and are wrong-headed. “Last Days and End Times – Making the Connection”; Peter Sammons. Christian Publications International, 2022, chapter 1.
The key contours of God’s salvation plan (above) involve a Chosen People (or Nation), tasked to be THE People from amongst whom God would provide His Messiah, and through Whom He would provide His pattern for holy living – His “teaching” or “Torah”. The fact that this Chosen People would not always cooperate with their God (nor follow His ways) would never defeat God’s ultimate purpose; indeed it was to achieve this ultimate purpose that God first chose His People, and later allowed them to spurn their own Messiah.
A title used frequently in the Old Testament – but a key recognition of Jesus in the New Testament e.g. Mark 1:24. Notable that the demonic forces felt compelled to acknowledge Whom Jesus is ........ See for example, “The Messiah Factor” by Tony Pearce, New Wine Press 2004, ISBN 1903725321 which looks at this subject exhaustively. See for example, “Derech Yeshua – The Way of Salvation” by Daniel Nessim, Chosen People Ministries UK 2013, ISBN9780956645722.
I should immediately qualify the foregoing – we should say that most of the Hebrew people spurned their Messiah; there has always been a remnant that both acknowledge Him and seek faithfully to follow Him. Today we call these faithful Jewish people “Messianic Jews”, and one of the wonderful things to emerge in the last 70 years has been a global resurgence amongst Jewish people in understanding the destiny of their Land, and the reality of the Saviour Who fulfills all the Messianic credentials (to the letter!).
Clause No 2
In asserting this we open up a huge area of biblical controversy, and the associated need for faithful – and prayerful – exploration. This article will only scratch the surface of this truly magnificent story. Again, without being definitive, we can nevertheless illustrate our broad-brush diagram with specific supporting Scripture references, as here:
Psalm 67 is also highly relevant.
All this is by way of introducing our main theme in this article. God was never going to be satisfied with “just” the Chosen People. His purpose was always that through them the entire World would be blessed. This truth is ‘clause No 2’, if you like, in the Covenant which God “cut” with Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3). God’s purpose was that “all peoples” would be blessed through this new Nation that He, God, was inaugurating. Some commentators observe that God’s ultimate purpose is to build a family that loves and serves Him, by being disciples of His Son. Not a family that slavishly follows Him under duress because they must. Nor a family that sullenly serves Him for the simple purpose of achieving eternal life. No. God wants neither of these outcomes. Rather, He wants family members that love each other in the same way as they love His Son.
That, perhaps, is why following Jesus in this life inevitably entails a cost to the disciple, irrespective of all the wonderful blessings that discipleship also bestows. The fealty of the enlarged and chosen family is demonstrated through their suffering, and rejection by the world at large. God’s loving family continues to love Him and to serve Him – no matter what the world, the flesh, and the devil can throw at its members.
This, surely, is the sort of family that is worth having! This sort of family, ultimately, is worth dying for! I have no special scripture ‘portion’ to ‘prove’ the above. I simply suggest that this seems to capture God’s heart as the loving God who seeks a Bride for His Son. It is notable that the Bible ends with a wedding feast (Revelation 19: 6-9; Revelation 21:17), with the Bride rejoicing in the approach of her Groom.
The Chosen People
The following study notes are taken, with permission, from Study # 47 in “The Bible Student”. They help to fill-in some of the theological realities that underpin the truth that God has a plan for ALL those He has chosen to be a part of His family. The understanding of ‘a chosen people’ is rooted in the Biblical teaching of God’s election (calling) of Israel. Moses sings of Israel as ‘the apple of God’s eye’ (Deuteronomy 32:10) and Israel is declared time and time again in the Bible to have a special/chosen relationship with God (Exodus 4: 22, Jeremiah 31:9 Hosea 11:1, Psalm 105:6)
See “The Forgotten Bride – How the Church Betrayed it’s Jewish Heritage”, David Lambourn, 2019. “The Bible Student – Fifty Key Themes Explored Through the Holy Bible”, Edited by Peter Sammons, 2012, ISBN 9780956783165
The term Israel (often interchangeable with the term Jew) was given to Jacob after he wrestled/strove with “God” (Genesis 32:22-32). Later Jacob’s descendants became known as bene Yisrael (sons of Israel). However, the blessing of Israel predates Jacob and is initially linked to God’s call of Abraham and His faithful covenantal promises to Abraham (Genesis 12).
These promises are renewed and enlarged in the subsequent biblical covenants with Moses, David and the New covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 8). The understanding of election and covenantal faithfulness is central to God’s purposes and promises. Paul carefully explores this understanding in Romans 9-11 and affirms that the gifts and calling of God to Israel are irrevocable (Romans 11:29) and looks forward to the day when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). Paul understands that the promises to Israel have been confirmed, and not revoked, in the ministry of Jesus the Messiah (Romans 15:8, 2 Corinthians 1:20). The New Testament affirms that Gentiles (i.e. non-Jews), through faith in Jesus, also become part of the elect of God (Ephesians 1:4,Ephesians 2:11-22, 1 Peter 1:1).
Defining ‘Israel’
In the New Testament the term ‘Israel’ is used in three main ways. It can refer to ethnic Israel (Jacob’s descendants) or to the faithful remnant within Israel (Romans 9:6 and Romans 11:2-5) or to the true church (the community of Jews and Gentiles who love and serve Jesus Christ as Lord). The true church is both the called-out (ecclesia) community – (called out from the sin and unbelief of the world to witness and serve God’s purposes) and the grafted-in community – grafted into the faithfulness of Israel (see the ‘olive tree’ teaching in Romans chapter 11) to be built into a spiritual people and to serve as a holy priesthood (1 Peter 2:4).
See “Israel In the New Testament” by David Pawson, 2009, True Potential Publishing Inc, ISBN 9780982305973
This article concludes in the next edition.
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