If the sun still rises, God’s covenant with Israel still stands.
That’s the startling logic of
Jeremiah 33where the fixed order of creation is offered as proof that God’s promises to the Jewish people are unbreakable. Yet in an age of rising theological confusion and mounting hostility toward Israel, many in the Church have begun to waver. Replacement Theology is back, often dressed in more “respectable” robes. But let’s be clear: if God can abandon Israel, then no one is safe. If He breaks that promise, why wouldn’t He break yours? Has God truly revoked His covenant? Has the Church replaced Israel in His plan? Or is the continued existence of Israel as certain as the sunrise?
The answer, resoundingly and unmistakably, is found in the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah:
These two verses are both a prophetic rebuke and a theological anchor. God Himself sets the terms: Only if the rhythm of day and night ceases — only if the laws that govern the cosmos unravel — then, and only then, would He cast off Israel.
Continued below.
If the sun still rises, God s covenant with Israel still stands
www.christianpost.com
I'm sure there probably are people who believe the Church has
replaced Israel, but the overwhelming majority of the time the accusation of "Replacement Theology" is nothing more than a pejorative to dismiss what is basic, biblical, and historic Christian teaching.
St. Paul gives us a key to helping us get our cards laid out.
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I ask, then, has God rejected His people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 'Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have demolished Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.' But what is God's reply to him? 'I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.' So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." - Romans 11:1-6
The Apostle compares the remnant of faithful Israel who refused to bow to Baal with those who have embraced Jesus as Messiah and Lord. This is relevant, because when the Apostle talks about the inclusion of the Gentiles, he speaks of the Gentiles as being included in the commonwealth of Israel, as wild branches grafted onto the olive tree.
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Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called 'the circumcision', which is made in the flesh by hands--remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who are near. For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in Whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." - Ephesians 2:11-22
In the Messiah the Gentiles have been grafted in, brought in, and along with believing Jews are together one new people; there is neither Jew nor Greek. In Christ both Jew and Gentile are one. The Gentiles are now children of the same promises given to Israel, they are members of Israel, and Abraham is the common father of all who have faith in the Messiah. And in this way the promise made to Abraham is fulfilled, that he would be the father of many nations, through the promised Seed--that is, Jesus Christ (see Galatians 3:16).
What has happened to Israel then? Has it been replaced? Of course not. Israel has always been Israel. But Gentiles, formerly estranged, foreign, having no participation in the covenant and promises of Israel are now, through the Messiah, included and are full citizens along with the Jews. So that Jew and Gentile, together in the Messiah, are Israel. But even as it was in the days of Elijah, where there were those who were faithful to YHWH and those who were unfaithful; faithfulness to YHWH is in believing in the Messiah--in Jesus. Not that God has turned His back on the Jewish people; but that those who are in the Messiah remain faithful to YHWH; and every Gentile who formerly was an alien and a stranger has come to know YHWH and is now a member of His House, His Covenant People. It is not circumcision in the flesh that matters, but spiritual circumcision of the heart that matters--for the one who has been baptized has put off the old self and is made new in the Messiah (Galatians 3:21, Colossians 2:11-13).
For there is a New Covenant established in the blood of the Messiah, as it was in ancient times foretold by Jeremiah the Prophet,
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Behold the days are coming, declares YHWH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was as their husband, declares YHWH. For this is the covenant that I will made with the house of Israel after those days, declares YHWH: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know YHWH,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares YHWH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31:31-34
The author of Hebrews adds this:
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In speaking of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." - Hebrews 8:13
The Old Covenant was established in order that it might serve to point to Messiah and His new and better Covenant. For Christ doesn't point to Moses, but Moses to Christ. It is Christ who is the spiritual rock in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). He brings in a new and better priesthood, one that isn't established on the basis of genealogy, but which precedes Aaron and Levi, in the order of Melchizedek. And He offers as Great High Priest the once-and-perfect Sacrifice of Himself which has atoned for the sins of the whole world.
The Church has not replaced Israel. The Church
is Israel.
I, a Gentile, am a member of the commonwealth of Israel through the Messiah; and therefore can call Abraham my father. Not in arrogance, as though God has turned His back on the Jewish people, or as though I am as a wild shoot grafted upon the tree better than the natural branch which was pruned (for if a natural branch can be pruned, how much more the grafted branch?). But I am, along with all Jewish and Gentile believers in the Messiah, members of God's household which is of faith, established by His grace, that all who believe belong to Him.
Not as though God has turned His face away from those Jews who do not believe, but that they too should also repent and believe the Good News. Even as this Gospel is to go forth to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, throughout all of Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth--so that every Jew and Gentile, every man, woman, and child, whether they be king or peasant, slave or free, rich or poor, might hear this Good News, and be transformed by the power of God's grace, and brought into the peace of Christ, reconciled to God, and have a place at the Table. For we should affirm with St. Paul, that we are "not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God to save all who believe, the Jew first, and also the Greek." (Romans 1:16), for the Apostle will go on to say in Romans 11, where I first began quoting in this post, that "God has consigned all to disobedience in order that He might have mercy on all" (Romans 11:32). For whether Jew or Gentile "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," (Romans 3:23-24).
Therefore, God wills and desires that all who repent and be saved. It is the good will of God that all things should be united together in the Messiah.
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In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." - Ephesians 1:7-10
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I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, 'Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!'"- Revelation 7:9-12
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And He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also He said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.' And He said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who overcomes will have this inheritance, and I will be his God, and he will be My son." - Revelation 21:5-7
Holy God. Holy Almighty. Holy Immortal. Glory to You.
-CryptoLutheran
