To Whom Was the Kingdom Given? Matthew 21:43
In
Romans 3:1-
2 Paul admits that the Jews were a favored people "chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God, which is an obvious reference to all the twelve tribes at Sinai. It is of these same people that he refers in the words "who are Israelites" in
Romans 9: 3-5. These Jews, these Israelites, limited God's promises to a literal nation, as Anglo-Israelites has done, but the kingdom was taken from them for reasons we may list from New Testament references as follows:
Rom. 2:24. The name of God was blasphemed by Gentiles because of Jewish inconsistency.
Luke 16:1-12. The Jews had completely failed as God's stewards.
Matt. 21:33-44;
Isa. 5:7. They did not bring forth the fruits of God's kingdom—judgment and righteousness.
Paul's agony over his unrepentant kinsmen is clearly seen in
Romans 9:3, and in verse 8 he states explicitly:
They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
The Jew, which is one outwardly, is not a Jew. . . . But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. Romans 2:28-29 That is, any believer who accepts the covenant promises is a spiritual Jew or Israelite and an inheritor through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jesus. The promise of heirship of the world was not for Abraham alone;
but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
In God's sight there is now;
neither Jew nor Greek . . . : for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be in Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29
Thus it is:
that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Romans 9:30
The great apostle to the Gentiles gives the reason for the withdrawal of covenant privileges from the people of Israel, or the Jews, and their bestowal on the Gentiles:
It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing as you rejected it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, so now we turn to the Gentiles. Acts 13:36
For this reason another apostle spoke of the Gentiles who had entered into covenant relation with Christ in these terms:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (
1 Peter 2:9,
10).
1 Corinthians 10:32
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.
Jews, ethnic Christ rejecting Israelites.
Gentiles, all the godless peoples of the world.
The church of God, individual true Christian believers from every tribe, race, nation and language.
Clearly the kingdom promises were taken from the unbelieving Jewish nation —the church of God in Christ's day—and given to believing Gentiles and Jews—God's elect in every nation. To twice-born men, regardless of race, and to them alone, now belong:
the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, . . . and the promises. Romans 9:30
The Dispensation theory is based on the same fallacy committed by the Jews, or Israel, of Christ's day. They limit God's covenant promises and blessings to be a literal nation, or nations, whereas they belong to every man in Christ Jesus.
