God's One Household
The promises, types, and shadows of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled in the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth.
An accusation heard
in popular preaching is “Replacement
Theology,” a barely disguised charge of Antisemitism. This dreaded label is
hurled against those who claim that a promise from the Hebrew Bible made to
Ancient Israel is fulfilled in Jesus and his Church. This term misses the point
– The New Testament focus is on fulfillment, not separation or replacement.
The faith of Jesus
and his Apostles teaches neither “Replacement Theology” nor the idea that God has two distinct
covenants and peoples, each with a separate eternal destiny and means of
achieving it.
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[Church Scotland - Photo by Victor Bouton on Unsplash] |
The Scriptures proclaim that all God’s promises find their substance in Jesus Christ. “For however many be the promises of God, in him is the Yea! Wherefore also through him is the Amen!” – (2 Corinthians 1:20).
God has One Covenant, One Covenant People,
and only one means of salvation, Jesus Christ. “I am the way, and
the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through me!” – (John 14:6).
God’s Covenant with
Abraham always envisaged the inclusion of the Nations, and in Christ, the “middle
wall of separation” between Jews and Gentiles has been dismantled so God
might “create One New Man” from Jewish and Gentile followers
of the Messiah of Israel.
No man or woman is more privileged before
God based on his or her ethnicity. No longer are Gentiles “strangers
alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in
the world.”
Gentiles become “fellow citizens with the saints” in the one “Household
of God”- (Ephesians 2:12-19).
The promises of God
are implemented by Jesus Christ. In him alone are the shadows and types prefigured
in the Hebrew Bible made real. All God’s past mysteries are laid bare and
fulfilled by the Nazarene.
- “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept in silence through times everlasting but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, is made known to all the nations for the obedience of faith” – (Romans 16:25-26).
The Nation of
Israel has not been “replaced” by the New Covenant People of God. Instead, the
Promise to bless “all the nations” through Abraham has come to fruition
as Jews and Gentiles are united in Jesus to form One Covenant Community, not two separate nations living under two distinct covenants -
(Romans 16:25, Galatians 2:28, 2 Corinthians 1:19-2:0).
Jesus is the
promised Messiah, the “Son of Abraham” and Heir who came to fulfill “all
the Law and the Prophets.” What was “written” beforehand is
actualized in and by the man from
Nazareth - (Matthew 1:1, 1:22, 2:15, 2:17, 2:23, 4:17, 5:17-20, 8:17).
In the Gospel
of John, Jesus is the True Tabernacle in whom
the Glory of God resides. Though the Law came through Moses, “Grace and
Truth came to be in Jesus.” He is the true Temple, the place where the
presence of Yahweh is found rather than any structure “made with hands”
- (John 1:14-18, 2:19-21).
The true
worshippers of God must now worship Him “in the Spirit and truth.”
The old limitations of holy space and time no longer apply. With Christ’s
arrival, debates about where to locate the Temple become pointless. Rebuilding
any stone building to house God’s presence would be regression - (John
4:23-24).
Likewise, the
ancient feasts of Israel find their significance in the Son of God. He is the
true “living bread from heaven” that imparts life, not the manna given
by Moses in the Wilderness - (John 6:50-51, 7:37-39).
When the Day of
Pentecost was “fully filled up,” the Spirit was poured out on the saints
gathered “with one accord” in Jerusalem. The Apostle Peter proclaimed
this to be the promised Gift of the Spirit predicted by the Prophet Joel. The “Promise
of the Father” was given to Jesus upon his Exaltation, and he therefore
bestows the Gift of the Spirit on his One Church - (Acts 2:16-21, Joel
2:28-30).
Paul explained how
Jesus came to “redeem us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse in
our behalf.” This was so that “the Blessing of Abraham should come to
the Gentiles.” The promises of the Covenant were to Abraham and his “Seed,”
and that seed is Jesus Christ. The Covenant always included the nations, and
this has now been achieved through the Death and Resurrection of Christ -
(Galatians 3:10-13).
The Law of Moses
served as a “custodian” until the “Seed” came. But
now, the time of “custodianship” has ceased. Jesus, Abraham’s Seed and
Heir, is the “end of the Law for righteousness for all who believe” -
(Galatians 3:19-25, Romans 10:4).
The Mosaic Law was an interim stage between Promise and Fulfillment. The Son came in the “fullness of time” to redeem those who were under the Law. Consequently, for those who are “in Christ,” no longer can there be “Jew or Greek, bond or free, male and female,” for we are all “one in Christ Jesus.”
WHY REGRESS?
To again observe “days,
months, seasons and years” as required under the Torah would
mean submitting to the “weak and beggarly elemental spirits”
that previously tyrannized us. Why exchange the Spirit and Liberty for
the death-dealing letter of the Law with its
ever-present curse on all men who fail to do all that it
requires? - (2 Corinthians 3:6-7, Galatians 3:10, 4:8-10, 5:1-3).
God has spoken with
great finality “upon these last of days in His Son.” He spoke partially
to Israel “in the prophets” - Here a little, there a little. The earlier
prophetic word was true but preparatory and incomplete. Now God has spoken
completely in Jesus who alone “achieved the purification of sins” –
(Hebrews 1:1).
Christ’s priesthood surpasses that of Aaron
and the Levites. His “once for all” sacrificial death achieved what no
animal sacrifice ever could. Only he succeeded in securing the forgiveness of
sins and cleansing of our conscience. Jesus delivered us
who through “fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage.” No
priestly act, sacrifice, or offering under the Levitical Priesthood ever
accomplished what Christ has done for us - (Hebrews 2:14, 9:14, 10:22).
Jesus is the “guarantee of a better covenant, one legislated on better promises.” If the first Covenant had been “faultless,” there would have been no need for another, and this vastly superior New Covenant has rendered the old one obsolete, including its sacrifices, rituals, calendrical observations, and Temple - (Hebrews 8:4-10:18).
The old system
constituted “glimpses and shadows of the heavenly realities,” mere
patterns of the permanent originals. “Let no one, therefore, be
disqualifying you in eating and in drinking, or in respect of a feast, new moon
and Sabbaths, which were shadows of the coming things, but the
substance is of the Christ” - (Colossians 2:9-17, Hebrews 8:1-7, 9:9-10,
9:23-24).
The Body of Christ
is composed of Jewish and Gentile believers in Jesus. Together, they are “resident
aliens” and “sojourners” in this age, a people without a national
homeland that possess the incorruptible inheritance of salvation.
The Apostle Peter
applied several appellations to the largely Gentile congregations of Asia Minor
used originally of Israel. They have been inherited by the Church:
- “But now, in Christ Jesus, you are the living stones being built up into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices well-pleasing to God, through Jesus Christ <…> You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a peculiar treasure <…> at one time y0u were a no-people but now you are the people of God,” singular - (1 Peter 2:4-10, Exodus 19:5-6).
The theme of Fulfillment
in Christ is found throughout the New Testament. God defeated Sin, Satan,
and Death on Calvary, not the altar of the Temple in old Jerusalem. The “mystery
of God” that was hidden in past ages has been revealed in His Son, not the
modern nation of Israel or any future restored temple building “made with
hands.” As Stephen declared just before his martyrdom,
“The Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands” - (Acts 7:48, Romans 16:25, 1 Corinthians 2:1-9, 2 Corinthians 1:19-20).
Since the substance
of God’s promises is available to all men in His Son, it would be foolhardy in
the extreme to return to the types and shadows of the old and
incomplete revelation for knowledge and revelation about the Creator of all
things and the source of our Redemption.
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SEE ALSO:
- One New Man - (Since his Death and Resurrection, Jesus has been forming one new covenant community - One New Man - based on faith in him – Ephesians 2:11-22)
- The Faith of Abraham - (The faith of uncircumcised Abraham provides an example for Jewish and Gentile believers who live from the faith of Jesus – Romans 4:11-17)
- Covenant Heirs - (With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations of the Abrahamic Covenant commenced)
- La Seule Maison de Dieu - (Les promesses, les types et les ombres de la Bible hébraïque s'accomplissent dans le Fils de Dieu et Messie d'Israël, Jésus de Nazareth)
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