Posted on 01/30/2009 11:48:38 AM PST by Unam Sanctam
True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.
Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.
Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.
The above is an excerpt.
of course! the Bible is very clear that Jesus dies for your and my sins. Asked “WHO KILLED JESUS?”, every Christian should answer “it was I.”
Amen. And if Our Lord returned today as a simple [carpenter], it wouldn’t take long for us to do it again.
So what happened to the old people of God, according to the Scriptures?
And they also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated one, how much more will they who belong to it by nature be grafted back into their own olive tree.
25 4 I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not become wise (in) your own estimation: a hardening has come upon Israel in part, until the full number of the Gentiles comes in,
26 and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob;
27 and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins."
28 In respect to the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but in respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs.
29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
30 5 Just as you once disobeyed God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
31 so they have now disobeyed in order that, by virtue of the mercy shown to you, they too may (now) receive mercy.
32 For God delivered all to disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all.
Does that mean they are still seen as a distinct and collective “people of God” from the NT standpoint, analogous to the Church as the “new people of God”?
That’s a matter of interpretation. To me it doesn’t seem as simple as saying there are two distinct peoples of God. Paul is looking forward to the time when the branches cut off of the olive tree will be grafted back on, i.e., after the “full number of the Gentiles” comes in. The people of Israel were certainly called as a people of God, but let us pray that they will achieve the fullness of salvation in our Lord and Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
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