One doesn’t have to be a dispensationalist to accept the biblical teaching of the Jews as God’s convenant people generally, and that they should be protected and helped in the face of injustice.
However, the New Testament clearly teaches only those who trust in the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, will be saved.
Therefore there is one covenant people ultimately, and gentile followers of Christ are grafted into that covenant people—the Jews—who go all the way back to Abraham.
According to all forms of orthodox Christianity though, Jewish people, just like gentiles, are only saved by faith in Jesus...so there is one covenant that saves, that sealed in Christ’ blood, and finally one covenant people.
“There is neither Jew nor Gentile...for you are all one in Christ Jesus. “ (Gal. 3:28)
A covenant is like an offer with a promise: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”(Acts 16:7), and that offer with a promise, that covenant, was made (and still is made) to the Jews—and since Jesus came—has been extended to the Gentiles. Hence are Jews the covenant people? Yes...and so is anyone who hears that offer—including gentiles.
However, covenants, in the ancient near east form, ALWAYS have not just blessings—if you accept and follow the terms—but CURSES, if you refuse. Hence being “God’s covenant people” doesn’t save an individual—rather it makes him in a position to accept or reject God’s terms...and those terms for 2000 years...are faith in Jesus Christ.
This is why non-dispensational types like I am, get nervous when dispensationalists push the Jews—most of whom now reject Jesus—as God’s special covenant people, because, so what? If they don’t turn to Jesus, that special status just makes things worse for them at judgement day.
Radical dispensationalists like Rev. Haggee even go so far as to say non-believing (in Jesus) Jews are somehow saved by their covenant status...something Peter would be very surprised to hear—given his preaching in Acts 2 and forward.
Should Christians especially respect the Jews and help Israel...praying for the peace of Jerusalem? Of course! They really are special to God—none the less, so are followers of Jesus, Christians, as God has extended His covenant in Christ to gentiles as well....and is creating one people to follow Jesus, not two....
Well when they believed directly on Jehovah for personal salvation they believed in the Son too, before the Son was revealed as Jesus. They won’t be saved by law keeping, something that the Jewish people were already warned that they couldn’t do... at the time the law was given! The covenant pertains to earthly existence as a race not to eternal salvation, to which some will fail to attain because they won’t believe directly on Jehovah (revealed as Jesus or otherwise) for personal salvation. Also the biblical pattern strongly suggests, and I believe it is a truth, that Jews who believe on Jehovah for salvation will — not might, will — recognize who Jesus is at some point, which solves the conundrum of supposed Jesus-less salvation.
Also... I’ve noted from a spiritual point of view that a lot of Jews never see the need for accepting a salvation offer directly from Jehovah. Some Jews did. David was clearly one of those that did, as he wrote inspired psalms about it. But that requires getting past the idea that one can be saved by keeping the law, or even that the law itself is somehow charmed to be self keeping if a Jew tries hard enough. That glorifies man and does not glorify God (who gave fair warning that the law was unkeepable). You will even find a lot of Jews today that take a kind of pride in saying their faith does not depend on a heaven unlike Christians who always are hoping to get there. Well, heaven really begins to move in right on earth, and some of the more spiritual parables of Judaism do confess that truth.
” There is one covenant people” . . .and there is only one covenant.
God’s eternal singular covenant is with the Jewish people, Christianity, an offshoot of Judaism, has done a good job of spreading Judaism’s morality and belief system. Jesus was a teacher of Judaism.
” There is one covenant people” . . .and there is only one covenant.
God’s eternal singular covenant is with the Jewish people, Christianity, an offshoot of Judaism, has done a good job of spreading Judaism’s morality and belief system. Jesus was a teacher of Judaism.