Who Is the Israel of God in the New Covenant?

Summary. The Israel of God is no longer fleshly, natural Israel, but rather all believers in Jesus―along with a remnant of Godly believers of old. Jesus fulfilled all of the promises to Old Covenant Israel (Luke 1:67-79; 2 Corinthians 1:20). “Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (Romans 9:5-8). The church extends beyond natural Israel to include Gentiles (Luke 2:32; Acts 9:15; 11:1, 18; Romans 11:11-32; Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29). This is not “replacement theology, but rather “inclusion theology.” Here is a sampling of passages about this:

Galatians 6:14-16. In the context of the rest of Galatians, Paul refers to the “ISRAEL OF GOD” as those who walk according to the Spirit—by faith in Jesus Christ (and specifically not by works of the Jewish Old Covenant Law, including circumcision).

Galatians 4:21-31. Physical Jerusalem, that is, the old covenant, is cast out making way for the New Spiritual Jerusalem (“the Jerusalem above”)—the new children of the promise.

Hebrews 12:22-24. Christians of the first century had already arrived at the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem—through Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

Matthew 3:7-11. John the Baptist tells the Pharisees and Sadducees not to count on their physical descent. Indeed, they are about to be cut down in the wrath about to come (AD 70).

Matthew 21:18-19. Jesus curses the fig tree, an Old Testament symbol for Old Covenant Israel (Jeremiah 24; Hosea 9:10; Luke 13:6-9), and the fig tree withered away forever.

Matthew 21:33-45. Parable of the Tenants. Jesus tells the Jews that the kingdom is being taken away from them and given to another group, obviously the church.

Matthew 22:1-4. The Parable of the Wedding Feast. It was obviously the Jews who were invited to the wedding, but their refusal to accept Christ as Messiah would lead to their demise—“destroyed those murderers and burned their city.” (Matthew 23, the next chapter, details why the Jews were the object of Jesus’ wrath. Not only were they exceedingly sinful, but also refused to accept Him as Savior.)

John 8:31-47. Jesus explains to the Jews of his day that they are not truly offspring of Abraham, but rather are offspring of the devil.

Romans 2:28-29. “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the letter.”

Romans 9:5-8. Paul taught that not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel (“FOR THEY ARE NOT ALL ISRAEL WHO ARE ISRAEL”), and not all are children of Abraham. It is not the children of the flesh (i.e. their ethnicity) who are children of God (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16.)

Romans 11:5, 11-32. Branches (of Israel) were broken off and Gentiles grafted in by faith. Whoever accepted Christ, both Gentiles and a remnant of Jews are saved (11:5).

Galatians 3:6-9, 25-29. Heirs to the promise, i.e. the true sons of Abraham, comes from faith in Christ, not physical descent.

Ephesians 2:11-3:13. Gentiles are no longer aliens but are fellow citizens in a new dwelling place, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (cf. Revelation 21:14).

Ephesians 2:15-16. Jews and Gentiles became “one new man in place of two,” thus “one body.”

Philippians 3:3. The church is the real “circumcision.” Circumcision is the special sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel (Genesis 17:10, 13), so the Christian church has become God’s covenantal people.

Colossians 2:6-3:17. Paul explains in this passage that physical circumcision had been replaced by spiritual circumcision, thus spiritual Israel—believers being made spiritually alive IN CHRIST. (See also Philippians 3:3).

Hebrews 8:5-13. The Old Covenant was being replaced by a New Covenant as predicted in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:31-34; etc.)

Revelation 2:9; 3:9. There are those who say they are Jews, but are really are a “synagogue of Satan.”

Revelation 19:7, 21:2, 9-27. The New Jerusalem is the bride of Christ, the church—which is built on the foundation of the apostles (ref. Ephesians 2:20).

Conclusions. This is about the changing of the covenants. Israel’s covenant with God was contingent on obedience (Deuteronomy 28-32)! Throughout the Bible, Israel’s relationship with God is portrayed as a marriage (Isaiah 54:5; 62:4; Jeremiah 2:2; 3:14, 20; 31:31-34; Ezekiel 16:8, 32, 38; Hosea 2:2, 7, 16; Malachi 2:14). Whenever Israel was unfaithful, she is characterized as a harlot or adulterer (Deuteronomy 31:16-18; Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:6-9; Ezekiel 6:8-9; 16:15, 26, 28; Hosea 1:2; 6:10; 9:1). The central theme of Revelation is a story of two women—the harlot Babylon who is judged/divorced (Revelation 17:1, 5, 15; 18:9, 21; 19:2) and God’s new bride the New Jerusalem (Revelation 19:7; 21:2, 9). The faithless harlot is apostate Old Covenant Israel. The new bride is the Christian church, the wife of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 3:12; 19:7; 21:2, 9-27). Compare to the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22:1-14, as well as such passages as John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25-27.

The notion that Israel is separate from the church, and that Israel will re-emerge as pre-eminent among nations is not supported by the texts.

That is a classic definition of OSAS/OJAJ.

There, you have it, so there will be no excuse for you when you meet Him at the Great White Throne to be judged there for your unchanged mind, never having agreed with the Holy Spirit, nor followed God's plan of salvation.
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At the microsecond of grace, nothing you could ever do thereafter, no amount of continued, willful, non-repentant lawlessness would ever keep you out of heaven.

That's your stipulation, not God's; a strawman argument, dodging how the Heavenly Father effectively deals with the sinner before and after he/she becomes His child.

First, there is no forgiveness from God without repentance, a change of mind regarding his/her condition, and total willingness of intent to turn to God from Sin for the remedy. God is able to instantly discern whether that change of mind is genuine or not, whether the person has become fully persuaded that Jesus saves, though he/she is so powerless and depraved to perform any acts of righteousness that he/she cannot save oneself. that repentant change of mind and exercise of confidence in God's promise to save are two sides of the same coin, so to speak, and occur instantly and irreversibly, upon which God mercifully withholds what the person deserves by cancelling that person's sin debt, accounting that it has been paid for by the spiritual coin of the realm, which is Jesus' shed blood.

At the same instant of the sinner's mind-changed full assent, God marks the sin bill "paid" and judiciously declares the person "Not guilty," graciously counts the unmerited gift of salvation "received," and brands the person "set apart for My Son's use," and puts that person's feet (figuratively) on the ongoing life-long path of progressive sanctification through discipleship by /jesus' appointed mentoring instructors.

And at the same instant, this agreement, this transactionis ratified and the Holy Ghost Comforter and Guide takes up residence alongside that oerson's mind and spirit, thus sealing that person as Jesus' property forever. having thus been negotiated, with the terms fully described, the decisions made, and the transaction completed, ratified by God, sealed by the entry of the Holy Spirit, and filed as a deed of ownership with ongoing effects, there is no going back for God or the sinner, only forward into newness of life as a member of te Heavenly Church, in one sense Christ's Bride, and in another sense, His flock of sheep, but in plain literal reality, His bonded slave, having given up one's self-ownership permanently, forever:

"Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28 AV).

"What? know ye not that your body^{The Church} is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. 6:10-20 AV).

" Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4 AV).

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (1 Cor. 5:17 AV).

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (Jn. 10:27-29 AV).
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That person has swapped masters; from that which from physical birth had been Sin and Satan, to the new Eternal Master, the Lord Jesus Messiah/Christ.

If Ravi Zachary's indictment is true, I would doubt that he has ever passed through this transaction, wouldn't you?

Now, discussing how the Heavenly Father deals with His truly spirit-begotten children, it is sufficient to turn again to the book of Hebrews, that does describe how He has dealt with his Hebrew saved souls, counting here that it is a general process that applies to saved Gentiles as well, both comprising the Church of God:

Hebrews 12:4-11 (AV):

⁴Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
⁵And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
⁶For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
⁷If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
⁸But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
⁹Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
¹⁰For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
¹¹Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

I know and have seen and experienced that when a person that can credibly profess salvation and normally behaves as if it were so, but steps off the narrow path, then he/she nay be chastened rather briskly and perhaps quite painfully. I know He can chasten even to death if necessary, if that person is bringing dishonor to His Name. You can act foolishly and die before your time that He has planned for you.

Be warned.

But when the indwelling Spirit gets our attention, it is time to agree with Him, to confess, repent and be restored to holiness,

1 John 1:9-10 (AV)
⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
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False doctrine originating from the mind of Lucifer, and spread by Christian “experts”, such as yourself (and of course Ravi Zacharias)

It is you yourself, Philsworld, that has abandoned the principles of a righteous interpretation that could be approved by God (2 Tim. 2:15), mishandling the Scriptures. When one has the viewpoint of the Berean elders with whom Paul presented the Gospel, reasoning with them out of the Scriptures, they received the Word gladly and searched the Scriptures diligently to see if what he had said was true.

In searching the Scriptures to see if what you have written is true, I find that they contradict your whole theme of how God deals with mankind. You take them out of context and use them in eisegesis as a pretext to bolster your misrepresentations, which they do not, upon examination.

Those slaves to Sin who try to gain freedom from the consequences of their innate error-prone sinfulness do not seem to realize that all their prideful effort cannot break their bondage to Satan, nor satisfy God's judgments on their inadequate actions; nor can they by such efforts attaineconciliation with the Mighty Judge by them,

But dedication to that failed approach which you keep insisting on and recommend to others is, like that of the Romanist's, a great sin, IMHO..

Only the Begotten Son Alone has the power to break Satan's grasp on you, your will, your intellect, and your body to become His possession, and even then only your full confidence and permission to do it. When He has, He has promised from then on to never let you go, never to leave nor forsake you.

Your scheme, Philsworld, has no such promise.

——>If Ravi Zachary’s indictment is true, I would doubt that he has ever passed through this transaction, wouldn’t you?

Nope. I will never judge Ravi Zacharias, because that’s God’s prerogative. But, if it turns out that he is lost, it will be because of LAWLESSNESS, as in Matthew 7:

21“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Those who break God’s law and teach others the same, will likewise not be in heaven: Matthew 5:

17“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. 18For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one [b]jot or one [c]tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. 19Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

If I were you (which I’m not), I’d watch my step.

(A little further down in Galatians 5...)

Living by the Spirit

16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Those who claim grace, claiming to live and walk in the Spirit, AND DON’T, will not be in heaven, no matter what Ravi told you.

Eccl 12:
13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

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