Is Israel Still God's Chosen People Today?

Doxology:

This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart, that I might not sin against God. Amen!

Context

Last week, we began a journey into a new series. The series title is “Israel and The Church”.

The focus of last week was to lay a foundation. We began our series by asking the question, “Was Israel Really God’s Chosen People?”

That question was past tense, and we were able to see through Scripture, that the clear answer to that question was an astounding, “Yes!!!”

God made a covenant with Abraham and part of that covenant stated that God would uphold that same covenant with Abraham’s descendants. Abraham begot Isaac; Isaac begot Jacob; Jacob’s name was changed to Israel by God, and then he had 12 sons. Those 12 sons became the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. Therefore, God’s covenant to Abraham was passed down from one generation to the next, as an everlasting covenant.

Now that we have established that Israel was indeed God’s chosen people, we need to move forward and ask: “Is Israel Still God’s Chosen People Today?”

Content

The Conditions of The Promise

Genesis 12:1–3 NKJV

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 17:4–8 NKJV

“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

Genesis 22:16–18 NKJV

and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Galatians 3:16 NKJV

16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.

As we look through these verses, we see that there are two promises conveyed:

There is a promise of blessing upon the descendants of Abraham, which later became known as Israel.

Deuteronomy 7:6–8 NKJV

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

It is unquestionably clear that Israel was indeed the chosen people of God throughout the OT all the way up to Christ.

It is equally clear in the NT, which we will get into more in a little bit, that Israel is still God’s chosen people today.

There is clearly a national promise made with the people of Israel here.

There is a promise of blessing upon all people groups upon the Earth through the seed of Abraham.

As we see in Galatians 3, this was ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Christ abolished the law, giving way to a better revelation of God in Himself.

Through Him, a direct representation of the fullness of God in the flesh, all people can see God, know God, and have access to God. Salvation by faith is for all people in Christ Jesus. .

Galatians 3:26 NKJV

26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Conditions of The People

As we dive into this section, I want to take a moment and explain a very important detail about the revelation of God unto man.

We are all aware of what I would call the general revelation of God unto us. Sun, moon, stars, entire galaxy, trees, grass, animals, humans, complexity of life itself.

The complexity of all of these things scream that there is a God. We do not doubt that. But in order to have a personal relationship with God, we must be able to go beyond this general revelation into a more detailed revelation of who He is.

The general revelation of God allows me to say, “Yes, there must be a divine creator”, but if I am to know this divine creator, I need more information regarding who He is.

In the OT, God decided to reveal Himself on a deeper level unto the Jewish people. He did this by a couple of different ways.

He revealed Himself through the law. He also revealed Himself through priests/prophets. All of these divine revelations came through the Jewish people.

We must also note that all of these divine revelations were completed in Christ. In other words, Christ is a greater unveiling of who God is than anything else ever could be. Listen to these verses, that show how these other means of revelation are no longer needed, since we have everything we need in Christ.

Hebrews 1:1–3 NKJV

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Galatians 3:19 NKJV

19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.

Galatians 3:24–25 NKJV

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

Jesus came to set us free from the law and the bondage unto sin it created.

Unfortunately, Israel would not accept Christ in this way. They denied He was the prophesied Messiah. They denied He was the Son of God. They denied He was the Savior of the world.

Romans 9:30–10:4 NKJV

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Jesus Christ was the stumbling stone of the Jews. They simply would not believe.

Instead of seeing the righteousness of God in Christ, they sought to establish their own righteousness apart from Him. In doing this, they deemed themselves unworthy of the salvation of God through faith.

Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believed.

This is perfectly synonymous with the whole of Scripture:

Acts 13:46 NKJV

Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

John 3:16–19 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Because of their unbelief, they missed the salvation of God that was sent unto them from above.

The Conditions of This Period

To begin this section, I want to ask another question: “Because of their sin, is God done with Israel?”

Romans 11:1–5 NKJV

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life”? But what does the divine response say to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

Paul makes it clear that not all of Israel has been cast away. Many of them did not believe, and in doing so caused themselves to be removed from the promise of God, but there are still some that do believe in Christ as the Messiah and Son of God.

Romans 11:7 NKJV

What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.

Not only does Paul teach us that God has not cast away all of Israel, he also teaches us that God has a plan for the future restoration of Israel.

Romans 11:11–25 NKJV

I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.” Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

The time in which we live is called by many different theological terms. Some call it the “Church Age”. Others call it the dispensation of grace, which comes from Ephesians 3:2.

The term dispensation simply refers to a period of time.

Regarding the period of time in which we now live, Paul says, “Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”

In other words, there is coming a time in our future, to which Israel will repent. God is not done with Israel. During this time of Israel’s restoration, they will acknowledge Christ as king, and give themselves wholly unto Him.

Zechariah 12:9–11 NKJV

It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

Let me sum up with this. Israel was God’s chosen people. Israel still is God’s chosen people. Israel will always be God’s chosen people.

Right now we are living in a time to where we, as Gentiles, are being grafted into the promise of God upon His chosen people, but there is coming a time when Israel will be grafted in again.

Those of Israel who are living in disbelief right now, are not of the promise of Abraham. They are unbelievers if they do not acknowledge Christ as Lord.

But....we know a revival is coming amongst the people of God. We do not know when this will be. We do not know all of the details concerning these events.

But....we do know it is coming. We, as believers through their fall, should pray for the restoration of their people. The sooner this happens, the sooner Christ returns.

Commitment