Israel’s Things Are Not Yours
One of the easiest ways to get confused when studying the Bible is to assume that everything God ever promised belongs to you.
It happens constantly. Someone opens a Bible, lands on a promise they like, and claims it. A promise of prosperity, healing, land, blessing, protection, forgiveness, or a kingdom becomes “my promise” simply because it appears somewhere in Scripture. The verse sounds good. It sounds like something God would want for his people. So it gets written on a card, quoted in a prayer, printed on a wall, and preached from a pulpit as though it were addressed to whoever happens to be holding the book. The question of whom God was speaking to never comes up.
But that is not how the Bible is written.
The Bible has an order. It has context. God revealed his will progressively over time, giving different instructions and responsibilities to different people according to his purpose. All Scripture is for our learning, but not every command, covenant, or promise was spoken to us. Every promise has a speaker, an audience, a subject, and a time. Ignore those, and Scripture can be made to say nearly anything.
Respect and rightly divide them, and the Bible opens up. This is exactly why we are commanded to study and rightly divide the word of truth, to be approved workmen for the Lord, which is exactly what respecting those distinctions is all about (2Ti 2:15).
Romans 9:4-5 makes the distinction remarkably clear. In a single sentence, eight things are assigned, and they are not assigned to us.
Israel’s Things
“Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” – Romans 9:4–5
Notice the language carefully in verse four. These things listed do not pertain to everyone who reads the Bible. They pertain to Israelites. Not to believers in general. Not to the body of Christ, but to Israel.
The adoption belonged to Israel. God called Israel his firstborn son, a national standing with the access and privilege that came with it. In the future coming kingdom, faithful Israel will become sons (Exo 4:22, Hos 1:10, 11:1).
The glory belonged to Israel. God manifested his glory among them in the wilderness, the tabernacle, and the temple, and one day his promised kingdom glory will fill Zion through Christ as King (Isa 4:2-5, 60:14-21, 61:1-6).
The covenants belonged to Israel. The Abrahamic covenant was confirmed through Isaac and Jacob. The old covenant (law) was given through Moses to Israel. The new covenant is explicitly promised “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Gen 12:1-3, Jer 31:31-34, Heb 8:1-13).
The law belonged to Israel. The Jews were committed the oracles of God (Exo 20:1-17, Rom 3:2).
The service of God belonged to Israel. Their priesthood, sacrifices, tabernacle, temple, and God-given system of worship, ordered for a nation under the law (Exo 25:8-22).
The fathers belonged to Israel. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are the fathers of Israel.
Christ according to the flesh came of Israel. He was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and came to confirm the promises made unto the fathers of Israel (Mat 15:24, Rom 15:8).
And lastly, there is a phrase that deserves its own attention: “and the promises.”
Israel received promises of a righteous kingdom, salvation, mercy, forgiveness, resurrection, everlasting life, blessing, prosperity, restoration, and a promised land. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of Israel being saved, forgiven, healed, restored, and dwelling securely under their righteous King (Jer 23:5-6, 30:10-11, 31:31-34, 33:6-9, 14-16).
Those promises are real. God will fulfill every one of them in their fullness when Christ returns to reign and rule in His kingdom. But Israel’s previous or future promises do not become ours simply because we believe the Bible.
A side note on what is meant by “Israel”. When Romans speaks of Israel here, it is not speaking of the modern nation-state that bears the same name. Biblical Israel has fallen from the standing it once held with God, and it will be restored in the future according to His purpose (Rom 11:11-15, 25-30). God has concluded all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all. He is not dealing with Jew and Gentile as distinct groups today, for there is no difference; all are unrighteous, and the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him (Rom 3:22-23, 10:12, 11:32). In this dispensation of God's grace, blessing is found in Christ alone, received by grace through faith alone in the gospel, never by heritage.
Similar Does Not Mean the Same
This is where most of the confusion comes from. Some of Israel’s things sound very much like things God has given the Body of Christ.
Israel has an adoption. The Body of Christ also has an adoption (Rom 8:23, Gal 4:5, Eph 1:5).
Israel is promised righteousness. We are made the righteousness of God in Christ by grace through faith in the gospel (2Co 5:21, Rom 4:4-5, 22-25).
Israel is promised salvation. We possess salvation in Christ (2Th 2:13-17).
Israel is promised forgiveness. We have forgiveness through his blood (Eph 1:7).
Israel has a resurrection hope. We also have a resurrection hope (1Co 15:21-58).
If you read those lists quickly, side by side, it becomes tempting to blend the two together and think they’re the same. But similarity does not erase distinction. The words overlap, but the substance behind them does not.
Israel’s adoption concerns their place in God’s prophetic purpose for inheriting the earth as the sons of God. Our adoption concerns our position as sons and heirs of God in Christ and the redemption of our body. Israel was given earthly covenants, and Gentiles were “strangers from the covenants of promise” and are made nigh by the cross and the blood of Christ in a new body, not into an already established nation (Eph 2:11-17). Israel was promised a land and a kingdom on the earth. The Body of Christ is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, and our conversation is in heaven (Eph 1:3, Php 3:20). Many of Israel’s promises came with covenants, signs, ordinances, and a law that governed how they were received with conditions. Ours come by grace through faith, apart from the deeds of the law, to a body that did not exist until the mystery was revealed (Rom 3:28, Eph 3:1-9, Rom 16:25-26, Col 1:24-29).
Israel knew Christ according to his earthly ministry as the promised Messiah. We know him no more after the flesh, but as the risen, glorified Christ and head of the Body according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret since the world began (Rom 16:25, 2Co 5:16-17).
There are similarities, because both programs find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. But the fact that two heirs share the same Father does not mean they share the same inheritance. Fulfillment in Christ does not merge Israel and the Body of Christ into one thing.
What Claiming Costs
Replacement theology takes the confusion a step further, turning the church into “spiritual Israel” and helping itself to the whole list. It is worth noticing that the claiming is often selective: the blessings attached to those covenants are claimed eagerly, while the curses attached to the very same covenants are quietly left where they lie, or they are used as a conditional, legalistic tool to keep people in line through fear of losing what Christ already purchased.
The practical damage runs deeper than the theological error. A believer living on promises that were never made to him is standing on something that will not hold. When the prosperity does not come, when the healing does not come, when the land and the throne and the earthly deliverance do not come, he concludes that God has failed him, doesn’t love him, his own faith was too small, or maybe he’s not even saved. None of that is true. The promises simply were not his to claim. God has been faithful to every word He ever spoke, to the people to whom He spoke it.
Read the Context
The solution is not to throw away the rest of the Bible. We believe every word of it. The solution is to ask the questions a Bible student should always be asking:
Who is speaking?
To whom are they speaking?
About what?
What is being promised?
When will it be fulfilled?
Under what instructions or terms was it given?
Only then, when we consider the Bible dispensationally, in light of the progressive revelation of God’s word, can we properly understand, apply, and learn from the Bible without confusion or double-mindedness.
When Romans 9 says, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth,” we should believe exactly what it says. Israel’s things are Israel’s things. If a promise was not given to you in the Scripture, you have no claim on it.
But God has not shortchanged the Body of Christ by giving us something different. We have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:3). We are complete in him (Col 2:10). We are justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:24). We are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise until we are resurrected to glory (Eph 1:13-14). Nothing is able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:39). These things were not borrowed from Israel. They were hid in God and kept secret since the world began, then made known through the apostle Paul for the Body of Christ for our belief and adherence (Rom 16:25, Eph 3:9).
We do not need to take Israel’s promises in order to be blessed. We simply need to understand and believe what God has actually given to us in Christ. What was given to you is more than enough, it is secure, and it is already yours in full by grace.
