I Am A Jew
“Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Deuteronomy 30:6
I have been reflecting on the fact that “Christians” are in fact the true Jews. Wrapping my mind around this has has had the most profound impact on my walk as a follower of Christ since comprehending (what can be comprehended) of the Doctrines of Grace. Studying the larger hermeneutical issues has put me in a spot to study the positions of Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology teaches, as opposed to Dispensationalism, the doctrine of Supersessionism which is the belief that “Christianity” is the fulfillment of Old Testament Judaism and today the true Jews are those that follow Christ.
Covenant theology, a dominant theological schema within historical Calvinism, has as one of its core teachings the idea that the Old Testament nation of Israel is ultimately representative of the historical Christian church. The idea is that God’s original purpose was to create for himself one covenant people, which was to be found in the visible people of Israel in the years before Christ, and to be found in the visible church in the years after Christ. Because of Christ’s central role in keeping God’s side of the Covenant, most Calvinists would argue that the Jewish race is no longer considered the “people of God” since they do not accept Jesus as the Messiah.1
What’s amazing is that the Apostle Paul struggled deeply with these thoughts. He struggled whether the Word of God had failed (in terms of the covenantal promise made with the Old Testament Jews). I had always read Romans 9 solely for soteriological proof texts, but recently looking at the chapter on a wider scale, still proved unconditional election over and over again, but it showed a side of Paul that I hadn’t seen before. Listen to his struggle:
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 9:1–5
He says he has “sorrow” and “unceasing grief” over the thought of the ethnic Jews as no longer receiving the covenant with Abraham. He then comes to a conclusion in the next passage.
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
Romans 9:6–8
And Paul earlier in the 2nd chapter of Romans declares emphatically those who are the true Jews. (Note that Paul’s reference to the “letter,” are those with the Law but not the Spirit. In other words, Jews with only ethinc descendant but don’t follow Christ.)
And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
Romans 2:27–29
And of course I could go into Romans 11, but I won’t go into all that here. Namely because John Piper did a better job than I could have. I recommend the following sermons by him that have rocked my world (both are two parts).