The Identity of “Israel”

Jesus & Israel: One Covenant or Two?Who then is Israel? The answer is never sim­ply a mat­ter of ances­try. Con­se­quently, the cen­tral issue is the New Tes­ta­ment is not really Jew ver­sus Gen­tile. Instead, Israel is the peo­ple cho­sen by God and called to respond in faith and obe­di­ence. Israel is the Peo­ple on whom the Lord sets his love (Deuteron­omy 7:7).

Such also is Matthew’s teach­ing. Jesus, a lit­eral descen­dant of Abra­ham, him­self a Jew, is the Israel who is the object of God’s love. He is cho­sen by God and responds in per­fect obe­di­ence, ful­fill­ing the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17) and all right­eous­ness (3:15). Since Jesus is the cor­po­rate rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Israel, God now rec­og­nizes as Israel all who respond in faith and obe­di­ence to the pres­ence and will of God revealed in Jesus. Of course, the first to so respond are in fact Jews. Jesus’ con­dem­na­tion of Israel is not a blan­ket con­dem­na­tion of all Jews but only of those who do not believe. The crowds that fol­low him do not receive from him the same rad­i­cal judge­ment as is pro­nounced on the lead­ers of the nation. Instead, Jesus has com­pas­sion on the crowds as “sheep with­out a shep­herd” and declares his dis­ci­ples that “the har­vest is plen­ti­ful” (Matthew 9:36–38). So long as they do not reject Jesus, the pos­si­bil­ity of becom­ing Jesus’ dis­ci­ples remains open to the peo­ple. Will they accept the def­i­n­i­tion of Israel and the ful­fill­ment of the promises revealed in Jesus? Will they com­pre­hend the mys­tery of the king­dom? That was and con­tin­ues to be the only ques­tion that decides the iden­tity of Israel: Not ances­try but faith, not human achieve­ment but God’s gift, call­ing, and elec­tion, acknowl­edged in Jesus, son of Abra­ham, son of David, Son of God.
David Hol­w­erda, Jesus & Israel: One Covenant or Two? (pgs. 56–57)