A TRANSCENDENT PRESENTATION OF ISRAEL

PART 2

 

SEVEN POINTS TO UNDERSTANDING ISRAEL

 

 

1. The Identities of Israel

Scripture clearly teaches the existence of two Israels. There is a spiritual Israel as well as a natural Israel. That two distinct Israels exist is put forth by the apostle Paul in his letters to the Romans and Galatians.

From the spiritual, hence eternal, perspective, Israel is firstly the name for the everlasting people of God chosen in the Lamb from before earth’s foundation—who will one day appear in permanent immortal glory on a fully recreated earth. Their everlasting kingdom will be called the Kingdom of Israel. They have and are an everlasting city called Jerusalem, better known as New Jerusalem.

This Israel is born from above, named from above, their city is from above, and their kingdom will one day manifest on earth through imperishable bodies under an eternal order. Referred to by Paul as the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16) and the Jews “of the heart” (Rom. 2:29), this spiritual Israel is drawn from all natural peoples of all times. In accord with their name—which broadly translated means, “to struggle, prevail and rule with God”—this Israel is climactically depicted in the Book of Revelation as God’s overcomers in creation. In this treatise, we will refer to this people henceforth as Eternal Israel.

The second Israel is natural Israel (or “national Israel”).² Descended from and named after the patriarch Israel (i.e., Jacob) who prevailed in struggle with an angel, this is the Israel of the present world, the Israel born from below, born of the flesh through promise to Abraham. Paul refers to this Israel as Israel “according to the flesh” (Rom 9:3; I Cor. 10:18). It is the Israel of which we all know the history so well, the Israel to and through whom the Lord of Glory came physically, and the Israel around which swirls the present controversies of the Middle East. (From the perspective of time, this is the first Israel, with the glorified Eternal Israel coming later.)

Importantly, there is no intrinsic essential relationship of identity between these two Israels. This does not mean there is no overlap between them. They absolutely do overlap. But it is not a guaranteed one-to-one correspondence. Speaking from the standpoint of identifying Eternal Israel, the apostles strongly delineate the mutual exclusivity of nature and non-universal correspondence of the two Israel identities:

 

For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.  Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children… it is not the natural children who are God’s children but it is the children of promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. —A man is not a Jew if he is one outwardly ... No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit—children born not of natural descent, ... but born of God. Rom. 9:6-8;—2:28,29—Jn. 1:13 NIV

 

Certain comparative points demonstrating the mutual exclusivity of the two Israel identities comes clear through this scripture:

 

• Natural Israel is born of human descent; but Eternal Israel is born of God, exclusively apart from human descent and without reference to the human descent of those it inhabits.

• Natural Israel’s identity is rooted in the flesh (soul and body); but Eternal Israel’s identity is rooted in the inner man or spirit.

• Natural Israel is national (racial) and compared internationally; Eternal Israel is without nationality but is transnational (or supranational) and without national (racial) comparison.

 

As for the outworking of these identities in the body of mankind, there never was and never will be a complete overlap between the two Israels. Many have belonged to the second Israel-from-below who never possessed the identity of or belonged to the first and future Israel-from-above, and vice versa.³

 

The following points further help clarify the relationship of the two Israels:

 

1. Eternal Israel both predates and outlives those who belong only to natural Israel. Eternal Israel is first in existence but second in earth manifestation where natural Israel is second in existence but first in earth manifestation. (Where natural Israel first manifested in the Patriarchal Age, Eternal Israel does not manifest until the Age to Come.

2. Those born only of natural Israel ultimately inherit death in a Christless eternity with all who never belonged to natural Israel and died without faith. These are all together referred to in scripture as “the world,” “the wicked” and the “seed of the serpent.” Those born of Eternal Israel inherit eternal life and all the earth with Christ, whether or not they were born into natural Israel. The scripture refers to all these as “the saints,” the “elect,” “the righteous” and “My People.”

3. One’s identity as a member of Eternal Israel is tested and revealed through a process of putting off attachment to all original natural identity, heritage and cultural trapping, regardless of one’s national origin. No one belonging to Eternal Israel, whether originally Jewish or Gentile, gets to keep his first natural trappings. As “new creations” in Christ, all who belong to Eternal Israel have their first identity supplanted, and with it their ties to their culture. The outworking of that cultural supplanting toward purified new identity in Christ alone is called discipleship.⁴

4. As a union of lineage-transcendent people being revealed since Christ that includes members from natural Israel, Eternal Israel is also referred to by Paul as the “One New Man” (Eph. 2:15). That newness is defined by transcendence of natural Jewish/Gentile heritages, not an amalgamation or “hybridization” of them. (As a completed sum from both the originally Gentile and Jewish peoples, Paul refers to Eternal Israel as “all Israel” [Rom. 11:26].)

 

The following chart summarizes the key distinctives between the two Israels:

 

Natural Israel	Eternal Israel
Born of man (humanly descended)	Born of God (without human descent)
Fleshly (physical and soulish)	Spiritual (awaiting physical glory)
National	Transnational (supranational)
Manifest now and in the Age to Come	To be manifested in the Age to Come
First in time / Second in existence	Second in time / First in existence

 

The mutually exclusive nature of Israel’s two identities stands as the bedrock proposition from which all the other propositions of the New Testament apostles as well as of these treatises is built. The remaining burden of my writing is to accurately expound how these identities otherwise do and do not relate or overlap in God’s past, present and future purposes.⁵

 

 

NEXT – PART 3: THE PURPOSE FOR NATURAL ISRAEL

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