This identification of the church as God’s New Covenant Israel is not arbitrary speculation. The NT itself specifically speaks of the church as God’s temple, God’s Jerusalem, and God’s Israel today. In 2 Cor 6:16 Paul says, “What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God,” God’s dwelling place on earth today. Paul also says, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? … For the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are” (1 Cor 3:16–17; see Eph 2:21–22; 1 Pet 2:5). Though it has a physical presence in this world, the church is nevertheless a
spiritual temple, since its identity as such is based on our spiritual relation to God through Jesus Christ.
The church is also God’s true Jerusalem today—a spiritual, heavenly Jerusalem, in contrast with the physical city. Paul makes this very distinction in Gal 4:21–31, where he says Hagar and Sarah represent God’s two covenants. The Old Covenant, which proceeded from Mount Sinai, “corresponds to the present Jerusalem,” whose children (the Jews) are in bondage (v. 25). The New Covenant, though, corresponds to “the Jerusalem above,” which is the mother of Christians who dwell in freedom (v. 26). The former is the “present” Jerusalem in the sense that it belongs to the old creation, to the pre-Messianic level of existence. The latter is the “above” Jerusalem in the sense of “heavenly.” In other words, it belongs to the new Messianic level of reality, the new creation begun through Christ’s death and resurrection. It is truly the
spiritual Jerusalem, since its citizens are “born according to the Spirit” and not “according to the flesh” (v. 29).
Hebrews 12:18–24 makes a similar contrast between OT Israel, a physical nation attached to a physical mountain (Sinai); and New Covenant Israel, those who “have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (vv. 18–22). The latter is specifically identified with “the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” and with everything spiritual (v. 23). Christians are citizens of this heavenly Jerusalem (Phil 3:20). See references to “the new Jerusalem” in Rev 3:12; 21:2,10.
If the church is God’s new temple and God’s new Jerusalem, we are not surprised to see it identified in the NT as God’s new Israel. The pre-Messianic Israelites took pride in being physically descended from Abraham (Matt 3:9; John 8:33,39; 2 Cor 11:22), but the true Messianic Israel of the new era is composed of those who are related to Abraham
spiritually. “Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham” (Gal 3:7). Jesus Christ is the one true seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16); but all who believe in Christ and are baptized into him take on his identity and become one with him (Gal 3:26–28) and therefore are true descendants of Abraham also: “And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29).
The true Israel exists not on the level of the physical but on the level of the spiritual: “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” (Rom 2:28–29). This distinction between the true (spiritual) Israel and the false (physical) Israel is also emphasized in Phil 3:2–3: “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
In view of this there can be no doubt that Paul is referring to the church when he speaks of “the Israel of God” in Gal 6:15–16: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God” (NIV). The words of ordination originally applied to physical Israel (Exod 19:5–6) now apply to this new Israel, the church: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Pet 2:9).
All who accept Jesus as Messiah belong to this Messianic Israel, whether they be Jews by birth or Gentiles by birth. God is no longer interested in this genealogical distinction. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28; see Rom 10:12–13; 1 Cor 12:13; Col 3:11). Those formerly known as Jews and Gentiles are now all part of the same group (Eph 2:11–16); they are all branches on the same tree (Rom 11:17–24).
In view of this abundant and emphatic teaching that the church is God’s New Covenant Israel, how can anyone presume to limit OT prophecy about Israel simply to pre-Messianic, physical Israel? Such an approach is not true to the nature of prophetic language, and especially it is not true to the nature of reality as such. The new Israel is just as real as the old one, and in a sense is the true Israel for which the old one was just a forerunner. Thus it is only natural to expect much OT prophecy about Israel, Jerusalem (Zion), and the temple to refer to this spiritual, Messianic Israel, the church.
In fact on several occasions the NT itself applies such OT prophecy about Israel to the church. A main example is Jer 31:31–34, where God prophesies that the Old Covenant will be replaced by a new and different one. The key point here is that God promised to make this new covenant “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (v. 31). I have heard literalists declare that this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, since God has not made such a new covenant yet with
the house of Israel, namely, with physical Israel. This well illustrates the absurdity of the literalist approach, since the NT makes it clear that this prophecy has already been fulfilled. Christ has already established this new covenant through the shedding of his blood (Luke 22:20), specifically in fulfillment of Jer 31:31–34 (see Heb 8:7–13; 10:11–18). Thus “the house of Israel” with whom this covenant has been made must refer to the
new Israel, the church.
Jack Cottrell,
The Faith Once for All: Bible Doctrine for Today (Joplin, MO: College Press Pub., 2002), 467–470.