Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Monday, February 28, 2011 3:32:28 PM
God constituted Israel as a special nation apart from all other nations, with national promises. To inherit those promises, one was physically born into the nation and kept the national laws.
Israel also stands as a prophecy, a foreshadow, of the true Israel to come, who is Jesus Christ. To be a part of this Israel required something other than being a physical descendant of Abraham. One must be the spiritual heir of Abraham, having Abraham’s faith. Physical descent is not sufficient.
Every aspect of Israel’s life fulfilled both of these relationships at the same time. For example...
The ten commandments are both a national covenant for a national people, and an expression of moral law which Christ came to fulfill.
Circumcision is a mark of the national people, and a type of the need for the circumcision of the heart, which is a regeneration accomplished in us through divine application of the work of Christ.
Passover is a special holiday, commemorating a national deliverance from Egypt. It also foreshadows the ultimate deliverance from sin and death which would be accomplished in Christ.
The church, as it stands in Jesus Christ, is the fulfillment of the second relationship in the New Covenant. The Old Covenant became obsolete at the resurrection and ascension of Christ and practically passed away at the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem along with the Jewish temple [Hebrews 8:13].