Replaced or Grafted

Replaced or Grafted - Bill Wilson -

www.dailyjot.com

 

The historic US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has drawn praise and excitement from many corners of Christianity, but criticism from other sectors. At the core of the debate is what is called Replacement Theology. Replacement Theology, also called Supersessionism, is the doctrine that the Christian Church has succeeded or replaced the Israelites as the definitive people of God and that the New Covenant supersedes the Mosaic Covenant. It gets into a lot of commentary about who are the Jews, how they were divorced by God, that Israel is not Israel and Jerusalem is not the same Jerusalem that is in the Bible. This is misguided. At the risk of drawing ire, let me explain my position.

 

The four main covenants that God made with Israel were The Abrahamic Covenant, The Mosaic Covenant, The Davidic Covenant, and, yes, the New Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant is an unconditional pledge by God that he would make Abraham a great nation and by his descendants all the nations of the earth would be blessed. It is the foundation of God's plan of salvation. The Mosaic Covenant is a conditional two-sided legal agreement between God and Israel similar to a marriage contract where God's people must keep certain requirements to continue to inhabit the land. Exile from the land was punishment for not keeping the covenant, but a temporary one. According to the prophets, the people will repent at the end of days and be re-gathered to the land (Deuteronomy 4:29-31, Jeremiah 32:37-42, Ezekiel 36:24).

 

The Davidic Covenant is an unconditional promise (2 Samuel 7:8-17) built upon the Abrahamic covenant and provides a King from David's line to restore and rule over Israel in that land as long as the heavens and earth remain (Jeremiah 33:14-26). The New Covenant is also unconditional where God places his Word on the hearts of the Israelites; He is their God, and they are His people; God restores His people to their land; He brings justice to the earth through Messiah, and provides salvation to the Gentiles, which is the mystery of the Gospel found in Ephesians 3:1-7. The New Covenant is actually first announced in Isaiah 59:16-21, with verse 20 saying, "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord."

 

Jeremiah 31:31-37 is the most detailed of all references to the New Covenant, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in that day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt: which my covenant they broke...I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jesus spoke of the New Covenant at the last supper as ratified by his blood. The New Covenant fulfills, but in no way replaces, the other covenants.

 

The New Covenant with Israel was through the mystery of the gospel, and would include the Gentiles into the full manifestation of God's plan of redemption, as fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of God's promise in Christ (Ephesians 3:1-10). In Romans 11, Paul warns the Gentiles to not cast away the Jews or "boast against the branches," "For if the root be holy, so are the branches (v. 16)." Paul says that Gentiles are grafted in and of the Jews in verse 23, "And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again." Replacement Theology is built on the premise that God will not keep his covenants to restore His people to the land of Israel which is found throughout the prophets. Either you believe God keeps his word or you don't. Either you are grafted or you are not.