Chapter 9: Our Higher Spiritual Calling (Who are the Israel of God?)

By Hazel Holland

In our study to determine who are the "Israel of God?” we have found that the election of the physical nation of Israel (Israel after the flesh) was but a sign of a higher spiritual calling. This calling is not based on the lineage of Abraham, but it is based on the faith of Abraham. The following Scripture reveals that this was God's plan even before the creation of the world.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Jew and Gentile alike, children of Abraham by faith in the promised Seed are being called to enter into Christ and become part of His new creation, the “Israel of God”. We who belong to Christ no longer put our faith in our law-keeping (legalism), or in flesh-based circumcision (Judaism), but only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:14-16 (NKJV).

Notice that these verses reveal that those who are "in Christ Jesus" are the “Israel of God." Since Jesus Christ is the new Creation, we are a new creation in Him. As God’s new creation we can only boast of His great salvation.

In our study we have seen that the Old Testament prophets spoke of the great salvation that God would provide in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham. That righteousness, like the righteousness of Abraham, was not a righteousness which men earned by their law-keeping, but it was a righteousness which God Himself provided through the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Now as we read the Old Testament Scriptures and interpret them in the light of God’s final revelation in Christ, we see that Jesus is not only the new Creation, but Jesus is also the Chosen One, and the new Israel.

Furthermore, since the cross, Christ’s flesh became the new Temple which fulfills and replaces the old temple in Jerusalem. Only through this new Temple may you and I (Jew and Gentile alike) enter God’s kingdom.

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…” Hebrews 10: 19-22 (NASB).

Suddenly the Dispensationalist’s view of these prophecies being fulfilled in a future millennium begins to unravel. They vanish in Jesus Christ, because He has already fulfilled them!

This means that in Christ, you and I are also chosen. Based on our higher spiritual calling in Christ you and I are also the new Israel who will inherit every spiritual blessing in Christ. May God’s mercy and peace rest upon the true “Israel of God”, His very “treasured possession”, whom He keeps as the “apple of His eye” (Deuteronomy 7:6; 26:18; Psalm 17:8).