Israel is one of the most misunderstood realities in all of Scripture. It is often treated as a political entity, an ethnic lineage, or an unfinished divine project waiting for a future restoration. Yet the apostles speak of Israel not as an unresolved promise, but as a mystery that has already been unveiled in Christ.
The confusion arises because Israel was never meant to be interpreted as an end in itself. From its very beginning, Israel functioned as a vessel of revelation rather than the object of fulfillment. To read Israel apart from Christ is to preserve the shadow while missing the substance it was designed to reveal.
Scripture does not present Israel as God’s final people, but as God’s chosen instrument through which He would reveal His Son.
Israel According to the Flesh
The commonly accepted reading of Israel focuses on natural descent. Abraham’s bloodline, national identity, territorial promises, and covenantal laws are treated as permanent realities that continue alongside the gospel. In this view, Israel and the church exist as parallel entities, each with distinct promises and destinies.
Yet the New Testament directly challenges this assumption.
Paul writes, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel” (Romans 9:6). This single statement dismantles the idea that physical descent alone defines Israel in God’s redemptive purpose. From the beginning, God distinguished between Israel according to the flesh and Israel according to promise.
Even within the Old Testament narrative, not every descendant of Abraham inherited the promise. Ishmael was born according to the flesh. Isaac was born according to promise. Esau emerged from the same womb as Jacob, yet the covenant continued through one and not the other. These distinctions were not arbitrary. They were prophetic.
They revealed that Israel was never ultimately about genealogy, but about divine election pointing forward to something greater.
The Law and the Failure of Israel
Israel received what no other nation received. The covenants, the law, the priesthood, the promises, and the oracles of God were entrusted to them (Romans 9:4). Yet Scripture is unambiguous about the outcome. Israel, pursuing righteousness through the law, did not attain it.
“The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). The problem was never the law. The problem was that the law could reveal righteousness but could not produce it.
Israel’s repeated failure was not an accident of history. It was a theological necessity. God was not attempting to create a righteous nation through law. He was revealing the impossibility of righteousness apart from faith.
Israel’s history becomes intelligible only when seen as a divine demonstration. Through sacrifices that never perfected, priests who always died, and commandments that condemned as often as they instructed, God was teaching humanity that righteousness must be received, not achieved.
Israel’s inability was the message.
Israel as a Living Prophecy
Israel was not merely a nation. Israel was prophecy embodied.
The exodus revealed the need for deliverance, but not its final form. The wilderness revealed dependence on God, but not its completion. The land revealed rest, but not true rest. The temple revealed God’s dwelling, but not permanent union.
Each element testified beyond itself.
Jesus confirms this when He declares that Moses wrote of Him (John 5:46). The prophets did not merely predict Christ. They prefigured Him. Israel’s entire national story was a shadow cast by a coming reality.
This is why Jesus reenacts Israel’s history. He comes out of Egypt. He passes through the waters. He is tested in the wilderness. He gives the true law from the mountain. He establishes the true temple in His body.
Israel was a pattern. Christ is the fulfillment.
Christ the True Israel
The unveiling occurs when Scripture reveals that what Israel failed to be, Christ fully became.
Where Israel was called God’s son and failed in obedience, Christ is declared God’s Son and fulfills all righteousness. Where Israel broke covenant repeatedly, Christ establishes an unbreakable covenant in His blood. Where Israel could not keep the law, Christ fulfills it entirely.
Matthew applies to Christ the words originally spoken of Israel. “Out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2:15). This is not poetic reuse. It is theological declaration. Jesus does not merely resemble Israel. He is Israel brought to completion.
Paul confirms this reality when he states that all the promises of God find their Yes and Amen in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). There are no promises left outside of Him. No covenant remains unfinished apart from Him.
Israel does not continue toward fulfillment. Israel arrives at fulfillment in Christ.
The Remnant and the Mystery of Faith
The New Testament does not deny Jewish inclusion. It redefines it.
Paul speaks of a remnant according to grace, not lineage (Romans 11:5). Faith, not ethnicity, becomes the defining marker of belonging. Those who believe are grafted into the true olive tree. Those who rely on natural descent are cut off, not because of ethnicity, but because of unbelief.
This is not replacement theology. It is fulfillment theology.
The natural branches are not rejected because they are Jewish. They are excluded only insofar as they reject Christ. Likewise, Gentiles are not included because of merit, but because they are united to Christ by faith.
The mystery is not that Israel has a future apart from Christ. The mystery is that Gentiles are included in Israel through Christ.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek… for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:28–29).
The Israel of God
Paul concludes his argument not by pointing forward to a restored nation, but by identifying a present reality. He speaks of “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16).
This Israel is not defined by circumcision or law, but by new creation. It is composed of those who walk according to the rule of the cross. Those who glory not in flesh, but in Christ crucified.
The mystery of Israel is not geopolitical. It is Christological.
Israel was never abandoned. Israel was fulfilled.
What began as a nation ends as a person. What was once written on stone is now written on hearts. What was confined to a land now fills the earth through the body of Christ.
The shadow has served its purpose. The substance has come.
