1435 - "...And the Israel of God" Galatians 6:16

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1435. Well, it's Question and Answer Friday, and as promised, we're going to deal with a couple of passages that have been used by those of the replacement theology school, that is, supersessionists, those that believe that the Church of Jesus supersedes the Jewish nation, that God is finished with the Jews. Sometimes it's called fulfillment theology, just another name and type of replacement theology. But you either believe that God is not finished with the Jews and that he is going to use them in the future as he did in days in the past, and that now God is calling out from Jew and Gentile something that was a mystery hidden in the heart of God, a musterion, something that was hidden in the heart of God, ready to be revealed at the right time. And that time was after the resurrection of Jesus, his ascension, and at the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came to live in the life of every believer from that time onward, which was another mystery Musterion, because those things were hidden. They were in the heart of God, the mind of God alone, although there were shadows, there were hints that these kinds of things were going to happen, it was unthinkable that Jew and Gentile would be in one body together and both would have access through the blood of Messiah, and that the Jew and Gentile would make up one body, the church. But that was not the end for the Jewish people. This was a mystery that was fulfilled and is being fulfilled as Jew and Gentile are being called into one body. But one day the Lord will use the Jew again. All you have to do is read the book of Daniel, read the book of Zechariah, of Ezekiel, of the book of Revelation in the New Testament, and many of the books that have passages where the Apostle Paul deals with Israel and the church. And two of those are passages in the book of Romans and the Book of Galatians, in Romans chapter 9 and verse 6, and then in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 16. I want to help you to just understand a couple of things that are just common sense. I'm a very simple man and I have a simple mind as I have studied the languages, as I've studied theology, and by the way, your theology and mind needs to arise out of the scripture, not have a theological paradigm that or template that we place onto the scripture and make it fit our particular persuasion, but rather let the word of God speak for itself. The word Israel is used seventy times in the New Testament, seventy-nine times if you include the word Israelite in most of our translations, that is English translations. It is obviously Israel every time, except in two controversial passages. Romans chapter 9 and verse 6 is one of those controversial passages where it says, But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they the children because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. Now those two verses simply are talking about not all the physical descendants of Jacob, that is Israel, inherited the promises of God. Now this is the only way that this can really make sense. Now, if you don't want to take my word for it, just read Romans 9, 10, and 11. And every time you see the word Israel, just replace it with the word church and see how discombobulated you come. You see, you can't have it both ways. It's either got to always be Israel, or you all of a sudden are inspired to spot which spots are Israel based upon your preconceived ideas about God's dealing with Israel. And so if you just take Israel in Romans 9, 10 and 11, which is where Paul is dealing with Israel and the church, that is, the Jew and the Gentile, both believing and unbelieving, if you will take Israel as Israel and the church as the church, Romans 9, 10 and 11 make a lot of sense. Otherwise it is just garbly gook. But even more to the point is Galatians chapter 6 and verse 16, where there are some translations, like the NIV, that says, Peace and mercy to all who follow the rule, and then it says to the Israel of God. But then the revised Standard Version says, Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God. Both of those translations are good in some of their translations throughout. They're not all bad, as some would have you to believe. They get some things right, but they get this wrong because they left out a key word, and it's the Greek word chi. And when you look at this particular translation, you can look at at almost any of them, and you'll see it says, now in the New Living Translation, you do not have that, and I don't know why it decides to translate it like it did. It is literally translated, and as many who walk by this rule or live by this rule, peace on them and mercy. And that's chi, that means also primarily, on the Israel of God. You say, wait just a minute, it can also be a coordinating conjunction where chi and can mean this as well. Well, of course it can. But when you are talking about the basic rule for biblical interpretation, one of those cardinal rules, one of the basic rules for biblical interpretation is you never interpret a clear passage with an unclear one, but rather an unclear passage always with a clear one. Now what do I mean by that? If a passage can grammatically, syntactically, linguistically be translated more than one way correctly, that's a controversial passage. In other words, it's unclear. It could go this way or that way, and either one be right. That's not what you base your theology on. You base your theology on a passage that can only be interpreted one way. Now I've have shared this multiple times concerning Acts chapter 2 and verse 38, where you again have a word that can be translated more than one way. Where Peter says, repent, that is second person plural. It's an imperative, where it says, everyone is to repent, because the people had just asked, what must we do to be saved when they heard Peter's great message about Jesus the Messiah? And he said, Everyone needs to repent, and then he got singular and specific and said, And every one of you who repent need to be immersed. That's what the word baptizo means, not transliterated baptize, but it means to immerse, to dip, to bury. And so he says, All of you, every one of you need to repent. And those of you who have repented, specifically, you need to be immersed. And you need to do this because you have received the forgiveness of sins. Now you say, wait just a minute, it could also be translated another way in order to. Yes, it's translated in our Bibles for for the remission of sins. Well, for uh just like ice, the Greek preposition can mean because of or because you have or in order to. When you go to the store for bread, do you go in order to get bread or because you have bread? Well, obviously in order to get bread. But it also could mean because of. You say, well, I don't get that. Well, when you go to the store for bread in order to get bread, while you're there, you might want to get gas for your car. Do you get gas for your car in order to get a car or because you have one? Well, because you have one. It's the same preposition for in Greek, it's the word ice. And so that is unclear linguistically. It could go either way and either one be used correctly. So what we have to do is look for passages that deal with the same subject matter, hopefully, and uh get an answer where it's just one way. Well, in the book of Acts, chapter 16, the scripture says that the Philippian jailer asked Paul and uh Silas the same question that was asked Peter, what must I do to be saved? And the Apostle Paul said, Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, commit to the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. There's not a drop of water there. Now that's a clear passage, and it's clear as can be. And so you take the clear passage and interpret the unclear one. So it must be you need to be baptized because you believe, because the way that a person is saved is by trusting in Jesus, believing in Jesus. Well, the same principle is true in Galatians 6, 16. As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon you and upon the Israel of God. So the Apostle Paul is simply including those Jewish believers who believe in Yeshua in Jesus, and like the Gentile followers, they are part of the body of Christ. So Paul is giving greetings to the general church, which is made up of believing Gentiles and upon the Israel of God. Because as Romans chapter 9 and verse 6 says, not every Jew is going to heaven, not every Jew is saved, only those who are followers of Jesus, and they are the true Israel. They are the Israel of God. Not that God has cast off the rest of them, but they have failed to be in recognition of and acknowledgement of Jesus as the Messiah. Now this is not really hard. And again, what I would say to you is just take the plain sense. And where Israel talks about Israel, let it be Israel. Now you say, but well, Pastor Tony, why would you be so adamant about that? Because there's a word for Israel. It's Israel. And there's a word for church. It's Ecclesia, it's translated church. But what we have tried to do is we've tried to take our theology and place it on the scriptures and make it say something that it doesn't. Again, just go back and read Romans 9, 10, 11, and every time you see the word Israel, put church there and see how that works out for you. And if you don't take it and be consistent with it, then who is the one that decides when it is the church and when it is Israel? Because you're mixing everything up and you don't have the authority to do that. Just take it as it is. Well, I hope this helps. And if it doesn't, I'll be happy to talk with you some more. I know some of you don't like me now because of this. That's okay. I'm going to continue to do what I'm doing, and I'm going to continue to do what I have believed for 50 years, not along the way, but more a staunch advocate for that belief system as I go along. And the more I've learned about the Greek language, the more I've learned about theology, the more I've learned about how God works and what his great redemption story is, the more I believe that the Israel is the people of God, and that those who are followers of Jesus, they are part of the church. But when the church is taken out of this world, which I believe it will be in the future, God is going to use Israel, the Jewish people, as his mouthpiece to win Jew and Gentile so that they can become followers of Jesus. This is what I believe the Bible teaches consistently and confluently from Genesis to Revelation. So for On the Way, this is Tony Chris.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at Tony C R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.