Romans 1:16  “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: FIRST TO THE JEW, then to the Gentile.”

In 8 articles 659 – 666, we argued why the following verses do not teach that the Church replaces Israel (in other words, why Replacement and Covenant Theology fail as a hermeneutic).

The opposing theological position to Replacement and Covenant Theology is called Dispensational Theology, which is a  framework to interpret biblical history as divided into distinct periods called dispensations, during which God interacts with humanity in different ways.

Dispensationalism has 2 key characteristics that differentiate it from Replacement or Covenant Theology:

1. Literal Interpretation: Dispensationalists use a literal interpretation of the Bible, interpreting prophecy and apocalyptic literature as they would in everyday language.
2. Distinction Between Israel and the Church: There is a separate role for Israel and the Church, with each experiencing God’s plan in its own time

In this article, we will go through why Dispensational Theology is the best hermeneutic to interpret how He deals with the Jew first and then the Gentile, as this week’s verse in Romans 1:16 explains.

Although the Gospel is most definitely for all people, it was first revealed to – and intended for – the Jewish people before it was revealed to the Gentiles.

There is a clear way to demonstrate how God through the ages has established His ultimate plan for salvation in Jesus Christ (the Gospel) by tying together Genesis, Galatians and Romans. We will do this in Article #668.

First, let’s take a journey through Scripture to see how God has dealt and will deal with His people Israel.

Passages on Israel make up over 80% of the Bible, where the Jews are described in many ways:

1. God’s people chosen by Him through Covenant Oaths sworn to their forefathers (Deuteronomy 7:6-7)
2. God’s people through whom He demonstrated His love for all mankind (Romans 9:3-5) è See below
3. God’s people through whom He blessed all mankind (Genesis 22:18, 26:4)
4. God’s people through whom He blessed all mankind with the Messiah (Deuteronomy 18:18-19,    John 12:49-50, Acts 3:22-26) è See Table 1 below
5. God’s people through whom Jesus the Messiah was born, as a Jew under Jewish law, who lived a perfect life according to Jewish law, who died as the one-time and forever sacrifice to fulfill the Jewish law on behalf of all who place their faith in Him (Galatians 4:4-5, Hebrews 9:14-15, 23-28)
6. God’s people were His Gospel priority to whom Jesus the Messiah was sent (Romans 1:16,          John 1:11) è See Table 2 on next page
7. God’s people He has not cast away but has a remnant according to grace (Romans 11:1-5)
8. God’s people He provokes to salvation using Gentile believers (Romans 11:11-15)
9. God’s believing branches regrafted to the olive tree after broken off for unbelief (Romans 11:17-24)
10. God’s people He was saving (Paul went to local synagogue) while saving Gentiles (Acts 17:17)
11. God’s people who are neither better nor worse than Gentiles – all need a Savior (Romans 3:23)
12. God’s people who, along with Gentiles, make up God’s family only in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:28)
13. God’s people to who, at Christ’s Return, will be saved when they see Him (Romans 11:26, Zechariah 12:10) and when God gives them a new heart and new spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-14, Ezekiel 11:19).

God’s Love Demonstrated to the World through ISRAEL

Romans 9:3-5  “I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain (notice in PRESENT – not past – tense)…

1. the adoption,
2. the glory,
3. the COVENANTS,
4. the giving of the law,
5. the service of God, and
6. the PROMISES; of whom are(notice in PRESENT – not past – tense) the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.”

Table 1 è God’s Blessing of the Messiah through ISRAEL

Deuteronomy 18:18-19  “I will raise up for them (ISRAEL) a Prophet like you from among their brethren (ISRAEL); I will put My words in His mouth; He shall speak to them all that I COMMAND HIM. It shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.”

John 12:49-50  “I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me GAVE ME A COMMAND, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.”

Acts 3:22-26  “Moses truly said to the FATHERS, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you (ISRAEL) a Prophet like me from your brethren (ISRAEL). Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people (ISRAEL).’ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. You (ISRAEL)are sons of the prophets, and of the COVENANT which God made with our FATHERS, saying to ABRAHAM, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ TO YOU (ISRAEL) FIRST, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you (ISRAEL), in turning away every one of you (ISRAEL) from your iniquities.”

Table 2 è The Jews = God’s Gospel Priority to whom Jesus the Messiah was Sent

Romans 1:16  “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: FIRST TO THE JEW, then to the Gentile.”

Acts 13:46 “Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to YOU (ISRAEL) FIRST; but since you (ISRAEL) reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, WE TURN TO THE GENTILES (see Romans 11:11).”

John 1:11 “Jesus came to His OWN PEOPLE (ISRAEL), and His own did not receive Him.”

Matthew 10:5-7 “These 12 Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ‘Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Matthew 15:24  “Jesus said, ‘I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL.’”

Mark 7:25-27  “A woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Gentile, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, “Let the CHILDREN (ISRAEL) BE FILLED FIRST, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs (Gentiles).”

Luke 1:67-77  “His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: ‘Blessed is the Lord God of ISRAEL, for He has visited and redeemed HIS PEOPLE ISRAEL, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us (ISRAEL) in the house of David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our (ISRAEL’s) fathers and to remember His holy COVENANT, the OATH which He SWORE to our (ISRAEL’s) father Abraham: to grant us (ISRAEL) that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our (ISRAEL’s) life. And you, child (John the Baptist), will be called the prophet of the Highest; you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to HIS PEOPLE (ISRAEL) by the remission of THEIR (ISRAEL’s) sins…’”

Luke 2:25-26 “There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the CONSOLATION OF ISRAEL (see Isaiah 61:3), and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. So, he came by the Spirit into the temple.”

Luke 2:36-38  “There was one, Anna, a prophetess… of the tribe of Asher. She had lived with a husband 7 years from her virginity; this woman was a widow of 84 years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for REDEMPTION IN JERUSALEM.”

Luke 19:41-44 “As He drew near, He saw the city (JERUSALEM)and wept over it, saying, “If you (ISRAEL)had known, even you, especially in this YOUR DAY, the things that make for YOUR PEACE! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of YOUR VISITATION.”

Luke 24:44-47  “Jesus said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Romans 11:11  “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, SALVATION HAS COME TO THE GENTILES (see Acts 13:46).”

Romans 11:26-27  “And so ALL ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS (see Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 11:19-20).”

Jeremiah 31:31-34 “The days are coming, says the Lord, when 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 (ISRAEL’s) fathers in the day that I took THEM (ISRAEL) by the hand to lead THEM (ISRAEL) out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which THEY (ISRAEL) broke, though I was a husband to THEM (ISRAEL). But this is the covenant that I will make with the HOUSE OF ISRAEL after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in THEIR (ISRAEL’s) minds, and write it on THEIR (ISRAEL’s) hearts; and I will be THEIR (ISRAEL’s) God, and THEY (ISRAEL) shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for THEY (ISRAEL) all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive THEIR (ISRAEL’s) iniquity, and THEIR (ISRAEL’s) sin I will remember no more.”

Ezekiel 11:19-20  “I will give THEM (ISRAEL) one heart, and I will put a new spirit within THEM (ISRAEL), and take the stony heart out of THEIR (ISRAEL’s) flesh, and give THEM (ISRAEL) a heart of flesh, that THEY (ISRAEL) may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and THEY (ISRAEL) shall be My people, and I will be THEIR (ISRAEL’s) God.”

Isaiah 61:2b-3  “To COMFORT all who mourn. CONSOLE THOSE WHO MOURN IN ZION (see Luke 2:25-26, Isaiah 40:1-2), to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they (ISRAEL) may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Isaiah 40:1-2 “’COMFORT, COMFORT My people (ISRAEL)’, says your God (see Luke 2:25-26, Isaiah 61:2b-3). ‘Speak tenderly to JERUSALEM; proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed – her sin has been paid for. For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’ The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed (see John 1:14); and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’”

Zechariah 10:6-8 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them (ISRAEL) back, Because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them (ISRAEL) aside; for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them (ISRAEL). Those of EPHRAIM shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as if with wine. Yes, their (ISRAEL’s) children shall see it and be glad; their (ISRAEL’s) heart shall rejoice in the Lord. I will whistle for them (ISRAEL) and gather them (ISRAEL), for I will redeem them (ISRAEL); they (ISRAEL) shall increase as they (ISRAEL) once increased.

Conclusion: Scripture claims that Jesus Christ was sent first to evangelize Israel, and then the Gentiles, as the promised Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament!

Scripture also claims that Israel – both its religious elite and the nation – rejected Jesus as their Savior and King and sent Him to the Romans to be crucified.

Because Israel rejected Jesus as their Messiah, “Replacement & Covenant Theology” claims:

1. The Jews are no longer God’s chosen people; God has no future plans for the nation of Israel

• The New Testament Church is the “new Israel,” replacing Israel and inheriting God’s promises initially made to Israel in the Old Testament

• Ethnic Israel is forever excluded from the promises (the Jews do not inherit the land of Israel)

• God’s many Old Testament Covenant promises made to the patriarchs are not literal but instead are “spiritual”, to be ultimately fulfilled in the New Testament Church.

The problem with these claims: there are clear passages such as Romans 11:26, Zechariah 12:10, Jeremiah 31:31-14, and Ezekiel 11:19-20 explaining that national Israel will be saved when they see Jesus Christ at His Return, and when God gives them a new heart and new spirit.

This alternative – and correct – interpretation of Scripture on Israel – “Dispensational Theology” – says God has a separate role for Israel and the Church, with each experiencing God’s plan in its own time.

“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance”_Article #667