The Unity of Church in All Ages

There is one aspect of the Church's unity of which we have not spoken. That is the unity of the church in the Old and New Testaments.

This aspect of the Church's unity means that Israel is the Church of the Old Testament and the Church of the New Testament is the true Israel of God. Few seem to see this, yet the Bible is clear on the matter.

That Israel is the Church and the Church Israel is also an important truth. It lies at the root of a defense of infant baptism (one Church, one covenant, one sign of the covenant). Likewise, it is essential in avoiding the errors of dispensationalism (the teaching that Israel and the Church are two different entities and have two different futures).

Acts 7:38 shows us clearly that Israel and the Church are one. There Israel is called "the church in the wilderness" (and the usual NT word for the church is used).

This is also clear from Philippians 3:3, where Paul, speaking to a Gentile church, says: "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (cf. also Rom. 3:28-29, Gal. 3:29). All who worship God in spirit and love our Lord Jesus are the Jews.

As far as the Bible is concerned, being a real Jew has nothing to do with physical descent from Abraham, i.e., with one's genealogy and natural birth. As far as that goes, the Bible says, "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Jn. 3:9). A real Jew, according to Scripture is one who is born by the power of the promise (Rom. 9:8), who has the same justifying faith as Abraham (Gal. 3:8-9), who, like Abraham, belongs to Christ (Gal. 3:29), and who is circumcised in heart (Rom. 3:29). The rest are not counted as Jews (Rom. 3:28) and have nothing to do with the promises (Acts 2:39).

The unity of Israel and the Church is also clear from Hosea 1:10-11 and its quotation in Romans 9:24-26 and from Amos 9:11-15 and its quotation in Acts 15:13-17. In the Hosea passage the Word of God makes reference to the Ten Tribes and to their future restoration. Romans 9:24-26 shows us that this prophecy is fulfilled in the gathering of the New Testament church from both Jews and Gentiles.

In Amos 9:11-15 we read again of the restoration of the nation of Israel to its own land and to the rebuilding of the temple. Acts 15, however, makes clear that this is fulfilled in the gathering of the Gentiles into the New Testament church. The building again of the tabernacle of David, which was fallen down and ruined (vs. 16) refers, according to James, to God's visiting the Gentiles "to take out of them a people for his name" (vs. 14).

It is only when we see this truth that we will begin to realize that the OT as well as the New is for us as NT Christians. Its promises, even its threats, are not for some foreign people with whom we have nothing to do, but are for us and for our children. What a difference that makes in the reading of the OT! Then we do not read with a veil over our eyes but with understanding and profit.