future of Israel as a theological question, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2001 by Blaising, Craig A

When we read the Bible, taking Israel and God's relationship to her seriously, I think we find in the matter of divine providence, both a general providence-in which God works all things according to the council of his will-and a special providence overlaid upon the general in which he orders the ways of Israel in a special rather than general manner. We also find a personal engagement and relational reciprocity between God and Israel that goes beyond either this general or special providence and which cannot be simply dismissed as anthropomorphism but which finds its culminating expression in the revelation of this very God of Israel in and to Jesus the Messiah-a revelation of an even greater complexity, the revelation of the Triune God.

2. Anthropology. In the area of anthropology, having Israel truly in the divine plan confronts us, I think, with the myth of an undifferentiated humanity. Truly, we are all descended from Adam, but God thinks of us in the differentiated manner of the Abrahamic covenant. What happened to us in Christianity was not the universalizing of the particular. Rather, we are experiencing the fulfillment of the plan to bless the various kinds of peoples through the particular mediation of Abraham's seed. Perhaps this means that we need to give more attention to ethnic and racial distinction as a variety intended by God for the enriching of the whole human race. Paul says that when the redeemer comes, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob and all Israel will be saved and this will mean riches for the world. Note: the riches for the world are not simply a direct gift from God to individuals, but a mediated result from the fullness of Israel. We may need to give more serious attention to the role of Israel as a people now in the way God sovereignty blesses human life-not only the extension of salvation to Gentiles during Israel's hardening, but the regulation of the whole of Gentile life on the earth. Somehow, Israel and the Jewish people are taken up into God's ways of blessing human life on this side of the parousia-a point which might be seen in Thomas Cahill's recent work The Gifts of the Jews.22

3. Christology. We come to the matter of Christology. One of the most obvious effects of supersessionism in traditional Christology is the effacement of the Jewishness of Jesus from Christian confession. It is remarkable that the great creeds and confessions of the faith are silent on this point, being satisfied simply with the affirmation of Christ's humanity. However, in Scripture, not only the Jewishness of Jesus, but his Davidic lineage are central features of the gospel. For example, Paul, in Romans 1, summarizes the gospel in this way:

The gospel of God which He promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.