The Jews, in spite of everything, remain God's chosen people.
What does it mean that God has two peoples, the Jews and the Christians?
What does Jesus say?
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16–18 NIV84
Jesus died on the cross to forgive all people and give them eternal life. But this gift is not unconditional. Each person must believe in Jesus and be willing to embrace a new life with God.
It is not enough to agree with the Bible's teachings. Nor is it enough to strive to live a virtuous life.
You and I are invited to experience a supernatural personal relationship with the eternal Son of God.
We are invited to be inwardly transformed by his Holy Spirit in communion with God himself.
It makes no difference whether you are Jewish or not. It is only a matter of trusting God through his Son, who is also the promised Messiah of the Jews.
Some then ask if the Jews as a people still have a role in God's plan.
Most Jews in Israel today do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. According to Jesus, they should not expect a heavenly home without faith in God's Son.
Are we still to recognise the modern Jewish nation as God's work and God's nation?
Has God Himself restored the Jewish nation in Israel in our time? And why?
Does this Jewish nation have a role in Bible prophecy?
In Revelation we find a mysterious prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled.
Revelation 7:3–8 NIV84
(A mighty angel said) “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
What do we learn from this text regarding God's future plans? It is puzzling. Many Bible teachers like to explain a simple theological system. Bible passages that do not fit into this system are ignored or superficially explained away.
We will not understand many prophetic Bible passages accurately in this life until they are fulfilled, but we must not therefore lightly throw them overboard.
Paul taught that the time will come when a whole Jewish nation will be visibly visited by Jesus and all the Jews who then see Jesus will repent, believe and be saved.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. Romans 11:26 NIV84
Here it is not only Israel that is being spoken of, but the descendants of Jacob, that is, the Jews. Is Paul speaking here of all the Jews who converted to Jesus in all generations?
No.
Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day, or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labour than she gives birth to her children. Isaiah 66:8 NIV84
In Isaiah and in other prophetic writings in the Old Testament, we see many Bible passages that tell of a future Jewish nation in Israel where the Messiah will rule Israel and the whole world.
There are theologians who understand these passages as symbolic, who teach that God is speaking of the Church.
I see no reason not to understand these prophecies literally. That is, clear prophecies of a future Jewish nation after the return of the Messiah.
In this matter, Luther and Calvin misled the Christian world.
