God's plan of salvation in the Old and New Testaments
The coming of Christ changed everything. We look to Jesus as the "Author and Finisher of our faith," (Heb. 12:2), and are blessed to be members of the New Testament church, the body of Christ. We are set free from the written code of the Old Testament law, which was already fading away as the New Testament was being written (2 Cor. 3). However, Romans 9:6-8, Galatians 3:7, and other verses tell us that we Christians are also children of Abraham and true Israelites. And 1 Corinthians 10:4 says that the Israelites in the wilderness drank from a spiritual rock which is Christ.
Many of the promises God made to the Patriarchs and to Israel were in the form of covenants. In the Ancient Near East, a covenant was a formal, binding mutual agreement between two parties. Some covenants were between equal parties, such as the one between Jacob and his uncle Laban (Gen. 31:44-54). But royal covenants were enacted by a king and agreed to by his subjects. These could take the form of an unconditional grant or, in the case of a "suzerain-vassal" treaty, a document outlining the relationship between a ruler and those under him. Typically, the ruler claimed absolute authority and promised citizenship rights in exchange for absolute loyalty. A covenant usually began with the ruler stating his identity, authority, and historical relationship with his subjects, followed by the stipulations of the covenant, and the rewards and punishments promised for keeping or breaking the covenant.
We call the second portion of God's Word the "New Testament" because it has to do with a new kind of relationship between God and His people. (Testament is another word for covenant.) This implies that the first covenant is old or obsolete. But at the same time, the Bible indicates that part of this new covenant is that people who were once excluded could now be "grafted in" with those who were under the old covenant. So the question at hand is this: Do any of the promises made under the old covenant apply to Christians today, and if so, which ones?
One Covenant
In a sense, there is only one covenant–one plan of redemption and salvation that God has given to humanity since the fall of Adam and Eve. The differences we see in the workings of God at different times in history are related to different administrations or dispensations of the same covenant. (This is not the meaning of dispensationalism. Dispensationalism is simply one view of how the dispensations relate to one another. The word itself comes from Ephesians 1:10.) Let's first take a look at how the plan has been the same in both its old covenant and new covenant forms.
(I quote only the relevant portions of the verses cited. I encourage readers to read the passages in their entirety and in context for more enlightening study.)
The covenant was made by God in both its old and new forms. The Bible always presents God's covenant as coming by His initiative. Abraham did not seek the favor of God; God found Him. It was God who chose Isaac, even though Abraham preferred Ishmael, and God who chose Jacob, even though Isaac preferred Esau. God decided the time that He would rescue the Israelites from Egypt, and Himself led them to Mount Sinai. David was simply a boy herding sheep when God chose him to be the first king in the Messianic line. Mary was certainly not seeking to bear the Messiah, and we ourselves were "dead in our trespasses and sins" when God called each of us.
Genesis 17:2: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you."
Hebrews 8:8: "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant."
The covenant is a demonstration of God's grace and merciful lovingkindness. God's covenant relationship with people is never based on His obligation to anyone. Nor is it simply a cold use of others for His own advantage. By His redeeming covenant, God shows grace and mercy to us who could otherwise look forward only to judgment because of our sin. He does this out of a special, undeserved love for His people. This is as true in the Old Testament as in the New.
Deuteronomy 7:7: Yahweh did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because Yahweh loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.
1 Kings 8:23: O Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like You in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and lovingkindness to Your servants who walk before You with all their heart.
Ephesians 2:4-5: But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).
Jesus Christ is the only Mediator of the covenant. The relationship between God and mankind in all ages exists because of what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. The faithful of the Old Testament understood that God's promised Anointed would bring redemption, even though what form this would take was somewhat of a mystery.
Genesis 49:10: The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Job 19:25: As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Isaiah 53:6: All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
John 5:46: For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.
Hebrews 12:24: And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
The covenant is made with one chosen people of God. Jesus' ministry with His disciples, the apostolic preaching of Acts, and the letters of Paul all bear out that New Testament believers are in continuity with the saints of old. Christ has one people, consisting of those whom the Father has chosen and given to Him. As a covenant people, our true citizenship is in the household of God, and we are joined together as a royal priesthood and a holy nation.
Deuteronomy 7:6: For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God; Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Titus 2:14: Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
1 Peter 2:9: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Romans 11:24: For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
The covenant has to do with salvation and redemption from sin by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Those who are part of God's people are saved and freed from sin. They know His grace and need not fear His everlasting judgment. Life in the promised land was of major importance in the Old Testament, but dwelling in peace with God was always of far greater significance, as the Psalms repeatedly declare.
2 Samuel 23:5: For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?
Hebrews 9:15: For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were [committed] under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.
Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
All the recipients of the covenant are justified fully by the righteousness of God alone. The Pharisees mistakenly interpreted the Old Testament legalistically, but no one can stand before God on his own deeds (Nahum 1:6). When Christ died on the cross, His perfect righteousness, His obedience to the Father, was imputed to the accounts of all those who believe.
Psalm 71:16: I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord Yahweh; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours alone.
Isaiah 43:25: "I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
Isaiah 45:24-25: They will say of Me, 'Only in Yahweh are righteousness and strength.' Men will come to Him, and all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. In Yahweh all the offspring of Israel will be justified and will glory.
Romans 3:23-24: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:18: So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all.
Forgiveness of sins has always been available only through faith in Christ. Even though the name Jesus was not always known, as far back as Genesis 3:15, God had promised a deliverer who would break the power of sin. The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were shadows that pointed ahead to Christ, in whom the ancient faithful placed their trust.
Isaiah 43:25: I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
John 8:56: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he might see My day, and he saw it and was glad.
Acts 10:43: Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 10:14: For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
All God's people have a changed heart by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' statement, "You must be born again" (John 3:7) is not only a New Testament truth. Jeremiah 13:23 says it is impossible for those who are accustomed to doing evil to change themselves and do good. Yet the call to repent requires just that (Ezek. 14:6). Therefore, God must do the work. And this spiritual change of will is something God promises for all His people.
Deuteronomy 30:6: Moreover, Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
Philippians 3:3: For we are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.
Titus 3:4-5: But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.
All God's people have everlasting life. Life in right standing with God becomes life in the very presence of God when we die, and continues forever. Old and New Testament saints knew that their life with the Lord would be everlasting.
Job 19:26: Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh I shall see God.
Isaiah 26:19: Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Daniel 12:2, 13: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt... But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and rise again for your allotted portion at the end of the age.
John 5:40: For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him have everlasting life, and I Myself will resurrect Him on the last day.
Romans 6:22: But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, everlasting life.
(While the wording is my own, I owe this outline to the Body of Doctrinal Divinity by John Gill, a popular evangelistic Baptist preacher and scholar of the eighteenth century, greatly admired by Charles Spurgeon.)
Two Covenants
Though there is only one plan of salvation, the Bible teaches that there are old and new forms of the covenant. The "old covenant" encompasses the time from Eden to the first coming of Jesus Christ and His forerunner, John the Baptist. ("All the prophets and the Law prophesied until John, " Matt. 11:13.) Christ's coming established the new covenant, which will last forever, and is better than the old one. We see this especially when we look at the differences between the covenant in its old and new forms.
The old covenant looked forward; the new looks back. Historical perspective allows us to see recorded in the pages of the Bible the specific, historical fulfillments of Old Testament prophecies that were often ambiguous or symbolic. Ancient saints made "careful searches and inquiries," straining to understand what the prophets were saying about the coming Christ (1 Pet. 1:10). By the time Jesus came, there were so many false hopes and misguided expectations about the Messiah that He sometimes hid His Messiahship (e.g., Mark 3:12). Few understood that the Messiah was God yet had to suffer, die, and rise again, even though Jesus says they should have understood this from the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27).
In truth, much of the New Testament message was always in the Old Testament for those with eyes to see it. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount did not overturn Old Testament regulations, but explained their true meaning and implications. Paul described his ministry as "stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the People [i.e., the Jews] and to the Gentiles" (Acts 26:22-23).
Why did so many readers of the Old Testament not understand the true nature of the covenant? One reason, according to Paul, was that "their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant this veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:14-16).
Today, we have all this in plain language. We can know not only what the prophecies meant, but how they have been fulfilled, and how we are to respond. We no longer await the coming of the Messiah, wondering who He will be or how He will appear. He has come and done all that was necessary. Since He was raised from the dead as the "firstfruits" of God's final harvest, the resurrection is not merely a future event; it has already begun. The Old Testament rituals had their greater focus on anticipating God's future deliverance, but the things we do in worship now are done primarily in remembrance of what He has already done. We still have much to look forward to, as God prepares to bring history to its consummation, but we have been in the "last hour" since 1 John 2:18.
Hebrews 11:13: All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Luke 22:19: This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.
The old covenant had shadows and types; the new has clarity. Already in the Old Testament there were indications that the sacrifices and rituals of the old covenant were not the substance of religion (1 Sam. 15:22-23; Psa. 51:16-17). They were pictures, indications of what would be fulfilled when Christ came. It was like looking at the truth through a veil. In the new covenant, we see things more as they are, as if through a mirror (though not face-to-face, as it will be in eternity). The truths of Christ and salvation, all we need to know in order to relate to God, ring through the New Testament with crystal clarity. What once were mysteries were revealed through the preaching of the apostles, and the understanding we thereby receive is often mentioned as one of the spiritual blessings we have in Christ (e.g., Eph. 1:9).
Consider this: Joseph, David, Daniel, and other believers of old could not study the Gospel of John, Romans, or Hebrews because those books had not been written yet. Even during Jesus' ministry, He held back teaching because "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now" (John 16:13). But the Holy Spirit prepared the apostles to receive the truth, and then taught it to them, allowing them finally to understand both Jesus' teachings and the Old Testament Scriptures. The result is the Bible, God's final verbal revelation, completed for all time.
Hebrews 10:1: For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.
2 Corinthians 3:18: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Ephesians 3:4-5: By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.
The new covenant has a greater measure of the Holy Spirit. The grace and truth we have in Christ impact our everyday lives because of the Holy Spirit. We saw earlier that the Spirit must have done some transforming work in the lives of Old Testament believers so they could be holy. But something happened at Pentecost that was very significant. Jesus' last discourse to His disciples before His death, and His last instructions before His ascension, both dwell heavily on the coming Holy Spirit. Not only did the Spirit inspire apostolic preaching and the New Testament revelations discussed in the previous point; now the Spirit actually indwelt believers permanently.
Time prevents more than the briefest look at the benefits of the Spirit, but among the most important is the nature of the New Testament church. The church is a collection of believers who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. He is constantly making them more like Christ, recalling Jesus' teachings to their minds, and enabling them to understand and follow God's will. The Spirit equips every believer with a spiritual gift. Even though God has ordained leaders for His people as He always has, we are all ministers and fellow-laborers with God. The Spirit is a seal and guarantee of our salvation; His work in our lives confirms that we are within God's covenant. It is also His presence that creates the bond between believers as we encourage and support one another.
Numbers 11:29: But Moses said to him, 'Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all Yahweh's people were prophets, that Yahweh would put His Spirit upon them!'
John 7:39b: The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Acts 2:16-17a: This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 'And it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind.'
John 1:17: For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
The old covenant made God's people servants; the new makes us free sons. The New Testament says we are "set free" from the law and its curse. This concept of Christian liberty does not exempt us from God's moral principles, which are perfectly embodied in the biblical laws. But the burdensome ceremonies and rites that proved the faith of those under the old covenant have been replaced with an easier yoke and a far lighter burden. The simplicity of the law of Christ, as described in the New Testament, is not a lower standard; it is actually a higher one. However, with our greater knowledge and understanding of our salvation, and our closer friendship with God, it is easier to trust His Spirit and serve Him as Lord.
There is a sense in which Old Testament believers were also children of God, but as though under the guardianship of a strict tutor (Gal. 3:24-25). Think of a son entrusted to the care of a nanny and having to obey her to the letter, compared to spending time with his father. Observe that the notion of God as a believer's personal Father is hard to find in the Old Testament. (It is there, but barely.) Jesus made the personal Fatherhood of God to His people one of His most prominent teachings. This benefit is perhaps most precious to those who have not had the benefit of kind earthly fathers.
Galatians 4:22-26: For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise. This is allegorically speaking, for these are two covenants: one from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.
Romans 8:15: For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!'
The old covenant was primarily for the Jews; the new includes all nations. We know very little about how God's covenant worked during the first several thousand years of human history, but beginning with Abraham, God made His covenant with one family and their descendants. However, even in the Old Testament, Abraham's physical descendants and his spiritual descendants (the true "saved" people of God) were not co-extensive. The sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob (renamed Israel) were the sole heirs of God's promises, while Ishmael and Esau remained outside the covenant. The harsh rebukes of the prophets make it obvious that not all biological Jews were truly God's own; the wicked and unbelieving were in reality always outside the covenant, regardless of their physical heritage. In addition, we do read occasionally of faith among non-Jews such as Job and the Ninevites. Nevertheless, nearly all Old Testament believers were Jews, and all Jews were affected by the land and protection promises of the old covenant. God worked through one ethnic group, geographically located in the promised land. The spread of God's favor to other nations shows up only as part of end-time prophecy (e.g., Isa. 56:7).
Those prophecies were fulfilled during the Book of Acts, as the gospel spread to Jews living outside Judea, and soon thereafter to Gentiles. The gospel message is the same for Jew or Gentile: faith in Christ apart from the law.
Deuteronomy 10:14-15: Behold, to Yahweh your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. Yet on your fathers did Yahweh set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.
Ephesians 2:14-15: For He Himself is our peace, who made both [Jews and Gentiles] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity which is the Law of commandments in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
Ephesians 3:6: The Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
The old covenant was temporary; the new is everlasting. We should not think of the new covenant as God's "Plan B," for God always intended to abolish the old covenant at the "time of reformation." Second Corinthians 3 explains how the unfading glory of the new covenant exceeds the glory of the old, which was to fade away just as Moses' shining face faded over time. The new covenant we receive in Christ will never end; there will never be a "third covenant."
Hebrews 8:13: When He said 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Hebrews 9:9b-10: Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.
Hebrews 12:28: 'Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptible service with reverence and awe.
The old and new covenants have different ordinances.. The law of Moses restricted festivals and sacrificial worship to one place (e.g., Deut. 26:16), which He later designated as Jerusalem. Worship was the special province of the Jews, and they demonstrated their devotion to Him with purficiation customs that differentiated them from the other nations. These rituals were not well suited to a time when all nations could worship God freely. They had to give way to worship in spirit and in truth. Today we do not need priests and are not bound by the ceremonial and civil codes of the Old Testament, since they have been fulfilled in Christ. The ordinances given to the church are pictures of Christ's sacrifice and our participation in it, and both point forward to our future resurrection and eternity with Him in His kingdom.
Genesis 17:14: But an uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.
Galatians 5:2, 6: Behold I, Paul, say that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.... For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
Colossians 2:16-17: Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day–things which are a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Matthew 28:19-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
1 Corinthians 11:26: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.
The old covenant had material promises; the new has better, spiritual promises. When we read covenant passages in the Old Testament, we see God promising land, physical protection, longevity, and many descendants to His people, and also deportation, defeat in battle, death, and barrenness for disobedience. As the faithful of that time knew, these promises (while literal) were shadows of the greater reality we now experience. The church across the world is our "promised land," we are protected from the onslaught of Satan, we have a fuller understanding of everlasting life, and our "descendants" are those we lead to Christ in effective ministry. Ephesians 1 is a catalog of over a dozen spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ, many of which were unavailable or obscure to the Old Testament saints.
Hebrews 11:39-40: And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
Hebrews 8:6: But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
Blessings for Today
With this understanding of God's covenant, we can now answer the question of how to understand the covenant promises in the Old and New Testaments. The foundation of the one everlasting covenant–that we are God's chosen people–has the promise of salvation. Our deliverance from sin, the changing of our will, our peace with God, our forgiveness, our justification, our sanctification, our future glorification, our everlasting life, and our participation with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation–all these are promises rooted in our covenant relationship with God. They apply to us as well as to the Old Testament saints.
It is undeniable that the Israelites under the old administration of the covenant had material promises in addition to these. To Abraham and his seed were promised possession of the land of Canaan and many descendants, and that they would be a blessing to all the peoples of the earth–a promise fulfilled by the coming of Christ. In Moses' day, the promises from Sinai were remaining in the land and having overall success, particularly with regard to crops and battles against the surrounding enemies. These promises were for those who kept the covenant by doing the whole law. Breaking the law would result in the opposite–expulsion, famine, and defeat. We see in the Old Testament that law-keeping was not as easy as it might have seemed to the Israelites at Sinai, and even the faithful often faced trials as Israel's society grew more pagan and oppressive. The sins of the nation brought guilt upon all the people, and it was to the future Messianic kingdom that Old Testament saints looked for the fulfillment of these promises.
Our new covenant is not simply a way to receive the blessings of the old covenant without the threat of its curses. The temporal, material promises are more perfectly fulfilled in the eternal, spiritual promises we find in the New Testament. The promises we can claim for ourselves have primarily to do with our more intimate relationship with God, the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the church, and our greater understanding of the ways of God since the coming of Christ. In addition to all these, the uniting of people from every tribe, nation, and tongue into the church is a bond closer than blood ties and frees us from the presumption that salvation is our natural birthright. This is what "abundant life" means, and it is the possession of all believers equally, not simply to those who overcome barriers, unlock secrets, or know how to "claim" their inheritance. And it is true that we will join in many material blessings in the next life. But we should keep in mind that Jesus does not promise material recompense in this life for the material costs of living as a Christian. Instead He promises "much more"–things that are better than material things, both in this age and in the age to come.
ADDENDUM: What of Jews who do not believe, Jews who reject that Jesus is the Messiah and still perceive themselves to be under what we call the old covenant? Are they still the rightful heirs of the old covenant's material promises? In particular, does the "promised land" of Canaan rightly belong to them by virtue of their race? To be honest, I'm still working through that issue. There are both conditional and unconditional elements in the Old Testament promises regarding the land. The unconditional promises speak of the land as promised to Abraham and his descendants, but the New Testament states that Abraham's descendants are spiritual rather than physical, so that the promise would seem to apply to believers in Christ, both Jew and Gentile. Yet few would argue today that all Christians should own and dwell in the land of Canaan. The sending out of Christians into the world supports the idea that "the land" in the Old Testament becomes "the whole earth" for us. Nevertheless, the specific claims God makes about His relationship to the land, and to Jerusalem in particular, suggest that God is not finished with that area of the world. (This is one factor that leads me toward the premillennial conviction that Christ will physically reign from Jerusalem when He returns.) However, if the Jews, particularly those who disbelieve and are thereby cut off from God's eternal covenant, are the rightful heirs of Canaan, that fact will have to be established on other grounds.
I am somewhat more inclined to consider a Jewish right to the land on the basis of history–in that the Jews never migrated from the land but instead were forcibly driven out by a succession of hostile powers. On the other hand, there is not much precedent for giving back land once it is unjustly taken (cf. much of the United States' westward expansion), nor am I certain that a moral right to retake dispossessed territory extends forward for generations. Perhaps a more convincing justification would be the simple fact that those who owned the land in the early twentieth century invited the Jews back to that territory and, for better or worse, eventually gave them control of it. The Israelites were, in a sense, transplanted there, much as many Palestinians came there when the land was under the rule of previous powers. In addition (and this is admittedly a contentious point), the leading Israelis have shown themselves more just, reasonable, and willing to coexist, and therefore more fit to rule, than the leading Palestinians and surrounding nations throughout the past several generations of this conflict.
At this point in my consideration of the issue, I would say that today's Jewish presence in Israel is justified on historical grounds, on the basis of how their nation was established. I would even go so far as to say that the land Israel took defensively in wars that resulted from Arab attacks is Israel's to keep or give back as it pleases. However, I have not found convincing biblical arguments for extending old-covenant land promises to unbelievers, especially centuries after the demise of the old covenant; and so I would be hesitant to affirm a "divine right" to that land. Nor do I regard the present nation of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, since the promises of a return of the people are coupled with promises that true worship would return to the land under the rule of the Messiah. Whichever race controls Canaan in the meantime, not until Christ returns will we see the world look to Jerusalem as the center of the assembly of God's people.
