I want to give you a brief example of how God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled in the New Covenant.
The promises to ethnic Israel were always looking ahead to Christ and His Church. The Promised Land of the OT was only a type and shadow of the Promised Land of the New Heaven and New Earth. In other words, God’s promise to Israel was not ultimately a land of this sinful world, but of a land “where righteousness dwells” in the Eternal Kingdom:
(2 Peter 3:13 – BSB) – But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
(2 Peter 1:11 – NET) – For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.
Israel was a type of the Church. The NT fulfills the OT. The NT interprets the OT. The physical nation of Israel has its fulfillment as a spiritual nation in Christ, as the NT writers reveal:
Old Testament (ethnic Israel):
(Psalm 135:4 – BSB) – For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
New Testament (Spiritual Israel):
(Ephesians 1:14 – NET) – who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
(1 Peter 2:4-5 – NET) – [4] So as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but chosen and precious in God’s sight, [5] you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
(1 Peter 2:9 – BSB) – But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
(Titus 2:14 – BSB) – He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
So we see that the physical people of Israel have their fulfillment in Christ as a spiritual people in Him. Jesus Himself is true ethnic Israel as the perfect Jew, as a nation of One. We are spiritual Israel in Him, as a holy and spiritual nation.
All the promises to Israel always had their Messiah in view who would fulfill them Himself. Thus, God’s plan for the nation of Israel is already complete in His Son and in His Church. There is no further plan for Israel. Rather, it’s individual Jews that God deals with now (since the cross), just like any other sinner of any other nation. The true people of God, the true Israel of God, are all His redeemed, as spiritual offspring of Abraham:
(Galatians 3:28-29 – ESV) – There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
(Romans 9:6-8 – CSB) – Now it is not as though the word of God has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. [7] Neither is it the case that all of Abraham’s children are his descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac. [8] That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.
Without an OT bias, Peter and Paul couldn’t have made it any clearer. When we approach the NT with an OT understanding, confusion will always be the result. And I don’t know of any other teaching that is more confusing than Dispensationalism. It has Christians looking forward to a 1000 year kingdom of this world that doesn’t exist. When Jesus returns, He doesn’t return to set up a physical kingdom of this present sinful world, but to set up His “Eternal Kingdom” of the New Jerusalem of the New Heaven and New Earth, where “righteousness” dwells:
(2 Peter 1:11 – NET) – For thus an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be richly provided for you.
(Hebrews 11:10,14-16 – BSB) – [10] For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. [14] Now those who say such things show that they are seeking a country of their own. [15] If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
(Hebrews 12:22-23 – BSB) – Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels [23] in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
(Hebrews 13:14 – BSB) – For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
(Revelation 21:1-3 – BSB) – [1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
When we read about the promises to Israel in the OT, it’s easy to see the NT fulfillment of those promises. What was always in view in the OT is what the NT reveals. It was always “the City, the New Jerusalem of the Eternal Kingdom of the New Heaven and New Earth”—not some earthly and sinful millennial kingdom of this world, a Jerusalem of this world (of ethnic Israel).
In regard to Revelation 21:1-3, not only do we see the “the holy city, the New Jerusalem,” but we also see God dwelling with His people there. Where does God dwell now among His people (His redeemed)? It’s within His Church, the temple of the New Covenant in Christ:
(2 Corinthians 6:16 – BSB) – What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
This is a near perfect description of what we see in Revelation 21:3. The dwelling place of God is within His Church. We are the temple of God in the New Covenant era, which is in Christ. His Church is both now and continues on into “the New Heaven and New Earth” of the Eternal Kingdom. A kingdom of this sinful world is not what the writers of the NT were looking forward to. Nowhere do we see any evidence of that. If there was a book that would reveal such a thing, it would be the book of Hebrews, which was written by a believing Jew and written to believing Jews. If such a kingdom is what they were looking forward to, the author surely would have mentioned it. But what did he actually talk about? Here it is again:
(Hebrews 12:22-23 – BSB) – Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels [23] in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
(Hebrews 13:14 – BSB) – For here we do not have a permanent city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Neither the author of Hebrews or the believers he was writing to were looking for an earthly kingdom. They were looking for what actually does lay ahead for His people, which is a Jerusalem that is not of this world, but is of the New Heaven and New Earth, where all believers in Christ will dwell in the presence of God, and God dwelling among us, as He does within His Church, the temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple of the OT was a mere type of the temple that it would become in Christ.
Dispensationalism has the Saints leaving the perfect and sinless Heaven, who are dwelling in the presence of God, only to return with Christ to dwell in a sinful 1000 year kingdom of this world, to live with sinners in the darkness of this world. Even with Christ as King of the earth, sin would still be alive and well. Crime would be snuffed out, but sin would still exist. Unbelievers would still exist. Darkness would still exist. Why would Christians look forward to such a kingdom as that? Does such a kingdom make sense to you? When you really think about it, it’s a belief system that is truly bizarre. It has no NT credibility.
