The New Testament clearly states that Jewish and Gentile believers have equal standing in the Lord, are equally loved by the Lord, are equally redeemed by the Lord and have equal access to all of His spiritual promises. As stated by Paul,
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:12–13
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. . . . He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Ephesians 2:13–14, 17–22
In Jesus, Jew and Gentile are one—that in itself is an extraordinary statement—but does that mean that Gentile Christians are spiritual Jews? Paul actually comes very close to saying that very thing: (1) he tells the Gentile believers in Philippi that “it is we who are the circumcision” (Philippians 3:3; the text does not refer to Jewish believers only); (2) he explains to the Gentile believers in Colossae that in Jesus “you were also circumcised” (Colossians 2:11); (3) he tells the Gentile believers in Rome that they were grafted into Israel’s olive tree (see Romans 11:17–18); (4) he writes to the Gentile believers in Corinth about “our forefathers,” with reference to Israel’s forefathers (see 1 Corinthians 10:1); and (5) he tells the Gentile believers in Galatia that if they belong to Messiah, then they are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (see Galatians 3:29), having just stated that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in [Messiah] Jesus” (verse 28).
Yet Paul never explicitly calls Gentile believers spiritual Jews or spiritual Israel, and in the one place where he could have made himself perfectly clear about this, namely Romans 9–11, he actually says the opposite, writing to the Gentiles about Israel. Let us look at this section more carefully.
Romans 9–11 is Paul’s major doctrinal statement on God’s purposes for Israel, and he makes explicit reference to “Israel” or “Israelites” eleven times in these chapters (see 9:4, 6, 27, 31; 10:19, 21; 11:1, 2, 7, 25, 26), never speaking of “Israel” in Romans outside of chapters 9–11 (though elsewhere he speaks of “Jews”). Then, in Romans 11, he likens the Gentile believers to a “wild olive shoot” that has been grafted in among the “natural branches” (verses 17–21), making it clear that, having been grafted in “among the others” they “now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root” (verse 17).
Does this mean that these Gentile believers are spiritual Israelites? If so, this would have been an excellent time to say so! To the contrary, Paul continues to address these believers as Gentiles in this passage. In fact, this is one of the few times in the New Testament that believers are explicitly addressed as Gentiles.
Listen carefully to the apostle’s words. After speaking about God’s dealing with the Gentiles earlier in the book (both in judgment and in salvation; see Romans 1:5, 13, 16; 2:9–10, 14, 24; 3:9, 29; 9:24, 30; 10:12; 11:11–12), he then writes, “I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles” (11:13, emphasis added). After this, he continues to speak about the Gentiles and their role in God’s plan through the rest of his letter (see 11:25; 15:9–12, 16, 18, 27; 16:4), but in 11:13, immediately before stating that Gentile believers have been grafted into Israel’s spiritual tree, he explicitly calls them Gentiles. They have not become spiritual Jews or spiritual Israelites. Rather, they have become joint heirs in the family of God, equally loved, equally called and equally saved. But they have not become spiritual Jews or spiritual Israelites.
Paul is quite clear on this: “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (3:29–30). Yes, He is the God of the Gentiles and the Jews—but Jews who do not believe do not become Gentiles, and Gentiles who do believe do not become Jews.
Again Paul writes, “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it” (9:30–31). So, there are Gentiles who have obtained righteousness through faith and there are Jews (or Israelites) who have not obtained it—but their identity as Gentiles or Jews is not affected by this. Only their standing with God is affected: “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ ” (10:12–13).
To repeat: If there was ever a time to tell Gentile believers that they were spiritual Israelites, Romans 9–11 was the passage, and yet Paul does the opposite here: He actually addresses them as Gentiles.
How then should we understand Paul’s words in Romans 9:6–8? He writes:
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
Is Paul teaching here that Gentiles are spiritual Israelites? Absolutely not, despite many careless interpretations of this passage that claim he is.
Why do I call these interpretations careless? It is because Paul is not addressing the issue of Gentile believers here at all. Rather, he is saying that there is an Israel within Israel, a true remnant within the larger nation, which has nothing whatsoever to do with those outside of the nation. Put another way, if I say that not everyone in the church is really the Church, I am not saying that Buddhists and Muslims are the Church. Of course not! Rather, I am saying that not everyone who calls himself a believer is really a believer. In the same way, Paul was stating that, in the fullest sense of the word, not all Israel is really Israel, after which he returns to the normal use of “Israel” for the rest of Romans. But to repeat: He was not saying that Gentile believers became Israel.
Rather, Paul’s explicit statement was this: “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 3:6). This really says it all: Gentile believers do not become Israel, but redeemed Gentiles and redeemed Jews are “members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
What about Galatians 6:16? The niv translates this with, “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God,” but this is not the most natural translation of the end of this verse, which is better rendered “and to the Israel of God.” The niv translates the Greek word kai with “even,” but in most other versions (see kjv, nkjv, nasb, esv) it is translated with “and,” which is its most common meaning.[256] So, Paul was not calling the Gentile believers in Galatia the Israel of God; instead, after his many strong warnings about wrongheaded Jewish teachers who were leading the Galatians astray, he ends his letter with a blessing on those Jewish believers who were in right relationship with the Lord, calling them “the Israel of God,” the Israel within Israel that Paul spoke of in Romans 9:6–9.
What about Romans 2:28–29? Here Paul writes, “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God” (emphasis added). Notice the italicized words in the text: “only” and “merely.” They do not appear in the original Greek but they do, in fact, convey Paul’s point, which was this: Between two Jews, who is the real Jew, the one who is only circumcised outwardly or the one who is also circumcised inwardly? That is, in keeping with the other verses we have just studied (Romans 9:6–9 and Galatians 6:16), and while Paul can refer to Gentile believers as being “the circumcision” (as in Philippians 3:3, cited above), he never calls them Jews or Israelites.
Study this for yourself, looking up every reference to Jew or Jews or Jewish in the New Testament, along with every reference to Israel or Israelite. The totals are overwhelmingly clear: The words Israel or Israelite(s) occur a total of 77 times in the New Testament, and in every case but one (see Galatians 6:16), they refer explicitly to the literal people of Israel, while Galatians 6:16 in all probability has the same meaning as well. As for the words Jew(s) or Jewish, they occur more than 190 times total in the New Testament, and in almost every case, they clearly refer to ethnic Jews.[257]
Over the years, I have met godly Christians who told me with joy that they were spiritual Jews, and it was clear that their hearts were deeply joined to Israel and the Jewish people. I have nothing but appreciation for them, and I never try to correct them, understanding what they mean and what this means to them. But it is not accurate scripturally and, at times in church history, it has contributed to the dangerously wrong concept that the Church has replaced Israel (see #43). It also has contributed to the misguided notion that being Jewish somehow puts a person on a higher spiritual plane, leading some Christians to search for Jewish ancestry in their past to “confirm” their Jewishness. (For a related, erroneous teaching, see #54.) To end, then, where we started, we do well to remember Paul’s words in Romans 10:12: “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”