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Hebrews 10 and the Security of Christ’s Atonement

Accomplished atonement that Jesus secured when he died upon the cross. He did not just make possible salvation, he secured salvation for his people. And then toward the end of Hebrews 10, you have yet another warning to professing Christians of their responsibility to persevere in their faith, because only those who continue in faith have salvation.

God does not promise salvation to the temporary believer. And yet even with that warning, the writer has confidence that his readers will do just that. They will continue in their faith, even onto their full and final salvation in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews chapter 10.

Hebrews 10. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings. You have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When He said above, you have neither desired nor take pleasure in sacrifices and offerings in burnt offerings and sin offerings.

These are offered according to the law. Then He added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that, will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at His service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemy should be made a footstool for His feet.

For by a single offering, He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law on their hearts and write them on their minds.

Then He adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brother, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another in all the more as you see the day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishments do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the spirit of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace?

For we know Him who said, vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall the former times when you, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward.

For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. For yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my righteous ones shall live by faith.

And if He shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Let's pray.

Lord God, this is a very encouraging passage because it reminds us that You are faithful. It reminds us that You have done a great work. And even though this life may be filled with trials and suffering and difficulty, Lord God, You are on the throne.

And You are ordaining these things for our good and for Your glory. And Lord, let us remember to hold fast to these things. Help us not shrink away. Help us not to throw away our confidence. But we pray, Lord, that we would have endurance, that we would persevere till the end.

And Lord, as we continue to worship You through the sermon that is preached, we pray that we would behold You as You've been clearly revealed in the Scriptures. We pray, Lord, that we would learn something about You, learn something about Your work, learn something about what You've done.

We pray, Lord, that we would apply these truths to our lives so that we might live for Your praise, Your glory, and Your honor. So Lord, be with us now. Help us to focus on the Word of God and help us to lift Your name on high.

Thank You, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.

The True Children of Abraham in John 8

Well, let's turn in our Bibles, please, to John 8. We've been considering this section of this discourse, fifth discourse of Jesus for several weeks. There are several major themes in these words, and so it's required us to kind of work through this passage slowly and thoroughly.

But we're making progress. And so we've addressed in some detail the meaning and implications of John 8, 36, in which the Lord Jesus declared, therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

And so if you desire to understand more fully however, the truth set forth in that verse, I wanna commend a book to you. It's one that is quite well-known, and it sets forth the truth of our freedom in Christ, particularly with respect to the law of God, the law of God and grace.

And it's a book written by the old Puritan Samuel Bolton, and the title of this book is The True Bounds or Limits of Christian Freedom. And in order to provide a foretaste of this very helpful, thorough treatment of the nature and relation of God's law to his grace, I included a copy of the table of contents as an appendix to your notes.

And so at a later time, not during service, please, if you would read over that table of contents, just the detail of that gives you some insight into just how extensive a matter, an important matter this is.

That's not to say I agree with everything that Bolton wrote, but regarding it, but it's a classic, excellent work on the nature of law and grace for the Christian. But now we wanna turn to an entirely different theme that is emphasized in these verses that we've read several times.

In this passage, we read of our Lord distinguishing between two groups of people. They're all physical descendants of Abraham, but these two groups of people are those that are physical descendants of Abraham only, and those who are physical descendants of Abraham who are also his spiritual descendants.

And so within this passage, we have really the teaching of physical Israel over against spiritual Israel, and the Bible speaks of both. Physical Israel, of course, being comprised of those who are ethnic Jewish people, descended from Abraham according to race, and then spiritual Israel, those who have the same kind of faith that Abraham had, and they, whether they're Jewish or Gentile, constitute spiritual Israel.

And actually, apart from reformed churches here and there, the whole idea of spiritual Israel is something that is repudiated by most. And so we want to address this. This is an important subject, and it has implications for our understanding of who we are, and also implications for understanding the nature of the end times that lie before us.

And here, the Lord Jesus set forth in this passage, the fact is there is a physical Israel, and there is a spiritual Israel. And so the descendants of Abraham, those being saved through Jesus Christ have the faith of Abraham, and those who are merely or only physical descendants of Abraham, Jews, but have not faith in Jesus Christ, they don't, Abraham is not their spiritual father, and God is not their father in heaven, but rather Jesus makes this bold declaration that their father is actually the devil.

And so we have these two peoples compared and contrasted with one another in this passage. And so here in John 8, our Lord Jesus distinguished between the physical and spiritual children of Abraham. Now let's recall the setting of our Lord's words here in John 8, 30 through 47.

He was teaching to the gathered Jewish people in the temple area in Jerusalem, probably in the court of the women, that's where the large gatherings would generally take place. And of these many Jewish people, we read in verse 30 that many had believed on him.

Not all of these believers, however, were actually true converts who would embrace Jesus as their Lord and Savior. In verse 31, Jesus promised that only those who continued in his word would prove to be his true disciples.

Only they would have salvation. And then Jesus gave this promise in verse 32, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And of course, this resulted in the reaction of many of the Jews present who did not believe on him.

When they heard these words, they understood immediately Jesus was implying they were all enslaved. And he was willing, he had the power, the authority to set some of them free. Those who believed on him and followed him who were his true disciples.

And so they protested what Jesus had implied respecting their condition. And they reacted, rejected Jesus. And so let us now read verses 30 through 47. Or actually 30 through 47. And in this text, I've highlighted several phrases that I identify and classify these two peoples.

Physical Israel, spiritual Israel. Physical descendants of Abraham and spiritual descendants of Abraham. Those who believe on Jesus Christ. All the others, again, who did not believe on Jesus Christ, although physical descendants of Abraham had the devil as their father.

You see things becoming accentuated here. You can just imagine the scene and the reaction. And so John 8, 30, as he spoke these words, many believed on him. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed on him, or believed him, if you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free? And Jesus answered them most assuredly.

That's another example of that, barely, barely, truly, truly. I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. And therefore, if the son makes you free, you should be free indeed.

I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with my father and you do what you have seen with your father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father.

Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, now he already acknowledged they were Abraham's descendants up in verse 37, but now he poses the question, if you were really Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.

But now you seek to kill me, a man who's told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. And they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one father, God.

Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you're not able to listen to my word.

You have your father, the devil, and the desires your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears God's words. Therefore, you do not hear because you are not of God.

It's quite clear. The Lord set forth in our passage the distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel. As Paul would later state, so our Lord set forth here, they are not all Israel who are of Israel.

There you have, they are not all spiritual Israel who are of physical Israel. This is a very informative passage and it has implications. If it were properly and widely taught in the churches, it would correct much errant thinking about the identity of the true people of God.

Many evangelicals,.

And I'm talking specifically about dispensationalists, believe wrongly that the true people of God are all the physical descendants of Abraham, that is, ethnic Jews. And often you'll hear them described, they are the true people of God.

They say what distinguishes them as the true people of God is their physical birth, which is in the lineage of Abraham. It's claimed since Abraham is their father, they will inherit God's promises to Abraham and to his physical descendants.

They assert as foundational to understanding the Bible that Israel, which is comprised of ethnic Jews, must be understood as distinct from the church, which they say began on the day of Pentecost. Israel and the church, two different peoples, two different programs, two different purposes in God's will.

They say that the church is comprised of New Testament Christians only, believers in Jesus Christ. They argue that Israel was a nation entered by physical birth. In contrast, in distinction to the church, which is a spiritual people.

This distinction of two separate peoples, Israel and the church, is foundational to their understanding of the Bible and of biblical prophecy. Charles Ryrie, for example, a past professor of systematic theology at Dallas Seminary, believed this was the primary emphasis and essence of dispensationalism, which he promoted and defended, of course.

He wrote, the essence of dispensationalism, the bottom line, the center of it, then is the distinction between Israel and the church. This grows out of the dispensationalist consistent employment of normal or plain interpretation, and it reflects understanding of the basic purpose of God and all his dealings with mankind as that of glorifying himself through salvation and other purposes as well.

And so Ryrie says, this is it. This is at the heart of dispensationalism. Israel's Israel, the church is the church, and the two are never to be intermingled or confused with one another. There are seven propositions of dispensationalism that are derived from this belief in the distinction between Israel and the church.

First, God has two distinct programs in history, one for Israel, one for the church. Two, the church does not fulfill or take over any of Israel's promises or purposes. Third, the church age is a mystery and thus no Old Testament prophecies foresaw the church in this church age.

The present church age is a parenthesis or intercalation, just an insertion within history as it were, during which God has temporarily suspended his primary purpose with Israel. Fifth, the church age began with Pentecost and will end at the pre-tribulation rapture of the church before Christ's second coming.

Six, the church or the body of Christ consists only of those believers saved between Pentecost and the rapture. And seven, the church is the body of Christ, therefore it does not include Old Testament believers.

These are foundational beliefs of the dispensational view of scripture. And to show more clearly, this errant teaching was so many good Christians embraced by the way. And we all came from this perspective, or most of us did.

Here's a few of the leading promoters of dispensationalism. Lewis Barry Schaeffer, the founder of Dallas Seminary, stated, the distinction between the purpose for Israel and the purpose for the church is about as important as that which exists between the two testaments.

That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in the scriptures. Two different testaments, two different peoples, and you're never to confuse or conflate the two. John Walvard, former president of Dallas Seminary, dispensational ecclesiology, in other words, their doctrine of the church, defines a church as a distinct body of saints in the present age, having its own purpose and destiny and differing from the saints of the past or future ages.

In other words, after the rapture, God is gonna go back to dealing with the Jews principally and through the thousand year future millennium with Israel as a nation. And Charles Ryrie, again, wrote, this is why the dispensationalist recognizes two purposes of God and insists in maintaining the distinction between Israel and the church.

The church is not fulfilling in any sense the promises to Israel. These are the foundational assumptions, beliefs that they use as a lens by which to interpret the Bible. Well, how do the words of our Lord in this passage before us inform us in addressing this issue?

Well, the Lord Jesus made it very clear that only his true disciples from among all these Jewish people were the true children of Abraham, ones who would inherit God's promises to Abraham, their spiritual father.

The Lord Jesus declared that physical birth, in other words, Jewish ethnicity, on the basis of race, rather than God's grace, on the basis of race, this does not constitute or distinguish the true people of God.

Only those who have the same faith that Abraham had may rightly be called his children, Abraham's children, to whom God has promised his spiritual blessing. And so Jesus distinguishes only people of faith as his people.

Only those who have the same faith of Abraham are the true children of Abraham, who will inherit everlasting life. Those who fail to refuse to believe on Jesus did not have Abraham as their father, the devil was their father.

Now, it's true that in the Old Testament, God had promised great blessing to the physical descendants of Abraham. But when reading the Holy Scriptures, one must distinguish between God's promises to Abraham's physical seed and God's promises to Abraham's spiritual seed, for they're distinct from one another.

The differences may be seen as follows. First, God's promise to Abraham's physical descendants was that of a physical, earthly, political, and temporal kingdom within history, Israel, which would occupy a physical land, Canaan.

This nation of Israel would continue in its favored status before God if and as long as it ordered its national life according to the Mosaic Covenant, the law of God, which set forth, of course, God's rule of law over his people.

God certainly made glorious promises to the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people. Secondly, however, God's promise to Abraham's spiritual descendants, who were spiritually circumcised, not just physically circumcised, was that of a spiritual, eternal kingdom, the church, which will one day dwell in the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, which would be ruled by a spiritual king, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of David.

And so the church, we would argue, although certainly the kingdom came into being when Christ was exalted and enthroned, in reality, the church of Jesus Christ is comprised of all people ever redeemed by Jesus Christ, whether they be Old Testament saints or New Testament saints.

The church is comprised of all people in history who are redeemed by Jesus Christ. And that is a major distinction between we who hold to reformed theology and those who hold to dispensational theology.

We believe there's one people of God redeemed by Jesus Christ. Throughout all of human history, they would argue that there are two different peoples, one identified because of their race, physical descent from Abraham, and the other, of course, the church that began on Pentecost, redeemed by Jesus Christ.

Now, although the entrance and occupation of Canaan by physical or national Israel was fulfilled due to the unconditional promise of God, God told Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your descendants will enter and possess the land.

God fulfilled his promise to them. Nevertheless, the continuance of the physical descendants of Israel as an earthly people was contingent on the Jews keeping the law of Moses while in the land. And if and when Israel failed and refused to do so, to order its life according to the law of God, God would reject this people from the land.

And this is what happened historically. When Israel was exiled from the promised land, the Northern Kingdom in 722 BC, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah in 587 BC. Israel, Judah became as wicked as the nations were when Israel first came and conquered the land.

And so as God had cast the Canaanites out of the land, now he cast the Jews out of the land because they were just as wicked as the Gentiles. And the Bible sets forth now, since this is the case, God is free to extend his mercy and grace to all humanity, whether they're Jewish or Gentiles, immaterial, because it's all extended to faith in Jesus Christ.

And so God has blessed certainly the physical descendants of Abraham. God promised to them that he would cause them to come back from exile to return to their land, which he fulfilled in the 6th and 5th centuries BC.

He then sent the Messiah to them to establish the everlasting kingdom that he had promised to David, that one of his descendants would reign forever over the house of Israel. And so Jesus Christ came and through his life and his death and his resurrection and his ascension and enthronement, he brought fulfillment of this promised kingdom.

But only the spiritual descendants of Abraham, true disciples of Jesus Christ, are granted citizenship in this kingdom. It's the kingdom of Israel, spiritual Israel. But not only are the spiritual descendants of Abraham comprised of ethnic Jewish people, but Gentile believers in Jesus Christ are also regarded as the promised children of Abraham.

Many places in the New Testament, Christians, Gentile Christians, are described as children of Abraham. Abraham is our father. He is our spiritual father. And with regard to the blessings and promises of salvation, God is more, or Abraham is more your father than a person of Jewish descent.

Although he or she is a physical descendant of Abraham, there are no eternal promises brought to them because of their race. It only comes to those who have the same faith as Abraham. And that is regardless of whether that's a Jewish or Gentile believer.

Now we read of this many places in the New Testament, and I wanna read a couple of passages that set this forth, of course. For example, Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians in the churches of Galatia, far away from Palestine, mostly Gentiles, in a number of churches in what is modern day Turkey.

And he declared to them that they were the promised children of Israel who would inherit the promises that God gave to Abraham. And so Paul wrote, it's written that Abraham had two sons. The one of a bond woman, that would be Hagar, and the other by a free woman, that would have been Sarah.

But he who was of the bond woman, that would be Ishmael, was born according to the flesh. It was due to Abraham's lack of faith and dependent upon flesh. And he of the free woman, Sarah, through promise, that would have been Isaac, which things are symbolic, Paul argues.

For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, and that's what the law does apart from grace, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia where the Mosaic covenant was instituted, corresponds to Jerusalem, that is earthly Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children.

Those are unbelievers in Jesus, although Jewish. Physical sons of Abraham. But Paul calls Jews here, you know, sons of Ishmael. That itself, you can imagine the kind of reaction that would get, what kind of rise from the people in the synagogues when Paul was declaring this kind of message.

But the Jerusalem above, that's the heavenly Jerusalem, spiritual Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, that is Christians. For it is written, and then he quotes the Old Testament. Rejoice, O barren, that would have been Sarah, who you who do not bear break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she has a husband.

And that's a prophecy of the kingdom of Jesus Christ going out throughout all the world. And even Gentiles becoming children now of Sarah, promised spiritual children of Abraham. And then Paul makes a statement in verse 28 of Galatians chapter four.

Now we brethren, and Paul is including himself as a Jewish man, and the Gentile Christians in the churches of Galatia, now we brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who is born according to the flesh, that would have been Ishmael, 12 years older than Isaac, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, that would have been Isaac, even so it is now.

In other words, Paul says as Christians we're being persecuted by the unbelieving Jews. And that's what Paul encountered everywhere he went with the gospel. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman with her son, that would be Hagar and Ishmael, for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman.

So then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. The children of the bond woman, Hagar, were the Jews who'd failed or refused to believe on Jesus Christ. So once again, here we have a spiritual people, children of Abraham, who were likened onto Isaac, children of promise, rather than children of the flesh, the Jewish people who refused to believe on Jesus, Hagar is their allegorical mother, as it were.

Paul declared to the church of Rome that all believers, even Gentile believers, were the promised children of Abraham. After speaking of the blessing that Abraham experienced of being justified by, before God through faith alone, Paul wrote of all believers, both Jewish and Gentile, that they were all children of Abraham.

Now, I have to underscore this, folks, dispensationalists don't teach this. Oh, they might grudgingly acknowledge it if you talk to one who's pretty informed, but generally, they would never acknowledge this, that you, as a Gentile Christian, are a child of Abraham.

But this is what Paul lays forth in Romans 4 so clearly. Does this blessedness, in other words, free justification that Abraham received, then come upon the circumcised only, in other words, upon Jewish people only, or upon the uncircumcised also, in other words, Gentiles?

For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? Or Paul is saying, when was it that Abraham was justified by faith? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?

It was when Abraham was uncircumcised that he was justified before God by faith. Paul reasons, therefore, just as Abraham was justified before circumcised, he was just like a Gentile, and you can be also justified, even though you're not a Jewish person.

It matters not whether you're Jewish or Gentile, you can be justified if you have the same faith that Abraham had. That's what he's arguing. Abraham received the sign of circumcision after the fact, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised.

Why?

Why was Abraham justified before he was circumcised? Paul argues the purpose that he, Abraham, might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised. Abraham is your spiritual father, and you are an heir of God's promises that he gave to Abraham.

He is your father. We are linked with Israel, spiritual Israel, all the true believers throughout history. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are our patriarchs to whom the promises of God, the promise of salvation, the promise of an eternal inheritance has been given.

And so the righteousness might be imputed to Gentiles also, the father of circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision, but also who walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.

For the promise that he would be heir of the world, not just heir of that little bit of promised land, but that Abraham would be heir of the entire world, we read, was not to Abraham or to his descendants seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

In other words, it's promised to people of faith, not because they're physically born sons or children of Abraham. For if those who are of the law are heirs, if people are the heirs who are physically born of Abraham, there he declares that it makes the promise of none effect.

It's not, it wouldn't be due to grace. It wouldn't be due to the promise of God, but rather simply automatic because they are physical descendants of Abraham. And then he reasons because the law brings about wrath for there where there's no wrath, there's no transgression.

And therefore it is a faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. And he means that by Jewish and Gentile believers all over the world, all through history, not only to those who are of the law, that would be Jewish people, but also to those who are the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.

As it's written, I have made you a father of many nations is what God promised Abraham back in Genesis. In the presence of him, God, whom he believed, God who gives life to the dead, calls those things which do not exist as though they did, who contrary to hope, that's Abraham, believed in hope so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.

This passage renders dispensational distinction between Israel and church as void and null. The true spiritual children of Abraham to whom God's promises are given are to those who have faith of Abraham, not because they have the same genes as Abraham, but they have the same faith as Abraham exhibited in his life.

And then we can turn to Galatians 3 again, in which we read the following words written to Gentile Christians. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

There is neither Jew nor Greek or Gentile. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.

Christians in the church are heirs of Abraham. The promises of God to Abraham are promises given to you and me because we have the same faith in the same God and the same Jesus that Abraham had. And so it's wrong to believe that God's promises to the Jewish people as ethnic Jewish people will be realized in history beyond what they've enjoyed in their Old Testament experience.

Their place and position in the world as a distinct nation in covenant relationship with God was a temporary relationship that only lasted as long as they continued to keep the Mosaic covenant that God had established with them at Mount Sinai.

They broke that covenant long ago. And what replaced that covenant was the fulfillment of God's promise of a new covenant in Jesus Christ. God established that covenant in Christ through his life, death, and resurrection.

And Jesus Christ is presently enthroned over all the spiritual offspring of Abraham, those who believe and worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Only those Jews who believe on Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior may now be regarded as citizens of true or spiritual Israel over which Jesus Christ is King.

Dispensationalists, however, teach otherwise. They teach that this present church age is only a parenthesis in God's true and full purpose in history, that we are presently in a temporary dispensation that will only continue until the rapture of the church.

And then they believe that, which the rapture being the first of two stages of Christ's second coming, but then they believe that God will again work in his primary goal in history of blessing the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jewish people by race.

They teach that there will be a restoration of a physical political nation of Israel that will become the prominent nation through a thousand-year earthly Jewish millennium with Jesus Christ, the son of David, ruling over them from earthly Jerusalem, although some of them teach that King David will literally be the king on the throne in Jerusalem and King Jesus will be in heaven over the church.

But there's no suggestion in the scriptures that the Lord is going to return to a pre-Christian order of the world, favoring once again a people because of their physical lineage. With the judgment of God coming upon Israel for having broken its Old Testament covenant with God, God established his promised new covenant in Christ by which all people, whether Jewish or Gentile, they have the same status as citizens of the kingdom of God and it's an everlasting kingdom.

This is the kingdom that God promised would come to Abraham and to King David and all the spiritual descendants of Abraham, those who believe on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Paul wrote about the realization of God's purpose coming to fulfillment in the church.

The church is not a temporary parenthesis or a side in God's purpose in history, but rather the church is the final full realization of God's purpose in history. And so Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, which had both Jewish and Gentile members.