Meditations in Matthew 27 and 28—Israel Redefined

“Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone [of the Temple] shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.… Then they crucified Him.… He is risen from the dead” (Matt 24:2; 27:35; 28:7 NKJV). 

Peter W. L. Walker makes an important observation about these events. “The resurrection inherently entailed the consequent destruction of the temple; the two events are inter-connected.… Jesus’ resurrection and the destruction of the Temple are legitimately considered two sides of the same coin.”¹

Jesus’s resurrection and the Temple’s fall bracket the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. During this period, God redefined Israel. 

 Israel’s redefinition involved the fulfillment of God’s covenant-promise to Abraham. He had said, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7 NKJV). During the “last days” of the Mosaic age, Israel came “to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling” (Heb 12:24 NKJV). His is “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb 13:20 NKJV). 

This covenant brought many changes. Our last post (here) discussed one—the transition from a physical to a spiritual temple. This week’s post will examine other changes related to God’s redefinition of Israel.

These changes affect our understanding of prophecy. The prophets foretold many things about messianic-age Israel. We will proceed by allowing Jesus and his apostles to tell us what these prophecies meant. “Jesus was a Messiah on his own terms; it was he who determined the meaning of the prophecies, not vice versa.”²

Our prophetic model (inmillennialism) embraces this redefinition of Israel and the prophecies related to her.

Temple-Related Changes in Israel

Let’s begin by looking at changes related to the Temple. Paul³ said it 

was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience—concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings (Gk. baptismois; “baptisms”), and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. (Heb 9:9–10 NKJV)

The Present Time

By “the present time” the Apostle can only mean the “last days” of the Mosaic age (cp. Heb 1:2). He cannot refer to the entire messianic age as most prophetic models require. This is so because Paul viewed the physical Temple as a present reality.

Times have changed. Paul’s “present time” has passed. The Temple fell a few years after Paul wrote Hebrews. This event ended the Mosaic Age in AD 70 (cp. Matt 24:1–3, 34 NKJV).

The physical Temple was a type. We now have the antitype (or fulfillment). The church is now the spiritual temple of God (e.g., 2 Cor 6:16 NKJV).⁴

Redefined Israel does not wish for a return to the physical Temple.

Offerings

Paul mentions the Mosaic-age offerings. The physical Temple required physical sacrifices.

Now, the messianic-age Temple requires spiritual sacrifices. This agrees with what Jesus told his disciples. God desires “mercy and not sacrifice” (Matt 9:13 NKJV).

In the old Temple, Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18 NKJV) sacrificed animals. In the new, the Israel of God (Gal 6:16 NKJV) offers their own bodies (Rom 12:1 NKJV). They offer “up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5 NKJV; emphasis added).

The “time of reformation” came in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. Redefined Israel no longer offers physical sacrifices in the physical Temple. She offers spiritual sacrifices in the spiritual Temple.

Diet

God has changed Israel’s diet. Physical “foods and drinks” are no longer clean or unclean as they were in the Mosaic age. Now, God tells us to “eat whatever is sold in the meat market, asking no questions for conscience’ sake” (1 Cor 10:25 NKJV).

The diet of redefined Israel comprises spiritual food and drink (e.g., John 6:35; Heb 6:5; 1 Pet 2:3).

Washings

Israel’s Mosaic-age physical washings are no longer valid. The messianic age emphasizes their spiritual replacements: “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5 NKJV); “the washing of water by the word” (Eph 5:26 NKJV); the washing by “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son [that] cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7 NKJV); etc.

The old Israel had “fleshly ordinances.” The redefined Israel of God (Gal 6:16)—the “holy nation” to whom God has given the kingdom (Matt 21:43; 1 Pet 2:9 NKJV)—no longer observes them. She prizes spiritual washings.

Other Changes in Israel

The New Testament mentions several other changes related to Israel’s new identity. They interrelate to each other and to the ones we have already discussed.

Circumcision

Mosaic-age Israel brought their physical offspring into the covenant community through circumcision (e.g., Lev 12:2–3). God had commanded Abraham to do this (Gen 17:10–11). The nation applied this physical sign to its physical progeny.

The transition from the Mosaic age to the messianic age changed this practice. Circumcision had been a type. The antitype (or fulfillment) is a spiritual reality. Mosaic-age physical circumcision of the flesh represented messianic-age circumcision of the heart.

Paul made this clear. Now, “circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God” (Rom 2:29 NKJV). He said,

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. (Col 2:11–12 NKJV; emphasis added)

Physical circumcision defined Mosaic-age Israel. Spiritual circumcision defines messianic-age Israel.

Children

This change in circumcision required a change in the definition of covenant children.

Scripture teaches us to view birth in two ways: corporately and individually. God gave Israel corporate birth through her Exodus from Egypt (e.g., Deut 32:18 NKJV). Individuals then became members of Israel through their physical birth. 

God has changed this situation. He has given Israel another corporate birth. Peter said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Pet 1:3 NKJV, emphasis added). 

Christ’s resurrection gave birth to an “holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9 NKJV). This provides an affirmative answer to God’s question in Isaiah: “Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once?” (Isaiah 66:8 NKJV). God gave birth to that nation through Christ’s resurrection. She now exists as redefined Israel.

Individuals become members of this “holy nation” through a spiritual birth. Jesus told Nicodemus, “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.… Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 5 NKJV).

John described this change in Israel’s covenant children. He said Jesus

came to His own [i.e., Israel after the flesh], and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:11–13 NKJV)

Israel no longer comprises just the physical descendants of Abraham. Now, she comprises spiritual covenant children who are born of God.

Genealogies

This redefinition of covenant children obliterated Israel’s need for genealogies. Physical descent from Abraham is irrelevant in the messianic age.

In physical Israel, genealogies played a vital role. For example, after the Jews returned from Babylonian captivity, some self-described priests “sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy, but they were not found; therefore they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled” (Ezra 2:62 NKJV; emphasis added). No genealogy, no priesthood.

In spiritual Israel, this situation cannot exist. No office or ministry depends on a genealogical pedigree. So, the apostles instructed us to abandon them. We must not “give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith” (1 Tim 1:4 NKJV). We “avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless” (Titus 3:9 NKJV).

This practice is consistent with Israel’s redefinition. Under the new covenant, “he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit” (Rom 2:28–29 NKJV; emphasis added).

Paul argues at length for this view of Israel. Abraham is “the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised” (Rom 4:11–12 NKJV). If you have Abraham’s faith, you are his son.

The Apostle spoke of some “who are Jews by nature” (Gal 2:15 NKJV). He contrasted them to another kind of Jew. He said, “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal 6:15–16 NKJV). “Jews by nature” pertained to the Mosaic age. New-creation Jews belong to the redefined “Israel of God” of the messianic age.

According to Paul, Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, represented Israel after the flesh (Gal 4:23–25). His second son, Isaac, stood for Israel after the Spirit (Gal 4:26–28; cp. Gal 6:16). One Israel was “born according to the flesh.” The other Israel was “born according to the Spirit” (Gal 4:29 NKJV). These two sons represent the two definitions of Israel.

Christians are messianic-age Jews according to the Spirit.⁵

Covenant Signs

Inmillennialism encourages the baptism of babies. But, it does not condone the baptism of Christians’ physical progeny.

Circumcision of the flesh was the sign of covenant membership in the Mosaic age. Eight days after birth, the Jews gave this sign to their sons (Gen 17:12). This rite is no longer valid. As we saw above, it was a figure (or type) of spiritual circumcision.

In the messianic age, we know God has given spiritual birth to someone when they believe the gospel (1 Thess 1:4–5 NKJV) and expresses a living hope (1 Pet 1:3 NKJV).

Jesus told us what to do next: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16 NKJV). We are to baptize persons who show the signs of spiritual birth. 

Philip understood this. A man of Ethiopia once asked, “What hinders me from being baptized?” Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may” (Acts 8:37 NKJV). Spiritual birth precedes baptism.

The New Testament refers (by metonymy) to baptism as the thing it represents.⁶ In this way, new converts receive baptism “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38 NKJV). Baptism adds them to the covenant community (Acts 2:41 NKJV). It places them in Christ (Rom 6:3 NKJV), into his one body (1 Cor 12:13 NKJV). 

So, baptism is the messianic-age sign of covenant membership. It signifies that one belongs to the “Israel of God.”

Inmillennialism says this symbol pertains to “newborn babes [who] desire the pure milk of the word” (1 Pet 2:2 NKJV). It is for Israel’s messianic-age children.

Conclusion

The “last days” of the Mosaic age was a transition period. It began with Jesus’s ministry and ended with the Temple’s fall in AD 70.

Many Old Testament prophecies had spoken of this time (e.g., Gen 49:1; Deut 31:29; Isa 2:2; et al.). God would do glorious things for Israel in her “latter days.”

These prophecies had a certain vagueness about them. The prophets were “searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Pet 1:11 NKJV). 

The New Testament clarified these prophecies. It did so by showing that God has redefined Israel through Christ.

This redefinition is pervasive. It affects Israel’s offerings, diet, purification, heart condition, children, and identity. 

It is also irreversible. God will never again approve animal sacrifices in a physical temple. He will not honor biological children because of their ancestry or accept their physical circumcision. These things are part of Israel’s past.

The “better things” of the new covenant now define Israel (Heb 12:24).

1. Peter W. L. Walker, Jesus and the Holy City: New Testament Perspectives on Jerusalem (Grand Rapids/Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans, 1996), 11.
2. Walker, Jesus and the Holy City, 19.
3. Paul’s authorship of Hebrews is uncertain.
4. See our last post (here).
5. We have discussed these ideas in previous posts. One (here) contains a pertinent diagram.
6. E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible Explained and Illustrated (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1968), 603.