Christ the true Israel of God.

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By Joe Daniels and Terry Cropper

We need to understand who Christ is to the fullest extent as possible; and how He fulfilled God’s redemptive plans since He is the image of the invisible God. (Colossians 1:15) If we want to understand how God accomplished redemptive history through Israel we need to understand how Christ is the true Israel of God; and in what way salvation is accomplished in Him.

While the Israel Only cult is busy focusing on the fleshly nation of Israel.

One of the subtle identities of Christ is that He is the true Israel. This became evident when Matthew made the point in Matthew 2:15. I think this is vital when it comes to understanding the narrative of how salvation would be accomplished through Israel, in the Old Testament. A dead give away is found in the Old Testament pointing out this fact is found in Hosea 11:1. Hosea predicted a time when “Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” ” But in Matthew 2:15, the evangelist tells us that Hosea’s prophecy was fulfilled when his parents took Jesus to Egypt to protect him from Herod’s “slaughter of the innocents” (Matthew 2:3-18). Yet, after Herod had died, God called Jesus and his family to return to Nazareth. Matthew takes a passage from Hosea, which clearly refers to Israel, and tells his readers that this passage is now fulfilled in Jesus Christ! He does this to prove to his largely Jewish audience that Jesus is the servant of the Lord, foretold throughout the Old Testament (especially Isaiah).

When you look back to Hosea you find that the Hebrew people immediately turn to worshiping idols. Hosea 11:2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. They essentially rebelled against God.

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. As they called them, So they went from them; They sacrificed to the Baals, And burned incense to carved images.” Hosea 11:1-2 (NKJV)

Jesus is also called out of Egypt to be the obedient Son, that the people of Israel failed to be. In every realm of testing that the people of Israel went through, they failed only Jesus was obedient to the Father. This is why He is the true Israel. There are many parallels we can point out like Israel being tested in the wilderness for 40 years and failed the test! Jesus was tested 40 days in the wilderness and passed the tests! He is everything that they were not, and that we are not.

This puts the real meat on verses like Isaiah 49:3 “And He said to me, ‘You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” Isaiah is not talking about the people, but the Messiah. He is pointing to the suffering servant who will be the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One (v. 7), who will also be a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth’” (v. 6).

In Isaiah 41:8-9, the prophet spoke of Israel as my servant. “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, you are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off.'”

The same promise is reiterated in the next chapter of Isaiah (42:1-7), when the LORD declares of his servant. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” This is what God the LORD says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out, who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah continues to speak of this servant in chapters 44 (vv. 1-2) and 45 (v. 4).

Is this the nation of Israel, or is it Jesus, the Messiah the true Israel? In order to answer this question, we must see how the gospel writers interpret these prophecies from Isaiah. First Luke is unique amongst the Gospels as being the only Gospel to refer to the prophecy of "a light for the Gentiles" which first appears in Isaiah 42. A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel." (Luke 2-32)

Second, Luke tells us Jesus went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4:18) In Luke’s gospel, Luke speaks of Jesus as the one to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release those who sit in darkness.

Yet in Acts, Luke pointedly speaks of Jesus as the servant of God (Acts 3:13). The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.

Jesus took upon him the form of a servant (Philippians 2:7), the Servant of God, and this is an instance of his amazing humility. He - who is the Son of God, of the same nature with God, and equal to him - voluntarily became the Servant of him. He was chosen of God, in his eternal purposes, to be his Servant; and therefore is called, his Servant elect (Isaiah 42:1). Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

Accordingly, he was prophesied to be the Servant of the Lord. Zechariah 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

In the fullness of time Jesus was sent not to be ministered to, but to minister as a servant, he declared that he must be about his Father’s business. The New King James version puts it this way. And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

Jesus announced to His parents, as if it was obvious, that He must be about His Father’s business, in His Father’s house. The meaning of the original Greek is literally, “I must be about the things of my Father.” As a servant, he had much work to do, and that was very laborious.

Any study of what it means to be a servant should begin and end with the person of Jesus Christ.

Matthew 20:24-28 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Now, throughout the whole of his work as a servant, He appeared very diligent and constant. Very early discovered an eager inclination to be about it, and he was continually, constantly employed in it. John 4:34; Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.

Nor did Jesus stop his working till He had completed the whole. Isaiah 53:11 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

In all this He was faithful to God who appointed Him, which is why He justly obtained the character of God’s "Righteous Servant" Isaiah 11:5. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness the belt of His waist.

By now it should be clear that according to many Old and New Testament writers, Jesus is the true servant, the true son and the true Israel of God. This is how the Old and New Testament writers interpreted these Messianic prophecies regarding the servant of the Lord and Israel of God in the Messianic mission of Jesus.

When investigating the Scripture’s teaching about Jesus as the true Israel, the first Gospel is a good place to start. Matthew’s Gospel certainly teaches Jesus, as the true Israel, to sum up fleshly Israel’s history and purpose. Jesus is “the son of Abraham,” thus making Him Israel. God’s covenant promises given with respect to Abraham’s seed were really given to Christ. In the unfolding of redemptive history, the seed of Abraham, in typical form, was the nation of Israel–but, as the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3 it was about Christ, the true spiritual ‘Seed.’

Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,] who is Christ. (Galatians 3:16)

It is interesting to note at this point that the name Israel is not first given to the nation–rather, it is first given to an individual, Jacob. Jacob was a type of Christ–being for a time the head of the covenant, and as an individual with the name Israel, he typifies the Redeemer who was going to be the true Israel. Here the individual precedes the corporate–a significant factor to consider with regard to this discussion. Matthew begins his Gospel with that fact.

Only Jesus completely fulfilled all of the Father’s righteous laws for Israel. As the only faithful Israelite, Jesus is an Israelite according to the flesh, and He enjoyed all the benefits that come from being born into the nation that possessed the oracles of God. As the faithful Israelite Jesus is the true Israel because He is the true Son of God (Matthew. 2:13–14).

By faith in Jesus, the true Israelite, all people can be reckoned as true Israelites. All who are united by faith alone in Jesus the Christ are the true Israel of Galatians 6:14-16 14 But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. The word for word literal rendering is:

16 καὶ ὅσοι τῷ κανόνι τούτῳ στοιχήσουσιν, εἰρήνη ἐπ᾽

and as many the rule this they walk peace upon

αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔλεος, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰσραὴλ τοῦ θεοῦ.

Them and mercy and upon the Israel of the God.

The “As Many” many here refers to the individual Christians, Jewish and Gentile, and the Israel of God for the same Christians, regarded collectively. Jesus is easily seen as the corporate and true Israel! Now God recognizes as all Israel “as many” as will receive Him. Christ is the eternal Israel of God and as many who will receive Him are a part of the Israel of God.