Dispensationalism is known for it's Israel/Chruch dichotomy. Israel and the Church are distinct entities, and never the twain shall meet. While one enjoys an earthly destiny, and the other a heavenly one, such extreme compartmentalization has been modified a little in the '50s and onward among Dispensational adherents.
However, Jeremiah's New Covenant promise has come to be applied to Israel exclusively, so that what the Church now enjoys is not that New covenant but "a" new covenant based on different promises to the Body of Christ alone. While more modern Dispensationalists eschewed the old hyper divisions between Israel and the church, this two covenant theory is basically consistent hyper dispensationalism.
The proper view is that Jesus did introduce and activate Jeremiah's New Covenant with Israel in inaugural form. The first people to enjoy this Covenant's blessings were entirely Jewish people. Christ, the Testator of the New Covenant, by his death, inaugurated a change in the priesthood, rendered the Old Covenant economy obsolete, and began a new dispensation in the outworking of God's plan of redemption. Hebrews 8:13 " In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete". This is after quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34.
This New Covenant is presently being mediated by Christ to both Jewish and Gentile believers in the Church. It will come to fullness in the Millenium when all Israel knows the LORD, and is regenerated with the law internalized by grace.
1 week ago
Where does this leave Jer. 31:31-34 vis-a-vis Eph. 2:13-22?
ReplyDeleteHi Bruce, thank you for your question. Please enjoy the blog as I love to interact with people.
ReplyDeleteThe fulfillment of this covenant is both to individuals and to the nation as a whole. Jer. 31.36; Romans 11.16-27
It began to to be excercised with spiritual aspects to Jews and Gentiles (the mystery which Paul speaks of in Eph.3.2-10).
All Israel will yet realize the fullness of all the covenants which God made, i.e. Abrahamic, Davidic, and New in the glorious Milenium in which these find their confluence under the reign of Christ.
Paul clearly distinguishes between Israel and the church. There is a Kingdom to Israel yet to come Acts 1:6, and in that Kingdom the jewish disciples were promised they would sit upon 12 thrones to judge their own tribes of Israel. Matthew 19.28
Clearly, there is no basis for making two new covenants, one for Israel and one for the church. There is ONE covenant in Christ's blood. Hebrews makes it clear that there is one new covenant and it's better promises to those who believe. More moderate dispenationalists corrected this error.