https://youtu.be/sA8zJRLm7tM
Last time in our study of Romans we finished our expanded translation of Rom 9:6; "However this is not to imply that the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are really Israel."
We see here that having the biological genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not result in automatic salvation.
God's promises contained in the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel do not belong to biological racial Jews who have rejected Jesus Christ as savior.
To qualify for the unconditional promises of the Jewish covenants the racial Jew must become a regenerate Jew. That requires faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only savior. He was revealed as the savior in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
That means that real Israel is exclusively regenerate Israel. This is why Jesus emphasized to Nicodemus, who was a member of the ruling class of the Jews during Jesus' first advent, "You must be born again." John 3:7;
God's unconditional promises contained in the covenants to Israel are not the birthright of every biological racial Jew. They only belong to true Israel that is comprised only of racial Jews who are also born again.
The Jew who rejects Jesus Christ as savior only has God's judgment as their birthright just like everyone else. John 3:36; The precedent for this was established at the fifth cycle of discipline that was administered on Judea by Titus in 70AD.
God's blessings to Israel, including salvation, only come to Israel by being born again.
In the phrase, "For not all who are descended from Israel are really Israel," is the distinction between the biological racial Jew and the born again regenerate Jew because there is nothing in biological birth that provides the prerequisites for eternal blessing from God.
In order to have God's imputed judicial righteousness and eternal life "you must be born again." People who are not born again cannot receive any of God's eternal promises because from God's point of view they are not really alive because biological life without spiritual life does is not life. John 3:36;
We see here that God's plan for the Jew is the same as God's plan for the Gentile. Both require salvation adjustment to God's justice through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 1John 3:23; God's Word tells us God's commandment is that is for everyone is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Until the Jew has believed in Jesus Christ his spiritual condition is the same as the unbelieving Gentile. The issue is "What do you think of Christ?" So it is only after salvation through faith in Christ that God's plan and God's promises for Israel take effect for any given person.
As an unbeliever Abram was a Gentile. As a believer he became Abraham. He lived the first one hundred years of his life as a Gentile then He became a Jew at his circumcision that was the result of his maturity adjustment to God's justice.
The fulfillment of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants to Israel demand eternal life and a resurrection body that requires the imputation of God's perfect judicial righteousness in time.
Israel's problem is compounded and intensified when they reject Jesus Christ as savior. Therefore the real Jew is not the biological Jew, the only real Jew is the born again Jew.
God's plan for both the Jew and the Gentile is to have freedom to hear the gospel and freedom to accept or reject the gospel. God's plan goes on with the principle of salvation adjustment to God's justice through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not only the savoir of the world but who is also the God of Israel.
Until a Jew has believed in Christ the spiritual condition of the individual Jew is no better than a Gentile. Therefore the only issue for all unbelievers is "What do you think of Christ?" This issue applies equally to the Jew and to the Gentile.
It is only after salvation through faith in Jesus Christ that God's plan and God's promises for Israel take effect. This is because after faith in Jesus Christ the individual Jew receives the imputation of God's judicial righteousness and the imputation of eternal life, that establishes capacity for God's eternal blessing.
Remember that Abraham became a Jew at age 99. At that time he had already been a believer in Christ for at least 50 years but at age 99 he was a mature believer. Abraham was a Gentile for the first 99 years of his life and from 100 onward he was a Jew.
Initially as an unbeliever Abram was a Gentile. He was descended from Noah through Shem so he was a Semitic Gentile. But by age 99 Abraham as a mature believer at the point of his circumcision became a Jew.
Consequently the fulfillment of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants to Israel demand the imputation of God's judicial righteousness for eternal life and eventually after his resurrection a resurrection body.
The problem of Israel is compounded and intensified by rejection of Jesus Christ as savior. Therefore the real Jew is not the racial Jew, the real Jew is the born again Jew who believes in the Shekinah glory, the Lord Jesus Christ.
In physical birth the Jew possesses the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But being the physical seed of Abraham does not save. In regeneration the Jew possesses the imputation of God's judicial righteousness and the imputation of eternal life. This anticipates a resurrection body, and a combination of these things sets up the potential for blessing in time and eternity.
This brings us to a brief look at the doctrine of true Israel. True Israel is composed of the children of God rather than the children of Abraham. Gal 3:26;
That means that God's election of Israel is limited to those racial Jews who have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ during the Age of Israel.
It was Abraham not Nahor, Isaac not Ishmael, and Jacob not Esau, who is true Israel because Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were believers.
Therefore election cannot be disconnected from salvation and life with God in eternity. This means that God's omniscience in eternity past knew the actual and the probable but only the actual was fed into the divine decree.
Into the divine decree goes Esau an unbeliever and Jacob a believer. Therefore the election of Israel goes through the line of regeneration. Jacob was elected; Esau was condemned.
Salvation adjustment to God's justice through faith in Jesus Christ is the qualification for Israel's election. God's promises in His Word are only for believers they are not for unbelievers.
That means that the issue of true Israel is not racial it is regeneration. Isaac is distinguished from Ishmael and Jacob is distinguished from Esau through regeneration.
Regeneration trumps the normal conveyance of inheritance to the firstborn. The true Jew through physical birth has the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and through regeneration the true Jew also possesses the God of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God's Shekinah glory.
In Rom 9:7-9; we have the first case history, the case history of Isaac and Ishmael. The premise is described in the formation of the Jewish race and the nation Israel in Rom 9:17-18;
Rom 9:7; starts with "oude" (not) that is translated as "nor" means not even, nor or neither. Next is the conjunction "hoti" (that) that is used as a causal conjunction to introduce a subordinate causal clause. It is translated "nor even because" or "neither because."
Next is the present active plural indicative of the verb "eimi" (they are). The present tense of duration describes something that began in the past and continues into the present.
The origin of the Jewish race began in the past with Abraham's circumcision and continues into the present time through the formation of the race through Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs.
The active voice: the racial Jew who possesses the genes of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob produced the action of the verb. The declarative indicative mood is for the historical reality of the existence of the Jewish race as a new racial species.
Next comes the predicate nominative singular from the noun "sperma" (seed or descendants) that is a reference to the physical descendants of Abraham. "Sperma" refers to biological Jews.
"Nor because they are descendants." Plus the proper noun "Abraam" (Abraham). In other words, being the biological descendents of Abraham is not good enough.
Next we have the nominative plural from the adjective "pas" (all), referring to all biological Jews, plus the predicate nominative plural from "teknon" (children) referring to those who would inherit God's promises.
Teknon is used here for children in the sense of inheritance. In other words, all biological Jews are not inheritors. "Nor because they are Abraham's descendants are they all children of the inheritance."
We see there that both Isaac and Ishmael had self-determination through the function of their own free will.
In eternity before the creation of anything God's omniscience knew that the firstborn, Ishmael, would use his free will to reject Jesus Christ and that the second-born Isaac would use his free will to believe in Jesus Christ.
To be a child of the inheritance one must possess both imputed judicial righteousness from God and eternal life. Gen 15:6. God's judicial righteousness that is imputed when one believes in Jesus Christ becomes the home or the target for God's blessings to Israel.
God's judicial righteousness and eternal life are only imputed through faith in Jesus Christ are the predicate for salvation adjustment to God's justice.
Since God's omniscience knew that Isaac would believe in Adonai Elohim and Ishmael would reject Him He put the facts of history into the divine decree before time began. Remember that God's decree only contains reality but alternative potentials also exist.
Potentials are never fed into the decree so they are never reality but God may disclose them in eternity because God knows the alternatives but He never enters them into the divine decree so they never become reality.
Election, foreknowledge and predestination merely acknowledge what is in the divine decree.
For example foreknowledge is not the same as omniscience. God's foreknowledge makes nothing certain it only acknowledges what is in the decree and that is what makes it certain. Foreknowledge can recognize what is certain but foreknowledge does not establish certainty.
Similarly, election and predestination only recognize what is in the divine decree. But neither election nor predestination establishes anything they are simply readouts.
That means that election, foreknowledge and predestination are theological categories that are used to describe what is in the decree, while God's omniscience knows beforehand what decisions would be made and what decisions would not be made so in eternity past God's omniscience simultaneously entered all realities into the divine decree.
God's omniscience knows the free will of every person and every decision and every alternative that will occur in every moment of history because it is all in the decree. God's omniscience even knows what would have happened down to the last generation of history if people had made different decisions.
But only Isaac's decision to believe in Christ is fed into the divine decree, resulting in Isaac being the one who is elected. Gen 17:21; 21:12; Heb 11:18. This is why Jesus Christ is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob not the God of Nahor, Ishmael and Esau.
That is the source of God's title because the God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and every other person (Jew of Gentile) who believes in Jesus Christ. Gal 3:26;
Because of unbelief satan remains the unbeliever's god. John 8:44;