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God's Emerging City
The remnant of Israel has existed for close to two thousand years. In the first century, Jews such as Peter, James, John, and Paul along with many others made up that remnant. Today, a Messianic movement is increasing in size as Jewish people turn to the Lord. The remnant is multiplying. However, the increase of the Jewish remnant is only part of the subject of Romans Chapter 11. Paul’s insight was that Israel, those who were of his flesh, would turn to God as a nation.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”
A partial blindness has happened to Israel, but it is not permanent. Notice the word, until in the above verse. Israel’s eyes will be opened when God brings to fullness a work that He has initiated among the nations in order to get her attention. What exactly does He plan to nurture into fullness among us?
| Israel | Nations | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Partial Blindness |
until… | Fullness | ==> | Then Israel saved |
When we use the phrase the body of Christ, we think of the Lord’s Church – His bride, His flock, His house. But when we say the body of Messiah, we immediately think of the nation of Israel; Jesus is Israel’s Messiah. He was the One that God had promised through the prophets over many centuries to send to her.
But Christ and Messiah are the same word (John 1:41; 4:25). When we translate the Hebrew word MASHIACH into English, it is Messiah. The same word translated into Greek is CHRISTOS, which is Christ. The body of Christ is the body of Messiah.
We consistently use the phrase body of Christ rather than body of Messiah because that is how the New Testament refers to us; it was written in Greek. In the process, we tend to miss the connection between Israel and the Church. However, Paul’s revelation was simple yet profound: The Messiah must again be revealed to the nation of Israel, only this time through a corporate body.[11]
At the root of it, the apostolic vision of planting local churches is an expression of God’s heart not only for the world, but also for Israel. Peter alluded to the Church’s connection with Israel’s Messiah on the day of Pentecost when he referred to Jesus’ Messianic ministry as having barely begun even though His earthly ministry was over.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ (Messiah).
Jesus’ Messianic ministry to Israel did not cease when He ascended to Heaven. The crucified One is indeed still God’s answer for them. And He is revealing His Messianic identity from Heaven through corporate expressions of His life all over the face of the Earth. There is to be no nation where a Jew lives that there is not also a corporate expression of his Messiah – a people integrated together through the Holy Spirit and learning to express one heart and mind.
In fact, God permeated His judgment of scattering Israel to the ends of the earth with His merciful commitment to author New Testament fellowships in those very nations. Here, at least in part, is a fulfillment of His intention to bless the nations through the natural seed of Abraham.
Jesus came to the Jewish people as a single individual the first time. However, God intends to send Him in our day through His people, not for judgment but for redemption. There must come to fullness among the nations the corporate expression of Israel’s Messiah.[12] Christ’s body must grow up into Him who is the Head.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul used the phrase one new man (Ephesians 2:15). God tore down through His own blood the middle wall of division between those who were far off (the Gentiles) and those who were near (the Jews) as He began to bring forth on Earth His one new man. No longer would the Law of commandments contained in ordinances be the environment for establishing Jew – Gentile relationships. That environment would now be His Son.
In the Messiah, a corporate many-membered man consisting of both Jews and Gentiles began to arise on the Earth two thousand years ago. Though over the years the Church drifted into looking more like a collection of religious organizations than a living body, God still loves the nation of Israel too much to leave His Church in its present condition. He is again restoring the apostolic emphasis of the one new man – His Church is to be a corporate expression of Christ – Israel’s Messiah.
The body of Messiah must mature within the secular nation of Israel in our day as well. There must arise apostolic ministries in that nation with insight into the raising up of Messiah’s body. Along with this, the Lord will continue to re-gather Jews to Israel from the nations and there will be many in their midst already born of the Spirit. Some of these will have apostolic and prophetic anointing and insight to implement the Lord’s plan.
Bodyness is not simply a mystical concept that refers to all the believers on earth. It has very practical implications. God intends to establish in every locale, a corporate expression of His life where the mind of Israel’s Messiah is accurately revealed through His people. It is significant that immediately after Paul ends his great discourse on Israel in Romans Chapter 11, he articulates in the very next chapter practical instruction on how Messiah’s body is to function (Romans 12:1 - 21). Israel’s salvation is to be one of our major motivations to express Christ as we:
Present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1)
Respond to God in our specific spiritual gifts according to the measure of faith that He has given to each of us (Romans 12:3 - 8)
Express love without hypocrisy (Romans 12:9)
Are devoted to one another in brotherly love (Romans 12:10)
Refuse to take our own revenge and overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17 - 21) etc.
Paul’s teaching first laid out God’s vision for Israel (Romans Chapter 11) and then followed up with insights for practical obedience to fulfill that vision (Romans Chapter 12). Over the years, we have failed to see the significant connection between Israel’s coming salvation and the Church’s obedience to simply love God and each other.
The local church is not to express simply the mind of its leadership, its prophets, its administrators, etc. The local church is where Christ arises to reveal himself in the midst of His people. As we discern and express His mind, He will make himself known among us. Each local church will then begin to constantly experience more than the expectation of its leadership, more than the visions of its prophets, and more than the strategies of its apostles. Indeed, the purpose of God for each gathering is greater than the abilities of His people to quantify and define. This is why we must wait upon the Lord, looking to Him.
Then, as God’s vision is expressed, He will corporately reveal Christ – Israel’s Messiah. We must lay aside our limited interpretations of God’s purpose and invite Him to arise in our midst with great diversity of function through His body. As corporate Messianic reality is revealed through His people and comes to fullness among the nations, God will bring to Israel the convicting power of the Holy Spirit to turn her again to himself.
Notice too that the fullness of the Gentiles does not originate in the Church; Paul says that it comes in (Romans 11:25). In other words, its source is Heaven. This process began when there came from Heaven a sound like a violent rushing wind two thousand years ago in a house in Jerusalem. Similarly, the Church in our day must gather regularly with the expectation of Heaven’s intrusion into our times together. Here is normal Christianity. We will never be able to organize ourselves into the fullness of God’s design; only He can empower us and bring us to our destiny.
Today, because there is only a partial hardening of Israel’s heart, individual Jewish people are being saved and added to the remnant. However, the nation as a whole must yet turn to the Lord. Paul saw God’s strategy and gave his life to see it come to pass. He longed to see Israel’s Messiah come forth corporately in town after town and city after city. And he poured out his life to see this blessed vision come to fullness.
When the comprehensiveness of God’s working among the nations to again reveal Israel’s Messiah is realized, Israel will be saved. This event will result in something greater than riches, even life from the dead springing out into all the Earth.
The hope we have of ultimately seeing God’s glory filling the Earth rests on the fact that Messiah has now come to live in the hearts of all who believe.
the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ (Messiah) in you (His saints among the nations both Jew and Gentile), the hope of glory.
In past generations, Israel was the only hope that the nations had of God’s glory ever filling the Earth. However, today the hope of glory rests in Messiah’s presence in His Church, which is largely spread out among the Gentile nations. It is crucial that in ministering in His house, we get it right. We simply do not have the right to try and propagate whatever seems best to us or what seems to work well. We are not here to extend among the nations our ideas, our plans, and our agendas. Rather, Israel’s Messiah must be revealed in every place where local churches gather.
Israel’s coming salvation will probably occur during a time of great opposition from the enemy.[13] How he hates the purpose of God. Yet, in the end, his doom is sealed. Indeed, there is much to look forward to. There are exciting days ahead. Let us look to the future with a bold expectation of glory and faith-filled hearts of worship.
In the next two chapters, we will consider Isaiah Chapter 60 for insight into God’s glorious plan both for His people and the nations.
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