This blog is a follow-up to my previous blog, ‘Physical OR Spiritual Israel?’ In this blog we will take a quick look at a hypothetical contemporary scenario to compare with ancient Israel, a nation which functioned under the authority and structure of the Mosaic covenant. The purpose of this comparison is to clarify the relationship between JUSTIFICATION and WORKS OF THE LAW in the NT, especially in the Apostle Paul’s writings.
In previous blogs we discovered that works of the law are GOOD. But we also discovered that works of the law CANNOT ‘save’ anyone. The technical term used for ‘save’ in the NT is JUSTIFY. So, works of the law CANNOT justify anyone. Doesn’t that sound exactly like Evangelical theology? But there is much more to it than that. So, let me try to clear up any potential confusion by providing a hypothetical, modern-day scenario.
For the moment, let’s consider the American nation (the U.S.A.). America’s colonial history shows that the USA was founded on Christian principles. The early settlers relied on social compacts and covenants to structure their communities, much of which they derived from the Bible. They relied on their Christian culture to determine acceptable social behavior. So essentially, they founded this nation on Biblical governance and Christian values. Yet today, this nation is not even close to what it was when it was founded. Today, HEDONISM, PAGANISM and MATERIALISM pervade American culture. And these anti-Biblical lifestyles have been deliberately shoved down everyone’s throats by the government, legal system, education and mass media, all of which are sponsored by ‘the idle rich’. We find it at every level of corporate business. And there is no escaping it regardless of where we go in society, including the CHURCHES. So today, at best, America is effectively a NOMINAL Christian nation.
Now consider the following CHRISTIAN scenario for America, which the Evangelicals and most denominations today will reject as ‘un-Biblical’. They will throw up their hands, stomp their feet and frantically holler at me claiming, “Only God can have a theocracy!” But in a moment we’ll see that I’m not talking about a theocracy. I’m talking about moral laws, which are the foundation of all laws for all nations of all time. That is the message of the OT, especially the Prophets. Here is what the ever-so-wise King Solomon said about it:
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. (Proverbs 14:34)
So, here’s my hypothetical: What would the political landscape in America be like if God’s law became the law of the land and Christian ethics based on the New Testament became the accepted norm for personal and family tradition? How would America be forced to change under those Biblical social values when coerced by political process?
Here is what I think would happen. You would initially see a LOT of people rebelling against the morals being shoved down their throat by the government, the legal system and businesses. They would not like the ‘new’ entertainment and would rebel against the educational standards. I think this would happen because people LOVE THEIR PLEASURES. And once they grow accustomed to these pleasures, they have a very difficult time exchanging them for something else. On the other hand, some of the population would like the ‘new America’ very much. I’m referring to true Christians. However, I bet that not all Christians would like it because Christians, for the most part, cling to their comfortable traditions and lifestyles and they hate change, just like everyone else. I’ve observed that most church people are emotion-led to the extreme. Most of them act like CHILDREN in adult bodies!
Undoubtedly, some of the hedonists, pagans and materialists would see the value in these social norms and adopt them as their own, even if they didn’t understand that they were actually rooted in the Bible. The result is that we would be living in a very divided society, much like today. But what could they say if the law required it of them? No doubt they would still do the same things they always did, working hard to get away with whatever they could in defiance of the law, so long as they could have their own way and live as they please. “No one is going to tell ME what to do!”
Now consider works of the law and Divine justification in such a Gentile society. Consider these ideas in terms of Paul’s statement in Romans 9:6… “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” According to Paul, the nation of 2nd Temple Israel was NOT ‘God’s chosen people’ because, except for a few (a remnant), they all rejected Jesus as their God-appointed ruler (law-maker Messiah). In addition, previously as a nation, they rejected YHWH’s law in favor of the corrupt government systems that they learned to implement as a result of being vassals to foreign monarchs who were much more powerful than they were (after Solomon’s reign). So Paul differentiated between the whole nation in their ‘relationship’ with God, and some individuals in that nation in their ‘relationship’ with God. Don’t forget that our ‘relationship’ with God is based on His COVENANT. Not a feeling or religious participation and certainly not citizenship in Israel (as we saw in our Galatians 3 blog).
Now consider a modification of Romans 9:6 in terms of the kind of America I’ve just hypothesized… “For they are not all Christian who are born and raised in the United States.” So in our ‘new America’ scenario, we would have a nation filled with essentially three classes of people: 1) believers in Jesus who willingly obey God’s law (the law of the land), 2) people who don’t believe in Jesus but obey God’s law either because they find it brings them a better quality of life, or because if they don’t they will get in trouble with the law, and 3) people who will live as they please regardless of the law (rebels who will never be in God’s favor).
Note: I want to add a clarifying thought in order to explain a convention I used that prevents this discussion from becoming complicated. Every society that implements ‘God’s law’ as their legal standard doesn’t actually enforce God’s law as such. Instead, they enforce man-made laws that are based on God’s law. The way it works is simple. You have God’s law as the PRINCIPLE of law and you have man’s law as the APPLICATION of God’s law. That’s the way all law works. So in this blog, to simplify matters, we won’t consider the two subjects separately but will hypothetically consider man’s law to be equivalent to God’s law, EVEN THOUGH IT IS NOT (technically speaking). Incidentally, this is how the Jews have always viewed their laws from the beginning. This is another interesting topic of discussion.
Considering our hypothetical scenario a little further, let’s suppose that the initial generation dies off and is replaced by their children and grandchildren. And let’s suppose that no corruption has crept into the government (yeah, right!). And let’s assume that the first two generations learned how to obey God’s law really well, that is, all the laws that apply to them. And let’s also assume that some of the people alive during the second and third generations have made an informed, voluntary choice to believe in Jesus as God’s redemption for them because they understand what it means and know how it works.
Under those conditions, we would have a nation that is just like 2nd Temple Israel, except they would be a CHRISTIAN nation rather than a JEWISH nation. They would believe in God as a nation, while some Americans would also sincerely believe in Jesus as their redeemer. As such, they would all have Christian LAW governing them based on the Mosaic Law and New Testament. Remember the black-and-white movies from the 40’s and 50’s? Remember how they portrayed ‘Christian America’ (although they mixed in hedonism and materialism as propaganda and brainwashing)? I consider 2nd Temple Israel no different, except that they believed in Moses instead of Jesus and they had the Mosaic law governing them WITHOUT the New Testament (Jesus’ laws). Note that Christian law is nearly identical to the Mosaic law except for the laws that Jesus instituted, which contradicted the man-made laws of the 2nd Temple public officials (generally referred to as rabbinic law today). So effectively, the two nations would be pretty much the same IN PRINCIPLE. The only real difference would be the appearance of a CHRISTIAN theocracy vs. a JEWISH theocracy.
Based on what I’ve shown in past blogs about the Abrahamic covenant vs. the Mosaic covenant, could we really consider that kind of America to be a THEOCRACY like 2nd Temple Israel mistakenly considered themselves? Could we expect that nation to be able to bring Divine justification to their citizens by their obedience to the Christian laws of the land? Could that kind of WORKS OF THE LAW ‘save’ anyone? Could God consider that kind of nation His ‘chosen people’? The answer to all of these questions is an emphatic NO. Therefore, could 2nd Temple Israel bring justification to its citizens if they all obeyed the Mosaic laws of the land…God’s law? Do you see where I’m going with this?
So now, let us recall how YHWH was constantly yelling at 1st Temple Israel for their hedonism and unbelief:
So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. (Deuteronomy 10:16) [“your’ refers to the leaders and population of the nation Israel before they entered ‘the promise land’]
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” 14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. 16 They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God… (2 Kings 17) [This was an authoritative prophetic warning sent to 1st Temple Israel before they lost their nation to the 1st Exile]
The book of Judges is all about Israel’s waywardness and YHWH’s chastening them with foreign invasions due to their hedonism and refusal to willingly and voluntarily unite under YHWH’s law as one tribal nation. Both the OT & NT provide plenty more examples of this as well as direct statements about it.
The point is that the nation and the populace of 1st and 2nd Temple Israel never willingly and voluntarily chose to be ‘God’s chosen people’. The only difference between 1st and 2nd Temple Israel as ‘God’s chosen people’ and the above scenario of a ‘Christian America’ is that Jesus (and YHWH) would be the focus of FAITH and AUTHORITY in America compared to Moses (and YHWH) being the focus of FAITH and AUTHORITY in Israel. In that light, consider that it was impossible for 1st and 2nd Temple Israel as a whole, to be ‘God’s chosen people’ because only those who personally understood and willingly & voluntarily believed in YHWH could reach that coveted position. That’s basically the gist of Paul’s words on the subject.
In other words, in order for a whole nation to be God’s chosen people – whether a ‘Christian America’ or a ‘national Israel’ – every single individual must make their own personal, informed, voluntary and willing choice to give YHWH their allegiance and obey YHWH’s laws. Because then, every person has knowingly, voluntarily and willingly accepted YHWH’s redemption in Jesus. Only after that condition is met, does a person become a citizen of God’s Kingdom while also maintaining their citizenship in an earthly kingdom.
Additionally, all the social institutions and social process in that nation must comply with God’s law. When the two merge in that manner, only then do you have a PHYSICAL NATION that IS ‘God’s chosen people’. But until then, it ain’t. Never was and never will be. And when that nation of people achieves that goal, it isn’t exclusively because they are fully obedient (works of the law). It’s because they first accept God’s redemption in Jesus and then live as good citizens of God’s Kingdom by free will choice under a government that only does what Jesus would approve of. Just like we read about in the Gospels.
Now contrast that with the promise of God’s Millennial Kingdom under Jesus’ kingship. Considering that no nation in the entirety of human history has ever achieved total obedience to God based on God’s gift of redemption, we can assume that no nation from this point forward will ever accomplish such a feat. Let’s chock it up to the failings of human nature under Satan’s control, which is the ‘constant’ in this scenario. However, the way I understand how Jesus’ government will work in the future is all his public officials will be EXCLUSIVELY people who have been redeemed and resurrected. ONLY ‘resurrected saints’ will rule the world when Jesus returns. In other words, none of Jesus’ government officials will be non-redeemed. They also won’t be mortal. Plus, Jesus’ GOVERNMENT will be totally what God wants, expects, and is happy with. AND, Jesus will shove God’s law down every nation’s and individual’s throat if they are unwilling to give their allegiance and obedience to YHWH.
So, Jesus’ government will be the ONLY GOVERNMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY to rise to the status of ‘God’s chosen people’, owing to Jesus being the king and all his people being in sync with his will and work. They were vetted during their lifetime as mortals. That’s the main purpose of life. So, I would call that A TOTAL WORK OF GOD. Now compare that with all man-made governments throughout human history, including national Israel.
That is my illustration of what I believe Paul means by ‘God’s chosen people’ couched in terms of today’s national realities. I hope you were able to see the picture I tried to paint for you on this subject. I want you to see more clearly the relationship between JUSTIFICATION and WORKS OF THE LAW in the Bible, and the KEY to all of it: Jesus.
Thanks for stopping by. See you in the next blog.
(A big thanks goes out to my good friend Jim for editing this blog for grammar and content!)
Reality Bible 