by Mark Sweetnam

“The gifts and calling of God are,” Paul reminds us in Romans 11:29, “without repentance.” Standing on their own, these words constitute a great statement about the character and attributes of God, a statement that must be of enormous value to every Christian. These words confirm to us that our God is neither fickle nor faithless, and that our relationship with Him has a deep and enduring permanence. In the context, of course, these words have a particular application to Israel. In the great unfolding of God’s redemptive purpose which occupies the Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in this glorious epistle, God’s continuing interest in His ancient people provides a telling index of the greatness of His faithfulness. And, for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ today, the faithfulness of God to Israel is a source of wonder and reassurance, and an invaluable insight into the character of the God that we have come to know. Therefore, while it is true that a denial of God’s future purpose for Israel robs that nation of its special place, that is only a beginning: it also impoverishes the Church and, most seriously of all, touches the glory and greatness of God.
      
This book collects contributions from a diverse collection of people who approach their subject from a diversity of doctrinal and disciplinary perspectives.  They are united in this diversity by a common belief that God has not finished with Israel, that His irrevocable promises and commitment to the nation have not been made over wholesale to the church.  In the text of Scripture and in the texture of history, the contributors to this important and valuable collection find affirmation upon affirmation of the centrality of Israel to God’s great redemptive programme.
      
In their understanding of Scripture, the essays in this volume eschew any suggestion that Israel has been either replaced or superseded by the church. In an oftentimes complex ethical and political context that has revitalised approaches that continue the long and inglorious history of replacement theology, it is an important contribution to restate firmly, clearly and without polemical excess the conviction that such theologies are void of scriptural warrant and misrepresent our God. For the apostles, the challenges of evangelising a pagan and oftentimes hostile gentile world never required the marginalisation of God’s commitment to Israel. It would be difficult to concede that the challenges of our own time, formidable though they undoubtedly are, require any such reinterpretation on our part.

The authors of these essays have avoided polemical indiscretion in addressing the claims of replacement theology. But they have also been careful to be moderate in their approach to Israel. This is important for, as much as we may deplore the very idea of a replacement theology, we do well to avoid the excesses of a militant Zionism that often seems to extend its identification with Israel to the point of exemplifying the zeal not according to knowledge of which Paul speaks in Romans 10:2. To go beyond the warrant of Scripture in belligerent – even bellicose – support for the State of Israel, and to endorse all the actions of the State, is not to glorify God. It is also to ignore one of the plainest themes of Old Testament Scripture. The record of God’s dealings with His people makes it very clear that His sovereign choice of Israel imparted, as well as immense privilege, enormous responsibility. Biblical Israel learned repeatedly that God demands a high standard of those with whom He associates His name, and we need to profit from their lessons. God’s continued interest in Israel emphasises His righteousness and we cannot condone or endorse behaviour – whether national or individual – that runs counter to that standard.

At the end of Romans 11, Paul, having surveyed the greatness and grandeur of God’s redemptive programme responds in the only appropriate way: ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!’ (Romans 11:33 KJV). Worship, then, is Paul’s response to the riches of Divine grace as expressed in the gospel. The essays in this volume such exercise the mind. They should touch our hearts. But they will have their greatest success if, in reminding us of God’s unwavering love for His ancient people, they prompt our spirits to worship the One who in matchless grace has revealed Himself as the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.

Mark Sweetnam, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Trinity College, Dublin
Dublin (23 March 2009)