Of all the metaphors the Bible uses to describe the Church, perhaps the richest is that of the Church as the new, or spiritual, Israel. Sadly, dispensational teaching has muddled this metaphor by emphasizing a sharp discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. These five questions will clarify how the Scriptures teach that the Church is the new Israel.

Who are truly Abraham’s children? As George Washington is for the United States, Abraham is considered the father of the nation of Israel. He is even more than a symbolic head, since ethnic Jews trace their ancestry to him. However, God’s Word consistently teaches that the true children of Abraham are not merely his fleshly descendants, but those who have faith in God as he did. As Galatians 3:7 says, “It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.” The Church consists of those who are ultimately defined by being believers like Abraham.

What then did Abraham believe? The New Testament frequently quotes Genesis 15:6 concerning Abraham’s faith: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:3; Gal. 3:6; Jas. 2:23). At this point in his life, what was Abraham trusting God for as the Lord took him outside to look up at the stars? He knew God would bless him and his descendants, who would number as those stars. In another place where Abraham’s faith is referenced, Paul tells us this incredible truth: “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘In you shall all the nations be blessed’” (Gal. 3:8, emphasis added).

Though Abraham could not see the gospel as clearly as we now do, Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day (see John 8:56). God taught Abraham to expect it. Through the test of the offering of Isaac (Gen. 22), God showed Abraham that He would ultimately provide a sacrifice that would take away the sins of Abraham and his spiritual descendants. The Lord encouraged Abraham to believe the resurrection through that lesson (Heb. 11:17-19). As Abraham’s children, the Church believes the gospel like he did.

What is the mark of an Israelite? God instituted circumcision to mark the people of Abraham. Yet He did this to teach Abraham and his descendents in their own bodies that, through pain and blood, their filth would be removed. God told them that the spiritual truth embodied in this mark was that “the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live” (Deut. 30:6; see Jer. 4:4). Circumcision was always intended to indicate an inner, spiritual life the Lord would bring to His people.

Christ, the promised offspring of Abraham (Gal. 3:16), orchestrated the removal of filth and the gift of new life. “In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Col. 2:11). Paul then applies this to the Church when he says, “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” (Rom. 2:28-29). The Church is those who are inward, spiritual Jews, whatever their ethnicity may be.

What characterizes the new Israel? Jesus chose 12 apostles to found the Church (the new Israel) just as the 12 tribes represented the Old Testament Israel (Rev. 21:12-14). The Church is now given titles once reserved for Israel, such as a chosen race or holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9-10 and Exod. 19:5-6). God foresaw that the Church in the new covenant, consisting of believing Jews and Gentiles, would replace the nation of Israel as His people on the earth. “As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call “my people,” and her who was not beloved I will call “beloved”’” (Rom. 9:25).

What does this mean that the Church is the spiritual Israel? Ultimately, it means that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). We can look at Israel and learn from it, for as Paul says of the Israel of old, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11). We also can know that those promises given to Abraham and Israel have now become ours in Christ (Gal 3:14, 29).

Therefore, the Church is to be filled with those who are faith-justified, Christ-loving, promise-seeking, generation-instructing, resurrection-believing folks—just like their father Abraham.