God’s Promises to the Church

I was watching a video the other say and the speaker recently that God gave covenants with Israel, but never gave a covenant with the Church.

That is true, I suppose, on a simplistic level, but God gave many promises to the church.

The Bible is divided into two sections for a reason. The Old Testament (Old Covenant) which was somewhat based on physical relationship with Abraham and Jacob and so on, and then we have the New Testament.
There now is a New Covenant, based on a spiritual relationship with Jesus, based on faith, not on ethnicity.

It is the church who are the bride of Christ, not ethnic Israel!

The word church just means gathering – assembly, the same word is used of God’s people gathered at the foot of Mt Sinai. The church is just the way to refer to God’s people, wherever they may be.

Those who are of the faith of Abraham form the church, the true Israel. This includes both ethnic Jews and Gentiles (Gal 3:26-29). According to verse 29, it is this group who are “heirs according to the promise”. It is this group (the church) who are the beneficiaries of the covenants with Adam, Abraham, Israel and David and so on.

This idea of Jews and Gentiles forming one new man, with the dividing wall broken down, with Gentiles being grafted onto the Olive Tree, fellow heirs and citizens and so forth is mentioned time and again throughout the New Testament.

Jesus promises that he will build his church (Matt 16:18)

In Col 1:18 and Eph 5:23, Jesus is described as the head of the church.

In Eph 1:23, 5:23, the church is described as Jesus’ body, and in Eph 5:29-32 it tells us that Jesus nourishes and cherishes the church, and describes the church as his bride.

It is to the church that God has appointed Apostles, Prophets, Teachers etc (1 Cor 12:28).

It is the church that is the household of God, the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim 3:15).

It is the church who are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Pet 2:9).

Now there are local expressions of the church, but groups that call themselves “churches”, may or may not have any relationship to the true church.

It is the members of the true church who will be with Jesus into eternity, whether Jew or Gentile.

The church hasn’t been incorporated into ethnic Israel. True Israel is, and always has been, incorporated into the church, and Gentiles have been grafted into that. The church existed before Israel – e.g. Adam, Abraham, Melchizedek, Jethro, Isaac etc.

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