Galatians 6:16

InevitablyReformed · #1 (**permalink**) 12-19-2008, 11:58 PM

What is the best/most common argument against the position that in this verse, Paul plainly states that the Church is the Israel of God?

Matthew1034 · #2 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 02:16 AM

I know of a dispensationalist pastor who would say that Paul included national Israel in that blessing because God curses those who do not bless Israel (Genesis 27:29).

Scott1 · #3 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 05:54 AM

I do not have comprehensive knowledge of this topic and all the implications for covenant theology and dispensationalism that it might entail.

As I understand it, Covenant theology is really an expansion of the covenant God originally began with Israel to include people from every tribe, nation, kindred and tongue. This was His plan from the beginning, to redeem all sorts of people, Jew and Gentile through Christ.

In some places in Scripture, Israel obviously means ethnic or national Israel. In others, such as this passage, it refers to all those (Jew and Gentile) who see the promise fulfilled in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ.

**Prufrock** · #4 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 10:07 AM

Stendahl and others argue it based upon the conjunctions -- I find it a very weak argument, especially in light of passages in Romans and others.

Jimmy the Greek · #5 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 10:35 AM

Here is a typical dispensational argument with some referenced source material. Perhaps it will help.

http://www.pre-trib.org/pdf/Ice-TheIsraelOfGod.pdf

TsonMariytho · #6 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InevitablyReformed

What is the best/most common argument against the position that in this verse, Paul plainly states that the Church is the Israel of God?

Gal 6:16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

That would be a tough nut for them to crack. If they make "Israel" ethnic Israel, then how can they be said to "follow this rule"?

And if they make it the believing remnant within ethnic Israel, then those with the ethnic distinction but lacking faith seem to lose the claim to the title "Israel of God".

Wannabee · #7 (**permalink**) 12-20-2008, 11:12 AM

Many dispensationalists would admit that this verse does seem to show some relationship, but would also submit that it is the only NT verse that does. Here's MacArthur.

Quote:

The Power to Bring Salvation
And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (6:16)
Third, Paul gloried in the cross because it has the power to bring salvation to all of those will walk by this rule. Paul here seems to imply an invitation to the Judaizers and to any others who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. They did not have to remain lost and alienated from God. Through faith in Christ, they, too, could walk by this rule of the gospel.
“God so loved the world,”Jesus declared, “that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16–18). The condition for salvation is belief in God’s Son, and it is a condition that every person can meet if he will, for God has made salvation available to all, without exception, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). There are no limits to the power of the cross, because Christ “died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15; cf. 1 Tim. 2:6; 4:10).
Men cannot change the terms of salvation, but they can refuse the terms. And when they knowingly refuse God’s offer of salvation, their judgment is greater than if they had never heard the gospel at all. “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:29).
Kanōn (rule) has the basic idea of measurement and was often used in the sense of a principle or standard. To walk by this rule is to accept the gospel of divine accomplishment through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and to walk by faith in the power of His Spirit, rather than by sight in the power of the flesh (cf. 5:16–17; 2 Cor. 5:7).
Peace and mercy represent salvation, peace referring to the believer’s new relationship to God and mercy referring to the divine removal of his sins. Peace is the positive side of salvation, the establishing of a new and right relationship to God. Mercy is the negative side, the forgiving of all a believer’s sins, and the setting aside of his judgment.
No matter what their religious convictions or accomplishments, those who are apart from Christ are “hostile toward God” (Rom. 8:7; cf. 5:10) and are “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Every unbeliever is at war with God and will find peace only in the cross of Jesus Christ.
The Israel of God refers to Jewish believers in Jesus Christ, to those who are spiritual as well as physical descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7) and are heirs of promise rather than of law (v. 18). They are the real Jews, the true Israel of faith, like those referred to in Romans 2:28–29 and 9:6–7.
In a final warning, Paul says, From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. It is possible he was speaking to some Christians in Galatia who, though genuine believers, were nevertheless being influenced by the perverted gospel of the Judaizers. They not only were helping corrupt the churches but were causing Paul great trouble and heartache.
No doubt many believers in Galatia had witnessed Paul’s receiving some of the brand-marks he bore on his body. At Lystra he was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead (Acts 14:19). “Because you know how much my faithfulness to the gospel has cost me,” Paul asked, “let no one cause trouble for me.”
It is also possible Paul was speaking to unbelievers, specifically the Judaizers. Legalistic Jews liked to make pretense of great personal sacrifice and devotion, as by wearing long, gloomy faces when they fasted (Matt. 6:16). “If you are impressed with bodily afflictions for the Lord’s sake,” Paul would have been saying to them, “look at the brand-marks of Jesus I carry with me.”
Every blow that Paul received was really a blow against Jesus, his Master and Savior. “The sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,” he told the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1:5). The apostle was “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also [might] be manifested in [his] body” (4:10). To the Colossian church he wrote, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24).
Whenever a Christian is persecuted for his faith, it is really Christ who is being persecuted through him. When Paul was on the way to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians there, the Lord said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Because Satan and his world system can no longer afflict Christ directly, they afflict Him indirectly by persecuting the church, His Body.
John MacArthur, Galatians, Includes Indexes. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, c1987), 209.