13
THE FULFILLMENT
OF ISRAEL IN CHRIST

The central distinctive principle of classic dispensationalism is the principle of the parallel-but-separate destinies of Israel and the church. Israel and the church are two peoples of God, earthly and heavenly. This principle we will now approach from the standpoint of systematic theology. But it must be remembered that many present-day dispensationalþists have modified the principle of parallel destinies. The criticism of this chapter may therefore not apply to them.

For those who do hold to the principle of two destinies, the most incisive direct challenge to this principle arises from reflection on the biblical teaching on fulfillment in Christ.

44. Becoming heirs to
Old Testament promises

I have already mentioned briefly (section 19) the argument for the church's connection with the prophetic promises of the OT. The argument is strongest if one does not bluntly and simplistically assert that the church is a straight-line continuation of Israel. Rather, one proceeds by way of Christ himself as the center-point of fulfillment of the promises. Christ is an Israelite in the fullest sense. In fact, though all Israel be rejected for unfaithfulness (Hos 1:9), yet Christ would remain as the ultimate faithful Israelite, the ultimate "remnant" (cf. Isa 6:11-13, 11:1). Hence, as 2 Cor 1:20 says, "No matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." The question then remains, "What does union with Jesus Christ bring to Christians?" The church receives the complete fulness of God's blessing through Christ (Eph 1:23, Col 2:10), including being made co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17). That is to say that we inherit what he inherits. We are sons of Abraham because he is (Gal 3:29). In being united to him, we possess the whole world (1 Cor 3:21-23).

This argument can be further reinforced by reflections about the nature of union with Christ. Being united to Christ is an intimate, personal, experiential concern. But it is not only that. Union with Christ has a corporate dimension to it. The church is a corporate organism formed by the union of its members to Christ and therefore also to one another. But Paul extends our sights even further by pointing out an analogy between Christ and Adam (Rom 5:12-21; cf. 1 Cor 15:45-49). The fall of Adam is overcome and reversed by One who is fully a man, a man standing at the head of a new humanity. The old humanity (all who are united to Adam) fell into sin, damnation, disinheritance, and disfellowship through the one man Adam. The new humanity receives righteousness, salvation, inheritance, and fellowship with God through the "last Adam," Jesus Christ. The people of God are, in the end, those whom Jesus Christ represents and ministers to as their head. Above, we talked about the question of inheriting promises. But inheritance is one part of a larger picture. The larger picture is the picture of a new humanity. The new humanity receives righteousness, salvation, inheritance, and fellowship in counterpoint to the fall of Adam.

The unity of the people of God is secured by the unity of the one head, Jesus Christ. I already set this forth briefly at an earlier point (section 11). But now we are ready to see the dilemma that this presents to dispensationalists of the classic type. Though some dispensationalists have made unguarded statements, dispensationalþists want to maintain that there is only one way of salvation. In all dispensations, any who are saved are saved by the grace of God, appropriated by faith in his promises. But suppose that we try to spell out in greater depth and in greater detail what this way of salvation is. It is by the grace of God. But what does "grace" mean? How is it possible for a righteous God to save the unrighteous? The grace of God is bound up with the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. Grace was given already in the OT, before Christ completed his work. But it was given in anticipation of that work (Rom 3:25). And what does faith mean? Faith is not faith in faith, or faith in a vacuum, but faith in God's promises, his covenantal commitments pointing forward to the day when salvation will be fully accomplished in Jesus Christ. When the time of accomplishment comes, we see that the work of Jesus Christ is the work of the last Adam. And we find that the unity of the one work of salvation implies a unity of the new humanity that is saved in Christ. Hence, the conclusion is not far behind that there is only one people of God. With regard to this point, Daniel P. Fuller (1957, 178) expresses the dilemma clearly:

. . . while they [dispensationalists] wish to think of salvation as always administered in the same way [through faith in God's Word, and by the Blood], yet they do not wish to carry this idea out to the logical conclusion that all saved persons will have the same status [Israel and the church alike].

45. Reasoning from salvation to corporate
unity in Jesus Christ

The dilemma can be further illustrated by laying out a series of gradual steps, starting from aspects of salvation and ending with aspects of corporate unity. At each step, we emphasize that union with Christ is the one and only means of blessing. At the beginning, when we consider aspects of salvation, dispensationalists wish to agree with the emphasis on unity, in order to maintain the unity of the way of salvation. At the end, when we consider aspects of corporate unity, they find themselves having to break down their idea of two peoples of God.

We can begin, then, with justification as an aspect of salvation. Those who are saved are justified by faith. Moreover, justification is ultimately a substitutionary act. Christ's righteousness counts for us, and our sins are laid on Christ. We are "justified in Christ" (Gal 2:17). Next, the power of transformed lives also comes from Christ. We are "sanctified in Christ Jesus" (1 Cor 1:2). Spiritual fruit flows from abiding in Christ (John 15). This language of union with Christ is very similar to the language of Galatians 3. There, in the context of justification, Paul says that we are "all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:26). Then he goes on to say that we are "all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). And then we can go to the expressions with even more pointed corporate emphasis: we are reconciled "in this one body" (Eph 2:16), we are "one body" "in Christ" (Rom 12:5), "the body of Christ" (1 Cor 12:27, Eph 1:23).

Union with Christ is an organic relationship that includes in a tightly interwoven way both salvation (including justification, adoption, and sanctification), and corporate unity. One cannot be saved except in union with Christ, and union with Christ means being part of one people of God.

But dispensationalists are quick to observe that the people of God in the OT did not enjoy union with Christ in the same way that we do. Christ had not yet become incarnate, he had not died, he had not risen again, he had not sent the Holy Spirit. All this is true. But how were people saved in the OT? They were saved by the anticipation of these things, and by a kind of preliminary "working backward" of their effects--else there is just no salvation at all in the OT. Dispensationalists and nondispensationalists alike who maintain the unity of the way of salvation must admit this in some way or other. But that also leads to the conclusion that the difference between Israel and the church is fundamentally the difference between the people of God before and after the coming of Christ to accomplish salvation.

The implications can be seen in another way by asking about the future of people of Jewish descent. How are these people to be saved and come into their inheritance? Now that Christ has accomplished his work, salvation is no longer a matter of types and shadows, of anticipations or foretastes. Salvation is by union with Christ, and in no other way. That salvation, whether now or in the millennium, constitutes Jews and Gentiles "members" of Christ. They are corporately one as a new humanity. Hence one cannot now contemplate splitting apart the new humanity which is under one head, under Christ. One cannot contemplate a millennium in which salvation is in union with one man, the last Adam, Jesus Christ, but in which that union is undermined by the distinctiveness of two peoples of God with two inheritances and two destinies, on earth and in heaven.