How should Christians regard contemporary Jews and the state of Israel?

We can’t talk about Israel and the Jews without talking about Jesus. Jesus is the key to getting this right.

Jesus is the true Israel, the seed of Abraham, the heir of all the promises given to Israel through patriarchs and prophets. The New Testament couldn’t be clearer on this.

• Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1, a passage about the exodus of Yahweh’s son Israel, and says it’s fulfilled in the life of Jesus (Matt 2:14-15).
• This is the core message of Matthew’s entire Gospel: Jesus recapitulates the history of Israel, but faithfully.
• Israel is the vine transplanted from Egypt (Psa 80; Isa 7:1-7). Jesus says He’s the Vine (John 15:1-11).
• Christ is the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), heir of God’s promises of seed, land, and blessing to Gentiles (Gen 12:1-3).
• All the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 1:20).

How do we share in the promises God fulfilled in Jesus? By following Him with relentless faith, loyalty, and love. Since Jesus embodies Israel, those who are united to Him share His inheritance.

This is exactly what Paul says in Galatians. Christ is the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16). Those who are baptized are clothed with Christ and, whether Jews or Greeks, are one in Him. Because we are Christ’s, we’re Abraham’s seed (Gal 3:27-29).

For this reason, the apostles apply titles and badges of Israelite identity to the church. The church, Peter says, is the “royal priesthood” and “holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9-10), quoting from Exodus 19.

We are the true circumcision (Phil 3:3), circumcised with the circumcision of Christ (Col 2:10-11), a circumcision of the heart by the Spirit, not the letter (Rom 2:27-29).

Paul draws the inference: If Christians are the “true circumcision,” then those who are circumcised in the flesh but reject Jesus as Messiah are the “false circumcision” (Phil 3:2).

Outward Judahites, marked in the flesh by circumcision and genealogy, are not necessarily true Jews, Paul says (Rom 2:28). Rather, “he is a Jew who is one inwardly,” marked by the circumcision of the Spirit (2:29).

If Jesus is Israel, and those who belong to Christ are Abraham’s seed, then those who do not belong to Christ are not heirs of the promises to Abraham.

Non-Christian Jews aren’t in covenant with God. They can’t be. Jesus is the heir of the covenant, and they aren’t in Him.

This isn’t “replacement theology.” The first-century church is the Israel that remains after the fruitless natural branches (Jews) have been pruned and wild branches (Gentiles) grafted in (Rom 11:17-24).

God didn’t chop down Israel and plant a new tree. We’re branches in the tree whose roots are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, branches alongside Moses and Joshua and David and Muppim.

None of this, of course, justifies hatred of Jews, or the terrible abuse and slander Christians have heaped on them over the centuries.

Christians remain strangely entwined with Jews. We share part of our Bible with them. We tell the same stories of creation, exodus, conquest, kingship, exile, and return. We love them, and hope they will one day welcome the Messiah prophesied in their Scriptures.

Nor does the New Testament settle the political question of whether or not the US should be allied with Israel.

But it deflates that issue: The Bible doesn’t require us to support Israel, and Christian leaders should form their judgments based on larger biblical norms and considerations of national interest.