It is a well-accepted fact that Jesus as an Israelite was under the Mosiac Law Covenant. As he himself said at Matthew 5:17: “Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I came, not to destroy, but to fulfill.” This Law was an agreement or covenant between Jehovah and the nation of Israel. Why was a ‘fulfillment’ necessary? God concluded a covenant with Abraham that stated that someone from his linage would become the means by which the nations of mankind could bless themselves. That seed or offspring would then be produced through Abraham’s sons. We all know how this lineage developed. The nation of Israel was now in a position to become a royal nation after having produced the royal seed. (Exodus 19:5,6) But this was all contingent upon their strictly obeying Jehovah’s word, keeping his covenant with them.
But they were not obedient and so came under guilt. They became lawbreakers. Although the provision of cleansing under the Law Covenant (that is, the blood of bulls and goats) was not intended to cleanse them permanently of sin as it was only a temporary arrangement. Hebrews 9:9 reads: “This very tent is an illustration for the appointed time that is now here, and in keeping with it both gifts and sacrifices are offered. However, these are not able to make the man doing sacred service perfect as respects his conscience.” Hebrews 10:11 adds: “Also, every priest takes his station from day to day to render public service and to offer the same sacrifices often, as these are at no time able to take sins away completely.” Yet their continual adherence to these requirements would enable them to take advantage of the benefits that would be offered to them under a more permanent arrangement, the blood of a perfect man. It was as Paul said at Galatians 3:19, “Why then, the Law? It was added (to the Abrahamic Covenant) to make transgressions manifest until the seed should arrive to whom the promise had been made; and it was transmitted through angels by the hand of a mediator.” Verse 24 continues: “Consequently the Law has become our (Israel’s) tutor leading to Christ, that we might be declared righteous due to faith.”
Israel is now under a curse because they are not able to keep all the things written in the Law. Galatians 3:10 says: “For all those who depend upon works of law are under a curse; for it is written: “Cursed is every one that does not continue in all the things written in the scroll of the Law in order to do them.”” There is now a need for someone to release them from this curse and enable them to gain the freedom to become this royal nation spoken of at Exodus 19:5, 6 . The one who would provide this release by ransom would also have to be the one who could fulfill or keep the Law perfectly. He must take the place of the Law Covenant, become the mediator of a new and better covenant. The nation then, upon accepting this new covenant, could now become a royal nation that would assist the royal seed in administering the Abrahamic Covenant to all other nations.
The release from this curse would come at the cost of a perfect human life, as Paul’s says at Hebrews 9:14: “How much more would the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our (Israel’s) consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God?” Paul’s states further in verse 15, this: “So that is why he is a mediator of a new covenant, in order that, because a death has occurred for their (Israel’s) release by ransom from transgressions under the former covenant, the ones who have been called might receive the promise of the everlasting inheritance.”
In chapter 9 of Hebrews, Paul repeatedly makes references to the duties of the priest in the temple and compares this to what Jesus did. The priests were acting on behalf of Israel, not the entire inhabited earth of mankind. Consequently, Jesus in a parallel work would also be acting in behalf of Israel, otherwise, why the comparisons. The entire world of mankind was not under the Law Covenant, only Israel was. There is nothing in these scriptures that indicate that Jesus would die for sins based on Adams’ transgressions. It is specifically stated that Jesus’ sacrifice was for sins committed by those under the Law Covenant, the nation of Israel. Hebrews 9:15 (NIV) says clearly: “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
Consequently, the nations of the world were not under the condemnation or curse of being lawbreakers. They did not need to have their ‘conscience cleansed from acts that lead to death.’ (Hebrews 9:14, NIV) Romans 5:13 says: “For until the Law sin was in the world but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law.” Also, Romans 4:15 adds: “In reality the Law produces wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there any transgression.” The non-Israelite nations were not given the Law Covenant; they were not guilty of transgression, so why would they be in need of a sacrifice for sins they have not committed.
When Jesus preached ‘repent for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near;’ it was specifically directed to Israel. At Matthew 15:24, Jesus, confronted by a Phoenician woman asking for help, said to her: “In answer he said: “I was not sent forth to any but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”” When sending the disciples out he made this statement recorded at Matthew 10:5,6: “These twelve Jesus sent forth, giving these orders: “Do not go off into the road of the nations, and do not enter into a Samaritan city, but, instead, go continually to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.””
Jesus used the word ‘world’ many times in reference to Israel. For instance, at John 9:5 he stated: “As long as I am in the world, I am the world’s light.” John 8:12 says: “Therefore Jesus spoke again to them, saying: “I am the light of the world. He that follows me will by no means walk in darkness, but will possess the light of life.”” John 3:17 says: “For God sent forth his Son into the world, not for him to judge the world, but for the world to be saved through him.” This is the same world that John writes about at 1 John 2:2, where he says: “And he is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.”
Hebrews 9:28, in speaking of Jesus’ dying once to take away the sins of many people’ (please note the word ‘many’ people, not all people), is referring to God’s method for releasing Israel from the ‘curse’ of not keeping the Law Covenant. By his shed blood, he mediated a new covenant for which Israel was invited to accept and thus continue to have a good relationship with Jehovah. It would not be necessary for Jesus to give his life again for anyone who broke the laws of the New Covenant as punishment for this would be complete destruction. Hebrews 10:28, 29 says: “Any man that has disregarded the law of Moses dies without compassion, upon the testimony of two or three. Of how much more severe a punishment, do you think, will the man be counted worthy who has trampled upon the Son of God and who has esteemed as of ordinary value the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and who has outraged the spirit of undeserved kindness with contempt?”
David’s words are powerful in regard to Israel’s standing with Jehovah. 2 Samuel 7:23 reads: “And what one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself as a people and to assign himself a name and to do for them great and fear-inspiring things - to drive out because of your people, whom you have redeemed to yourself from Egypt, the nations and their gods?”
Therefore, the nation of Israel was in an enviable position. They would produce the royal seed (Galatians 3:15). They could become a ‘royal nation’ administering the Abrahamic Covenant to the nations. (Genesis 22:16-18) They were “entrusted with the sacred pronouncements of God.” (Romans 3:2) The apostle Paul enumerated their inheritance at Romans 9:3-5, where he said: “For I could wish that I myself were separated as the cursed one from the Christ in behalf of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, who, as such, are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the sacred service and the promises; to whom the forefathers belong and from whom the Christ sprang according to the flesh…”
What was the response of the nation as a whole to these privileges given to them as the natural descendants of Abraham? It is well known that this people showed such a lack of appreciation that it was said of them as recorded at John 12:37-40, this: “But although he had performed so many signs before them, they were not putting faith in him, so that the word of Isaiah the prophet was fulfilled which he said: “Jehovah who has put faith in the thing heard by us? And as for the arm of Jehovah, to whom has it been revealed?” The reason why they were not able to believe is that again Isaiah said: “He has blinded their eyes and he has made their hearts hard, that they should not see with their eyes and get the thought with their hearts and turn around and I should heal them.”” It had come to the point where Jehovah stated that he had ‘stopped caring for them.’ (Hebrews 8:9b) Consequently, only a remnant was saved. Romans 9:27 says of this: “Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.””
Jesus told them that “the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to a nation producing its fruit.” Matthew 21:43. At Acts15:14, this group is described in this way: “Symeon has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.” Yes, people from the nations would, for the first time, become a ‘people for his name.’ This was foretold by Isaiah the prophet as recorded at Isaiah 65:1: “I have let myself by searched for by those who had not asked for me. I have let myself be found by those who had not looked for me. I have said, ‘Here I am, here I am! to a nation that was not calling upon my name.” (See also Romans 10:20)
Although never in a covenant with Jehovah, these Gentiles were shown undeserved kindness and invited to complete Israel. This would mean that they would have to accept the good news that Jesus said would be preached to them (Matthew 24:14), get baptized, and accept the New Covenant validated by Jesus’ blood always being obedient to the things written therein. They would thus be grafted into the symbolic ‘olive tree.’ They did not need to repent of any sins as they had no guilt before Jehovah, never having been brought into a covenant with him. They now became a part of the ‘royal nation.’
Thus, Israel, the royal nation, was completed in the first century. Peter could say at 1 Peter 2:9, 10: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. For you were once not a people, but are now God’s people; you were those who had not been shown mercy, but are now those who have been shown mercy.”
bjc