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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Gary Hashley and Brad Kilthau.
Brad Kilthau
And Gary, as one of these questions were sent in by our listeners, it reads this way. It says, "Can you explain what Paul is talking about in Galatians 6:16 when he talks about the Israel of God," and I'm gonna read that verse. And then I'm gonna turn it over to you, Gary, and to see what your thoughts are. But the verse reads this way, "And as many as walk, according to this rule, peace and mercy, be upon them. And upon the Israel of God." And this term, Israel of God, seems to have really got a hold of our listener who is asking about what this means.
Gary Hashley
Well to start with, we should begin with that statement about, who follow this rule. And if you look at what Paul's been talking about, he's talking about, that salvation is found in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He talks up in verse 12 about the cross of Christ, and he talks later about not boasting in your flesh. But he emphasizes the need for faith, and we know that it is faith that saves. And so the rule he's talking about is the truth of the gospel. It's not like, you know, "Do this physical act, bring an offering, whatever, and you're saved." Or you know, I'd say, "It's not be baptized and you'll be saved or take communion and you'll be saved," but it's believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. But yeah, the part that the question entails is the last three words, Israel of God, question being, what is he talking about when it comes to the Israel of God? And part of this hinges upon another word, just prior to that, which seems like a word you don't pay a lot of attention to, it's just a connective word. I'm reading from the ESV, the English standard version, "Mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." We've talked in the past on this program about the inspiration of scripture and that we believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of scripture. Verbal, we believe the actual words that were written down by Moses or by Isaiah or by the apostle Paul, the very words they wrote, God superintendent, that those were the words that they used. Plenary has to do with the fact that all of the words, not just some of the words, not just the ones that seem like spiritual words, but all of the words were inspired. And we always like to make sure we give this little explanation. And that is in the original theological term, the original autographs or the actual copy that Isaiah wrote or Ezekiel wrote, or Matthew wrote or Paul wrote. Well in this particular verse 16 of chapter six of Galatians, "Mercy, be upon them, and upon the Israel of God," it's just a little three letter Greek word, Kai. And the question being, how is that to be translated? Because that word technically can be used in more than one way. If you have a New International Version that you like to read from, the word you find isn't 'and' it's 'even.' So it would be read, "Mercy be upon them, even upon the Israel of God," making that the same, but my ESV and the New American Standard and others, "Mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." So that makes a whole change in how you would understand that. Is it them even the Israel of God or them and the Israel of God? And I must say that I agree with the scholars who did the New American Standard and who did the English standard version. That the context and all makes sense, that it's 'and' be upon them 'and' upon the Israel of God. So there are those who say, "Well, you know, what are we talking about here? Are we talking about the Israel of God being everybody who knows Jesus? Are we saying the Israel of God are Jewish people who've come to truly know Jesus as their personal savior? Or are we talking about the Israel of God is the church today? And saying then that the church now is Israel, that the Israel of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the Israel of crossing the Red Sea and at Mount Sinai. And the walls of Jericho falling down and the Israel with a king like David and a king like Solomon, that they were totally thrown away by God. And the church today is slipped into that spot. And we are now the Israel of God, thus saying the promises to Israel now are promises to me, promises to you if you know the Lord Jesus as savior. So if you go along with the NIV, "Mercy be upon them, even the Israel of God," you might come to the conclusion. Then we're talking about Israel of God, are believers in the church age. And we are now Israel, but I would go along with those who say, we're talking about mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. And if you remember, there's a spot in Romans where the apostle Paul says, "You know, not everybody who is a blood descendant of Abraham, is a spiritual descendant of Abraham." That there are those who are Jews simply because of their genetics, but there are also those who are children of Abraham in the sense that they are also not only just genetically Jewish. But they are people of faith, like Abraham was a man of faith. So that there are Jewish people who come to know the Lord, Jesus Christ, and even today with Israel set aside and Gentiles grafted in, as Paul wrote in Romans, to the faith. Yet there are Jewish people coming to faith today, and yet someday it says all Israel will be saved. But right now there are Jewish people who realize Jesus is Messiah putting their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So my conclusion is, and I'm not sure where Brad's going because we didn't discuss this before we started. But my conclusion is, he's talking about those who are Gentiles, who know Jesus, them and upon the Israel of God, Jewish people who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior from sin. So it makes a difference. Is it the word 'and' or is it the word 'even' Bradley?
Brad Kilthau
You're gonna find Gary, that my thoughts on this are not anywhere away from what you're sharing. I mean, we're pretty much on the same thought. Kind of, when I was reading through this and thinking about what to share with our listeners about the Israel of God, that is shared in this verse. You know, it seems like in the church, we've always tried to categorize people who come to our worship services. And one of the things I found, is that years ago the Methodist church registers once contained three columns of people who would attend their worship services. You could either be considered a seeker or one who's saved or one who is sanctified. And so they would actually make this register and put your name in one of those columns after you attended church on that Sunday. So I guess it kind of, they must have had some special insight into the heart of people that other people don't have. But, you know, there's obviously always been this thought to categorize people, and I think this is one of the things that's being addressed here in the church of Galatia, by the apostle Paul. And I think he's addressing these legalists who are trying to put something upon the congregants of the church. And the argument I think that they were trying to express here is that, they had a form of legalism that had to be done in order for a person to go into heaven. And so these Judaizers, as we would call them in Bible school, I think had two columns. They had those who were legalists and going to heaven, and those who were not legalists and weren't going to heaven. They were trying to force these legalistic things upon the people. And I think it's very clear, is when you look at verse 15 it says, "If we're in Christ, neither circumcision or uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." And so he was getting after these Judaizers who were always trying to put their rituals upon the Gentiles, and especially the Jewish ritual of circumcision. And so I believe this term is really the apostle Paul, who's kind of putting the leather to these guys, and he's making a charge against them for their false teaching. Their doctrinal deviation, their unworthy motive, because I think their motive that Paul's getting after here is really bragging rights. And that's really the motive of what most people would do when it comes to legalism, is they put legalistic requirements upon people, so they can brag. And I don't know, maybe the picture here is that when these Judaizers returned to Jerusalem and they got up in their missionary conference meetings and they got to stand up in front of all the people, they could say, "Well we traveled far and wide, and we've got all of these scallops to show for our efforts," or something like that, I don't know. But you know, it's really a great warning in application, I think for us as ministers and those who serve in the ministry today. And it's a challenge for us to make sure that we keep the gospel pure, but also that we keep our motives pure in the ministry. It's very tempting for those in the ministry to get together, have bragging sessions about the statistics that are going on in their church. And you know, sometimes we'll tip our hat obviously and say, "Well it was God, it was the good Lord that made it happen." But then we get to sit back and dwell in the limelight for ourselves, and we have to be careful that we don't fall into this. And the truth is, no one can really escape this temptation fully, because pride is one of those tender boxes that just so easily can go off in the heart of people on this side of eternity. Cause right now we are not perfectly conformed in the image of Christ, that will not happen until we get to heaven. And so we have to have this antidote, I think for this poison of pride, and that is, you know, self crucifixion of the flesh. We have to do that everyday and make sure that our motives are never prideful. And you know, I think it's kind of ironic that we're talking about this right now too, at this time of the year, because we have our church annual meetings that usually come up at the fiscal part of the new year. And we make up our annual reports and we got to be careful that we don't make these reports into bragging about our churches, or bragging about our self efforts, or bragging about these statistics that we have. We've got to make sure that we keep pride out of the ministry. And so I think that's what Paul's done here, is he set the stage in these verses with addressing these Judaizers in the church at this time. And he's saying, "Guys, there's only two categories, but there's these two categories are this way. There is the new creation, and there are those who are trying to add on to their old religion, adding salvation onto their old religion." We know that those are part of the new creation we're a new creation in Christ. We're totally new, and it comes about by faith alone in Jesus Christ. But there are always those who seem to want to add onto their old religion. That is, "Well, we'll believe in Jesus, but we're gonna keep our old rituals and our old religion. And that has to be done too, and they make the two try to come together." Now we have to make sure that we are part of the new creation because it's only about Christ and it's only about Him and His work. This new creation, it's not an improvement, it's not an addition to our old, but it's something entirely new. And so I think when he uses this term, the Israel of God, he's trying to point out something to these Judaizers. And he's trying to very pointedly say, "I'm talking about those who put their faith and trust in Jesus," not only as a Gentile and a Jew, which is the general church, but he's making an address to the Jews are born by nature, and a birth of being a Jew. And those who also accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah. That's the Israel of God, Jews who are saved. And so again, he's taken a leather to those guys who are trying to obscure the gospel here, because the true is, as he shares here. There's no real peace and mercy for those who want to walk under the law, there's only peace and mercy for those who are part of the new creation and that's through Christ and Him alone.
Gary Hashley
And, you know, there are those who differ on this. I love reading Bob Utley's commentaries and he says, "It is, the church is the Israel of God." And I'm not gonna break fellowship because I don't agree with him, but I think it's not simply talking about the church. In fact, another author talks about the fact that, you know, Israel of God, that if we say this time, the word Israel of God refers to the church, this author says, "But the other 65 occurrences of the term, Israel in the New Testament refer to Jews." So why would there be 66 times? The word is there 65 times, it refers to people who are genetically Jewish, and one time that it's the church. I mean, I used to teach in Bible college that, if the plain sense makes common sense, seek no other sense. And if 65 times is talking about national Israel, those who are Jewish by blood, that is probably talking about those who are Jewish by blood here, put their faith in Jesus.