Getting Israel's Election 'Wright'

What is the point of Israel? After creation, Adam and Eve, and the 'Fall' -- why does it take such a long time to get to Jesus, the main character in the biblical drama? Was Israel merely a placeholder, an interlude, until we get to the main act in the Gospels? Or does Israel's story necessarily serve as an example of how not to trust in God? That is, does Israel represent 'works righteousness' -- pulling one's self up by one's own bootstraps, as it were -- in contrast to followers of Jesus, who are 'saved by grace through faith'? What is it about Israel, then, that's so important to the biblical story and why should that matter to Christians living today?

To alter Tertullian's question: What hath ancient Israel to do with the modern Church?

I raise these questions because, regardless of all the books I've read and regardless of my seminary education, I still find myself asking: Why Israel? (Do you ever ask these questions?)

Regarding this question -- Why Israel? -- I remembered an especially powerful passage in Christopher Wright's large, magnificent book, The Mission of God, about the purpose and nature of Israel's election that I thought I'd share with you here. Wright's description of Israel's election is not only helpful for answering the 'Why Israel?' question; it is also instructive for understanding the purpose and nature of election more broadly, that is, for both Jews and Christians. If St. Paul is right (which of course he is) that Gentiles have been 'grafted in' (Rom. 11:17b) to the covenant election of Israel, then it stands to reason that the point of Israel's election by God to be a 'light to the nations' (Isa. 49:7b) also extends to the Church to be the same. Thus the characteristics of Israel's election are the same characteristics of the Church's election.

The mission of the Church started with the mission of Israel, for it was in and through Israel that God sought to bring salvation to the world. Jesus is the centerpiece of God's salvation because Jesus is the capstone of Israel's story as its true Messiah. As the Gospels show, Jesus embodied and recapitulated Israel's story in his life, death, and resurrection and Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment -- the emphatic Yes! -- of God's promises to Israel that started with Abraham and were renewed in Moses, David, and the prophets. The story of Jesus would be senseless without the story of Israel.

As Christians who place our lives in the biblical narrative, our missional starting point and agenda is not found in Acts -- although Acts is certainly an important part of it -- but rather in the call of Abraham (Genesis 15-17) and the unfolding drama of Israel's life with God throughout the First Testament. Simply put, without Israel's story we cannot understand our own story as God's people nor our mission to be 'ambassadors for Christ' (II Cor. 5:20) to the world.

Here's Wright quoted in full. I invite you to connect what he says about Israel's election to the Church -- to your church -- today.

• The election of Israel is set in the context of God's universality. Far from bing a doctrine of narrow national exclusivism, it affirms the opposite. YHWH, the God who chose israel, is the God who owns and rules the whole universe, and whatever purpose he has for Israel is inextricably linked to that universal sovereignty and providence.

• The election of Israel does not imply the rejection of other nations. On the contrary, from the very beginning it is portrayed as for their benefit. God did not call Abraham from among the nations to accomplish their rejection but to initiate the process of their redemption.

• The election of Israel is not warranted by any special feature of Israel itself. When the people of Israel were tempted to think that they were chosen by God on the grounds of numerical or moral superiority to other nations, Deuteronomy very quickly removed such arrogant illusions.

• The election of Israel is founded only on God's inexplicable love. There was no other motive than God's own love, and the promises he made to Israel's forefathers. We might paraphrase John 3:16, in a way that John would doubtless accept, 'God so loved the world that he chose Abraham and called Israel.'

• The election of Israel is instrumental, not an end in itself. God did not choose Israel that they alone should be saved, as if the purpose of election terminated with them. They were chosen rather as the means by which salvation could be extended to others throughout the earth.

• The election of Israel is part of the logic of God's commitment to history. The salvation that the Bible describes is woven into the fabric of history. God deals with the realities of human life, lived on the earth, in nations and cultures. His decision to choose one nation in history as the means by which he would bring blessing to all nations within history is neither favoritism nor unfairness.

• The election of Israel is fundamentally missional, not just soteriological [about salvation]. If we allow our doctrine of election to become merely a secret calculus that determines who gets saved and who does not, we have lost touch with its original biblical intention. God's calling and election of Abraham was not merely so that he should be saved and become the spiral father of those who will finally be among the redeemed in the new creation. It was rather, and more explicitly, that he and his people should be the instrument through whom God would gather that multinational multitude that no man or woman can number. Election is of course, in the light of the whole Bible, election unto salvation. But it is first of all election into mission.

Amen!

Here's interesting exercise. Insert the name of your church where 'Israel' is in each italicized heading. Imagine Wright is describing the purpose and nature of election at your church and then see how the emphasis changes. For example, does your church view its election instrumentally, that is, as a means to God's salvific ends in its neighborhood, or is it self-inclosed, looking only to preserve its members and their preferences?

These are important questions churches should be asking in our secularized age.

Ben