The Israel of God (Transcript)
by T. Austin-Sparks
We will bring forward for our further consideration of the matter before us those words in the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 53, in verses 10 and 11: "When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed... he shall see of the travail of his soul".
His seed... the travail of His soul.
And alongside of those words, these from the letter to the Romans, chapter 9 at verse 6: "They are not all Israel, that are of Israel: neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed".
And in the letter to the Galatians, chapter 3 at verse 16: "Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ".
And then we just add that fragment at the end of that letter, chapter 6, verse 16: "And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be unto them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God".
There are many other fragments of the same kind which could be added to those, but these are sufficient, I'm sure, to impress us. Of course, they would not impress us in the same way as they did those to whom they were first written. We are not able, without some very real illumination by the Holy Spirit, to recognise and appreciate the tremendous implications, the profound meaning of these statements of Paul. No, we have not yet fathomed all that Paul had come to see of what Christ meant, of what came in with Christ, of what happened when Christ came in, of what turned upon the advent of Christ. I, in my heart, pray that the Spirit of God may register something of those tremendous implications, even now.
It was this revelation which came to Paul, and his apprehension of the significance of Christ, that was the cause of all the trouble. If ever there was a man who got into trouble, around whom trouble circled and seethed wherever he went, who seemed to make trouble, it was this man Paul. But when you ask why that was, what the reason was, the cause of it all, it is just this with which we are now occupied. It's a matter which in principle will always set up a furore; and it comes from the realm of greater intelligence as to its significance, than the human. Well, let us get on with it.
Now, Paul did, of course, recognise that there was such a thing as a nation of Jews, a Jewish nation. That sounds far too trite and obvious. With a wave of a hand, and mark you, a very significant wave of the hand, in a kind of objective wave, he said, "Behold Israel after the flesh". I say objective, and that's something, that is something, but it's something out there: "Behold Israel, after the flesh". He recognised that that nation stood in a special relationship to the sovereign ways of God in history. Indeed, he was proud that he had been born in that nation, and very glad. He had a deep heart-love for his nation, and he longed, as he said, that they might be saved: "Brethren, my prayer to God, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them, is that they might be saved". Notice how objective is his attitude toward it; he is not saying: "that we might be saved". Note that, because it's a feature of this whole matter.
But, with all, with all his recognition, with all his pleasure, and with all his longing and praying in that direction, he saw, he had come to see that they were not by nature "the Israel of God". That's the root of all the trouble. I underline the words by nature; they were not by nature the Israel of God, which of course, they claimed to be.
It is true that Israel was something, but the true Israel, the true Israel to which he referred in that fragment "and the Israel of God" or "the true Israel of God", was not a natural thing at all, and it isn't. It is a spiritual; it is not a Jewish, historic, earthly thing; it is not Abraham's natural generation. This is what Paul is saying, and it's only what his Master, the Lord Jesus, had said. This Israel is Christ's generation; this Seed is Christ and Christ's begotten, born out of His travail. Christ's seed is essentially spiritual. He never begot a single person naturally and populated the world through centuries, two thousand years, naturally, at all. And yet, through those many centuries, the world has become occupied by this Seed, His Seed, which He is seeing as the travail, as of the travail of His soul. It is not begotten of Abraham, but begotten of God.
It is not descended from Abraham through Jacob, the man with every feature of the most natural man. "Supplanter" his name means, that is, "one who takes hold", whose nature it is to be possessive - a very clear mark of the natural man: ambitious, scheming, cunning, clever, opportunist, unscrupulous and self-strong - that's Jacob. This Seed does not come through Jacob, but Israel and what that means spiritually: that which, having encountered God, and was virtually dead, through the grace of God survived. For he said "I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared - the most wonderful thing has happened! Wonderful, that I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared!" To come into an encounter with God, as Jacob, means death: yes, and virtually that's what it was, and typically. Israel must be born, or there is no future - there is no future at all for Israel. Now this all leads us to the true "Seed of Christ", the true "Israel of God".
We begin therefore, with:
The True Significance of Abraham.
You know that Abraham was a terminal point in the Old Testament. Everything that had preceded moved up to him, and then from him an unbroken course of national existence proceeded up to Christ. He was that terminal point in history. Through Abraham a race was re-born and marked out in special relationship to God's eternal desire. There is a lot that is technical, instructive and interesting about that, but I'll spare you that. You know that the first name, designation, of that nation or race, was "Hebrew" which means "that which has come from beyond" from beyond; "the man from over there, beyond the river", meaning literally, beyond the Euphrates, simply, "the man from beyond". The Hebrew race: that which has migrated, passed over, come from beyond. We leave that for the moment.
Later, they became known as the "Jews" and that, of course, is quite a limited title, and just means the "descendants of Judah" in general, in the long run, but in the beginning just that limited meaning of "descendants from Judah", in their country of Judea. But later still they became known as Israel - the descendants of Abraham through Jacob after his crisis at Peniel. That's all just by the way, it doesn't matter very much, but it leads us on to what we are after.
With all that, with all that, Paul says that this was not the true Israel. He, like all the others, at one time believed that it was; but he had come to see that it was not the true Israel. What he had come to see was that the true Israel is inward, and not natural or outward. And that opens up a large field of very important consideration, we just touch it most lightly as we move on.
As the tabernacle in the wilderness, and later the temple in the land with all its components was the embodiment of spiritual and heavenly principles and realities; as the priesthood, the sacrifices, the feasts were the same: the embodiment of spiritual realities and not the realities themselves, so it was with Israel. These are the things which make up the nation, that make up the life of the nation; they are Israel. Do you understand?
But the point is this: it is possible, it was possible, and is possible, to separate between the things and those spiritual thoughts and principles. So that you can have a tabernacle, replete; you can have the priesthood, you can have the sacrifices, you can have the feasts, all apart from the spiritual reality. It is possible to separate these things, because they are not one. Even God, even God does not care a [rap of the fingers] for those symbols when they have lost their spiritual power and meaning; He can scrap the whole thing: the ark, tabernacle, and everything else, with no compunction. These are not one thing.
And Paul carries that principle right through to Israel. He says: "Israel after the flesh is one thing, one thing. Israel after the Spirit is another thing; and you can divide these things. And what has happened is that they have become divided, and God has [rejected] Israel after the flesh". Put it another way: what He is after, what He is concerned with, what He is going on with, is not that, it's with that which was supposed to be represented and is on the inside.
You see, that is the cry of all the prophets, that this divide has taken place. Israel is going on with the temple, going on with the sacrifices, going on with the services, but it's all as hollow as that tree. You see, there is a tremendous difference between the seed of Abraham after the flesh and the Seed of Christ. Do you see what the Seed of Christ is? It is something essentially, intensely, spiritually real! Real. It is not something that bears a name; it is not something that holds certain doctrines and truths - the Law, or what corresponds to that in Christianity. It is not something that performs certain rites, and goes through certain ordinances and ceremonies. It is not something at all along that external line - be it intellectual, emotional, volitional, physical - it's not that at all! It's something inwardly real. It is "Christ in you, the hope of glory". This is what God is after. And if Israel was raised up for a purpose, Israel was raised up to set forth in a kind of picture and symbolic way these realities.
See, God's object is not a Jewish nation as such, but a heavenly people, constituted on spiritual realities. And Israel is always a great object lesson.
A Great Object Lesson
God has set Israel in the midst of the nations as an object lesson to indicate spiritual principles. And they will remain that object lesson to the end. God, in His preserving, keeping that nation, does so, not because of the nation itself, but because He's going to maintain an object lesson in the midst of the nations, and especially an object lesson to Christianity.
Look then, at Israel after the flesh. What are some of the things that, shall I say, shout at us when we look at them, regard them? Features, features - can't mistake them, you can't mistake them! I knew at one time, many years ago, an outstanding and well-known Christian Jew, whose name perhaps a few of you would remember. And he said to me (he was a man who had travelled all over the world) he said to me on one occasion: "You know, it doesn't matter what nation I go into, and how much they have become apparently absorbed in the nation where they're living, I can always tell in any nation a Jew; he may even have fair hair or dark hair; various things may differ in different countries where they had lived for generations, but..." he said, "There's something, something that I can always recognise, and I never make a mistake on that."
What does God say about that? He says this to you and to me, and to the Seed of Christ, that this true Israel should be at least as pronounced in its features, in its distinctiveness, as they are! There should be no mistaking a child of God. See? That everybody knows when they have met a child of God, just as much as in that other connection. You know it! There are things that let you know. God has written that and He, by means of that, says to us: "This Seed, this Seed which is the true Israel of God, born of Christ's travail, is to bear the unmistakable character of Christ". All who meet that Seed of Christ know they have met, not father Abraham, they've met another Father - they have met Christ.
It's very searching; but that is the true exegesis, the true interpretation of this word His Seed, "He shall see His Seed": every one portraying His features, bearing His characteristics, being recognised; not because they bear a name (whether that be Israel or Christian); not because they observe the law and the customs; not because they hold the oracles and the truths; not because they do or do not certain things, but because they bear the likeness of Him of whom they are born. That's what God says - unmistakable features! "By this shall all men know... if ye have love one to another... even as I have loved you". See? That's the [thought].
Another thing about Israel after the flesh, which goes very much along with that, is that law which God laid down for them, so firmly and so severely, and upon the observance or violation of which their very national existence hung.
The Law of Separation
Of separation - Abraham is in Ur of the Chaldees, in Babylonia, with all the Baalite worship and the two thousand deities [unmatched], on the other side, over there. God calls him "Abraham the Hebrew" - he has come across, passed over, come out, been severed - from and then into, into a land - starting anew with that land. And God is going to purge that land of every other seed. That's His intention, His design, to have that land purged of every other seed, and to populate it and fill it only with this seed; and then to lay down, in the strictest possible way, the law: "Never you intermarry with any other people or nation; if you do, I've finished with you, finished with you". There were, of course, deep reasons for that, we must not take in too much detail.
There was the spiritual reason of "other gods", and the opening of the door to that other spiritual realm. That is what is meant by "iniquity" in the Old Testament, what the prophets spoke of as "fornication" - the marring of "the virgin daughter of Israel" - you know that whole realm of things. But here it is: no intermarriage whereby there will be a loss of distinctiveness of life and character. It is the severest law of God. Because of the violation of that law, you know, God had all His long-drawn-out controversy with Israel through the prophets, and at last, sent them where they chose to be - in another nation - and let them feel something of what that means. Oh, the bringing back of a remnant is so full of significance, when you recognise that it is reconstituting upon this very principle.
Now, God has written that, I have said, large: "And the things which were written aforetime were written for our learning". And He is saying by Israel: "Look here: see the pros and cons. See on the positive and on the negative side My law that My Seed, My Seed is different. My Seed is distinct; My Seed must have no intermarriage, it must not lose its distinctiveness, it must be a separate thing." The Seed of Christ is like that: spiritually separate. Perhaps at some later time I will try to explain what I mean by that in another connection, but here is distinctiveness.
It seems, it seems that right from the beginning, in the case of Adam and Eve and from then onward, the one determined intention of satan has been to destroy that distinctiveness of what is of God. All Israel's history is just that; and he did not stay there, he pressed it through into the very case of Jesus Himself. That is the focal point of the temptations of Jesus: to somehow insinuate something that would destroy His separateness from everything not of God. While it is true of Israel, and concentrated upon Jesus Himself, it has been the history of the church. This Seed, this Seed is something not of the flesh, not of this world.
God's spiritual law is written so deeply here for you and for me, dear friends: something different, something other, quite other; a Divine Seed here that does not belong here, has not originated here, has not its roots here. "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is... for ye died". Now, Paul saw quite well that Israel after the flesh had become something other than that, very other than that, terribly mixed up and compromised here in this world.
Another thing about Israel, even now, and all the way through history, is quite apparent, that is its:
Cohesion.
There it is, there's no doubt about it here. If you deal with these people, you deal with "clannishness" (if you like to call it that), you deal with something very loyal to itself - very loyal to itself - something that is bound together in blood and in consciousness and in jealousy over itself. It's unity, it's cohesive, an integration. There it is: scattered over the earth, seemingly broken up, but, but! It's one people. What a lesson! What an object lesson!
Now you don't need that I bring you to the New Testament on that matter: this Seed! Because, because it has one origin, one source, one life-principle; it makes all those that have it, one. That's John 17, isn't it? The secret of oneness, of unity, is not doctrine, it is not practice, it is not tradition, it is not names - God only knows how true that is - and we know of many. It is something deeper than that, it is birth and what that means: inheritance (speaking naturally now) inheritance in the blood. And oh, dear friends, isn't it pathetically tragic that there is not this jealousy and loyalty amongst those who claim to be this seed? What a breakdown!
You and I ought to be very jealous for every child of God. We ought to be loyal to one another, simply because we are of the same family. There ought to be something here that is stronger than all the outside forces. That has proved true in the case of "Israel after the flesh", there's something here inherently stronger than all the outside forces. Indeed, indeed the action of the outside forces against, most violently, only brings out that inward cohesion. It's the manifested unity that comes out by opposition and antagonism and persecution - what a lesson! What a lesson.
Well, this is the Israel of God and we could pursue that line in many other directions. There's the whole question of food... a very acute question with Israel after the flesh, isn't it? Of food... very particular, very careful, very discriminating. That's the law, but all that is written only as an object lesson. It says something that the children of God, the true Israel of God, must take note of. What will you have? What will you demand? What is it that you discriminate? Have we got (this is the point) have we got a spiritual faculty which corresponds to their natural one in selectiveness of food? Discerning....
Now, this is exactly what John was talking about in his letter, when he said: "The anointing which you've received abideth in you, you know and need not that any one teach you, you know! You know!" You know... this spiritual instinct or faculty for knowing what is of Christ and what is not of Christ. How important that is to keep the Seed pure. It's a spiritual thing. Dear friends, you and I need to know much more about spiritual discernment, to keep, to keep the Seed pure! Spiritual discernment... I can only mention that.
Shall I just point to one other thing, one thing undying with "Israel after the flesh", pursued all down the ages, and is as strong today as ever it was. What is that? Their hope!
Their Hope
Why is it that those who can, still, still go to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem? Well, you find these people are characterised by this deep-set, deep-rooted hope! Hope: some thing; some time; some one; one day - they live for that. It's that that has carried them through, supported them, sustained them, kept them - their hope!
We need to make the application: the true spiritual Seed of Christ dominates, masters, by what the apostle calls, "the glorious hope". The glorious hope: that day of the Lord, that coming One, all that, a master-hope. If ever that should fade in Israel, they will disintegrate indeed, and they will fall a prey to their enemies. It is this that holds together, and this that gives the power to stand up and to go on. With us, it's a spiritual thing, something that is a part of our birth.
Isn't it true, true to spiritual experience, that when we are born again, really born again, a sense of prospect, a future, is born in our hearts, and it's a strong thing throughout. It's something that we didn't take on as a bit of teaching, not even the teaching of the "Second Coming", the coming again of the Lord, but something which is inside of the teaching, the Spirit Himself has given birth to that in us. We are living for a Day, living for a Day and that Day is our strength; it holds us on our way. How true that is, and how rich it is in meaning for the suffering people of God in all times, and in our own time.
Well, this is only going round this whole matter of the Israel of God, the spiritual Israel. I had hoped to arrive at a very outstanding example and inclusive and comprehensive presentation of all this in the New Testament this evening, and I am afraid almost of spoiling it by even mentioning it, but there's one point that I might touch on in that connection. I was going to take you to the gospel by John, and especially chapter 3.
Now, I expect that many of you think that you know what is in chapter 3 of the gospel by John, if you don't know anything else in the Bible! Well, I think I could come alongside of Paul and say, if you think you know something about that, then I have reason to think that I know something about it! If many years of familiarity and constant reading and thought should lead us to know something about it, well then perhaps we could make some claim. I want to say to you, that I realise that I have got nowhere into that chapter yet. All that I have been saying to you this evening, and not only what I have said, but all that is indicated and signified of this whole Old Testament and New Testament is in chapter 3 of the gospel by John. It's a chapter upon the meaning of which the dispensations turn. These true, mighty dispensations, with the tremendous change that I have indicated, that Paul came to see by revelation, this tremendous change from "Israel after the flesh" to "Israel after the Spirit" - it's all centred in that.
Now, I won't go further with that, with the showing of how that is, because it wants another hour. But there is one thing that I would like to mention before we conclude today. It's not what is in the chapter, only as a part of the whole. But it is this.
This gospel by John has been more of a bone of contention, and controversy, and conflict, than any of the gospels. Well, all the Biblical "scholars" now rank Mark first and highest. Oh yes, they're all with Mark now, Mark is the key to everything; Mark is the sum of everything; they're making a tremendous amount of Mark! We're not saying they're wrong, but there it is. There is not much difficulty about Mark, after all, is there? Matthew and Luke - well, they haven't presented much trouble, very little, very little dispute or conflict - but John! Oh no. John! Some of them have written him off altogether, ruled him right out, they won't have this. You know that's true, don't you? Isn't it significant? Isn't it significant?
When you deal with Mark and Matthew and Luke, you are dealing with the historic Jesus, the earthly Christ, what they call the "Jesus of history". When you come to John, you come into the absolutely spiritual realm - it is the spiritual Christ that is here - not born of Adam or Abraham, but - from eternity, it's:
The Heavenly Christ.
Here look at the word "heavenly" on his lips in this gospel. Everything here is in the spiritual realm. John, as you know, calls all the miracles "signs" - not just works and wonders, but signs - things that have another meaning, that signify something else, and you can't get to the other, the something else, unless God opens our eyes. There's something spiritual behind this. This is set in the spiritual in the spiritual realm. And that is what satan hates, that's the cause of all the trouble.
Men who only operate in the realm of human intellect and reason, even with the Scriptures, can't come into this realm comfortably at all and it's an exposure of unspirituality. See? When you come into the realm of the spiritual seed - or shall I put that another way - when you come into the realm where God is after a spiritual people, a spiritual - not an earthly, a traditional, an historical or anything like that - but a spiritual people, you come into the realm of the intensest conflict and controversy.
Do you notice how this very gospel proceeds in an atmosphere of antagonism - it's like that. There comes a time, there comes a time when, because of that, Jesus has to withdraw with His disciples in order to have them alone, to prepare them for the day that is coming. There's this thing circling round all the time, this spiritual antagonism, this controversy.
Now, that is very significant in this larger application: the securing of a spiritual, a heavenly, a Divine Seed in satan's domain, is fraught with the bitterest conflict. It rouses the most intense opposition, you can't explain it otherwise. You can't explain it otherwise; no explanation for it on any other ground, it just happens. And dear friends, the more, the more you and I or any other children of God are going on with Christ in a spiritual way towards God's full end where He shall fill all things, the more conflict such people will meet, of every kind in every realm; inexplicable conflict. It just happens! If you and I really get off the traditional, historical ground and basis of life, even in Christianity, on to those higher levels of what is spiritual or what is Christ, essentially and utterly of Christ, you and I are coming into the realm of the bitterest conflict. Understand that.
And that is why, why all leads back to the matter which was before us this afternoon: travail. Travail! You see, the travail was not all over when the child was born. That's what we find in the New Testament. It was not all over typically and symbolically when Israel was secured out of Egypt - it went on. When Moses said to Hobab, his father-in-law, when he came back and met him, and it says they greeted one another and asked of one another's health, and that, "Moses told him of all that the Lord had done for His people, and of all their travails by the way" - after Egypt, after Egypt! And the birth is not the end of it.
Paul says: "I am again in travail for you until Christ be fully formed in you". The church was born out of the travail of Christ, but what a travail she has been in again and again, and will be to the end. It all comes back there - the securing and perfecting of this spiritual Seed is fraught with conflict. Now, whether you see the implications of that, what is signified by that statement here tonight, I don't know. But think about it - it will explain a lot. It will explain a lot! Because remember, right back there, there is a difference of two worlds between traditional Christianity and spiritual Christianity, just as much as there is between the "Israel after the flesh" and the "Israel after the Spirit" - a tremendous difference. It is very, very costly this Seed, the perfected Seed of Christ.
Well, I must stop there this evening, but may the Lord just write on your hearts something of this and show you very, very clearly what it is He is really after, that His heart is set upon: a people for Himself - a people according to Christ, a heavenly people, a spiritual people, whose life is not comprised of outward things at all, but whose life is the common expression of God's Son; [no mistake,] recognised. Oh, that it might be more true of us all, true of me, true of you, that it might be possible, just possible for people to say: "There's no mistaking, no mistaking that one - no mistaking what he is, what she is - he or she is a Jew! He/she is a Jew in the spiritual sense, of spiritual Israel - he, she, is a member of Christ!"