Part IV — The Church as the True Israel
Having established from Old Testament and New Testament teaching that true Israel is defined by faith rather than ethnicity, we are now in a position to examine the New Testament's explicit identification of the Church as the true Israel of God.
Galatians 6:16 — "The Israel of God"
The most explicit New Testament reference to the Church as Israel is Paul's benediction in Galatians 6:16: "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." The "rule" to which Paul refers is the principle just stated: "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature" (v.15). Those who walk by this rule — who understand that new creation in Christ, not ethnic identity, is what matters — are "the Israel of God."
This identification of the Church with the Israel of God is not a new development in Paul's thought. It flows naturally from his entire argument in Galatians: that those who are in Christ are Abraham's seed (3:29), that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (3:28), and that the Gentiles who believe receive the blessing of Abraham (3:14).
1 Peter 2:9–10
Peter applies to the predominantly Gentile Church the very titles that the Old Testament applied to the nation of Israel: "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9; cf. Exodus 19:5–6; Isaiah 43:20–21; Hosea 1:9–10; 2:23). He goes on: "Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (v.10). The Gentile believers are now the people of God — the new Israel.