(Jer 31:31-34)
1. Jesus is the Yhwh of the OT (and OC).
2. Salvation is a marriage to Jesus.
(32, “I was a Husband to them” [34b, “for I will forgive their sin”] = God’s covenants for salvation are marital in nature - i.e., they are marriage covenants; NC: Mat 9:15; 2Co 11:2; Eph 5:25; Rev 19:7; Because the salvific covenant we enter with Jesus is a marriage covenant, it operates according to the principles of a marriage: gain & maintain: we gain Jesus as our Husband and Savior through formal vows of lifelong love and loyalty [in baptism] and maintain our marriage with Jesus by fulfilling those vows in faithfulness to His commands; 1Pe 3:21 “appeal” = Pledge/vow of love and loyalty = Faith [Grk., pistus = Pledge of faithfulness – 1Ti 5:12]; Rev 19:8; Jam 2:24; Mat 28:19-20; Consider also, Abe: Gen 17:1-2, 9-11, 18:19 [Gen 15:6 w/9-10 w/18]; OC: Exo 24:7-8 [1Pe 1:1-2] w/Deu 28:1-2; Deu 7:9; Psa 25:10).
3. Jesus only saves Israelites/Jews.
(31, “house of Israel…house of Judah” = Divided kingdom which is Israel/the Israelites or Jewish people [hence, v33, “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel]; Jer 31:1 w/35-37w/30:1-3 w/8-9, 32:37-41, 33:14-15 w/23-26; Eze 36:22-28, 37:16-23, 39:25 w/29; Rom 9:4-5; Jesus became human to seek and save Israelites/Jews alone [Mat 1:18 w/Heb 2:14-16 “Abraham”] = The father of – and first, Jew [Gen 14:12 “Abram the Hebrew”] – i.e., Jew [anachronistic – a member of God’s Jewish covenant people starting w/Abraham] = Jesus only saves Jews; Mat 15:24 [10:6] “lost sheep of the house of Israel” = Jesus refused to go to anyone other than the Jews during His earthly ministry; Psa 121:3-4, 130:7-8).
“The new covenant is explicitly, emphatically, and unavoidably national, promising restoration and righteousness to ‘Israel and Judah’ and saying nothing about those outside those national boundaries.” – Jason A. Staples (Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites)
4. Jesus’ Jewish new covenant is Judaism 2.0 not a new religion.
(33, “I will put My Law within them…”= “My Law” refers to the Old Testament Scriptures or the religion of Judaism. Jesus established a new covenant - not a new religion. Calling it a new covenant assumes an existing covenant it replaces/modifies in the same religion. IOW: It is still Judaism – just Judaism modified and upgraded [Judaism 2.0 or New Covenant Judaism]. Jesus would be a false prophet if He came to establish a new religion [Deu 12:28-13:1]. Hence why He says what He does in [Mat 5:17-18 and Joh 4:22]. Consider also: Phi 3:2 “we are the true circumcision” = We are the true Jews).
“Paul’s gospel was by no means a rejection of Judaism in favor of a different system… Paul finds nothing at all wrong in Judaism…[He] did not abandon covenantal nomism [gain & maintain] for another ‘pattern of religion’…Paul [instead] continues to preach God’s special election of Israel, the lasting value of Israel’s covenant, the restoration and ultimate salvation of Israel, and the need for total obedience…” – Staples (ibid)
4.1. What about all the promises to the Gentiles? They are all true! Yhwh-Jesus’ new covenant promises/salvation have been extended to the Gentiles provided they too become a part of “the house of Israel.” (Jer 31:32) – i.e., Israelites/Jews through:
1) baptismal vows [faith] to Jesus which grafts them into Abraham thereby becoming part of his descendants – or Israel (Gal 3:26-29 [Rom 11:17]; hence why: 1Co 10:1 [an epistle written to a gentile church] can refer to the Israelites of the Exodus as “our fathers” and Rom 2:26-29 identifies the Gentile who keeps the Law [i.e., practices NC Judaism] as a spiritual Jew [NC Jew] – or the “true circumcision” [Phi 3:2]; Consider also: Jer 31:33 and Eze 36:26-27 w/Gal 3:1-2 [the Spirit is only promised to Jews/Israelites]; Jam 1:1 [“To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad” = As we shall see, Israel’s ten northern tribes were forever lost indicating that James viewed Gentiles as their replacement]; 1Co 12:2 “You know when you were pagans [Grk., ethnos = Gentile; someone following a religion other than biblical Judaism] you were led astray to the mute idols” [false gods of religions other than biblical Judaism] = Implies the Gentiles have become converts of a biblical form of Judaism [NC Judaism]).
2) their faithfulness to the Body and Law of Christ [the church practicing NC Judaism] (Eph 1:20-22 [Dan 2:34, 44-45, 7:13-14, 27] w/2:11-22 w/3:1-10; Gal 6:2 w/15-16; Mat 5:17-20 w/1Co 9:21 [“not w/o the law of God” = A faithful Jew practicing the Law/Judaism; “but under the law of Christ” = The Judaism in force is NC Judaism – or the Law preserved in its upgraded form under Christ]).
“If Gentiles have received the Spirit promised as part of Israel’s restoration and are newly adopted heirs of Abraham, they are by definition part of Israel and therefore Israelites…Nowhere does the apostle (Paul) suggest that God has established a new people independent of or parallel to Israel. Instead...’Paul sees but one people of God, which is Israel’ and consequently ‘insists upon the Abrahamic origins of baptized Gentiles because he believes that they have become a part of the genuine people of Israel.’ Garroway (also) rightly emphasizes that Paul nowhere uses the term ‘Christian’…[As a result] Paul regularly applies Israelite language and ethnic markers – even prophecies specifically about Israel – to these uncircumcised individuals…For Paul these faithful followers of Jesus are not saved ‘as gentiles’ because they are no longer gentiles; instead they have become equal members of Israel along with their Torah-observant Jewish siblings. It is this assertion that proved so unbearable to Paul’s opponents…The claim that uncircumcised gentiles are Israelites.” – Staples (ibid)
4.2. Gentiles becoming Jews is how Jesus fulfills His:
1) Promise to the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) that the nations (Gentiles) would also take part in the blessings afforded to their descendants – i.e., Israel/the Jews/Israelites ([Abe] Gen 12:2 [“nation” = Israel] w/3 [“all the families of the earth” = gentile nations]; 18:18, 22:18, [Isaac] Gen 26:4, [Jacob] Gen 28:14).
“Everything starts with the presumption of Israel’s salvation and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham inherited by Israel. Gentiles receiving the Spirit undergo not only an ethical but an ethnic conversion, being unnaturally grafted into Israel…Gentiles must be grafted into Israel to share in Israel’s salvation.” – Staples (ibid)
2) New Covenant promise to restore and reunite the house of Israel (the ten tribes of the northern territory) to the house of Judah (the two tribes and priests [Levites] of the southern territory)1(Jer 31:1 w/31 and Eze 37:1-14 w/15-24; Mat 19:27-30 [Luk 22:28-30]) in light of Israel’s assimilation into the gentile nations (2Ki 15:29 w/2Ki 17:5-6 w/24 w/Isa 7:8 [Hos 7:8 and 8:8; Amo 8:1-2 w/14 and 9:7-10; Consider also 2Ch 30:11] = Deportation of a large percentage of the population along w/intermarriage between those who remained and the imported pagan population meant that the people – or house of Israel, w/respect to location and lineage, no longer existed. Hence the reason scholars refer to them as the “ten lost tribes”):
2.1.) (Mat 4:15-16)w/(Isa 9:1-2) = Jesus’ decision to focus most of His -and His disciples’ ministry in this gentile (Samaritan) region indicates not only the fulfillment of Isaiah 9 but its conjoining message: these gentiles converts to Judaism (Joh 4:22) represent the house of Israel and God’s promised restoration as NC Jews (Joh 4:7-9 w/19-26).
2.2.) (Hos 1:9-11 [7:8]w/2:23)w/(Rom 9:1-8 w/19-26) = God patiently mixed (like clay) apostate 10 tribes (“vessels of wrath”) with the nations so that the descendants of Abraham (“vessels of mercy”) could include gentiles (who become Jews/Israelites) and the new covenant promises to house of Israel could be fulfilled .
“The promise of return from exile and national restoration for Israel in Hosea is really an announcement of [some] Gentiles as God’s own people. For Hosea’s promise to be fulfilled, ‘not My people (= Gentiles) must be transformed into ‘My people’ (= Israel)… Since the full restoration of Israel must include all twelve tribes, Paul argues that the incorporation of Gentiles into the eschatological assembly is the necessary means for the reconstitution and restoration of ‘all Israel,’ an entity not only including Jews but also non-Jewish Israelites restored from the nations among which northern Israel had assimilated…For Paul the equal incorporation of Gentiles was not in tension with Israel’s anticipated salvation but rather was the very means by which part of Israel was being restored…For Paul, because God is impartial and Israel has become indistinct from the nations by behaving like the nations, the promise to Israel is also a promise to the nations…Paul [therefore] understands uncircumcised Jesus-followers as not Gentiles but instead restored, resurrected Israelites…For Paul, even gentile inclusion itself is in continuity with ancient Israel, since much of Israel has been ethnically assimilated among the nations requiring gentile inclusion for Israelite restoration.” – Staples (ibid)
2.3.) (Isa 49:5-6 [8] w/22 w/50:10 [Isa 9:1-2] w/51:4-7 [Jer 31:33; Rom 2:17]w/52:4-7 [Rom 10:15] w/10, 15 [Rom 15:15-21] w/54:6-10 [context is still the house of Israel – the 10 lost tribes] w/55:1-5 w/56:1-7).
2.4.) (Jer 31:31) w/(Jer 3:8 w/11-12 w/4:1-2 w/16:14-15 w/19-20 w/30:1-3 w/31:27 “seed of animals” = Animals often represent gentile nations in apocalyptic/prophetic visions. In this case, their incorporation in Israel as the means to accomplishing God’s cpromise (e.g., Act 10:1-28; 1Enoch 91:38)2
2.5.) ([Amo 8:1-2 w/14 and 9:7-10]w/9:11-12 w/Act 15:17) (See also Isa 43:1-7) “everyone [“gentiles” – Act 15:17; “nations” - Amo 9:11] who is called by My Name (v3, “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel”), whom I created for My glory” (v1 “He created you, O Jacob, He Who formed you, O Israel: Fear not I have redeemed you; I have called you by name [Jacob, Israel], you are mine”) = Gentiles becoming Israelites (i.e., Jews). Hence why God says (5-6) = Gentiles/peoples/nations outside of Israel will become “your offspring” [offspring of Jacob/Israel], “my sons…my daughters” [Yhwh’s sons and daughters are Israel; He is again, the “Holy One of Israel”]).
“The incorporation of transformed Gentiles [into Israelites] is the means by which formerly rejected Israel is being restored from its dishonored, broken state…Far from representing God’s departure from Israel. The incorporation of Gentiles in the new covenant community therefore serves as proof of God’s continuing fidelity to unfaithful Israel. God’s mercy runs so deeply that He has begun incorporating Gentiles to ensure the redemption of those Israelites who assimilated into the nations...Because Israel disobeyed and behaved like the Gentiles, Israel had been gentilized, becoming indistinct from the nations (literally in the case of most of the northern tribes), and…God is now effectivelyresurrecting Israel from the nations by the incorporation of foreskinned Gentiles receiving the Spirit promised to Israel and Judah (Jer 31, Eze 36) in the new covenant…The rationale behind gentile inclusion therefore relies on the notion that because Ephraim’s [Israel’s] seed had been mixed among the nations, Gentiles must now be incorporated into Israel to ensure the promised restoration of all Israel. God’s promise to restore not only those from Judah but from all of Israel ultimately opens the door for-even requires-the inclusion of Gentiles in the new covenant for Israel to be complete…Gentiles [therefore] find themselves included alongside Jews within the covenantal label ‘Israel’…The eschatological salvation of Gentiles comes through their being grafted into the assembly of Israel…effectively reversing the process of Israel’s assimilation among the nations. ‘All Israel will be saved [Rom 11:26] [through Gentile] incorporation into Israel.” – Staples (ibid)
CONCLUSION = "Gentiles must be grafted into Israel to share in Israel's salvation." -Staples (ibid)
[1] The restoration and reunification of Israel and Judah are one and the same with the reestablishment of the kingdom of God to the nation (of Israel. Messiah would accomplish both at the time of the new covenant's inauguration. Hence the reason for the gospel's association with these two things (e.g., Isa 40:9-11, 52:7, [Rom 10:15], 60-62, [Luk 4:18 w/43 w/ 8:1]; Mar 1:15 ["kingdom of God is at hand...believe the gospel" = Believe this good news about the kingdom of God being reestablished to the nation of Israel - Act 1:6])
[2] See Jason Staples, "Rise, Kill, and Eat."
[1] The restoration and reunification of Israel and Judah are one and the same with the reestablishment of the kingdom of God to the nation (of Israel. Messiah would accomplish both at the time of the new covenant's inauguration. Hence the reason for the gospel's association with these two things (e.g., Isa 40:9-11, 52:7, [Rom 10:15], 60-62, [Luk 4:18 w/43 w/ 8:1]; Mar 1:15 ["kingdom of God is at hand...believe the gospel" = Believe this good news about the kingdom of God being reestablished to the nation of Israel - Act 1:6])
[2] See Jason Staples, "Rise, Kill, and Eat."