THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH A CONTINUATION OF THE JEWISH
Isaiah 37:31. And the remnant that is escaped, &c.
When the power and splendour of the family of David were failing, the prophets foretold that the kingdom of the saints should one time be restored. Has this promise yet been fulfilled or not and if fulfilled, in what sense?
There are other prophecies parallel to the text, e.g., Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 34:23; Isaiah 41:14-15; Isaiah 62:1-2.
That these and a number of other prophecies are fulfilled in the Christian dispensation is plain from the express assertions of inspired persons (Acts 15:13-17). This explains the language of Moses, in which the perpetual obligation of the law is asserted, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,” &c.; and after punishment, return of prosperity was promised, on condition of returning to the law (Deuteronomy 4:30; Deuteronomy 11:22-25).
Consider one or two difficulties—
1. It may be said that the prophecies have not been, and never will be, fulfilled in the letter, because they contain expressions and statements which do not admit, or certainly have not, a literal meaning. But the use of figures in a composition is not enough to make it figurative as a whole; we constantly use figures of speech whenever we speak, although the main course of our conversation is to be taken literally. Now this will apply to the language of the prophets. The words “David,” “Israel,” “Jerusalem,” and the like, are not so much figures as proper names which have a figurative origin, or words which, having first had a confined sense, come, as language proceeds, to have a wide one. All these words convey a literal truth in their substance.
2. It may be asked whether it is possible to consider the Christian Church, which is so different from the Jewish, a continuation of it. It may be argued that Christ founded His Church as a new thing in the earth. Observe—
(1.) That the chosen people had in former ages gone through many vicissitudes, many transformations, before the revolution which followed on Christ’s coming. They had been shepherds, slaves; the place of God’s presence had moved about; they had been governed by a lawgiver, by judges, by kings, by priests. The change when Christ came from a local into a catholic form, was not abrupt, but gradual; what was first a dispersion became a diffusion. And let it be observed, a change in externals was anticipated as regards the city of God in the Old Testament. “Thou shalt be called by a new name,” says the prophet (chap. Isaiah 62:4).
(2.) It may be objected that the change was internal, not external only; it became a Church of Gentiles, instead of a Church of Jews. But changes of this kind had occurred before, e.g., the change which destroyed the substantive existence of the ten tribes; in an earlier age, only two of those who left Egypt with Moses entered the promised land. The line of continuity, surely, was not less definite when the Church became Christian. The sacred writers show themselves aware of this peculiarity in the mode in which God’s purposes are carried on from age to age. They are frequent in speaking of a “remnant” as alone inheriting the promises (Romans 11:2-5; Isaiah 1:9; Ezekiel 11:13; Jeremiah 40:15; Haggai 1:14; Joel 2:32; Micah 5:8; Zechariah 8:12). There was no substitution of a new Church for an old; it was but a manifestation of the old law of “the remnant,” by which the many were called and the few chosen. We may consider, then, the word “remnant,” so constantly used in Scripture, to be the token of identity of the Church, in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Christ. Paul expressly inculcates that the promises made to Israel are really accomplished, without any evasion, in the Divine protection accorded to Christians.
To conclude:—
1. Whether we can clear up these points or no, they are not greater than the difficulties which attend on other confessedly fulfilled and very chief and notable prophecies, as that of the dispersion of the Jews. They were threatened with the evils which have befallen them, supposing they did not keep their law; whereas in the event the punishment has come upon them apparently for keeping it; because they would not change the law for the Gospel, therefore have they been scattered through the nations. In this it is implied that in rejecting the Gospel they in some way or other rejected their law, or that the Gospel is the continuation or development of the law. In a similar way are the prophecies concerning the elect remnant fulfilled in the history of the Christian Church. 2. If the prophecies in their substance certainly have had a literal fulfilment, then this will follow, viz., that the very appearance of separation and contrast does but make it more necessary that there should be some great real agreement and inward unity between one and the other, whether we can discover what it is or not on account of which they are called one. All Scripture has its difficulties; but let us not, on account of what is difficult, neglect what is clear. Perchance, if we had learnt from it what we can learn by our own private study, we should be more patient of learning from others those further truths which, though in Scripture, we cannot learn from it ourselves.—John Henry Newman: Sermons on Subjects of the Day, pp. 180–198.