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This is a review of the book Israel’s Only Hope: The New Covenant
John Metzger maintains the website Promises to Israel. You can read his Bio HERE. We have previously reviewed Metzger’s Discovering the Mystery of the Unity of God.
An excerpt of the overview from the Promises to Israel website:
What is the New Covenant? In Jewish and Christian circles this subject will get a blank expression and a movement of the shoulder saying, “I don’t know anything about it.” Both Jewish and Christian audiences have a very inadequate understanding of this covenant.
Jewish people do not understand it because they are completely focused on Rabbinic Law and do not understand that the law only judges and condemn a sinner, it does not remove sin. Whereas, the New Covenant gives everlasting life. It does what the Law was incapable of doing.
Most church going Christian’s are aware of the term New Covenant, yet they have little understanding of the ramifications of the New Covenant to the church. The New Covenant is a Jewish Covenant, the church does not own it or possess it for themselves, it is a Jewish covenant! Yet the New Covenant literally echoes off of every page of the New Testament whether it was written by Paul, Peter, James or John.
Metzger shows that Israel’s only hope is the New Covenant inaugurated by Christ’s work on the cross. As we see from Scripture:
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah – not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 31:31-33
For this is My covenant with them [Israel], When I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Rom 11:27-29
The New Covenant is also mentioned in the following verses in the NT: Matt 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 3:6; Heb 8:8, 13; Heb 9:15 and Heb 12:24. See also Matt 23:39.
Israel’s Only Hope is comprised of 22 chapters and 3 appendices. Most of the chapters conclude with a brief and helpful summary of the main points. Metzger systematically mines both the Old Testament and the New Testament and argues his case well from the plain meaning of the texts. He examines the relationships of the covenants, and shows how the unconditional covenants will be accomplished via the New Covenant.
I particularly appreciated Appendix Two which addressed Covenant Replacement Theology and the Unfortunate Erosion of Dispensational Theology. One of the issues which Metzger addresses is the trend for dispensationalists to exclude the church from the New Covenant. He (rightly, I believe) argues that this is an error and a stumbling point.
Israel’s Only Hope – The New Covenant is well written, easy to read and well argued. It is a fine resource for anyone interested in God’s future plan for national Israel, and how it will be accomplished.
Purchase Israel’s Only Hope !
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Israel’s Only Hope: The New Covenant
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