The “True Israel of God” is Jesus Christ. Jesus, and Jesus alone, lived up to the definition of the name "Israel," which is interpreted as: “
HE WILL RULE AS GOD.” (See
Strong's H3478) No mere person, regardless of their physical genealogy, could live up to such a definition. Rather, it took one who is the much greater than the first Adam to fulfill such a claim—the last Adam—Jesus!
‘The Bible overwhelmingly communicates that JESUS IS THE ONE THAT “
RULES AS GOD.” Here are a few of the scriptures that testify to this fact:
1.
Isaiah 59:16
2.
John 1:1
3.
John 1:14
4.
Matthew 1:20-23
5.
Romans 9:4-7
6.
1 Corinthians 15:45-47
7.
John 20:27-29
8.
Matthew 28:18-19
9.
Luke 24:46-49
10.
Acts 2:38
11.
Acts 4:10-12
12.
John 14:8-9
13.
2 Corinthians 4:6
14.
Hebrews 1:1-8
15.
Philippians 2:5-6
16.
John 12:44-45
17.
John 14:7
18.
Colossians 1:13-19
Notice in the next scriptures how they tie Jesus together with the True Israel of God:
1.
Matthew 2:14-15
2.
Hosea 11:1
3.
Exodus 4:22
4.
John 3:16
5.
Mark 12:6-9
Jesus Christ is the same promise Paul allegorically referred to in
Galatians 6 as the One promised SEED of Abraham. But one must come through Jesus to become partakers of that same promise.
1.
John 14:6-7
2.
John 10:7-9
3.
Romans 5:1-2
4.
Hebrews 10:19-22
He is and always was the only way into the true promised Israel of God! This will always be true since Jesus is the One True God, who is Lord over all lands, and King over all men.
Isaiah 49:3—O Israel: As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, so here THE NAME OF ISRAEL MAY NOT UNFITLY BE GIVEN TO CHRIST, not only because he descended from his loins; but also because HE WAS THE TRUE AND THE GREAT ISRAEL, WHO, IN A MORE EMINENT MANNER, PREVAILED WITH GOD, AS THAT NAME SIGNIFIES, of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type. —
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible
O Israel: A NAME OF CHRIST, AND WHICH PROPERLY BELONGS TO HIM, being the antitype of Jacob or Israel; the Head and REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WHOLE ISRAEL OF GOD; who was of Israel according to the flesh, and an Israelite indeed in a spiritual sense, and was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ISRAEL IS A NAME OF THE CHURCH, often given to it in this prophecy; CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH, BY VIRTUE OF THE UNION BETWEEN THEM, HAVE THE SAME NAMES; as she is sometimes called by his names, Christ, and the Lord our righteousness, so he is here called by her name Israel,
1Corinthians 12:12, —
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Isaiah 49:3—Israel: APPLIED TO MESSIAH, according to the true import of the name, the Prince who had power with God in wrestling in behalf of man, and who prevails (
Genesis 32:28;
Hosea 12:3-4). HE IS ALSO THE IDEAL ISRAEL, THE REPRESENTATIVE MAN OF THE NATION (Compare
Matthew 2:15 with
Hosea 11:1). —
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Neither the ethnicity of the Jews nor their opportunity to receive salvation through Jesus ended because of the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem and her Temple, or due to the elimination of the self-righteous system of Law to which the Jews had fallen prey. This judgment firmly established Jesus as the King of kings and the Lord of lords who does RULE AS GOD! (See
Matthew 28:18) WHEN WE (JEW, SAMARITAN, OR GENTILE) ARE "BORN AGAIN," WE BECOME A MEMBER OF JESUS' BODY AND THEREBY MEMBERS OF THE TRUE ISRAEL OF GOD.