Introduction

There seems to be a common assumption, that God crushes or destroys his enemies who are enemies indeed. However, when it comes to his covenant people, God only and ever expresses their need to repent and turn back to him; that he never turns from this desire to a desire to destroy them. This thought goes further (and is stemmed from), however, to a belief that humanity is distilled down to only two groups of people: Those who belong to God, who could rightly be called God’s people and those who do not belong to God, they are not God’s people. However, in my view, this is an oversimplification. There are rather, three groups of people: God’s covenant people, God’s covenant-breaking people, (both of which belong to God really and truly), and pagans, those who are not God’s people. It is this second group – covenant-breaking people – that we are concerned with here.

Are They His People?

The majority opinion in the American church is that Israel and the church are two different groups of people. Israel, the Jews, were God’s old covenant people who were removed from the vine through disbelief and will one day be grafted back on the vine (Romans 11). And the church are God’s new covenant people who were a wild branch grafted onto Christ as a result of Israel’s disobedience. However, these are two groups of people, not one.

While it is true that Romans 11 conveys much of the message above, it is, however, an unnecessary conclusion to say that the church and Israel are two separate groups of people for a number of reasons:

1. Paul refers to the church as “the circumcision” who worship God in Spirit and glory in Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:3). Here, Paul is using imagery from the previous administrations of the covenant to convey a truth about the newer administration of the covenant. Circumcision is unique to Israel. Consequently, for Paul to identify the Philippian church (and the entire church in Christ) as the circumcision, he is indicating a mutual identity. 

2. Paul pronounces to the church in Galatia that “all who walk by this rule [that is the recognition that we are not of the world but are in fact a new creation in Christ], peace and mercy be upon the Israel of God.” Far from insinuating there are two distinct groups of people, Paul is explaining that if we boast in the cross of Christ, and are a new creation, then we are the Israel of God. The church is the Israel of God; the church is Israel. 

3. In Stephen’s glorious speech given before he was stoned, he calls Israel the “congregation” in the wilderness. The Greek word translated “congregation” is Εκκλησία which means “assembly, gathering, or congregation.” This is also the same word used by Christ in Matthew 16:18 when he said “…on this rock I will build my church (Εκκλησία)…” Both of God’s people in the old covenant and the new are identified with the same title: God’s congregation.

4. In Acts 28:20 Paul explains that he is on trial and wearing chains because of the “hope of Israel.” This is helpful for at least two reasons. 1) This shows that Christ has always been Israel’s hope and that they ought to have been aware of this (Galatians 3:8; Genesis 3:15; John 3:10). And 2) Paul, being the apostle to the Gentiles, (Acts 9:15) is not articulating a hope that is exclusive for Israel the nation, but rather he is articulating the hope that is for Israel i.e. all those who ever call upon the Lord from the beginning of the world till now, and through till the end.

There are other reasons, but for the sake of brevity, these will suffice to show that the church and Israel are not two distinct and separate people, but rather, they are one group grafted onto Christ. This means, when we read Romans 11, we should not conclude that there are two groups of people, bur rather, we should conclude that there is somewhat of a “revolving door” in the covenant.

The Nature of The Covenant

The covenant that God makes with his people is the environment where salvation is made possible. The Westminster Confession puts it this way:

The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. WCF 25.2

The confession articulates – in no uncertain terms – that salvation is within God’s covenant, yet it is only a possibility, not a guarantee. One way Jesus articulated this truth was by his parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-43). In it, Jesus discusses the Kingdom of God and explains that within the Kingdom are both wheat and tares growing together. Or, in other words, the righteous and the unrighteous. The church is therefore mixed.

In another place, our Lord makes plain that everyone in the covenant is united to himself via their inclusion in the covenant (John 15:1; Romans 11:13-24). Nevertheless, their union with Christ does not entail their continued union or their guaranteed salvation. Jesus explains it this way: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes…” (John 15:1-2). Those who continue in unbelief, harden their hearts, and fail to bear good fruit (do good works), will be taken away from the vine (Christ) – i.e. disunited.

This is further evidenced when the concept of apostasy is considered. Because we know that people can be removed from the vine (aka they can have union (what Jesus calls being “in me”) and then lose their union with Christ) then we know that apostasy is real in the truest sense. This is articulated in Hebrews 10, when Paul says this:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgement…Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay’ and again, ‘The Lord will judge his people.’ It is a fearful ting to fall into the hands of the living God.

- Hebrews 10:26-29

Paul is showing us that being in the new covenant does not, in any way, change to covenant conditions – in fact, in the new covenant they are made even more severe. The conditions to remain in covenant with God are still the same, in other words, as they were with Moses. Paul is making an a-fortiori argument, arguing from the reality of old covenant unfaithfulness to consequences of new covenant unfaithfulness. If in the old, a person was killed, without mercy, because he deliberately disobeyed the law of Moses, why would we think it would be any different now? This is Paul’s reasoning, because disobedience to Christ is far more grave than disobedience to Moses, and if death was without mercy for covenant breakers in Moses’ day, consequences will indeed be infinitely more grave for covenant breakers in our day. 

But who are these people for whom the Lord brings judgement with such a dreadful blow? They are his. “The Lord will judge his people.” This means that although these people are covenant breakers, they have nonetheless been sanctified and purchased by the blood of Christ (Hebrews 11:29; 2 Peter 2:1), which means that they belong to God; they are his; they bear his name.

God’s Enemies

It isn’t the purpose of the article to offer a comprehensive survey of who God’s enemies are. Be that as it may, now that we have a framework to understand this, I will briefly highlight two enemies of God outlined in the scripture.

In Romans 5:10 and Colossians 1:21 Paul explains who one group of God’s enemies are. These are “pre-conversion” people. These are people alienated from God, hostile in mind toward him, and doing evil deeds. These are people in the world who live in the darkness of their minds and hearts, worshiping idols and under the power of the prince of the air. These are pagans.

However, there is another group of enemies as well. Those who were in covenant with God, and yet, have broken that covenant. These are not pagans; they are in a third category: covenant-breaker. This is because unfaithful covenant members cannot be described the same as pagans who exist outside the covenant – pagans have none of the blessings or benefits of the covenant.

Paul explains it this way. He begins by asserting that “no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart…” (Romans 2:28-29). The natural next question that would have been raised by the Jew reading this would be “then what [is the] advantage [of being] a Jew? What is the value of [physical] circumcision?” (Romans 3:1). He would ask this because he would presume that Paul is downplaying the importance of the physical and increasing the value of the spiritual. However, Paul is doing nothing of the sort; he isn’t a gnostic. Paul responds to this question by saying that there is much value to these things, and in every way (v2).

Paul then lists all the blessings and benefits of being a Jew and being circumcised, saying that the Jews were “entrusted with the oracles of God” (Romans 3:2), and to them belong “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship…the promises [and] the patriarchs” (Romans 9:4-5). 

Having already established that the church is Israel, and Israel the church, because God has always had only one people, and asserting now that baptism is sacramentally equivalent to circumcision (Colossians 2:11-12), all of these blessings and benefits recorded in Romans 9 now apply to those in the new covenant and to our children, regardless of whether they will ultimately remain faithful to the covenant or become a covenant-breaker down the road. 

But what happens when someone breaks the covenant? When a person breaks the covenant, he is effectively spitting in the face of God and spurning all the wonderful benefits that God offers to him with an open hand (Isaiah 65:2). This in turn, makes this person an enemy of God, now only worthy of a punishment so grievous that it frightens the imagination.

God’s People as His Enemies

It can be quite uncomfortable to imagine that God’s people would or could be his enemies. This makes sense. It’s very common in our current evangelical climate to imagine that God’s covenant is perfectly salvific and that all who are in it are redeemed and that it is impossible for them to be his enemies. However, this is not the nature of God’s covenant. In truth it is not perfectly salvific and there are in fact many tares among the wheat, to barrow a metaphor (Matthew 13:24-30).

The reality of God’s enemies sometimes being his very own covenant people is made evident in such passages as Matthew 21:33-46, where God’s covenant people are compared to wicked tenants who kill the masters son. In Psalm 69:22-28 David is condemning God’s enemies who happen to be God’s covenant people. We can be certain of this because Paul quotes this very section in Romans 11:9-10 where he is explicitly discussing God’s people as God’s enemies. Psalm 109:6-15 is another example where David is condemning those who are in covenant with God. This passage (and Psalm 69) is likewise picked up by Luke in Acts 1 when Judas was replaced. In Acts 1:17 we are told that Judas was numbered among the apostles and as one of God’s covenant people he had become God’s enemy. And, if there were still any doubt, in Romans 11:28 Paul explicitly calls Israel - God’s covenant people - enemies of the Gospel.

Conclusion

There is no ordinary means of salvation outside the visible church. This much is true. In the church is where the word of God is proclaimed, men, women, and children discipled, the sacraments presented and enjoyed, and much more. However, in the Church of God, he has always allowed those who are not truly regenerate. And while they are his enemies, he has allowed them entrance into his covenant, via the covenant sign, so that salvation might be extended to them in beautiful fashion.

In the church, God holds out his hands - full of goodness and blessing - to all who are baptized and in covenant. He even holds them out to those who are disobedient and contrary (Romans 10:21). Now, those who have been given the gift of faith and perseverance will receive all these promises, blessings, and gifts in total salvific fashion and endure to the end. However, there are those who, having been purchased by the blood of Christ, and given all the blessings of the covenant, may nevertheless fall away and be considered and judged as one of Gods enemies, even as he is simultaneously one of his people (2 Peter 2:1; Romans 9:4-5; Hebrews 10:29-30).

This ought to encourage those in God’s covenant to exercise our faith and make our calling and election sure.