WHEN BLOODLINE LOST ITS POWER

Why Natural Descent Could Never Replace Faith in Christ

“They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.”
(Romans 9:8)

There was a time when genealogy mattered greatly in determining a person's place within the covenant order. Under the Old Covenant, a man could not simply decide to become a priest. He had to descend from Aaron, and he had to be able to establish that descent. When Israel returned from Babylon, some men sought to serve as priests but could not prove their genealogy.

“These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.” (Ezra 2:62)

Their sincerity was not enough. Their desire to serve was not enough. Under that covenantal administration, bloodline mattered because God Himself had established an order based upon physical descent.

Then Christ came, and something changed forever.

If anyone could have boasted in bloodline, it was Paul. He knew exactly where he came from.

“Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:5–6)

Paul was not someone wondering whether he might have Israelite ancestry hidden somewhere in his family tree. His pedigree was unquestionable. Yet immediately after listing those credentials, he declares, “What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7).

But Paul goes even further.

“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord… and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)

The Greek word skubalon, translated “dung” in the KJV, carries the idea of refuse, rubbish, garbage, or waste. Paul takes everything in which he could have placed confidence in the flesh, his circumcision, Israelite ancestry, tribal identity, Hebrew pedigree, and standing under the law, and calls it rubbish compared with the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. Paul was not ashamed of being Jewish, nor was he denying his ancestry. He was declaring something far greater: physical ancestry could no longer determine his standing before God. His great desire was no longer to be found in his pedigree but “that I may win Christ, and be found in him” (Philippians 3:8–9).

That same principle runs throughout Paul's writings.

“For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”
(Romans 9:6)

Then he makes the distinction unmistakable:

“They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.”
(Romans 9:8)

A person could therefore possess genuine Israelite blood and still not be counted among the children of God. Bloodline could establish natural descent, but it could not produce faith, impart life, or place someone in Christ. Paul had already established this principle earlier in Romans:

“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit.” (Romans 2:28–29)

Paul was not claiming that ethnic Jews suddenly ceased to exist. He was distinguishing outward identity from the inward reality God desired. Fleshly circumcision could identify a man with historical Israel, but it could not circumcise his heart. Natural descent could make someone an Israelite according to the flesh, but it could not give him the faith and inward life necessary to participate in the New Covenant reality being unveiled in Christ. This also helps us understand the startling language of Revelation concerning those

“which say they are Jews, and are not” (Revelation 2:9; 3:9).

Whatever conclusions we draw about the precise identity of those opponents, the language demonstrates something important: merely claiming the name “Jew” was not sufficient to establish faithfulness before God. The New Testament repeatedly refuses to allow outward identity, circumcision, ancestry, or religious claim to substitute for the inward reality of faith.

Israel According to the Flesh Was Not Forgotten

None of this disannuls Israel according to the flesh. Paul never pretends that God's historical dealings with Abraham's natural descendants were meaningless. Quite the opposite. Concerning his “kinsmen according to the flesh,” Paul says they are Israelites,

“to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Romans 9:3–4).

Israel according to the flesh was real. Their covenant history was real. Their privileges were real. Their place in bringing Messiah into the world was real. What Paul denies is that those privileges could themselves impart the life found in Christ.

In fact, Christ came to Israel first. Jesus declared that He was “sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Paul says that Christ was “a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers” (Romans 15:8). Galatians tells us why His coming under the law was so significant:

“God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” (Galatians 4:4–5)

God had not forgotten Israel. Christ entered Israel's covenant world, fulfilled the promises given to the fathers, and accomplished redemption in their midst.

But here is the point that cannot be missed: Even the natural descendants had to come by faith.

Their bloodline did not exempt them from believing. Their circumcision did not place them into Christ. Their possession of the law did not create New Covenant life within them.

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” (John 1:11–12)

Jesus truly came to His own, but being “His own” according to covenant history did not automatically make them children of God. They had to receive Him.

God Preserved a Believing Remnant

This is where Paul's argument concerning the remnant of Israel becomes essential. Paul begins Romans 11 with a question:

“Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.”
(Romans 11:1)

Paul immediately points to himself. He was “an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” Paul himself was living evidence that God's redemptive purpose concerning Israel had not failed. Then he explains what was happening within Israel:

“Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” (Romans 11:5)

This is crucial.

God did not simply throw Israel away and begin again with Gentiles. From among Israel according to the flesh there was a believing remnant who received Israel's Messiah. They were genuine natural descendants, but their natural descent was not what gave them New Covenant life. They participated in the fulfillment of the promises through faith in Christ. Paul immediately explains:

“What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” (Romans 11:7)

There was therefore a division within natural Israel itself. The dividing line was no longer genealogy, because both groups possessed the genealogy. The distinction was between those receiving God's Messiah and those remaining in unbelief.

This is the part that must not be missed:

The believing remnant of Israel did not cease being Israel and get replaced by a Gentile church. They became the believing nucleus of the New Covenant ecclesia into which believing Gentiles were subsequently welcomed.

The story did not begin again. The tree was not uprooted. God did not plant an unrelated Gentile tree beside it.

The remnant remained, and the Gentiles were grafted in among them.

One Tree, Not a Replacement Tree

Romans 11 makes this picture extraordinarily clear. Paul speaks of Israelites as the natural branches. We do not need to deny their natural identity. They really were natural branches. Some, however, were broken off. Why? Their genealogy had not changed. Their ancestry had not disappeared. They remained Israelites according to the flesh. Paul tells us exactly why:

“Because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.”
(Romans 11:20)

That one sentence radically changes the discussion.

Even the natural branch could stand only by faith.

Israelite blood could make someone a natural branch, but Israelite blood could not give that branch New Covenant life. The unbelieving natural branches were broken off. The believing remnant remained through grace and faith. Then Paul turns to the Gentiles:

“And thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” (Romans 11:17)

Notice Paul's language carefully. The Gentiles were grafted “among them.” Among whom? Among the branches that remained. This is why the common accusation of “replacement theology” can badly misrepresent what Paul actually describes when it suggests that the Church simply replaced Israel. The New Covenant ecclesia did not appear as an unrelated Gentile people after God discarded Israel. Its earliest believing nucleus was itself the faithful remnant of Israel, centered upon Israel's Messiah, Israel's apostles, and Israel's promises. Then believing Gentiles were grafted into that existing covenantal people.

The Church of Jesus Christ did not replace the believing remnant of Israel.

It continued from it and expanded beyond it.

The Old Covenant ecclesia came through Israel. Christ came within Israel and established the New Covenant. A remnant from Israel believed. Then those who had previously been “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise” were brought near through Christ (Ephesians 2:12–13). Paul does not describe God creating two permanent peoples, one Jewish and another Gentile. Nor does he describe one ethnic people simply replacing another ethnic people. He describes reconciliation. He describes grafting.

He describes one new man.

One New Man

Paul's language in Ephesians is breathtaking. Speaking directly to Gentiles who had once been strangers from Israel's covenants, he says Christ has “made both one” (Ephesians 2:14). Both. Jew and Gentile. Not Gentiles replacing Jews. Not Jews secretly hiding underneath the identity of every Gentile.

Both made one in Christ.

Christ's purpose was:

“For to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”
(Ephesians 2:15)

That destroys both extremes. The Gentile does not replace the Jew. The Gentile does not have to secretly be a Jew.

Jew and Gentile are reconciled in Christ and made one new man.

Paul continues by saying that those Gentiles who had once been strangers and foreigners are “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). They became fellow citizens. That is inclusion, not replacement. It is grafting, not uprooting. It is reconciliation, not substitution.

For a fuller treatment of this tremendous reality, click here to go to my newsletter titled, One New Man, where I explore Paul's vision of Jew and Gentile becoming one covenant people in Christ.

To the Jew First, Then to the Gentile

This also explains the historical movement we see throughout Acts. The promises had come through Israel. Messiah came through Israel. Christ ministered among Israel. The gospel went “to the Jew first” (Romans 1:16). From among those natural descendants, God gathered the believing remnant. Then the gospel moved decisively outward to the nations.

This was not an insignificant order in redemptive history. From the beginning of Christ's public ministry to the reception of Cornelius and his household in Acts 10 was approximately a decade. Jesus had come to His own, ministered primarily to Israel, sent His disciples first to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 10:5–6), and after His resurrection the gospel continued first among Israel. Then, in Acts 10, God unmistakably opened the door to uncircumcised Gentiles through the household of Cornelius, giving them the Holy Spirit through faith without requiring them to become Jews. Israel was not bypassed. The believing remnant was being gathered first, and then the door was thrown wide open to the nations.

When many of Paul's Jewish hearers rejected the gospel, Paul and Barnabas declared:

“It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you… lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” (Acts 13:46)

Notice the word first.

Paul does not say Israel never mattered. He says the opposite. The word had to be spoken to them first. But their bloodline could not substitute for faith. Those who rejected Christ remained in unbelief. Those who received Him belonged to the believing remnant. Then salvation went outward to the Gentiles, fulfilling God's ancient purpose that Abraham would become a blessing to the nations.

Paul therefore describes the Gentiles not as discovering some forgotten Israelite genealogy, but as wild branches being grafted into the cultivated olive tree. And once again, the principle governing both is exactly the same.

The natural branch stands by faith. The wild branch stands by faith.

The natural branch cannot appeal to bloodline. The wild branch does not need Israelite bloodline.

Both need Christ.

This means that even if someone could prove that a person called a Gentile somewhere in the New Testament secretly possessed Israelite ancestry, what would that accomplish concerning his standing before God? Nothing apart from faith in Christ. If unquestioned Israelite ancestry could not keep an unbelieving natural branch from being broken off, discovering Israelite ancestry somewhere in a Gentile's family tree could not save him either.

Paul makes this explicit in Galatians:

“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” (Galatians 3:7)

He does not tell his readers to search their genealogy for Abraham. He identifies the children of Abraham by faith.

Then:

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26)

And finally comes Paul's magnificent conclusion:

“And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29)

Notice the order carefully. Paul does not say: “If you are Abraham's biological seed, then you may belong to Christ.”

He says: “If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed.”

Christ determines the identity. Faith determines participation in the promise. Union with Christ, not genealogy, determines covenant standing. This is why Paul's question in Romans 3 is so important:

“Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” (Romans 3:29)

There is “one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith” (Romans 3:30). The circumcised Israelite does not come to God on the strength of Abraham's blood while the Gentile comes another way.

Both come by faith.

From Genealogy to Christ

Even the priesthood demonstrates this tremendous transformation. Under Moses, priestly ministry depended upon genealogy. Yet Hebrews announces:

“For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” (Hebrews 7:12)

Jesus Himself came from Judah, a tribe concerning which Moses said nothing about priesthood. Yet Christ possesses the greater priesthood because He became priest “not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life” (Hebrews 7:16). The old priesthood rested upon genealogical qualification. The everlasting priesthood of Christ rests upon an entirely different order.

Then came the visible removal of that former covenantal world. Jerusalem fell in AD 70. The Temple was destroyed. The sacrifices ceased. The functioning Aaronic administration disappeared with it. This did not make Christ's work effective, nor did Roman armies complete the cross. The theology had already been established. Christ had offered the once-for-all sacrifice. The priesthood had already changed. Paul had already declared that the children of the flesh were not thereby the children of God.

Jesus had announced judgment upon that generation, lamented over Jerusalem, pronounced their house desolate, and declared concerning the Temple:

“There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Matthew 24:2)

The world centered upon Temple, sacrifice, Levitical priesthood, and covenantal distinctions according to flesh was approaching its historical end. But God's people did not disappear with that Temple. They had already found their fulfillment and continuity in Christ. The believing remnant was there. The apostles were there. Jewish believers were there. Then Gentiles were grafted in among them.

The result was not replacement.

The result was one new man.

The Blood That Matters

This is why attempting to rebuild the New Covenant around physical genealogy moves in the opposite direction from Paul's arguments. Paul does not disannul Israel's historical place. He acknowledges it. Christ came through Israel, ministered to Israel, fulfilled the promises given to the fathers, and redeemed those under the law. The gospel went to the Jew first. A remnant believed. But even those true natural descendants could participate in New Covenant life only through faith in Christ. Then the doors opened wide to the nations. The Gentiles were not required to become natural Israelites. They were brought near in Christ and grafted into the same covenant tree.

Therefore neither Israel Only theology nor a simplistic replacement theology does justice to Paul's picture.

Israel Only theology makes bloodline do what Paul says bloodline cannot do.

Replacement theology, when it imagines God discarding Israel and starting an unrelated Gentile people, breaks apart the very tree into which Paul says the Gentiles were grafted.

Paul gives us something far more beautiful. A believing remnant from Israel. Gentiles brought near. Wild branches grafted among the natural branches that remained. One olive tree. One household. One body. One new man in Christ.

If an Israelite does not believe, his Israelite ancestry cannot save him. If someone discovers that he has Israelite ancestors, that discovery cannot reconcile him to God. And if someone possesses no Israelite ancestry whatsoever, that absence cannot keep him from Christ.

The gospel does not ask us to establish the correct genealogy. It calls us to faith in the Son of God.

This is the New Covenant revolution. From flesh to faith. From genealogy to union. From natural descent to new creation. From Jew and Gentile separated by covenantal boundaries to one new man in Christ.

Paul possessed one of the finest Israelite pedigrees imaginable, yet he took everything that could give him confidence in the flesh and called it rubbish, dung, refuse compared with knowing Christ. His great desire was:

“That I may win Christ, and be found in him.” (Philippians 3:8–9)

Found in Him.

That is where the biblical story has been moving all along.

The great question of the New Covenant is no longer, “Who were your fathers?” It is not, “What tribe are you from?” It is not, “What bloodline runs through your veins?”

The question is:

Are you in the Son?

Because in Christ, bloodline has lost its power to determine who belongs to God.

The believing Jew did not need to stop being a natural descendant to be saved. The believing Gentile did not need to become a natural descendant to be saved. The Jew needed Christ. The Gentile needed Christ. Both stood by faith.

And ultimately:

The blood that matters now is not the blood running through your veins, but the blood that was shed on the cross.

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