Israel's Land Promises Review of G. K. Beale

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G. K. Beale and Israel’s Land PromisesReviewed

William Bell


Introduction

A brief critique of G. K. Beale’s analysis of Israel’s Land promises in his book, New Testament Bible Theology” Ch. 22.

Are the promises of Israel to be fulfilled materially and literally as the physical land in the Exodus?


Beale’s Quotes

The restoration of Christ does not return believing people to a physical land as a mark of their redemption.

“Redeemed people do not go to a geographical place to be redeemed; rather, they flee to Christ and God for their salvific restoration,” NTBT, p. 750

“There is also reference to Christians who will experience the “rest” that Israel should have experienced in the promised land, but here the ‘rest’ is the focus, and the land of Israel appears to be typological of a rest that is spiritual.” Ibid, p. 751

The physical way these land promises have begun fulfillment is that Christ himself introduced the new creation by his physical resurrection, Ibid


Christ, Israel’s New Temple

Temple implies land

People imply land

If Christ is the new temple, and since the people are in Christ, it must follow that the land ultimately promised to Israel is “in Christ”. (Matt. 11:28-30; Heb. 4:1-11; 11:13-16)


Christ’s Resurrection

He is the “first of the firstfruits” of them that slept, 1 Cor. 15:20

He is the “firstborn” from the dead: And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. Col. 1:18

Christ is the beginning of the “creation of God” Rev. 3:14


Christ’s Death and Antitype

Christ’s death is the antitype of the death of Adam: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all are made alive”.

The death of Adam continued through the covenant of Moses, but does not extend beyond it. (Rom. 5:12-14)

If physical death did not end at the covenant of Moses, then it is not the death of which Christ is the beginning, the firstfruits or the firstborn.

Physical death violates the very principle of the “firstfruits” which was a pledge to complete a harvest which had begun in Christ.


1st the Natural

The natural is first, not last.

The natural is typological of the spiritual.

And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’ The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. (1 Cor 15:44-45)

The natural (psychikos) spiritual (pneumatikos) is not a contrast of physical versus non-physical or disembodied spirits 1 Cor. 2:14, Jude 19.


Last the Spiritual

Beale says the “two stage” process is an “inauguration of this fulfillment” and “installment fulfillment” saying the “initial” or first stage occurs with the spiritual with the natural occurring at the end!

That is directly opposite to what the Bible teaches! The very opposite! Then he admits:

“What references there are to the land in the NT seem to be spiritualized” p. 751


Fulfilled in Christ

If those promises were being fulfilled in the resurrection of the Christ, it must be the case that Christ’s resurrection fulfills “spiritual” not physical promises.


Christ’s Raised in the Spirit

Beale fails to acknowledge that Christ’s resurrection occurred in the realm of the Spirit.

“In the Spirit” is not contrasted with “biological flesh”.

“In the Spirit” is contrasted with “in the flesh” which are two opposing or antithetical “covenantal” states.

One represents living under the Law “in the flesh” because it required the flesh to achieve its righteousness, (Rom. 7:11-14; 8:3).

The other is living under the New Covenant, because it grants righteousness through Christ the power of God, i.e. via the Spirit (Rom. 8:2-3)


Not About His Physical Body

Christ’s body was a “sign” of the “real” or “invisible” resurrection of his death to sin (more later), Mat. 12:38-40; 16:4; Jn. 20:30-31.

Jesus’ physical body did not change in his resurrection, Lk. 24:39-43.

Therefore, no contrast between biological flesh versus a disembodied Spirit occurred in Christ’s resurrection.


Put To Death “In the Flesh” but Raised “In the Spirit”

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by [Gk. “in”] the Spirit.

The phrases “in the flesh” and “in the Spirit” are locatives, in the Greek meaning location or the realm or sphere where the action takes place.

Jesus’ death was “in the flesh” and raised “in the Spirit” with Christ.


Believers Were Put to Death in the Flesh and Raised In the Spirit

Believers follow Christ in His exodus from the flesh, Lk. 9:31

Believers died with Christ to the Law and realm of the flesh, Rom. 7:4-6

“For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the Law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the new newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.


Death With Christ In Baptism

Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:3-11)


Requirement of the Law Fulfilled

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:3-4)


Believers Biology Unchanged

Dying to the flesh did not mean a change to the believers biology, yet this is the death they died with Christ!

If the requirement of the law was fulfilled with the believers “dying to the law”, how could they be in position to receive the land promise of the Law? They were no longer under the law!

Unless the New Covenant promised them a piece a physical real estate, they have no promise of the land.

That can only mean that in the realm of the Spirit no such promise of physical land exists.


The Land Promise

But the meek shall inherit the earth [land], and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth [land] (Psa. 37:11; Matt. 5:5.

Observe that the equivalent of the land is the kingdom of God.

The key to the land is to realize that the kingdom of God fulfills the land promise of the Old Testament, and that in Christ.

Thus the new land is Christ and His kingdom. What can be greater than Christ and His dominion over heaven and earth?


Let’s Have Some Perspective

When UNIA leader and Pan Africanist, Marcus Garvey was asked the question: Are you Jamaican or African? He responded, “Why would I give up a continent for an island?”

That is the same way believers should view and respond regarding that narrow strip of Palestinian land.

Why would I give up the kingdom of God for a narrow strip of dirt the size of Rhode Island?


Believers Not In The Flesh

So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (Rom. 8:8-9)

As such they formed part of the firstfruits in solidarity with Christ having received the “firstfruits of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:23; Jas. 1:18).


Must Believers Die to the Spirit?

Paul said believers could not have both.

“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live. (Rom. 8:13)

Believers had to fully put to death the deeds of the “body of Sin” i.e. the body of Moses in order to live in the “body of Christ” according to the Spirit.


Summary

Israel’s land promises were to be fulfilled in the realm of the Spirit.

To receive them Israel had to die to the Law and be raised in the Spirit, i.e. the New Covenant, i.e. be “born again”

This was a birth/resurrection from the natural to the spiritual where in Christ all promises are fulfilled.

The only way to return to the physical land is to renounce the realm of the Spirit in Christ.

That is really not an option since the Old Covenant is now fulfilled and past, no longer existing as a covenant or people.

There is but one hope of the gospel.


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Israel's Land Promises Review of G. K. Beale