[...] To be “in Christ” is to be “in Israel”. To belong to Christ is to belong to Israel. To be born into Christ is to be grafted into the Israel of God, the Israel of the new creation. En-grafted gentiles are equal heirs of Israel’s covenants of promise, since the covenants and promises were not made with any other people. The seed of faith, the children of Abraham, the circumcision of the Spirit etc. are one regenerate people of God, whom Paul calls, “the election” (Ro 11:7). This is the “holy nation” to whom Jesus said the kingdom would be given (Mt 21:43; 1Pet 2:9). It is the Israel of the new creation, which must extend to the regeneration of an elect number of the natural branches at the coming day of the Lord in fulfillment of the demands of the covenant (Ro 11:26-27). “The election” must at length include a surviving third of Israel, when the nation will be born in a day (Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; 13:8-9). [...]

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The eschatology of the covenant is implicit in many of the statements of Moses. For example, at the threshold of entering the land, Moses declares his pessimism concerning Israel’s ability to continue in the Land. “For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you in the latter days” (Deut 31:29). Moses puts his finger on the one thing needful, the ‘without which not’ of all covenant inheritance, namely, the necessity for a new heart. “Yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. (Deut 29:4).

This would be remedied by the gift of the new heart promised in Deut 30:1-6. Apart from a new creation, the intractable condition of the natural heart virtually dooms the nation to the perpetual curse of judgment and exile. Therefore, Deut 30:6 anticipates the coming in of a New Covenant, which is God’s pre-determined purpose to create a new heart that will enable the Jews to inherit the Land forever. “And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that you may live” (Deut 30:5-6). [...]

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Until then, the gospel reveals that power and salvation of that “still coming” DAY has come in unexpected advance of THAT DAY through the revelation of the secret hidden in other ages (Ro 16:25-26; Eph 6:19; 1Pet 1:11). But according to Paul, this present fulfillment of the covenant through the revelation of the mystery of the gospel and gift of the Spirit cannot stop short of the grafting of the natural branches back into their own place. Paul does not present their return as a generous divine initiative tacked on at the end of the age for good measure. No, it is a covenant necessity demanded by the specific language of the covenant, (Ro 11:26-29), which would only be established with the larger nation at the post-tribulational day of the Lord. That is the eschatology of the OT, which the revelation of the mystery modifies, but does NOT erase. The day of the Lord will bring all that the literal reading of scripture said it will bring.

So I see Peter as saying “this is that,” but this is NOT “all” of that. It is indeed the Spirit promised to Israel in association with the well known day of the Lord. The promise of that day has arrived. It is here. But the day itself, and the full balance that remains to be fulfilled at that time remains for a post-tribulational future. Nothing about that has changed. The powers of the age to come have indeed broken decisively into this present evil prior to and apart from the kind of outward transformation expected in association with the day of the Lord. This, however, does nothing to change all that Scripture promises will come to the broken and penitent remnant that will look upon Him whom they pierced (Zech 12:10), when “that generation” will say with one voice, “blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mt 23:39). Hallelujah!

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