Paul emphasizes the land promise is fulfilled as Christ (and his body) have gospel dominion and fill the whole world. The original creation mandates retold to Abraham are fulfilled in the interadvental, world-wide family of Christ in the earth. Christ’s rule is on earth, as well as in heaven. If this is so, we might expect Paul to apply a practical component of the land promise to Gentile believers outside the “land” (of Palestine).
Lo and behold – we find that Paul urges the same fullness of Gentile participation in covenant promises (including the land) elsewhere. In Ephesians 2, while not speaking explicitly of the land, it does refer to full participation. Gentiles were excluded from “the commonwealth of Israel,” “the covenants of promise” and there was a “wall of separation.” Now in Christ there is “access” and you are “no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” and part of the “the whole building,” growing into a “holy temple in the Lord,” “a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” These key concepts overflow with land connections. The term “commonwealth” refers to “citizenship” elsewhere (Acts 22:28)2.
See Matthew 5:5; Romans 4:13, 16; Ephesians 6:1-3
Notice that the meek inherit the earth (a quote from Psalms 37:9-11, 22, 27). The very promise given to Abraham concerning the land is promised to his spiritual descendants. And also the Gentile Ephesian children are promised long life in “the land” (or “the earth” as the NASB has it). Compare Ephesians 6:3 with the promise as stated in Exodus 20:12b: “that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” Paul holds up this promise for the Ephesian Christians.1
Gentile believers also have a share in the “covenants of promise” (Ephesians 2:12). In Galatians, Paul speaks singularly of the Abrahamic covenant, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”(Galatians 3:29). But in Ephesians (2:12) he implies the full participation in the covenant life of Israel which unfolded in covenants (plural) of “the promise” (singular). This is exactly the point of the argument in Romans 4 and Galatians 3, also. This is not replacement theology, but inclusion theology.
That Christ’s body of believers are a Temple or Dwelling of God is emphasized by virtually all NT authors. In 1 Peter 2:4-6, Gentile aliens and strangers who were dispossessed of a land with a temple, yet they are “being built up as a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” However to speak of the “temple” is to speak of Jerusalem and thus the land. Poythress observes that the meaning of tabernacle, which is God dwelling with His people, is itself a “land” type. God dwells in a place with His people2.
This NT understanding of the land promise certainly seems to spiritualize the promise [should the Ephesians really expect to live long in Canaan? or should the meek expect to inherit Canaan?] or more properly, to expand it to include the whole world (Rom. 4). And indeed the promise that God would be with Abraham’s descendants, dwell with them and be their God (see Genesis 17:7-8, also Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:12, and Ezra 37:27) is repeated and realized in Revelation 21:3: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them”. Certainly the New Testament seems to indicate that the land promise points us to this ultimate reality1.
It is instructive to note that Peter’s “the cornerstone” references were first used by Christ after a prophetic “destroying of the temple” in the “cleansing of the temple” events of Matthew 21:42f. “Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” Hence there is an explicit connection between the covenant breaking of that Cornerstone-[Christ]-rejecting generation and the new building of the people of God2.
“The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former … and in this place I will give you peace.” (Haggai 2:9)
“The house [that is] to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries.” 1 Chronicles 22:5) “The glory of the Lord … filled the Lord’s house.” (2 Chronicles 7:2)
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”He was speaking of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19, 21)
Thus, all three aspects (commonwealth, covenant, temple) of the Gentile-included new people of God overlap with the covenant land promise. Even more, however, at the end of Ephesians, the “land” is explicitly referenced. It provides confirmation of the expansion motif even in pastoral and familial categories. An original promise regarding “the land” is expanded to outside the land – to the “earth.” Paul writes, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3)
The term “earth” certainly could be translated “land” (as in Palestine). Is this what Paul meant? Paul could hardly be telling Ephesian Christian children that obeying their parents will bring them blessings of long life in Palestine! Or is Paul simply spiritualizing the land promise? It is strange that Paul would quote the promise component of this, rather than just the moral command (cf. Colossians 3:20)2.
Especially since he’s writing to a Gentile dominated group of people.
Given the sustained argument of covenantal inclusion in Ephesians 2, it is warranted to take the greek word here as “the earth,” since Ephesus is outside the “holy land.” The KJV, ASV, NAS, NIV, NKJ, RSV, NRS versions agree. Thus, “the land” has become for the new people of God, “the earth.” This was the original purpose for Abraham’s promise, after all. Our Lord taught that “the meek inherit the earth,” (Matthew 5:5). God has called his new covenant people to be ruled from heavenly Jerusalem, but to be a temple in all the earth.
Over against premillennial views, the specific restoration of Israel to the land was a preparation for new covenant fulfillment in the work of Jesus. True Israel was raised and all united to Him in faith have such life. Now all ethnic peoples, including Jews and Arabs, have access to the rule from Mt. Zion above, but only through Jesus (Hebrews 12:22ff). From which we take our marching orders for life in the current cosmos of inheritance.
The meaning of “heaven” in the NT is not an ethereal space, it is about the “rule from heaven” — “on earth as it is in heaven.” NT Wright observes, As any reader of the book of Daniel could have told you (and Daniel was very popular in the first century AD), the one who dwells in heaven is the one who rules on the earth. As any watcher of the Roman Imperial cult could have told you (and the Imperial cult was the fastest-growing religion in the first-century Mediterranean world), the one who is seen being taken up into heaven is the one who is thereby revealed as divine, as the ruler of the present cosmos…The point is that from heaven he is ruling the world, ruling it through the faithful lives, the suffering and the witness of his Spirit-driven apostolic followers, calling it to account, demonstrating that there is a new way of living, a way which upstages all Caesar’s pretensions to have saved the world, or united it, or brought it genuine justice, freedom and peace.”
Abraham’s promise aimed to get back to Adam’s original mandate: dominion in the earth. Paul’s use of the “land” is grounded in creation (Adamic dominion), fulfilled in the new creation (Last Adam). God’s purposes were to bless all the nations. So in the preceding covenant era, the location of Palestine was ideal. It was a narrow land bridge connecting the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia. It was ideally situated for the extension of God’s covenant blessing to the entire world. It was “at the center of the earth” (Ezek. 38:21; 5:5). Changing the world started at this center. Now we must paint it into the corners. We must go further up and deeper in2.
References
1 Understanding the Land Promise: Part 1
2 “The Land Promise: Exegetical Evidence for a Postmillennial Reading (PDF)
For further reading
Previous discussion of The Land Promise.