Because the Old Testament promises are for Israel, are we the spiritual Israel, as distinct from a physical Israel?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God’s Power for Salvation’ (2005).

The way I would prefer to put it, I think, is to say what Paul says in Ephesians 2:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. (Ephesians 2:11–12 ESV)

This meant that, being Gentiles, the Messiah was not for them. They didn't know anything about the Messiah. They had nothing to do with the commonwealth of Israel; they were absolute strangers to Israel as a nation. And they were strangers from the covenants of the promise, because the promises of the Old Testament to Israel were nothing to do with the Gentiles. Therefore, that being true, they had no hope, whereas Israel was marked by hope. At his trial, Paul said, he was on trial 'for the hope of Israel'. This is Paul the evangelist talking to King Agrippa and saying he was on trial for what Israel's hope was—that there should be a resurrection of the dead:

I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. (Acts 26:6–7 ESV)

But the Gentiles at large didn't have this hope, and they were 'without God in the world'.

That's what they were. Now, through conversion in Christ, what has happened? Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:14–15. For time's sake, notice what he says in verse 15. God has abolished all these commandments and ordinances in order 'that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two' (ESV). He has not added Israel to the Gentiles, or the Gentiles to Israel; he has taken some of both and made a completely new man—'so making peace'.

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:18–19 ESV)

So whereas before they were strangers to the covenants of promise, they are not strangers anymore to those covenants of promise.

The new covenant was a covenant of promise. It is given in Jeremiah 31:31: 'The days will come when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.' So it was going to be related to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Well, what on earth have we got to do with that? Nothing, until Christ came. We were 'strangers to the covenants of promise', but now in Christ we're not, for the new covenant applies both to Jews and Gentiles, as you will see from the Lord's Supper and its very terms given in 1 Corinthians 11. The passage we read in Hebrews 8 during the last session tells us that the new covenant is already in force. Now we shall find that Paul says in Romans 11, not 'I was an Israelite' but 'I am an Israelite' (Romans 11:1). And what does he deduce from that? Well, that God has not finished with Israel. In spite of Israel's rejection of Messiah, God hasn't obliterated Israel; he has left a remnant who are true believers. And if you want evidence of this present remnant of Israel, Paul says, 'I am one.' And of course there was Martha and Mary, Thomas and Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea, and a good many more beside, who all were believers in Christ, and would say with Paul: 'We are Israelites. We've not become Gentiles, but we do believe in Christ, whereas the vast nation of Israel is yet hostile to Christ.'

But that same Romans 11 will tell you that God hasn't cast away his ancient people Israel, and one day Israel as a whole shall be saved (see Romans 11:25–29). That, put briefly, is how I understand what the New Testament is saying. And when all Israel is saved, of course, they will come under the terms of the covenant that those who are Israelites but believers in Christ are already under. They are now forgiven, as Hebrews points out, not on the basis of the sacrifices but on the basis of the new covenant by which their sins are forgiven already.