“30 Pictures of Jesus” 30 Day PlanSample

Today we see Jesus as the True Israel.

From the beginning, God’s plan was not just to make a holy person, but a holy people. In the garden, Adam and Eve were called to be God’s image in the world—a garden people who would fill the earth with God’s presence and rule. But like Adam, every generation has fallen into sin. Humanity could not be God’s holy people because we were enslaved to death and rebellion.

So God raised up Israel. He rescued them from Egypt, led them through the wilderness, and planted them in the land like a new Adam and Eve. Israel was meant to be a holy nation—a kingdom of priests shining like a garden in the midst of the world (Exodus 19:5–6). But Israel, like Adam, failed. Sin ruled over them, and instead of blessing the nations, they became like the nations.

Into this story steps Jesus. Matthew shows us that Jesus relives Israel’s story. Just as Israel was called out of Egypt, Jesus as a child is taken down into Egypt and then brought back again (Matthew 2:15). Just as Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea, Jesus passes through the waters of baptism (Matthew 3:16). Just as Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years, Jesus is tested in the wilderness for forty days (Matthew 4:1–2). But where Israel failed, Jesus remains faithful. He is the true and holy Israel.

And because Jesus is the faithful Israel, he can create a new people. By his obedience, death, and resurrection, he brings us into himself and makes us part of God’s holy nation (1 Peter 2:9–10). What Israel could not be because of sin, Jesus is—and what he is, he shares with us. Joined to him, we are filled with his Spirit, made into his people, and sent into the world as his church.

This is good news. God’s plan to have a holy people has not failed. In Jesus, the True Israel, a new humanity is being formed. And now through us, God’s holy presence is once again planted in the world like a garden that will one day cover the earth.