Are Jews who reject Christ still part of God’s chosen people?

No, not all ethnic Israelites belong to the spiritual Israel, but only those who accept the word of the covenant and the God of the covenant. Those who reject Christ are not heirs of the promises made to Abraham, and as such are not his children. In the first few verses of Romans 9:1–33, Paul’s readers are experiencing an apparent incongruity between the lofty words about Israel’s past and the fact that this very people as a nation now rejects both Christians and the gospel itself. A closer investigation of Israel’s history reveals that this reality is not as strange as it may seem: For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring (Romans 9:6–7a). It has actually always been the case that when God spoke to Israel this caused a certain rift among the people, namely between true (believing) children of Israel on the one hand and Israelites who (because of their unbelief in God) did not deserve that name on the other. There was a good reason why God continually continued to appeal to this people through prophets. They continually exhorted the people to turn back and repent, always presenting the people with a choice.

British New Testament scholar Charles Cranfield¹ follows Barth in toning down this rift within the people of Israel as a whole. According to Cranfield, the entire nation remains the object of God’s election, but he effectuates this election among the chosen people by creating a kind of church within the people (leading to the one Christ). Cranfield posits that a separation between the true (believing) Israel on the one hand and a rejected (unbelieving) Israel on the other hand is impossible in light of Romans 9:1–5. According to him, all of the privileges listed here by Paul applied even to Jews who did not actually believe in Christ. This would show that even the Jews who reject Christ nevertheless remain people of God. Cranfield, however, completely disregards the fact that in Romans 9:1–5 Paul clearly implied that Jews who reject Christ are cast out of the community of the true Israel. It is, after all, precisely for this reason that Paul expressed a willingness to trade places with them so as to take their expulsion (anathema) upon himself. The bitter sorrow expressed by the apostle could not be taken seriously if he still continued to regard all Jews—believers and non-believers alike—as the true Israel, who will always share in all the privileges and promises conferred upon them.

Canadian New Testament scholar Lloyd Gaston² likewise rejects the idea that there is a believing Israel as a part within the nation of Israel as a whole, but he employs an entirely different argument. He argues that Romans 9:6b should be translated as not all who are outside Israel are Israel (not all Gentiles are Israel). However, it is not possible to translate ex Israel as outside Israel (for a further rebuttal of Gaston, also see Johnson³).⁴