In Bible study, according to Paul’s admonition of “rightly dividing the world of truth” (2Tim 2:15), we need to differentiate between three people groups with regard to their relationship with the Lord and His call for them, if we are to see His eternal plan as a whole; encompassing both “the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1).

I am writing of these three (3) people groups of God:

1) Apostate (fallen away) Nation Israel, which is presently “fallen” (Rom. 11:10-11, 25)^.

2) The New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel are believers who believed in the time of John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, and the twelve Apostles, and those who died in faith during the Tribulation.

3) The mainly Gentile “church…the body of Christ,” whose Apostle is Paul (Rom. 11:13), consists of those who are saved today under the terms of Paul’s grace gospel. This is presented in Paul’s unique thirteen epistles (Romans to Philemon). Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God” applies to “all men,” both Jews and Gentiles, during this age of the “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2, cf. Gal 3:28)

These differences are only seen as different and Biblically differentiated when we “rightly divide” the Scripture as to what prophetically applies to Israel versus that of the secretly planned “body of Christ.” We must “Study … rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, KJV only)

Having said that, we can now look at examples of the various terms used to differentiate between the Apostate Nation Israel, and the New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel, as seen here.

“Even so then at this present time also there is a ‘remnant (of Israel) according to the election of grace.’  ⁷What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election (of Israel) hath obtained it, and the rest (of Israel) were blinded” (Romans 11:7 (KJV)

In Romans chapters 9-11 Paul addresses the place of Israel not “the body of Christ,” during this age of grace.

Below we see the term “other sheep” in verse 16, which refers to the New Covenant believing “remnant” of Israel. These “other sheep” came out of the “fold” of unbelieving National Israel by grace of His “election” and faith in Jesus to form His “little flock” that heard and followed Jesus as their “One Shepherd.”

“⁹I (Jesus) am the door: by me if any man (anyone of Israel) enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go IN and OUT, and find pasture… ¹⁰ I am come that they (those of Israel) might have life (Zoë, spirit life), and that they might have it more abundantly. ¹³The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling (works for money), and careth NOT for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the ‘good shepherd,’ and know my sheep, and am known of mine…. ¹⁶And ‘OTHER sheep’ I have, which are not of this fold (of National Israel): them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold (Greek, poinme, FLOCK), and ‘one shepherd.” (John 10:9-16)

The verses above have nothing to do with the members of “the Church… the body of Christ.” Jesus of Nazareth said He had come to address only Israel (Matt. 15:24). All that He spoke concerned Israel and He defined who His real sheep were, calling them His “little flock” (Luke 12:32).

So as we see, there are two (2) kinds of “sheep” (of Israel) being discussed by Jesus in John 10. Jesus said only the sheep who “hear (His) voice” (v16) and “receive Him” (Jn. 1:12); but the record is also clear that vast majority of the sheep in the “fold” of the Nation Israel did not receive Him – they called for killing Him by Roman crucifixion! Those who rejected Him are those of whom Jesus said, by parable, “we will not have this man (Jesus) to reign over us” (Lk. 19:14). Those of Apostate National Israel rejected the Savior and did not believe to become part of His “other sheep” of v16, who are Jesus’ believing “little flock” (v16). Jesus’ “little flock” came out of the “fold” of Apostate Israel; these are “the body of Christ” as many Christians suppose.

It’s interesting to consider that a “fold” was an animal stock pen where stray sheep were held until their rightful owner would come to claim them – the holding pen or “fold” is the Apostate Nation Israel who was called of God but consistently rejected God and even killed His prophets in the Old Testament, and then they killed the Prince of Peace, Jesus of Nazareth, when He came to Israel.  

By contrast a “flock” describes a group of like-minded ones who are united in following their One Shepherd. I picture this “flock” in the open green “pasture” (Jn 10:9), beside “the still waters” (Psa. 23:2), secure under their “One Shepherd,” while at the same time the life in the “fold” of Apostate National Israel is one of ‘captive sheep,’ eating dry straw and barely existing.

1) The unbelieving sheep of the “fold” of Apostate Nation Israel did not receive Jesus.

2) The believing “other sheep” (Jn. 10:16), who are of Jesus’ “little flock,” did receive Him by grace through faith, being His “remnant… according to election” (Rom 11:5, cf. v7).

Jesus’ New Covenant Messianic believers of Israel are the members Jesus’ “little flock” who;

a) were baptized with ‘John’s water “baptism unto repentance”; b) heard Jesus of Nazareth’s declaration that “the Kingdom” was “at hand,” and c) those who responded in faith to “the gospel of the kingdom” that Jesus preached, and then the words of the Twelve Apostles in the early Acts period (all before Paul).

Jesus called these liberated sheep of John 10, His “little flock” (Luke 12:32). This was a “remnant,” a small number of the whole Nation Israel. While speaking to the Nation Israel in the “fold,” (Jn. 10), Jesus referred to these believers of the “little flock” as His “other sheep” (John 10:16).

“Fear not, ‘little flock’; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Paul, “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom 11:13), later referred to the “little flock” as “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16). These Messianic believers of Israel will one day co-reign (Rev. 5:10, 20:6) and dwell with Jesus in His Millennial Kingdom, and in the Eternal Kingdom, on earth, beginning with His 2^nd coming.

Again. the “little flock” (Luke 12:32), “other sheep” (John 10:16), “the remnant” (Rom. 11:5, 7), “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16), and those of the “circumcised of heart” (Rom 2:29), all refer to the Messianic New Covenant believers of Israel, not the Christian members of “the church… the body of Christ.”

These phrases do not include or have anything to do with the Gentiles of today’s grace age members of “the church, which is His body” (Eph 1:22b-23a), those who came to believe and receive the Lord as savior via Paul’s “gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) during this age of “the dispensation of the grace of God.”

In His earthly ministry “to the circumcision (Israel)” (Rom 15:8, Matt 15:24), Jesus of Nazareth preached that the Kingdom was at hand. He demonstrated the miraculous that will the norm in His Millennial Kingdom and then in the Eternal Kingdom – under the New Covenant, for “the Israel of God” only.

The “kingdom of heaven” will come to come to earth. The believing “remnant” of Israel, Jesus’ bride, is those of Israel in whom He dwells on “the new earth.” They will have received her eternal inheritance, which is “the Spirit” of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ living in and through them. He will indwell every believer of Israel and cause them to walk in righteousness. This was prophesied, long ago, by Israel’s prophets.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh (tenderness). ²⁷And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. ²⁸And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Of course, today, we as the living members of “the church, which is the body of Christ” (Eph 1:22b-23a), have already received the eternal resurrected “Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” into our human spirits to be “one” with us (cf. 1Cor 6:17), this being at the core of our new creation (cf. 2Cor. 5:17) in union with Christ (cf. 1Cor. 6:17).

We can liken the Biblical distinction among the two groups of Israelites to what we see as played out among Christians today. There are those law-keeping Christians who are captive to their denomination’s precepts and tradition, living on straw. But also, there are Christians who have seen Paul’s grace gospel and live in liberty and power of the cross, free to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal 5:16, 18, 25), following Christ as He leads.

There will be subsequent papers coming that address each of the Biblical terms I’ve cited concerning those who I call the “New Covenant believing remnant of Israel.”