Problem: Some amillennial interpreters argue that the church inherits the promises of Israel. Is Paul reinterpreting the concept of being a Jew to apply to Christian believers?
Solution: Paul cannot be saying that Christians inherit the promises to Israel in this passage, because Paul hasn’t even explained how one becomes a Christian yet—in this point of the book of Romans! He doesn’t tackle this subject until 3:21-31. Here he is making the argument that Gentiles are better than Jews, if they keep the Law. Circumcision is of no value unless one keeps the law. He doesn’t even claim that these Gentiles are Christians at all. Thus it would be a mistake to conclude that Paul is abrogating the covenants to the Jewish people based on this passage.
Paul tackles the role of ethnic Israel in Romans 9-11. In Romans 2, Paul is not teaching eschatology (the end times); he is teaching soteriology (salvation). In Romans 2, Paul is arguing that Gentiles can come into the forgiveness of Christ during the Church Age; he is not arguing that God’s promises to the nation of Israel will be fulfilled in Gentile Christians in the millennium. We can compare these two sections of Romans in this way:
“For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. (Rom 2:28-29)
