Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 17.

Title: Doctrine of the New Covenant, part 17.  

 

Are Jew and Gentile separate in this age? Jesus has reconciled us both to the full status of sons. The distinction in our age is only in believer and unbeliever. All who believe, Jew or Gentile, are made members of the body of Christ forever.

 

The mystery is that the Gentiles and the Jews would become beneficiaries of God's greatest blessings. They would become brand new creatures of the church, erasing all ethnic division.

 

As we have noted, these blessing were prophesied in the New Covenant, all of which are spiritual. We also note that this does not fulfill the covenant. The covenant will be fulfilled in the future Millennial reign of Christ in which all of the spiritual and material blessings will be given to the nation of Israel as promised to Abraham. However, through Abraham the families of the earth would be blessed, and the greatest blessings given to man in any age are now in effect, and they are given to Jew and Gentile alike. The barrier wall between them that had existed for almost 2,000 years, has been destroyed by Christ. It should be noted that these blessings, given to Jew and Gentile alike, make each individual a fellow member of the body of Christ and there will never be a nation of God in this age. The church will exist amongst the nations and there will be the existence of client nations where there is freedom for gospel preaching, missionary activity, and a safe haven for the Jews, but there will not be a nation of Israel in this age, not the one promised to Abraham.

 

EPH 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands — 

 

"Uncircumcision" was a name of contempt hurled by the Jews at Gentiles.

 

The pious Jew was ever conscious of the privileges which he had inherited. He thanked God that he was not born a Gentile, and if a man having the visible sign of circumcision, he also thanked God that he was not born a woman. He completely failed to see the important circumcision, the one of the heart.

 

The Jews were blessed of God by His love. Circumcision was the sign of this along with the responsibility that comes with the love of God: obedience and not arrogance.

 

DEU 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

 

DEU 10:13 and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

 

DEU 10:14 "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

 

DEU 10:15 Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day.

 

DEU 10:16 Circumcise then your heart, and stiffen your neck no more.

 

DEU 10:17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality, nor take a bribe.

 

DEU 10:18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing.

 

DEU 10:19 So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

 

DEU 10:20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.

 

DEU 10:21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen.

 

DEU 10:22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

 

We would certainly not think that this entreaty was limited to the dispensation of Israel, except for the last sentence about their ancestors in Egypt. We are to walk in His ways and serve Him with all our heart and soul as verse 12 states. The difference is that our way is not under the Mosaic Law. We are to keep the Lord's commandments, for He said that it would be proof of our love for Him, but not all of their commandments are the same as ours and many of ours are like theirs, but have been elevated in agape love. God says of us that our hearts are circumcised. We might conclude that their circumcision of the heart, which they did in humility and faithfulness, was a shadow of what is ours in reality. We have new hearts, a divine seed within, along with the Spirit of God within.

 

The Jewish man had an overt sign of the Abrahamic covenant. The church age believer has none. He is circumcised of the heart. The separation of Jew and Gentile was torn down by the cross of Christ.

 

The scorn of the Jew upon the Gentile was never justified, and now, in light of the new covenant in Christ, it looks ridiculous. Paul uses this as a means to emphasize that such scorn, which emanated due to the merit that some people had put in the position of physical birth, was no longer of any consequence, and in fact never was in the eyes of God, since the circumcised but unbelieving Jew was the object of the judgment and wrath of God.  

 

So, was there any advantage to being a Jew?

 

ROM 3:1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?

 

ROM 3:2 Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

 

Paul then lists 5 things about the uncircumcised Gentiles.

 

EPH 2:11 Therefore remember, that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands — 

 

EPH 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

 

Uncircumcised Gentiles:

Without Christ (Messiah)

Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel

Strangers from the covenants of "the" promise

No hope

Without God in this world

 

In essence, Paul is revealing that the Gentile nations were not near as blessed as Israel. Whether Jews were believers or not, they had a promised Messiah, a law from God, covenants from God, promises of hope from God, and God calling Himself their very Father.

 

One way we might be able to identify with this is if we were brought up under Christianity and we came to know someone brought up under communism and who never heard of Jesus or the Bible.

 

GEN 12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram,

"Go forth from your country,

And from your relatives

And from your father's house,

To the land which I will show you;

 

GEN 12:2 And I will make you a great nation,

And I will bless you,

And make your name great;

And so you shall be a blessing;

 

GEN 12:3 And I will bless those who bless you,

And the one who curses you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

 

The Abrahamic Covenant did make mention of "all the nations of the earth" as somehow involved in the blessing of Abraham.

 

The blessing of Abraham to all the nations would be justification before God, which alone opens the windows of heaven to God's blessings.

 

A justified person before God, of which all OT saints were reckoned to be until the cross, finds himself to be the recipient of unfathomable and unbounded blessing. There is nothing holding God back, or in other words, there is nothing compromising His perfect righteousness and justice, hence we find ourselves blessed in a similar way to the blessings promised in the New Covenant.

 

Not until coming of Christ and the free proclamation of the gospel could believing Gentiles, without first becoming Jews, "be blessed with believing Abraham," as Paul wrote in GAL 3:9.

 

GAL 3:6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

 

GAL 3:7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

 

GAL 3:8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations shall be blessed in you."

 

GAL 3:9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.