One New Man

TRANSCRIPT

Arrogance. Rife is arrogance towards the Jewish people within the church. The world rages against this people, and many within the church have been coerced into this train of thinking. Our bible was written by the Jewish people predominantly to the Jewish people. It’s a middle eastern book, not a western philosophy. When we hold these words as if they have been robbed from another people, and as if we have been given an interpretation they couldn’t understand – we clothe ourselves with arrogance worthy of the severity of God.

Writing to the church of Ephesus Paul exclaims:

“remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:11-12).

We didn’t have a chance. Jewish people are circumcised today, nearly four millennia later as a sign of the promise given to Abraham of the land and nation of Israel. Gentiles had no saviour, no hope, no sign in the flesh as to specific promises - whether you go for medical procedure or not.  Jewish people were born into the covenants, and it was necessary for Gentiles to convert to Judaism in order to be included in the community of faith. Arrogance? Sounds more like deep-seated jealousy.

Paul however reassures, “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph 2:13).

God came as human, living the sinless life, and chose to be sacrificed for our sins, presenting his own blood to act as a mediator between us and God. And then paul drops the bombshell:

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Eph 2:14-16).

This rage of gentiles against Jews is demolished by the blood of Christ – or least is supposed to be for all who put their faith in Messiah Jesus ­– binding us both together as One. One New Man. Not fighting against each other, not competing against one another, not bitter against each other, not arrogant surely.

The Ephesians read on, “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off [gentiles] and peace to those who were near [Jews]. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph 2:17-22).

Arrogance? I shouldn’t think so. Gratitude and wonder? I hope so.

Symbolising Israel as a tree, Paul writes to the Romans, “ if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” (Rom 11:17). The wild, unnatural branches are gentiles who are grafted into the tree of Israel. I am grafted in, I hope you are grafted in. Jesus is the Root.

I heard a Messianic Jew once say "Most Christians act like a Christmas tree; all fancy lights but cut off at the root”. You have to laugh. I love Christmas trees, but I don’t want to be compared to one, do you?

Replacement theology, sometimes disguised as fulfilment theology, supersessionism, and other terms, is a deadly virus spreading throughout the church. Simple put, it’s a belief that the church – made up largely of gentiles – has replaced the Jewish people to become the “true Israel”. This is non-sense, and frankly a dangerous doctrine that is racist at its core. There is a reason Jesus was Jewish and still is Jewish. He is the King of the Jews and he will return to establish Israel as his eternal Kingdom. There is a reason Ezekiel spends nine chapters detailing the future Jewish temple, the new city, the holy portion, the land inheritance to each tribe of Israel. There is a reason Jesus seals 12000 “from every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Rev 7:4) just before he returns. There is a reason Jesus said to the apostles “when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Mat 19:28). There is a reason the new Jerusalem will have twelve gates and “on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel” (Rev 21:12) and  “the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev 21:14). Who were all Jewish. It’s a very Jewish future Kingdom.

You can’t spiritualise all these things. Don’t be more spiritual than God.

Next time you meet a Jewish follower of Christ – ask them, if you both together have now replaced Israel – I dare you. No, we are fellow citizens, joined together, and as we stand before God “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). Yet, we do not lose our identity in how God made us. A slave by the way is man’s structuring, not God’s design. Just as we have roles between us now, there will be roles in the age to come also.

A side note is that it should work both ways in that the Jews must be careful not to puff themselves up in thinking they were chosen for their greatness. Jewish people must be careful not to be arrogant knowing that their nation will be head of nations, that “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises” (Rom 9:4). God chose them “Not because of [their] your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart” (Deut 9:5). While the other side of the coin here is sincere in its prospect, it is we gentiles that require the exhortation more than ever and only we have a stark warning about arrogance.

Paul continues in Romans 11:

“do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again.  For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree” (Rom 11:18-24).

He wouldn’t warn us of arrogance if none us would become arrogant. The Jewish people are the natural branches, who can be cut off individually for not recognising Jesus as their Messiah. And we gentiles must remember we are the unnatural branches grafted in by grace to the same tree, who can be cut off for being arrogant toward the Jewish people, regardless of excepting Jesus as the Messiah. If you don’t recognise Jesus as the King of Jews: You are arrogant to the natural branches. It’s a different Jesus. You will be cut off. If you believe you have replaced the Jewish people as the true Israel: You are arrogant to the natural branches. It may even be the same Jesus, but you’ll be cut off.

Speaking to the Father, Jesus says “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me” (Jn 17:22-23).

We are to celebrate that God made the nations. Celebrate he made us male and female, Jew and gentile. Celebrate his plans and his ways. Celebrate as we join together, all who have faith in his name, brought close by the blood of Christ, as One New Man, with the King who is the head. His name is Jesus.