The Daily Word of Righteousness

Israel—Spirit and Flesh, #5

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. (Romans 2:28,29)

To hold that the Gospel of Christ is Gentile in character is to fall back on tradition rather than on the Scriptures.

The Lord Jesus is the Vine. We are the branches by being born again. The true Jew is not one who has been born of Jewish parents. The true Jew is one who has been born again into the Vine that is Christ.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)

It is useless to discuss the possibility of God once again sponsoring a Jewish kingdom of God on the earth. No person, Jew or Gentile, will ever see or enter the one Kingdom of God until he or she has been born again of Christ.

Christ, who is the Word of God made flesh, has no intention of marrying an adamic bride. The Bride of Christ is human but also has been born of God, just as the Lord Jesus is God but also has been born of a human.

True Israel, God's elect, always is by promise, never by the flesh.

Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. (Romans 9:7,8)

Isaac was not the seed of Abraham because he was born from Abraham but because God had promised Abraham he would be born. The inheritance comes by the spiritual promise, not by the natural birth. The Divine salvation is not by flesh and blood but by the foreordained grace of God in Christ.

The same is true of us Gentiles according to God's promise in the Prophets.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. (Hosea 1:10)

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. (Amos 9:11,12)

Through the Lord Jesus we Gentiles are an integral part of Israel.

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: (Acts 9:15)

To be continued.