I am sorry to be so late with this posting, my wife’s mother had to go to the ER with internal bleeding yesterday and the day just got away from me. We have now studied all of the most noted verses on Israel, Judah, and what it truly means to be a Jew. All point to two realities as we study further.
First, the ethnic line is in apostasy and will remain so until the Millennial Kingdom. The nation of Israel as we know it today is an idolatrous, ungodly, unrighteous nation that still denies their Messiah.
Second, the more important spiritual Israel is made up true believers in Jesus Christ as their King and High Priest. To further emphasize that point, we will now go to the lesser referenced verses and teachings.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.
Baptism into just one body, not one for Israel and another for Judah and another for Christians. Jews and Greeks (all others) are united into the very body of Christ, the Church here on earth.
If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body.
And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
If they were all one member, where would the body be? Not everyone has the same gifts but we are all members. As with our own body, each member is vitally important in order for us to function fully.
But now there are many members, but one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
This dispels the false notion that we don’t need one another. The ‘Church’ rarely teaches this even as it calls all to unity, usually unity in the local church.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it.
But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Only true Christians can actually feel or experience this connection with other true believers. It is the working of the Holy Spirit within us. It is not of our own desire or work.
Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
We are one body, one true church, yet we are also individuals. Yet, we need the rest of the body as much as the body needs us to fulfill its divine calling.
No racial division, no age division, no ethnicity division, no division due to prior lives, financial standings, or educational degrees. There are no Republicans or Democrats in Heaven.
More next Saturday.