THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS ALL ISRAEL! Romans 11:26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; Romans 11 is not that difficult to understand. The problem is that when Paul speaks about “all Israel will be saved” he is talking about the faithful Jews (Heb. 11) who were saved before Jesus came. Since then “all of Israel means all those who have received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord”. When we become Christians, we were not called Christians originally by the early church, as you will recall that the first believers in Jesus were called followers of “the Way”. It was in Antioch that the believers were first called “Christians” (Acts 11: 26). They were always considered Jews. And so, when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, we are adopted (Gal. 4: 4 – 6)into the family of God making us Jews. And, as Jews we must be circumcised. Paul explains this when he wrote, “For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something external and physical. He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual (of the Holy Spirit) and not literal. His praise is not from men but from God (Rom. 2: 28 – 29). And, we belong to the tribe of Judah which has been replaced the tribe of Levi. Jesus is the head of the tribe of Judah and since He is also the High Priest of Israel and of the priesthood of Melchizedek, He is the receiver of tithes. Hebrews explains this (Heb. 7). When the followers of the Way (Christians) did not defend Jerusalem in AD 70 when the Roman army destroyed it they were all kicked out of the Synagogues. They were told by God through prophecy to leave because the believers did not stay and fight. There is only one Israel as there has always been only one Israel and we Christians are real Jews and there is salvation for anybody outside of accepting the only Messiah who paid for our sins on the Cross of Calvary. Paul, and I repeat what he said, “For he is not a real Jew who is one outwardly.....He is a Jew who is one inwardly and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.” In Romans 11, when Paul says “all Israel will be saved”, he is talking about all those Jews & Gentiles who receive Jesus as their Saviour and Lord (Rom. 11: 25). The full number includes both Gentiles and Jews. Anybody, natural Jews or Gentile who receive salvation makes up “the whole of Israel” (Rom. 11: 26). The broken branches are those natural Jews who rejected Jesus. But, even those natural Jews who were alive the time Paul was living could repent and be “grafted” back on the tree of Israel. The same is true today only by accepting Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. The Scriptures do not give anybody, Jew nor Gentile, entry into Salvation by natural birth. The condition for Jews to be re-grafted into the tree of Israel means, “And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again” (Rom. 11: 23). In Romans 9: 27, Paul quotes Isaiah, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved.” The remnant which will be saved becomes “and so all Israel will be saved” (Rom. 11: 26). We have to stop separating the Church of Jesus Christ from Israel. Since Jesus came, the Church, the body of Christ, is ALL ISRAEL because it is compose of all people, both Jews and Gentiles, who received Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. This is what Peter was saying on the Day of Pentecost, “And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord (meaning Jesus whose name means “Yahweh is Salvation” shall be saved” (Joel 2: 32; Acts 2: 21). In Hebrew it say, “whoever calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved”. God does not have two Groups of Saved, only one Group which is called, Israel/the Church of Jesus Christ. One body. If you look at the number of people who are going to be saved, we are first told that the there will be 144,000 describe in Jewish terms which means 12 tribes of Israel (Rev. 7: 4 – 8) who each have 12,000 people. The numbering is symbolic. However, the listing of the Tribes is Different from the original 12 Tribes: Judah is first on the list because that is Jesus Tribe, replacing the Tribe of Reuben, of which we believers both Jews and Gentiles are counted as members. The tribe of Dan is missing because of their idolatry and replaced by Manasseh. What we are shown is the New Covenant Israel which continues to be Israel. Then we are show in non-Jewish terms what the total number of the saved will be in non-Jewish Gentile terms (Rev. 7:9). “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne and and to the Lamb!”......”These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev. 14). What is described is the “remnant of Israel” which is so large that it will be “a great multitude which no man could number”. And, no mater what our background has been and what applies to all of us – Jews and Gentiles- “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4: 12). We have to start recognizing that we as born again Spirit filled Christians are all Jews and we belong to the tribe of Judah of which Jesus is our head.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 03:18:10 +0000
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