One New Man

Jesus, through his Death and Resurrection, formed one covenant community - “one new Man” - based on faith in him – Ephesians 2:11-22.

Now, “in Christ Jesus,” no longer can there be “Jew or Gentile.” He has “broken down the middle wall of partition” that once separated Jew from Gentile, “that he might reconcile them both in one body for God through the cross.” Having voided the “law of the commands in ordinances” that separated them, he is “creating in himself One New Man.”

Before his self-sacrificial death, the Gentiles, the so-called “uncircumcision,” were alienated from the citizenship of Israel, “strangers from the covenants of promise” and without hope. However, those who were “afar off” have been “brought near…by the blood of the Messiah,” and made members of God’s one covenant people. Jewish and Gentile believers, through “one Spirit,” now have access to the same heavenly Father - (Ephesians 2:11-22).

[Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash]

Paul’s words demonstrate that Gentile believers are participants in the covenant of Abraham. Circumcised or not, they are heirs of its promises. Jews and Gentiles become “fellow-citizens and members of the household of God…having been built together into the habitation of God in Spirit.”

Similarly, to the church at Galatia, the Apostle wrote - “But now that the faith is come, we are no longer under a custodian, for you are all sons of God, through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to promise” - (Galatians 3:25-29).

Jewish or Gentile, the believer is no longer under the custodianship of the Law, including the ordinance of circumcision that divided Jew from Gentile. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, all are one “through faith in Christ Jesus” and heirs of Abraham.

Our standing before God and membership in His people are not dependent on gender, nationality, or biology. What matters is how we respond to Jesus.  Gentiles who believe in Jesus are “grafted into the root,” and that “root” is Abraham. The “wild branches” are grafted in because of their faith. In contrast, unbelieving Jews, though the “natural branches,” are cut off because of their “unbelief” - (Romans 11:11-24).

When God confirmed His covenant to Abraham, He promised to make him the “Father of a multitude of nations.” Thus, the Gentiles were always included in the plan of redemption, and now they receive the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant through Jesus Christ, therefore, the old divisions have no place among the People of God. Through the proclamation of the Gospel, the descendants of Abraham become as numerous “as the stars of the heavens”– (Genesis 15:5).

God promised to “establish my covenant between me and you, and your seed after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant.” These words raise the question - Who is the seed of Abraham?

Paul provides clear answers. The “seed of Abraham” is none other than Jesus, therefore, the “children of Abraham” include all men and women who exercise faith in him. “In him,” they all inherit the covenant promises - (Galatians 3:7-9).

The covenant always envisioned the inclusion of the nations. The formation of Israel from the loins of Abraham was an initial stage in God’s larger redemptive plan. Now that it is being implemented through Jesus, to return to the ethnic and national divisions of the earlier and incomplete revelation would be regression.

THE CHURCH

God summoned Israel to become his peculiar possession, a priestly kingdom tasked with mediating His light to the nations. “All the earth” was His, not just the nation of Israel or the territory of Canaan. Israel was called to bring the “nations” to Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God, and not to alienate them from Him:

• “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be my own possession from among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation for me. You will speak these words to the children of Israel” - (Exodus 19:5).

Peter applied this passage to the largely Gentile congregations “in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” - “But you yourselves are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, who were no-people, but now are the people of God; who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” – (1 Peter 2:5-10).

The calling of Israel to be a light to the nations is the mission of the Church. Inclusion in the one “people of God” is based on faith in Jesus and following him. Exclusion results from unbelief and disobedience.

As for the promise of land for Abraham and his “children,” according to Paul, the Patriarch has become the “heir of the world,” the ‘kosmos’, the Greek term that often includes the Earth and even the universe. The promise of land was never limited to Palestine – (Romans 4:13-14).

What the New Testament teaches is fulfillment in Jesus. All the promises of God find their “Yea and Amen” in him. His hidden “mysteries” are revealed in His Son. God did not abandon the promises to Abraham – he is fulfilling them in Jesus. He is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the World.

Moreover, God has made His salvation available to all men and women, and on the same basis the “faith of Jesus Christ.” Therefore, there can be only one People of God.

Let us hope and pray that the day will come, and soon, when Christ’s prayer will be answered – “That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, and that the world may believe that you sent me.”

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SEE ALSO:

• One Spirit, One People - (By his death and resurrection, Jesus formed one covenant community - One New Man - based on faith in him, not ethnicity or nationality – Ephesians 2:11-22)

• God's One Household - (The promises, types, and shadows of the Hebrew Bible are fulfilled in the Son of God and Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth)

• The Assembly - (The Christian use of the term church or ekklésia is derived from the assembly of Yahweh gathered for worship in the Hebrew Bible)