Brother Bob said:
Old Israel had faith that God would send the Messiah. What do you think Jesus is.
John 1:
9: That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10: He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11: He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12: But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
So, are you going to thank me or what?
Eph. 2:
10: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
11: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12: That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14: For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Who do you think the twain is Ed;?
Its not that cut and dried Ed;
(All Scripture quotes here emboldened.) Now on a serious note, the twain is obviously the Gentiles and the Jews, when they are born again into the church, the body of Christ, in this present age. Note Paul contrasts
"being in time past" and
"at that time ye were" with
"But now" and
"are". We, the church, are now all in one body in Christ. And there is unlike then, no difference between the Jew and the Gentiles now, for what was the specific distinction,
"the middle wall of partition between us", or
"the emnity", the
"old covenant", namely the Mosaic Law, here called
"the law of commandments contained in ordinances (or judgments) " (Lev. 25:15; Num. 26:13; Dt. 5:31; 6:1; 7:11; 8:11; 11:1; 30:16; I Ki. 2:3; Neh. 1:7; 9:13; 10:29; Ezek. 11:20; 43:11; 44:5; Lk. 1:5; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14, 20; Heb. 9:1) was removed, "
having abolished in His flesh the enmity" when
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;", just as He was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14). The Mosaic Law was completly set aside for the Christian. We are not now under the Mosaic law, the Old Covenant, in any way whatsoever. We are under
"the New Covenant", "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", "the perfect law of liberty", what Jesus also referred to as
"my commandments", the 'new law' of the grace covenant. Not one precept of Moses is for us, as written therein. What principles from that law that are 'binding' on us today are restated in the NT in the language of grace. Just thought I'd throw these last five sentences in for free.
Its not that cut and dried Ed;
Actually, it is exactly that cut and dried. As Scripture says in four different places,
"The just shall live by faith." There is no question that we, any and all of us, Jew and Gentile, were/are saved or justified before God, by believing/faith, in each and every dispensation, after the fall, hence all are saints :saint:.
[I will use a set of fairly commonly accepted titles of the dispensations. (D.)]
Abel, Enoch, and Noah were justified by faith in the D. of Conscience;
Abraham and Lot in the D. of Human government;
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses in the D. of Promise;
Rahab (a Gentile), Ruth the Moabitess (A Semite, yet a Gentile), David, Samuel, Solomon, the prophets, John the Baptist, and the Apostles, and the thief on the cross (was he a Jew??), in the D. of Law;
Paul, Luke, Timothy, Cornelius, the Phillipian jailer, you and I and everyone today (some are Jews; some are Gentiles) in the D. of grace.
All were and are justified before God, by grace through faith, by believing God, and that apart from any works. (Rom. 4) One cannot admix grace and works. (Rom. 11:6) The basis of the gospel is the cross - the death. burial. resurrection, and appearance of the Lord Jesus,
"wherein is the righteousness of God declared, beginning with faith and ending with faith" (I Cor. 15:1-8; Rom. 1:14-17). I am no more (and no less) saved than is
Abel, Enoch and Moses - who "walked with God", Abraham - "the friend of God", or David - "the man after the LORD's own heart".
But you and I have some things they never could have had, and could not have known. One is, as you have mentioned earlier in another post, the indwelling Holy Spirit. I got it; Paul and Peter got it; every person saved in this D. got it. I am sealed by Him; I'm part of
'his body, the church'. The OT saints
"looked for a city", I'm going to be part of that city, the bride of Christ. They are going to be at the wedding as
"friends of the Bridegroom", We're going to be there as
'the bride'.
I could even not begin to shine the shoes of these OT saints I've mentioned in many ways, but I also have so many things they could not have, never were promised, and never did have. :thumbsup:
Ed