- Jun 13, 2015
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Hi AlexDTX
I agree, all the faithful are Saints, meaning we are set aside by God for God, including the OT faithful. Yet from the Exodus, through both exiles & the return, until Messiah, Yahowah & Jesus called His people Israel.
5 Favourite Examples:
Exodus 4:22 & 23 - And though shalt say unto Pharaoh, "thus saith YHWH, 'Israel is my son, even my first born, and I say unto thee, let my son go, that he may serve me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first born.',"
Here our Father is referring to the Children of Israel, and more importantly, alluding to Jesus & His Assembly, the Bride of Christ, by the collective name Israel.
John 1:47 - Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and saith of him, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"
Here Jesus Himself compliments a believer, by calling him a true Israelite.
Romans 9:6-8 - Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, 7 neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 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.
Here Paul is clarifying that in God's eyes, Israel, is not an ethnicity or nationality, but a spiritual family or assembly; by Faith.
Romans 11:25-26 - 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; 26 and so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written , "There shall come out of Sion, the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,"
Here Paul explains that Gentile believers are Israel, in stating that the gentile believers must come in for all Israel to be saved. Implying that gentile believers are Israel.
Ephesians 2:11-13 & 19-20 - 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.
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone.
I can certainly see why you would think we are Israel by the verses you have quoted. We have historically been called "Spiritual Israel" based upon these verses, and I agree with that understanding. However, I think it sidesteps the more important understanding of who we are in Christ.
Isaiah makes a unique comment regarding who the Messiah is. From chapter 49 we read:
3 And said to me, You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. ..... 5 And now, said the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. 6 And he said, It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.
It is evident here that God is calling Jesus his servant Israel.
Consider, too, what Paul said to the Galatians in chapter 3:
We are his body. We are Abraham's seed. He made us one with him. While Christian was not a name used by the early believers, it stuck because it means we are little Christs who have his life dwelling within us. Having come from a Messianic Jewish background, I chafe at calling us Israel because of the legalism they embrace.
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