We are not talking about exact translations, but about what the words actually mean. You don't explain a translation by using the exact same words!
A citizenship is a membership in a nation, which is in fact a "fellowship" when it concerns matters of faith! You don't think spiritual fellowship is a critical component in God's nation? The entire NT teaches the importance of spiritual unity in the international Church. The same would apply in OT Israel!
Again, you are dodging the issue. You are forcing your opinions into the sacred text. You are adding onto Scripture. That is never smart. It does not say that we have come into "fellowship" in the passage it says we have become citizens of Israel. You cannot bring yourself to admit that. That is what the text says. That is what the text means. It does not need to explain the way or watertight in order to facilitate your beliefs. The one question you will not answer is which citizenship – natural ethnic Israel or spiritual Israel?
You're arguing what you wish to prove! Your statement is predicated on the false notion "2 Israels" are being presented, and they aren't! The only Israel that God ever spoke of was the nation biologically descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And although God knew they would not all have faith, His promise was concerned only with those who proved to be faithful.
OK, so we have become citizens of natural ethnic Israel? That is ludicrous, and you know it! Every argument you present here is contradicting itself. You are all over the place!
On the contrary, Paul is suggesting that when Israel--natural Israel--walked according to the rule of God, they would be blessed. If so, then those today who walk according to how Israel should walk with Christ, they also will be blessed. They do not *become Israel,* but rather, enjoy the same kinds of spiritual benefits that Israel enjoyed.
Gal 6.15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow rulethis rule—to the Israel of God.
As regards becoming members of God's family there is no requirement to belong to the nation of Israel--all nations are now called in the NT era. The only requirements for becoming the People of God is faith, and life in Christ.
Paul is saying that life in Christ is as much a rule for Israel in the NT as the Law of Moses was required, along with circumcision, in the OT era. He was teaching that though temporary peace for Israel was available through the Law, final peace comes through life in Christ.
Paul was declaring faith as a necessary criterion for Israel's national salvation. If so, then it is incumbent upon all nations to follow the same rule. All must have faith and experience life in Christ--not rely upon the Law and physical circumcision.
Paul did *not* say, "You Gentile Christians now *become Israel* when you follow the rule of God." Rather, he footnoted his theology by grace alone with a reference to the fact Israel also cannot rely on physical circumcision and rituals of legal redemption.
Paul is constantly telling us in his writings in lucid terms that there is no ‘them and us’ within the body of Christ. He emphasizes how one’s Jewishness or Gentileness means absolutely nothing today “in Christ Jesus.” He actually rebukes those that try to establish distinct groupings within the body of Christ (namely Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians). Paul repeatedly instructs the New Testament believer that there should be no racial, cultural or economic division within the body. 1 Corinthians 12:25 says:
“That there should be no schism in the body.”
Those that would argue that a man’s natural race carries any merit or virtue before God when it comes to salvation or that it in any way adds anything to a man’s spiritual status are severely censured by passages like Galatians 6. The reading declares,
“And as many as walk according to this rule” (what rule?) – the non-racial new birth experience, – then
“peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Paul places a blessing upon all who “walk according to this rule” – all who are conformed to this standard. As Christopher W. Cowan puts: “All who have experienced the new creation in Christ will have lives that manifest conformity to it” (Context Is Everything: “The Israel of God” in Galatians 6:16). Manifestly, Paul only had one company in mind: the redeemed Church of Jesus Christ.
The verb interpreted “walk according to” here [Gr.
stoicheō] means to keep in step with, to conform to or to follow. Paul uses the same word in Galatians 5:25:
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk [Gr.
stoicheō] in the Spirit.” Paul’s approval in Galatians 6:16 is placed upon all those who live their lives in strict conformity with the rule/standard he has just proclaimed.
This is the clearest and most straightforward way to interpret this passage. Objective commentators agree.
James Burton Coffman remarks: “It is surprising that any could misunderstand this, as if Paul were, in any manner, invoking a blessing upon racial Jews. ‘Israel of God’, in the true sense, with Paul, was never racial Israel, but the spiritual Israel … This meaning of ‘spiritual Israel’, of course, included all of every race, including Jews, who accepted Christ.
John Wesley agrees: “‘Peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel, that is, the Church, of God. Which consists of all those, and those only, of every nation and kindred, who walk by this rule.” John Calvin writes: “I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning, - When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God.”
The Bible makes clear, only the second birth can create “a new creature” – nothing else. That is why Paul commences by saying, in Galatians 6:16,
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15). Those who subject themselves to this divine decree (namely, giving their life to Christ), will, irrespective of race, experience the peace of God and the mercy of heaven.
The New Testament is constantly reminding us that we are saved by grace and not by race; and that when we are saved we become one unique spiritual race. The Church in fact is a spiritual nation with it passport stamped in heaven.
John Gill comments: “‘and upon the Israel of God’; which is a further description of the persons, for whom he prays for these blessings; and is not to be understood by way of distinction from them, but as an amplification of their character; and as pointing out the Israel, by way of emphasis, the Israel, or Israelites indeed, the spiritual Israel, as distinct from Israel according to the flesh; see (1 Corinthians 10:18). The ‘Israel of God’, or as the Arabic version reads it, ‘Israel the propriety of God’, which he has a right unto, and a claim upon; who are chosen by him, Israel his elect; who are redeemed by him, out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation; who are called by his grace, and are styled Israel his called; who are justified in his Son.”
We should carefully consider what verse 16 is actually saying, as so many people misinterpret it: “as many as walk according to this rule (namely not looking to any hope or advantage in your natural birth but rather in a spiritual new birth), peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.”
This is not telling us that there is a group of Gentile Christians that “walk according to this rule” and then there is another group of Jewish Christians that are called “the Israel of God” (as you argue). Such an interpretation would totally undo everything the writer has just taught. It would butcher the text. The “as many as walk according to this rule” are all believers. Paul message is crystal clear: there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile today. Favor with God does not come through natural birth. That only comes through the new birth. That is where we become a “new creation” in Christ. That makes both Jew and Gentile co-members of the same body of Christ and renders them “the Israel of God.” Both equally experience the gift of new creation life in Christ. This totally tears apart the Futurist argument in regard to 2 distinct groups here.
As Richard Hays explains, “The ‘Israel’ into which Paul's Corinthian converts were embraced was an Israel whose story had been hermeneutically reconfigured by the cross and resurrection. The result was that Jew and Gentile alike found themselves summoned by the gospel story to a sweeping re-evaluation of their identities, an imaginative paradigm shift so comprehensive that it can only be described as a ‘conversion of the imagination’” (The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel's Scriptures).
Whilst the Israel of God in the Old Testament was overwhelmingly restricted to the populace of national Israel it has widened since the cross to include all nations. Today, the Gospel is no longer limited to an interim ethnic nation, but rather to a spiritual heavenly nation found throughout the globe. That nation (the Israel of God) is called the New Testament “Church,” which transcends every land boundary, racial group, color and creed and incorporates every age. It includes Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, free and bond alike, and is God’s
only structure on this earth by which man can enter into intimate union with God.
Gary M. Burge comments: “Paul’s ecclesiology finds in the Church the true heirs to Abrahams faith and, hence, the true identity of Israel … In Christ the awaited messianic community has emerged – the true Israel, the Abrahamic Israel – and to this community the Gentiles could become a part by faith … As earlier, he had attached a Christian community of Jews and Gentiles to the heritage of Abraham, now Paul is willing to attach to that same community one of Judaism’s most sacred titles for itself: Israel … No longer based on ethnic or historic claims to race or identity, Israel now is the title for the people of God who belong to Abraham no matter their ethnic make-up.”
