To a Jewish believer, is it appropriate for a gentile who believes in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God who became the once for all sacrifice for our sins, to refer to him/herself as a Messianic Gentile? The reason for my question is that the more I study the scriptures, the more obvious it becomes that everything about my faith in Christ has Jewish origins.
From the Moses and the prophets, to Jesus and His first disciples and the early church, to the writers of the New Testament who confirmed what the prophets foretold concerning a Redeemer who would come from the house of Israel, it's a Jewish scene! Jesus Himself made it plain that He came to seek "the lost sheep of Israel." Through the inspired writing of Paul, we learn that the the gospel which is the power of God unto Salvation is "to the Jew first -- and also to the gentile." And indeed Paul's first stop for sharing the Good News in any city was the synagogue or Jewish residents.
For more than 20 years I have noticed that -- just as in the first century A.D. -- whenever and wherever the Gospel is presented to Jews first, many gentiles also believe. Most of all, I am thankful that the words of Jesus and the God-breathed writings of the Old Testament prophets and the Apostle Paul make it clear that gentiles who choose to believe in the same message of the same Messiah can also be "grafted in" to the family of believers.
In light of this, is the term Messianic Gentile appropriate?
From the Moses and the prophets, to Jesus and His first disciples and the early church, to the writers of the New Testament who confirmed what the prophets foretold concerning a Redeemer who would come from the house of Israel, it's a Jewish scene! Jesus Himself made it plain that He came to seek "the lost sheep of Israel." Through the inspired writing of Paul, we learn that the the gospel which is the power of God unto Salvation is "to the Jew first -- and also to the gentile." And indeed Paul's first stop for sharing the Good News in any city was the synagogue or Jewish residents.
For more than 20 years I have noticed that -- just as in the first century A.D. -- whenever and wherever the Gospel is presented to Jews first, many gentiles also believe. Most of all, I am thankful that the words of Jesus and the God-breathed writings of the Old Testament prophets and the Apostle Paul make it clear that gentiles who choose to believe in the same message of the same Messiah can also be "grafted in" to the family of believers.
In light of this, is the term Messianic Gentile appropriate?