This is purely to clear up some simple logic, not to make any point about Christian theology.
Where in the thread did anyone say give Jesus to God?
Isn’t ‘rendering faith and obedience unto God by believing in the one he sent’ a manifestation of what you are arguing, i.e., giving oneself to God?
And yes, it is obvious to the hearers that the ancient covenant was with the house of Israel and therefore with Jews only.
>Where in the thread did anyone say give Jesus to God?
It doesn’t and that is the problem because if the image in question is Jesus’ image, then what follows logically is to give Jesus to God as the coins with Caesar’s image are given to Caesar, which makes no sense. Having picked the wrong image, the narrative goes off the rails with no Biblical references. And if you told those present that Jesus was referring to his own image, or the Father’s in Him, the BEST reaction you could expect would be “Huh?”, not amazement.
The reference to the correct image, God’s in you, makes perfect sense because you can give yourself to God and relates to the verses cited.
There is no point in rescuing flawed theology you can’t go BAM! right to chapter and verse.
And yes, at the time, the only covenant was with the Jews.
“And yes, it is obvious to the hearers that the ancient covenant was with the house of Israel and therefore with Jews only.”
Israel had twelve sons. Each was a tribe in the House of Israel. All twelve are included in the covenant. Judah was merely one twelfth of the total.
Therefor I have to ask how you managed to reach your conclusion that the covenant is “with Jews only”?