Gentile and Jewish Believers Have Been Made One in Christ

o Paul reminded the Gentiles of their condition before hearing the gospel – living apart from Christ, excluded from Israel, no covenant promises, without hope and God.

o The Jews, as God’s chosen people, had been given many signs/promises- circumcision, promise of a Deliverer, chosen nation, hope.

o But now Christ had broken down the wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile, making one new people.

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders...
You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and
you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them.

Forgot to paste verse 13:

But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people…
(Ephesians 2:13-14, NLT)

Your verse:

The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord our God.’
(Jeremiah 31:6, NLT)

Don’t hold your breath, honey. No such thing has happened or will happen. This is blasphemy for Jews, on a major scale. We want nothing to do with elements from YOUR religion. How absurd you are to think that we need or want that. We do not need or want Shiva, Buddha, Allah or any other figure from other religions either. And we sure as heck don’t want your characters. We have our own religion and are happy to follow it. We leave you to YOUR religion.

One of the relevant scriptures to explain God's plan is found in Genesis 48. Jacob is dividing his inheritance up among his children and it came to Joseph and his 2 Gentile children. Joseph is a type and shadow of Jesus Christ and he married an Egyptian (Gentile) woman and had Manassas and Ephraim. Jacob loved Joseph so much that he adopted his children into his own clan so they would have an inheritance. The "Promised Land" was to be divided up among Jacob's family so Ephraim and Manassas received their due portion along with all of Jacob's tribes.

How peculiar was it for a man to adopt his grand kids into the line for direct inheritance? Yet they received their portion of the promised land along with Jacob's (who had been renamed by God "Israel") direct children.

Usually a man would give the first born a double portion and divy up the rest to the other children and when those children died they would pass it on to their own offspring. This is a picture of becoming "Spiritual Israel" to be able to enter Heaven. You cannot say you want nothing to do with Israel and be able to enter Heaven. You can only be adopted through the "blessing of the cross" as Jacob did when he crossed his arms to bless Ephraim and Manassas. Even Joseph tried to tell Jacob he was doing it wrong, but Jacob said he knew what he was doing. As the tribal areas were put together after the civil war when Solomon died, The two areas were called Israel and Judah. The northern kingdom was called Ephraim and the southern kingdom was called Judah as Judah was a direct child of Jacob. Jesus is called "The Lion of Judah" as He is in Heaven now. He was the "Lamb of God" before the adoption. Jesus is going to take a Gentile Bride and take them to the Promised Land.

We must be adopted to qualify as the Family of God and receive the inheritance. Without joining the Family, we have no Inheritance. We come through the blessing of the cross, only!

Throughout the Bible their are several references to spiritual Israel. When Scripture says "All Israel will be saved", We know not all Gentiles will not be saved and all Jews will not be saved, but only the family of God will enter Heaven to live with the Father. As adopted Gentiles, we qualify as children of God to receive the inheritance.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.