THERE'S NO DENYING IT
There's no getting away from it. Those who believe in and receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior are the children of Israel. We sprung from the roots of the tribe of Israel who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham.
And, Abraham, as we know, is the Father of Faith.
Now, you may look at this and think, "But, that's just the flesh." And, honestly, that's the way I thought for years. I knew that "the flesh profits nothing" and I couldn't consolidate the fact that God used fleshly people to carry forth His covenant.
So, what changed my mind?
I guess you'd have to say, God did. One day I was thinking and started moving from thinking to praying. (Thinking doesn't always get you where you want to go. You can start off with a thought but it's a dead end if it's not carried into prayer and communing with the Lord.) Anyway, I was thinking, "WHY did you choose the nation of Israel above all others when they turned their backs on You?"
The obvious answer is, "NOT ALL of them turned their backs on God." Even though their famous king, King Solomon backslid and began to do evil in the sight of the Lord, that didn't renounce the children of Israel's claim to the Kingdom of God because God made a way for them to be saved from their sins: Jesus.
A PHYSICAL PEOPLE GAVE BIRTH TO A PHYSICAL GOD
Part of the answer I got was: "God needed a physical people to give BIRTH to a physical God." That's why God protected, provided for, and blessed Israel down throughout history. If God had not commanded Israel to go forth into battle to utterly destroy the nations that were inhabiting the Promised Land, those nations would have destroyed Israel.
Worse: those nations would have corrupted Israel and led them astray to worship their false gods. ---Woops! That's exactly what happened! Over and over and over again, Israel turned to worship idols.
Why? Because they hadn't utterly destroyed the nations God sent them to destroy. Over and over, they allowed certain of their enemies to co-exist with them, intermarrying with them and allowing them to continue in their own wicked traditions and religious worship ---idolatry.
Maybe Israel was curious to see what the strange gods had to offer. Maybe they admired them.
HOW GOD SEES UNSAVED ISRAEL
Ezekiel talks about two adulterous sisters in Ezekiel, chapter 23. They committed whoredoms in Egypt and Assyria. Their names were Aholah and Aholibah. Aholah is Samariah and Aholibah is Jerusalem.
"And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.
Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself." - Ezekiel 23: 5-7
This is all to prove to us that flesh cannot save us. We cannot look to Israel in the flesh to save us. In the flesh, Israel is just as wicked as the nations she went awhoring after. There is not purity in Israel in the flesh. Physically, Israel is a whore. The Bible tells us this many times.
The Old Testament is a warning to us not to follow after Israel.
ISRAEL'S FLESH DIDN'T SAVE US
Nevertheless, salvation came through Israel, as we know because Jesus was the son of King David. So, although King David gave birth to King Solomon who did evil in the sight of the Lord, King David's lineage also gave birth to King Jesus Who died to wash away all that evil.
However, many children of Israel chose to remain in their sins. And, this breaks God's heart. Jesus said,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gatthered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not!" - Matthew 23:37
There's an exclamation mark after that verse. That shows the anguish Jesus felt in crying out to Jerusalem for her waywardness.
ISRAEL NEEDED A SAVIOUR
Yet, as terrible as it is, if Israel had not backslidden and turned her back on God, she would not have needed a Saviour. AND, if Israel didn't need a saviour, she could have saved us all! But, she did need a messiah as do all of us.
The next question I have is this: "Many of the children of Israel backslide but what about their religion? Is the Jewish religion still viable?" And the answer I get is a resounding, "NO."
The Ten Commandments were laws to govern the flesh. Jesus gave us a law of love that requires us to go much further than to "not do" things. The law of love requires us to control our evil thoughts, our selfish actions, even if it's "legal", to take the extra step of acting out of love and unselfishness towards our neighbor and to love our enemy!
THE LAW OF LOVE GOVERNS US WHO ARE SAVED
Jesus showed us that it just wasn't all that important anymore to "keep the Sabbath" as it was to heal the lame and show mercy and love to our fellow man. We shouldn't be bound to the law when there's a choice between doing the loving, kind, merciful thing or sticking to the rigid, imperfect law.
WHAT? Am I saying that the law that God gave to Moses is imperfect? YES. I AM.
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" - Romans 8:3
So then, where do we get our law from now? How do we know what's right and wrong?
THE HOLY SPIRIT
Let's try to wrap our head around this one. He said He wrote His law in our hearts, right? In that case, we can depend on the Holy Spirit in our hearts to lead us into all righteousness.
"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." - Romans 8:13 & 14
Here's the real kicker for me. I'm really struggling with this one because it's so outrageous. The whole reason we are living on this planet and we didn't just fly into heaven the minute after we got saved is here. It's such a shock to actually receive this word of truth into one's heart. But, it can't be received into the mind. It's supernatural. It's going to take a miracle.
"That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." - Romans 8:4
Somehow, God is going to fulfill His righteousness through these earthbound clods of clay, ---us. You and me are going to fulfill the righteousness of God by grabbing onto the Holy Spirit and being led of that wonderful, powerful Spirit of God... riding on His coat-tails, so-to-speak and just doing whatever He tells us to do.
It's going to be going above and beyond the call of the duty of the law. It's going to be following in the footsteps of Jesus. And Jesus said,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." - John 14:12
Why didn't Jesus just write his law in stone so we would know exactly what we were allowed to do? Because, for one reason, we are to apply the Law of Love to every given situation. It's not a "One Size Fits All" law, like the Ten Commandments were. That's because, we are meant to live by faith. We're supposed to be hearing from God every step of the way. And that's another reason He didn't carve it in stone, is because Holy Spirit wants to go with us every step of the way!
We have Israel to thank for Jesus' physical birth. Israel birthed the Saviour of the World. But, he had to be nailed to a cross and his flesh made cursed in the eyes of God so that God turned His back on Jesus just like Israel turned her back on God.
In other words, the physical Israel was crucified, died and hidden behind a rock. It's no longer a matter of Israel vs the Gentiles. We can no longer look at Israel in the flesh for leadership. Gentiles are now anyone who does not believe in Jesus, particularly those who have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah. That means, many children of Israel are Gentiles or "Goyem".
The traditions and ceremonies of the Jewish religion are shadows of a dead law. To partake of those religious ceremonies is to deny Christ.
"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." - Romans 7: 4 & 6
If you have the faith to do something, you have permission from God to do it. What does your heart tell you? What is written on your heart? That's where you find the "law" to guide you. We don't even need the dear Apostle Paul to tell us the "law" because the guidelines he gave to his church in his day do not necessarily apply to us. In fact, there is no law anymore except the Law of Love.
In the flesh, in the courts, the Ten Commandments apply to those who are not walking in the Spirit. That's why Paul told his church not to take their brother to the law. The Law of Love supersedes the law of the land. Jesus gave us the example that if you get sued for your robe, give it and give even more just to show that person the love and generosity of God's Spirit in you.
Love is greater than the law. There are no longer any laws, ceremonies or rules that can lead us to perfection. Only the Blood of Jesus Christ can do that. Are YOU covered in the blood?
