Rebuilding the Wall

Insisting on a Torah-observant lifestyle or favoring ethnic distinctions restores the walls of separation between Jewish and Gentile believers.

The Mosaic Law was intended to keep Israel distinct from the surrounding Gentile nations. If the Church adopts the requirements of the Mosaic Law, it will rebuild the “middle wall of partition” between Jewish and Gentile believers, a wall removed by Jesus at great personal cost. The Apostle Paul presented an alternative to the Law for defining and identifying the single people of God - the “faith of Jesus Christ.”

Before Christ’s Death and Resurrection, the Gentiles were “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise.” Now, in Christ Jesus, God is creating “one new man.”

[Photo by Daniel Born on Unsplash]

Due to his death for all men and women, “no longer can there be Jew or Gentile” among God’s people. Such distinctions have no place in the one covenant community formed by Jesus of Nazareth.

Do we not hear what the Bible is saying? God’s covenant with Abraham was not replaced, nor did He introduce a new and separate covenant for the nations. All God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, including those made to Abraham to “bless all the nations.” Jesus has not replaced the original covenant but brought believing Gentiles into the Covenant Community.

• “For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body for God through the cross, thus having slain the enmity, and he came and preached peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were nigh, for through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father” – (Ephesians 2:14-18).

This is not “replacement theology.” This is fulfillment. Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus become “joint heirs” with him in God’s covenant, singular. Anyone regardless of his or her ethnicity who does not belong to Christ is not a member of this holy community. “If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” - (Romans 8:9).

Unfortunately, the popular doctrine of Dispensationalism is rebuilding this wall of partition. Its proponents maintain the distinction between Jew and Gentile, assigning separate identities, covenants, promises, ways of salvation, and destinies to each group based on ethnicity, and despite their shared faith in Jesus.

This doctrine maintains and enforces the distinction between Jews and Gentiles at all costs, this separation is the heart and foundation of Dispensationalism. In the process, it robs both groups of their full inheritance in Christ, which they will only obtain together. Dispensationalism is contrary to the Bible and the Cross of Christ. Its proponents are rebuilding the very wall dismantled by Jesus.

The third chapter of Galatians is pivotal to Paul’s larger argument in which he stresses the oneness of God’s people. The old divisions existing under the Mosaic Legislation are inappropriate since the promised “Seed of Abraham,” Jesus, has arrived. Christ and those redeemed by him are the true “Seed” and “Children” of Abraham. Neither circumcision nor physical descent from the Patriarch qualifies anyone to be a member of this community. Like Gentiles, Jews cannot achieve salvation apart from Jesus.

Any uncircumcised male under the Law of Moses, regardless of biology or race, was outside the covenant, and therefore, not a “son of God.” He could only become a member of the community by undergoing circumcision and otherwise adopting a Torah-compliant lifestyle.

Paul’s opponents in Galatia, the ‘Judaizers’, insisted that Gentiles must adopt a Jewish lifestyle and conform to Jewish customs. Paul called this “a different gospel,” one that “perverted the gospel of Christ” and was not “Good News” at all. And so, alas, it remains today - (Galatians 1:6-9).

Now that Christ has come, however, both Jews and Gentiles become sons of God through Jesus, especially because of his Death and Resurrection:

• (Galatians 3:26-29) - “For you are all sons of God through the faith of Christ Jesus. For you, as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There cannot be Jew or Greek, there cannot be bond or free, there cannot be male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus: Now, if you are of Christ, by consequence, you are Abraham’s seed, according to promise, heirs.”

The term “all” in verse 25 refers to Gentile and Jewish believers. The Hebrew Scriptures declared that everyone was confined under the Law, that is until the “Seed” arrived. Since Christ has come, neither group is any longer under that confinement.

If inclusion in the family of Abraham is through the “faith of Jesus,” we do not qualify as “children of Abraham” through the deeds and rituals required by the Torah or by our biological connection to the Patriarch. Such distinctions have no bearing on our standing before God. Faith and obedience matter, not race or nationality.

THE CUSTODIAN

The Apostle Paul compares the Law to the custodian and steward of a minor child. In Greco-Roman society, a minor could not enjoy his full liberty and rights until he came of age. Though destined to be the master of the household, until the child reached legal age, he was no freer under the law than any household slave - (Galatians 4:1-7).

“Custodians and stewards” performed two different functions. First, they took charge of the heir. Second, they managed his estate. This condition continued until the “time appointed by his father,” and in Paul’s analogy, this corresponds to the “fullness of time” when God sent Jesus to redeem us, the time of fulfillment - (Galatians 4:1-10).

To adopt circumcision now that the “Seed of Abraham” has come would mean regression to something rudimentary, a return to an earlier and more rudimentary stage in God’s redemptive plan. Likewise, those who advocate rebuilding the wall of separation pursue regression to a former and now outdated condition.

Jesus came to redeem those “under the Law,” so they could receive the adoption as children. This refers, firstly, to Jewish believers. The need to redeem them implies that being “under the Law” was a form of bondage - The Torah was incapable of justifying anyone before God, including the fundamental requirement of circumcision. Paul’s previous statement is conceptually parallel:

• “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” - (Galatians 3:13-14).

The result of redemption is “adoption.” We are not God’s “children” through physical birth. All humans are His creatures but not all are His children. The implication is that Jews, likewise, become His sons through grace, faith, and the work of Jesus on the Cross, not physical descent or the rituals of the Torah - (Romans 8:15, 8:23, 9:4, Ephesians 1:5).

The inclusion of the Gentiles fulfills the covenant promise that God would bless the nations through Abraham. Again, what God is doing through His son is not replacement, but fulfillment. Are we listening to what Scripture says?

• “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also if so be that God is one, and he will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith. Do we then make the Law of no effect through faith? God forbid! No, we establish the law!” – (Romans 3:29-31).

Unlike the god of Dispensationalism, the one “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” who made all things is “no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to Him.” Regardless of race, nationality, gender, social or economic status, every individual is accepted or rejected by the Creator of all men on the same basis – (Acts 10:34, Romans 2:11).

Because we are “children,” God sent the “Spirit of his Son into our hearts”. This summarizes the argument that began at the start of Chapter 3 of Galatians when Paul reminded his readers that they received the Spirit from a hearing of faith, not the “deeds of the Law.” The Gift of the Spirit is the irrefutable evidence that a man or woman is accepted by God and therefore a member of His Covenant Community – (Galatians 3:1-4).

Paul concludes his argument: “So that you are no longer a bondservant but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” Jews and Gentiles become “heirs” to the Abrahamic Covenant through Jesus.

Since we are “sons,” filled with the Spirit and heirs of the Patriarch, why attempt to seek what the Law could never deliver by subjecting ourselves to the requirements of the Mosaic Legislation? Since we are now one in Jesus Christ, why do so many men in our pulpits work to rebuild and reinforce distinctions before God between Jews and Gentiles? – (Galatians 4:1-7).

Adopting the deeds and rites of the Law would mean dividing the Body of Christ along ethnic lines. Likewise, insisting that God has separate covenants and promises for men and women based on their ethnicity or nationality. Since the “Seed of Abraham” arrived, namely, Jesus Christ, the old dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles has been dismantled, never to be rebuilt again, or at least, not until the advent of Dispensationalism.

Men and women are justified before God from the “faith of Jesus,” and every disciple is a “child of God,” an “heir of Abraham,” and a “joint heir” of Jesus Christ regardless of his or her biological descent. No longer is anyone who belongs to the Son of God “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant.”

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SEE ALSO:

• His Salvation Offer - (The Good News announced by Jesus of Nazareth and preached by his Church offers salvation to men and women of every nation and people)

• Jesus Saves! - (The Good News announced by Jesus offers salvation and life to men and women of every nation and people)

• Humanity's Only Hope - (Jesus is the true Light of the World, the expression of God, and the only source of truth, life, and salvation)

• An Idolatrous Conceit - (‘Christendom’ is the idolatrous tactic of invoking God and Jesus to validate national and political institutions, agendas, and ideologies)