Digging away at those Hebraic Roots of Christianity I discovered something I probably read over about a million times before I finally “got it”. This fact is found in Paul’s letters. The idea is this: Gentile believers have a place in Israel. I used to think that the Church was the “new Israel”, but that is Replacement Theology and has been a damaging error for centuries. Many people who believe in that theory don’t even know it’s called Replacement Theology. The Church is not ‘the new Israel’ and Israel is not the Church. The Church is a group of obedient people, not a nation. Rather than the Gentile Church being the replacement for Israel in God’s eyes, Gentile believers are actually part of Israel. Ephesians chapter 2: 11 Therefore remember that you (Gentiles), …. were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off (separated from the Messiah) have been brought near by the blood of Christ. There is more than one Israel. There is Israel the man ---“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel.” (Genesis 32:28.) Then, we have Israel the country, no bigger than our state of New Jersey, and the hotspot in the Mideast. There is also Israel, the nation, consisting worldwide of Jews by birth and converts to Judaism. But, most importantly to a Gentile Christian is Spiritual Israel or Kingdom Israel. The apostle Paul calls it the “Israel of God” and the “Commonwealth of Israel”---Gentile believers have been adopted into God’s people! Gentile believers do not have legal standing as Jews and are certainly not “the new Israel” (there’s that Replacement Theology again!) Instead, Gentile believers are part of a greater collective, (like the mixed multitude that left Egypt with Moses and received the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. They were not all Hebrews, but anyone who wanted to leave Egypt joined this great Exodus.) Being part of the commonwealth of Israel does not make a Gentile believer Jewish, but rather, a fellow citizen in Kingdom Israel along with Jewish brothers and sisters. This was radical and new to me. It is one of many reasons I wanted to study the Hebraic roots of Christianity. And then there’s the olive tree……..Shalom.
Facing Jerusalem
