The True Israel

       We should point out that it took Jesus’ disciples some time before they had their aha-moment of fully seeing with the eyes of their understanding about the nature of His ministry. For example, they had just witnessed the miracle feeding of 5,000+ people with five loaves of bread and two fish. Afterward, Jesus tells them they shall cross over the Sea of Galilee. He spoke it; it shall be done.
       He is exhausted from teaching, so he snuggles up in the bow of the boat for some shut-eye. No doubt his disciples are chattering about what they just saw. That is until they see a storm brewing around them. The Sea of Galilee is notorious for these spontaneous boat-crushing storms. In the natural, their lives are in danger and yet Jesus is sound asleep. Doesn’t He care? How dare He rest! When they wake Him up and voice their complaints, He simply speaks to the storm. All is calm. Except for the disciples. Their minds are blown by what they have just witnessed! Who is this man who has control over nature?
       The good news is that they do come to recognize that Jesus is the Christ, God’s anointed One. But like the Jews, they will still struggle with the implications of that. They, too, still think that a military encounter and an earthly throne are in their future. They have no clue what all this entails and what must happen because of who Jesus is. They’re still learning to walk—and sail—by faith and not by sight.
       In the natural, they are Jews. That is their history. Now they are being asked to accept a different future. That is, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal. 2:16). It is the first paradigm shift they will have to grasp—grace, not works.
      That shift will require the ultimate sacrifice, which they will not understand at first, either. “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them.’ But that no one is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘the man who does them shall live by them.’ Christ has 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 the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith’ ” (Gal. 3:10-14)
       This is the second paradigm shift they will have to grasp—for Jew and Gentile alike. It must have been mind-blowing, to say the least. They were losing their ethnic identity. Yet in doing so, they would gain a new identity. “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:26-29).
       The Chronos Lesson: This covenantal shift was always part of the plan. We must remember that Noah walked by grace in the favor of God. Abram was called by grace to walk in faith. “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘and to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16).
       Our relationship with God has always been a faith thing. In Christ, the natural labels by which we identify ourselves pale in significance. That is why it’s no big thing that males are part of the Bride of Christ. And likewise, it’s no big thing that females are called sons of God and sons of the Day. All that really matters is that we are “in Christ.”
      Our gender, our ethnicity, our nationality, and our status in this life, do not totally define us. What does set us apart is our unique calling. For we are the called out ones, the ekklesia, the general assembly and Church, His Body and Bride. We shall fully realize that calling when we are made perfect through resurrection at the rapture.
      “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in Heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel” (Heb. 12:22-24). Stay tuned for more about the True Israel.   3/4/24