Think about it...as you read through the New Testament, you can see all the spiritual blessings a born again Christian has "in Christ Jesus"
For instance
Ephesians 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 3:17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Colossians 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
I could go on, but I hope you get the idea of what "spiritual blessings" are.
thanks for your answer, Linda70
sorry for being thick about it. but something sounds wrong. like, i just read the new testament, and i see the nation israel receiving the spiritual blessings, and being the church that Jesus died for
and then, like it says the gentiles got saved and included too. that didn't seem complicated at all. it seemed like God's promises from the very beginning were coming true, that he would send a savior for the world.
where does it say in the new testament that there is something different for jews or gentiles? i read the new testament a lot and i don't see that in there (not saying i understand everything i read, but i didn't see anything about separate things promised. i saw that there was one promise and it went to God's chosen people israel first and some didnt accept it, but the the gentiles were included also. that wasn't anything new because God told abraham that in his seed (isaac i guess) was the redeemer and that he was the father of many nations. i thought that was the promise, and that it was for all people.
Does the Church have a "land"? If, as replacement theology teaches, the Church has replaced the nation of Israel, why isn't the Church in their "land" (in Israel) claiming it for their own? Something to think about!
okay, what's replacement theology?
"the Church has replaced the nation of Israel"? i don't know what this means. isn't the church the nation of israel who believed on Jesus the jewish Messiah? idk...now i'm really messed up.
the church has land, i guess. everywhere they live around the world. but i thought we weren't supposed to lay up treasures here or love the world or expect anything lasting (?)
someone else posted this on another thread. it says abraham made his home in the promised land! but lived like a stranger in it. are you saying that wasn't the promise? sorry, i don't get it. it says Isaac and Jacob his sons who were heirs with him of the same promise also lived in the promised land, in the same way. like temporary.
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
is the city he was looking forward to israel as it is today? or sometime son God will remake it with foundations that are different?
Gentiles are NOT Jews! There are born again Christians of Jewish ethnicity (as I am) in the body of Christ/the Church.
gentiles are born again christians of jewish ethnicity? what? i do not get this at all.
i know gentiles and jews are different in the old testament, but is there a difference in the new testament? like, i know they are different races and stuff, but in Christ there's not any difference...is there? i'm confused because it says everywhere that Jesus made a special point of making them into one new man.
There is no such thing as a "spiritual" Jew.
yes there is! the bible says jews who are born again and circumcision is of the heart!
Romans 11 doesn't teach that Gentiles are "grafted into Israel"...they are "grafted into" the "spiritual" promises and blessings of Israel IN CHRIST!
okay, this i know is not right. everybody is grafted into the ROOT who is Jesus! the natural branches are the jews who knew the root, Jesus and didn't get cut off. and the gentiles who knew the Lord got grafted in!
or am i wrong? i might be wrong. i'm pretty messed right now. none of this makes any sense. i need to read it all again.
The Church is blessed through the SEED of faithful Abraham. (in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:3b) That Seed is Christ (the "Seed of the woman" in Genesis 3:15)..
right!that's what i said!
i agree, for sure. and all the way back to genesis. so what is the difference in Christ? or even not in Christ?
sorry, this is a really long post, and i'm sure i'm contradicting myself a million times already
Because man's mind is "finite" and the mind of God is "infinite", that which seems "logical" (it makes no sense at all) to you is not how God looks at things. He made promises and covenants to the nation of Israel through the physical seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob which will be literally fulfilled in the future...whether or not "it makes no sense at all" to us. .
but it says right here about them:
8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
it says they did live in the promised land! i don't know about in the future part.
what do you mean? is there a promise for the future that was different from the one they already received? they died! how can they get something in the future when they already received it and they died?
Salvation is to "whosoever will" believe and receive! There were NO Christians until the Church began. The Church began at Pentecost.
well. this i'm not so sure about. christians is an english word, right? weren't God's people always his people all the way back in time? or are you saying the church is something different from being God's people
i thought it said Jesus was the rock israel drank from in the wilderness and so on.
Actually, the followers of Christ were all Jews
okay, i agree. the church in the new testament was originally jews. and God's people was the nation israel all the way to Jacob, right? but even before that God had his own people. like adam and noah and all the people before Jacob.
until Acts 8, when Phillip evangelized the Samaritans (considered half-breeds by the Jews) and then Peter opened the door for the Gentiles to receive the Gospel at the house of Cornelius in Acts 10. No believer in Christ was called "Christian" until Acts 11:26...and then it was a type of derogatory term.
Acts 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.
do you think christian is a derogatory term? i don't. it means they were followers of Jesus Christ. what's wrong with that?
he was the one they had been waiting for all those years and years. i don't see how the church started somewhere part way through the new testament. that makes no sense. i see a new covenant was made with israel because the old one couldn't save them, and that the gentiles were included. in all the promises. unless i'm missing something really huge which i must be!
Remember, the nation of Israel (actually the Jewish leaders of Israel) rejected Christ....that is why God set the NATION aside and is calling out a people for His Name....the body of Christ/the Church from among individual Jews and Gentiles. The preaching of the Gospel still goes "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16b).
well now that sounds like the gospel message i read about and it doesn't seem to change part way through or anything like that. that's the whole story, isn't it? like, isn't that the good news? it's; not good news for people who reject Jesus, but what does that have to do with God's plan? i'm totally lost at this point.
After God's purpose for the body of Christ/the Church is fulfilled (until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. - Romans 11:25), then God will turn His attention back to the NATION of Israel. Israel will be going through some severe judgment during the 7 years of Tribulation (the time of Jacob's trouble - Jeremiah 30:7) in the future. I believe that time is getting very close.
okay, i've read about this, different versions of it and i can't make sense of it yet. what's God's purpose for the body of Christ? isn't the churhc or the body of believers from israel and gentiles being the church the whole point of why Jesus came and gave himself?
mary's song says
54He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
so i don't understand. it says he did do it.
why is israel going to go through the tribulation? i thought that was for everyone?
The New Covenant will be fulfilled for the NATION of Israel when Jesus Christ returns to this earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom in Jerusalem.
i think i understand...you are saying that israel the NATION, as in the nation that came out of egypt has promises that God "set aside" (you said?). and that they will be fulfilled when Jesus sets up his kingdom.
peter of israel said to others from israel who believed-
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
if all the early church were jews from israel, how can the new covenant not be fulfilled for them? it was israel who sat at table with Jesus when he poured the wine and broke the bread with them and said he had made a new covenant in his blood.
sorry about such a long post. i prefer shorter, next time i will just try to ask shorter questions. where can i read about this
The New Covenant will be fulfilled for the NATION of Israel when Jesus Christ returns to this earth to set up His Millennial Kingdom in Jerusalem.
in the new testament? because that's what i believe tells us what we need to know.