Now What Do We Do?
Thoughts about being a naturalized citizen of the Kingdom
Today Israel simmers in tension. Everywhere you go, you can feel the potential of explosive destruction. You witness a nation filled with machine guns, mine fields and security guards. The presence of constrained violence saturates the air like the smog that hangs over Jerusalem. A divided land, a divided people, a divided life permeates the consciousness of every human being. The joyful dancing at the Western Wall as the Sabbath approaches cannot hide the men with automatic weapons who overlook the square. When I prayed with my head against Herod’s stones, the great agony of such a broken world at the feet of God’s holy temple brought nothing but tears. There is something very, very wrong here.
Perhaps the Lord allowed me to feel this brokenness because it is symptomatic of a much deeper rift. Even those who love the Lord are separated from each other. Christians and Jews not only misunderstand each other; they find themselves at odds with each other on issues that should be the cause of celebration and unification. As Moshe, the Jewish store owner told us, Jews cannot imagine how the Church could be responsible for such a long history of anti-Semitism and still claim to honor the God of Israel. Those words shamed me. They were the precursor to the experience of the Holocaust Museum where I wept when I saw the callous disregard of the Church for the lives of millions who were “outside” the flock.
This soul agony leads me to reflect once more on what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom. As a Christian, I recognize that I have been grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans 11 and Ephesians 2. I am a Gentile. I am a Gentile simply because I was not born to Jewish parents. Being a Gentile is an ethnic designation. All the world is divided along this line. I am either Jewish by birth or I am a Gentile. As a Gentile, I may come to faith in the God of Israel through His gracious mercy. In this regard, God does not distinguish between Jew and Gentile. He provides grace for all. I am saved by faith in exactly the same way that Habakkuk was saved (Habakkuk 2:4). My salvation is God’s gift, just as it was a gift to Abraham, David and Isaiah. I did nothing to earn it. Neither did any Jew. God chooses. God provides. God elects. Salvation is from the Lord.
But when a Gentile comes to faith in the God of Israel, there is a difference between Jew and Gentile that affects the resulting life of obedience. Jews do not convert to believing God. They might return to the life He calls them to observe, but they do not leave behind idolatry in order to take up true belief in the Holy One of Scripture. Of course, today there are many Jews who are Jews in ethnic status only. They are for all intents and purposes no different than Gentiles except for heredity. Nevertheless, when they give up their worldly outlook, they return to the God of their people. But Gentiles convert. They do not return because there is nothing for them to return to. Gentiles are outside the chosen people of God so they must leave behind the worship of the world’s offerings and take up a life governed by the God of Israel. Gentiles come to faith as Ruth came to faith. “Your people will be my people and your God will be my God.” Paul calls this being grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. So, the intention of God’s plan is that all who come to Him in faith become part of His chosen people. Jews return to their roots as the called people of God and Gentiles join those roots as converts to belief in the God of Israel.
What happens when a Gentile converts? That was the big question in the first century. Gentiles often converted to Judaism. When they did, they took on all the obligations of being Jewish, including the sign (circumcision) and the lifestyle (dietary laws, sacrifices, etc.). In the letter to the Galatians, Paul argues against those who claim that converting to Judaism saves a person. Paul demonstrates that salvation is not a function of legal obedience to Torah. Obedience is the result of receiving God’s grace, not the method of receiving God’s grace. But this does not nullify the purpose of Torah. Torah is God’s instruction for how to live after you have been adopted into the Kingdom. It does not save you. It allows God to use you for His purposes. This was the function of Torah given to Israel at Sinai and it is still the function of Torah today. So, when a Gentile comes to faith in the God of Israel and is adopted into the commonwealth of God’s chosen people, he takes on the desire to be useful to God, to be separate from the ways of the world and to live in a way that distinguishes him from those outside the Kingdom. None of this expresses superiority. Rather, the reason both Jews and Gentiles adopt the ways of Torah is to allow God to attract the world to Him through the way they live.
So, a Gentile does not become a Jew. Gentile bloodlines do not suddenly alter into Jewish bloodlines. While God does not distinguish between Jew and Gentile when it comes to mercy and grace, He does distinguish between Jew and Gentile when it comes to obedience to Torah. For example, no Gentile will ever be a priest. Not even all Jews can be temple priests. Torah observance depends on bloodline, gender, age, marital status and many other conditions. All told, only a small number of the 613 Torah commandments actually apply to any given person, but when a Gentile is grafted into the commonwealth of Israel, those that do apply become the standard of behavior for the Gentile believer. Ruth did not proclaim her willingness to adopt Naomi’s God and then decide to eat anything she wanted, ignore the Sabbath and live as she pleased.
Notice Paul’s argument in Ephesians 2:11-18. Paul argues that those who were called Gentiles were without a relationship to Yeshua, and as a result, were alienated from the “commonwealth of Israel.” In this state, they were strangers to the promises of the covenants (notice the plural), without hope and without God in the world (verse 12). But all of this changed when Gentiles came into relationship with Yeshua. Once they were “far off,” a Hebrew idiom for unrighteous and outside the Kingdom of God. Now that has changed. They have been “brought near” by the blood of the Messiah. To be “brought near” is to be a worshipper of God and an observer of God’s instructions. Paul contrasts those who are outside the covenants with those who have been adopted into the covenants; those who are far from God with those who are near to Him and those who did not have hope with those who do have hope. What is the summary of the difference between these two groups? The change in their status is adoption into the commonwealth of Israel. What does that mean? These Gentiles are now treated as if they are part of the elect people of God. They are naturalized citizens. They follow Ruth by adopting the people and the ways of Israel’s God.
How is it possible to claim that today’s Christian believers, mostly Gentiles, are no longer naturalized citizens of Israel? How can we twist the text so that Paul says, in effect, Gentiles become Christians, no longer under any obligation to live according to the constitution of Israel establish by God Himself? This is equivalent to Ruth saying, “Your God will be my God but I will decide for myself whether or not I accept His instructions for living.” The only way we can re-interpret the text to justify the Christian claim that Torah is no longer the standard for living is by shifting the foundation upon which Torah stands. The Church must become the replacement of the people of Israel. The Church, as the “new” Israel, inherits God’s blessings, but apparently without inheriting God’s commandments. In other words, the Church takes on the authority to determine for itself which of God’s commandments it will follow and which it will ignore. Even if the Church could claim it is the “new” Israel, on what basis can it then assert that the instructions for living given by God to Israel do not apply to God’s “new” Israel? As far as I can determine, the only basis for such a claim is the further theological proposition that the Church is now the voice of God. This sounds suspiciously like idolatry to me.
Reading the text as it is, without replacement theology as an overlay, certainly seems to imply that Gentiles saved by grace enter into a relationship with God that looks very much like the relationship Jews have with God. While there are specific commandments for many different groups within His Kingdom, I find no provision that allows a believer to pick and choose whatever he or she wishes to observe. That’s not how the constitutional obligations of any government work and it certainly isn’t the way God’s government works. Gentiles are not saved by any other means than the way Jews are saved. Nevertheless, Gentiles do not become Jews. They are merely citizens of the same nation and they are expected to act according to the regulations that apply to them. Until Christians realize that God does provide specific instructions about living in His Kingdom and that these instructions apply to everyone who is a citizen no matter how they became citizens, the Church will miss out on God’s greatest blessing – to be a light to the nations rather than a religious reflection of the culture.
Saturday I stood on the temple mount, the place where Solomon built his structure to honor God. Now it is the scene of riot control police, automatic weapons, an Islamic holy shrine and a mosque. The day after I left, there was another clash between the growing number of radical fundamentalist Muslims and Israeli military. There is no human solution to this nightmare in Jerusalem. There is only weeping, fear and violence. Perhaps God will hear the cries of His people once again and sweep away the conflict in some miraculous fashion. Barring that, no human effort can resolve this centuries-old hatred. Perhaps the Church will realize that it is called to be one with God’s chosen people and cease espousing its status as an independent religion. When we Christians begin to take Scripture seriously, remove the glasses of succession theology and join the Kingdom not made with human hands, we just might find the covenants of blessing poured out on all His people – together at last.
Skip, I went to Israel in 2003. I experienced the same feelings that you describe. I sat on mount Meggido and stared into that great valley, and asked the LORD, “this is the valley where the world,s coalition will stage when they come against Jerusalem”? He answered “YES”. I asked “and you will kill 5 out of every 6 men there”? And He answered “YES”. Such sadness gripped my heart that I was overwhelmed. I wept everytime a bus or business was blown up. Still, in my heart, I knew that I had a kinship with that land and that people.
Moshe, of which you speak, runs the Shorashim shop in the cardo of Jerusalem, the heart of the old city. I still receive his newsletter.
True Christians must understand, like Ruth understood, that the God of Israel, is God over ALL, and therefore we do have something to return to. It is our beginning, in our Father’s house, as a member of the family of the Great King. Unlike today here in the U.S. where children refuse to obey parents, we willingly obey the instructions of our Father. I have not eaten pork since I understood the commands, in 1993, I honor the 7 feasts of the LORD (note: NOT Jewish feasts) in Lev. 23. I CHOOSE to follow the teaching and instructions of my Father, rather then the teachings of men. A choice we all get to decide for ourselves. I CHOOSE to align myself with the people of Israel, and not to divest from them. Prior to the council of Nicea, converts to the faith followed Judiasm, but Constantine stopped that, and Christianity turned from the Hebrew ways at that point. It is time to return.
Thank you for this direct, to-the-point reminder. He is the God of all, but the God of Israel revealed to all.
I doubt anyone would call themselves a Christian any longer if they read Constantine’s Creed. It is not a mystery why Jews reject the believing follower of Torah that choose to align themselves with the likes of Constantine.
Skip this article is well stated. I have a question that I still don’t understand. If gentile converts are to obey the constitution of the commonwealth of Israel and we are landed immigrants/citizens of that commonwealth what is the difference between that position and saying that gentiles must become Jews? And what is a Judaizer that Paul so opposed?
If an immigrant goes through the steps to become a legal citizen of the U.S. they are an American citizen regardless of their original birth. Is it your position that being a Jew is a matter of birth?
I’m still not getting the distinction but want to understand. Yesterday I remembered that Brad Young’s Website has his Hebraic translation of Luke and Romans. (To get there: http://www.gospelresearch.org/ ((there are no extended URL’s)) then click on “Study” and page down) He translates Rom 2:29 – “But the individual who is Jewish is the one possessing a Jewish soul on the inside…” I don’t know why but this gave me a tremendous peace and feeling of inclusion.
Any light you or others can shed on my questions would be appreciated. Thanks.
I have a question for you too. I am not sure why you have question unless you are not making a distinction between being a Jew and being in the commonwealth of Israel. A Jew is only one of the tribes of Judah and is identifiable through genetics, however the House of Israel is all 12 tribes of Jacob and anyone who aligns themselves with YHVH. At this present time they are not identifiable through bloodline as only some Levites and a few Benjamites returned after Jeroboam kept the 10 tribes with him by offering an alternative place to worship and they were taken into captivity, never to return to Judah. Judah (Jews) pray to this day three times a day for their return and they know they were absorbed into the gentile nations.
This is almost correct. It is certainly true that being Jewish is a bloodline-ethnic distinction. And it is true that Gentiles could come into the commonwealth of Israel, often taking on the signs of Judaism and being recognized as Jewish by choice, not birth. But it is not true that the 10 “lost” tribes are lost. Not everyone was forced into Babylon. Only the leaders, the influential people, the choice crowd, the best of the group were carried away. Some were left behind. That means that some members of all of the tribes were left in the land. They were powerless and pitiful, but they were still there. When Israel returned from Babylon, they found people in the land, people who still spoke Hebrew and still retained their culture. The “lost” tribes idea is not well founded. Many Jews today know their tribal connections.
Obviously, many never returned. They were absorbed. They may have lost their tribal distinction. But not all.
Chapter and verse please.
Paul argued against those who claimed that you must become Jewish IN ORDER TO BE SAVED. That was a common position in the 1st century. Paul rejects that, showing that salvation has always been the operation of God’s grace. Legalism is the position that salvation comes as a result of performing certain acts (such as not smoking, not drinking, being baptized, joining a church, etc.) As you can see, there are plenty of legalists in contemporary Christianity too. Paul settles this issue once and for all. Grace saves. God is the only one who can act on my behalf to bring me into relationship with Him.
So, what about works? Well, the inevitable result of a transformed heart provided by God in the process of salvation is the demonstration of grace in behavior that models God’s character. Works must follow grace! God insures that it does. Those who claim to follow God but do not demonstrate His character are (as John says) liars. Something is wrong on the inside.
Now, if I have been transformed, my heart is set on obedience to my Lord and Redeemer. I want to please Him. I am gratefully willing to do what He asks so that I might be of service to Him. This moves me in the direction of Torah obedience. In the first century, this would have been quite natural since I would have heard Moses preached in the synagogue every week. Torah obedience would have been the expectation and natural consequence of coming to faith in the Messiah. That’s why you see James proclaim that there are thousands of zealous followers of Torah. Today, as a result of Christianity’s deliberate disconnection from its Jewish roots, we are not taught that Torah obedience is the natural result of conversion. In fact, we are taught something entirely different – that Torah doesn’t matter. This heresy is so embedded in the Church that we who are real believers are constantly confused by what the Church says and what the Bible teaches. So, we wonder if we need to be Jewish.
Of course, being Jewish in my heart is having that same orientation, appreciation and commitment to God’s ways as anyone who grows up in the community of the people of YHWH. I can’t become ethnically Jewish. That is a matter of birth. But I can become a follower of the God of Israel in both word and deed. Under those circumstances, I adopt the Torah commandments that actually apply to me. Some Torah commandment apply ONLY to those who are born Jewish, but many apply to anyone who becomes part of the community. Those who are not born Jewish are still followers. They just come into the Kingdom by another means.
As a naturalized citizen, they have all the rights and responsibilities of almost any citizen, but even our government makes some distinctions on these lines. For example, no one can be President unless he is BORN a US citizen. That provision excludes naturalized citizens. Just so, no one can be a priest in God’s temple unless he is born (males only) a Levite. But this does not invalidate citizenship. This is merely a provision of distinction WITHIN citizenship.
Jerusalem, the “navel of the earth”. Location, location, location. The hub of the wheel. Jerusalem- the “city of peace”. We read in John 11:35 (one of the first verses we memorize!)- Jesus wept. As we read these short poignant words we realize (now), this-, is a far-sighted man. We weep with Him also. Why? Because the Messiah has come and they knew Him not as G-d. Just some religious wack job. But not all. Some recognized Him for Who He was. Even today, thousands of years later.. there is a remnant. We who have been twice-born recognize and realize (with the illumination provided by the Breath of G-d), the over three hundred prophecies concerning this Chosen One have been fulfilled. We look in wonder and say.. “how can anyone be so blind?” Our continued and continuous prayers must be offered for the peace of Jerusalem. The Jew has been and always will be the chosen people of G-d. When it comes to covenant words leaving the mouth of YHWH, that “seals the deal”. We can look forward to the future and say, (once again).. “and it came to pass”. Shabbat shalom kol Israel. Blessed is He who comes in the NAME..