Part 8.1 - Gentiles, Jews, Church..
Gentiles, Jews, Church Of God The Three Divisions Of Man
According to the Scriptures, God has divided the human race into three groups-Gentiles, Jews, Church of God-and His restoration work has progressed along these lines. You might recall that three is the number of divine perfection or completion. God will complete His work in Man’s Day amongst three groups of people. In writing to the Corinthians, Paul referenced this division which existed in his day and has continued to our day. Be becoming those who do not cause others to sin by your mode of life, giving no occasion of stumbling both to Jews and Gentiles and also the Church of God. (1 Corinthians 10:32KSW) In other words, there are Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God. [For this discussion the term Christian will be used interchangeably for the Church.] Today, all three groups exist amongst the population of the world and every person, without exception, is in one of the three groups. However, from an historical perspective, each group first appeared at different times and only in the last 2,000 years have all three groups existed together. God started with all of mankind viewed as one man from Adam; then He called out a people to Himself, first called Hebrews and then Jews; and finally, out from the Gentiles and the Jews, He has called the Church, which is the Body of Christ. Thus, from God’s view, all of mankind started as one; then He divided man into two groups and finally into three groups of people. Each group came into being 2,000 years apart; so God has not only divided mankind into three groups, but He has done this in three 2,000-year intervals. Thus, Man’s Day has been divided into three sets of 2,000-year periods. Once again, God’s divine perfection is in view. The Bible uses the lunar year of 360 days and not the solar year of 365 days currently used in most parts of the world. When the lunar year is applied and certain other variables are taken into account, the periods of time are remarkably precise. Thus, from Adam to Abraham was 2,000 years. During this time many things happened, but there was no one distinct group of people until God called Abraham out of the land of the Chaldeans. During the first 2,000 years, God dealt with man as one. Everyone was simply a descendant of Adam, and after the flood all people descended from the line of Noah. When Abraham was called out, God began a new work by raising up a nation that would be a special, peculiar people to Him. They were called to be God’s Kingdom of priests on earth (Exodus 19:6), a nation of first-born sons (Exodus 4:22) with God as their King. As will be shown, from Abraham to the completion of the restoration of Israel will be 2,000 years. When God’s Son came to this earth, died and rose from the grave, a new work began as the Spirit of God began to call out a people, the Church of God, the Body of Christ. From Calvary to a specific time preceding the Tribulation, when the Body of Christ will be called out of this world to meet the Lord in the air, will be 2,000 years. The first period in which God dealt with man as one people has been completed. The latter two periods are nearly completed, only lacking a few years at most for the Church and seven years for the Jews.
Each group came into being to accomplish God’s purpose and plan. However, each group did not cease to exist when the other came on the scene. Gentiles have continued and will continue to exist for the entire six days (6,000 years) of Man’s Day. Hebrews (later called Jews) came on the scene 4,000 years ago and have continued until this day, although God has set them (nation of Israel) aside for a time. Christians came on the scene nearly 2,000 years ago and will remain on earth until the Lord returns. People from all three groups will enter the Kingdom Age as a redeemed people with Israel and the Gentile nations on the earth and Christians in the heavenly places over the earth. (Note The Restoration chart at the end of the previous chapter.) Now, let us look at these three groups in a little more detail.
TheGentiles-InAdam For the first 2,000 years of man’s history, God did not single out any one group of people, except Noah and his family. God dealt with mankind as one people, but interestingly, He also began to divide the people during this time.
Notable during this time was the fall of man; the judgment of the world through the flood; the rise and fall of Babel, resulting in the confusion of the languages and the scattering of man throughout the earth; and the beginning of cultures, which further divided man.
After the flood, God commanded Noah and his sons: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Instead of heeding God’s word, Noah’s descendants settled in the plain of Shinar, dwelt there and began to build themselves a city and a tower whose top was to be in heaven (Genesis 11:2-4). Their purpose was against God’s word: "Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth" (Genesis 11:4). God looked down upon the situation and acted.
"Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. (Genesis 11:7-9) From this point on, we discover that God separated man by land and language. The Gentiles became a separated people scattered throughout the earth. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. (Genesis 10:5NKJ)
It is recorded that in the days of Peleg, a descendant of Shem, the earth was divided (Genesis 10:25). It could be said that the Gentiles (or nations) represent a divided people. In fact, this is exactly what is seen in the world today. The nations, the tribes and the tongues of the world are all separated and divided. Since Babel, man has not been able to truly unite as one man, although man has tried and vainly continues to try. Confusion has remained for nearly 6,000 years. This day will end when the King of kings comes and the earth comes under the reign of the Son. This period of God dealing with man as one people continued for 2,000 years until God began a new work. However, the Gentiles have continued down through history even to this day. The Gentiles are like a great vast sea, a sea of people, from which God called forth the Hebrews and then later called and continues to call the Christians-those who are in Christ. Today, all unsaved Gentiles still remain in Adam, dead in their sins, instead of being in Christ, alive unto God (1 Corinthians 15:22).
TheJews-UnderCovenant
God began to reveal His new work when He divided the earth in the days of Peleg. This was an indication that He was raising up a new people who would come from the line of Shem. God works in a very deliberate manner. He always begins to lay the foundation of His work well in advance of its manifestation. After the flood, Noah’s first-born son, Shem, was singled out as the one through whom the Hebrews would come. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem" (Genesis 9:26). In the tenth generation from Shem, God began to unfold His purpose and plan through a Hebrew. [Ten is the number of completion of that which is in view.] At 2,000 years from Adam, Abraham, the father of faith, appeared on the scene of world history. He was living in Ur of the Chaldeans when the God of glory appeared to him and called him to a new land to inherit it (Genesis 15:7; Acts 7:2-4). God then made a covenant with Abraham: "To your descendants I have given this land" (Genesis 15:18). God established an everlasting covenant with Abraham and his descendants that involved all the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:7-8). This covenant continued through Abraham’s son Isaac (Genesis 17:19) and is a promise that God will fulfill in the Kingdom Age.
First, God covenanted the land to a people who would come from the loins of Isaac and his son Jacob. Then four hundred years later (Genesis 15:13), through Moses, God began to raise up Israel, a theocratic nation. He called them His own possession, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a chosen people, a peculiar people, a treasured possession, a special treasure, the apple of His eye, a peculiar treasure, the elect (Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:1-2; Deuteronomy 26:17-19; Psalms 83:1-3; Psalms 135:3-4; Zechariah 2:8; Malachi 3:17; Matthew 24:22). In His heart, God desired a people that He could call "His people" that would be one with Him. Such a people would be the light of the world, revealing His glory in all His creation. They would lead all the nations. So from all of mankind, God chose the children of Israel to be His people, called out from among the Gentiles to be His own special people.
"‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel." (Exodus 19:5-6)
God made a covenant with Israel that separated them out from among the nations. God’s laws and commandments were given to them. If by faith they had followed all that God had commanded them to do, then they would have been a blessing to all the nations and God would have been glorified.
"I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me," declares the LORD, "that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen." (Jeremiah 13:11)
They were God’s people, one nation with one tongue. However, history once again repeated itself-first the angels rebelled, then the first man rebelled, and next God’s nation rebelled. The history of Israel is one of victory and of defeat, of great glory and of utter failure, of obedience and of great rebellion. The time came when God’s holy nation had sinned so greatly that God had to judge them through an appointed time of seventy weeks or 490 years as prophetically revealed to Daniel. Because of their transgressions, a period of chastisement was appointed that must last seventy times seven or 490 years.
"Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy {place.} So you are to know and discern {that} from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince {there will be} seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end {will come} with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations {will come} one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate." (Daniel 9:24-27)
After a period of sixty-two weeks, Daniel prophesied that Messiah would be cut off (Daniel 9:26). In other words, Messiah would come to Israel and be killed 483 years from the time the decree went out to rebuild Jerusalem. In the fulfillment of prophecy, Messiah came and was crucified 483 years from the time of the decree to rebuild. From a prophetic view, it is also very important to know that Messiah was cut off 1,993 years from the time that God called out Abraham, which eventually led to the birth of the nation of Israel. This is significant because 483 is seven years short of the completion of the transgression, and 1,993 years is seven years short of a complete two days or 2,000 years. At this point, it is as if God stopped the clock at 1,993 years for Israel, seven years short of a complete 2,000 years, as He set them aside as a nation. In the history of Israel, this seven years will be the coming Tribulation that ends Man’s Day.
Every Christian knows the meaning of Christ being crucified for the sin of the world, but our Lord’s crucifixion has great significance to Israel as well. After nearly 2,000 years from Abraham, God sent His beloved Son to this earth, taking on the form of man. Jesus came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matthew 10:6; Matthew 15:24). Preceding Jesus was John the Baptist who came preaching repentance "for the kingdom of God is at hand." He was preparing the way for the appearing of Messiah, Israel’s promised King. John baptized in order that Christ might be manifested to Israel (John 1:31). John’s ministry only lasted six months and then he was removed from the scene and Jesus began to preach the same message to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Messiah offered Israel the Kingdom. He offered them the right to take the scepter of the Kingdom of Heaven and rule with Him over this earth. But the Jewish leaders rejected their Messiah and gave up the right of the nation of Israel to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Because they rejected the offer of the Kingdom and rejected their King, even demanding His crucifixion, the nation as co-laborers with God was set aside for a time.
However, the Lord made a covenant with David that his kingdom would be forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16). In Luke 1:31-33, we discover that this promise is fulfilled in Christ who has been given the throne of His father David. In other words, this throne is an earthly throne. Israel’s earthly destiny cannot be changed for it is based on God’s promise that cannot be broken. During the Messianic Kingdom, Israel will be restored to the land promised to Abraham. In the age of the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, Israel will again be God’s people, the wife of Jehovah, and will lead the nations with Messiah on the throne of David. In that day, the Lord will raise up David himself to sit once again on the throne with Christ as King over David and all of Israel.
"Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; neither feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; but you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your husband is your maker, whose name is the LORD of hosts; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, who is called the God of all the earth. For the LORD has called you, like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even like a wife of {one’s} youth when she is rejected," says your God. "For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you," says the LORD your Redeemer. (Isaiah 54:4-8)
‘But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.’ (Jeremiah 30:9)
"Then I will set over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them; he will feed them himself and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken." (Ezekiel 34:23-24)
Until that day, the nation of Israel has been set aside during the nearly 2,000 years since Calvary (Matthew 21:43; Matthew 23:37-39) while God visits the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (Acts 15:14). Israel has been in rebellion against God but will be forgiven after 490 years or seventy times seven.
It is very interesting that the Lord Jesus prophetically pointed to this period of time in answer to a question raised by Peter.
Then Peter came and said to Him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves." (Matthew 18:21-23)
Jesus was declaring God’s principle as it applies to Israel and the Kingdom of God. He will forgive them seventy times seven and then the Kingdom will come. Thus, seven years or one week remain to restore Israel. This week is the Tribulation when a world ruler, the antichrist, the lawless one, who also is called the man of sin or lawlessness and the son of perdition or destruction (2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:9) will arise who will enter into a false covenant of peace with Israel for 3½ years (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 11:2). During the first 3½ years, a temple will be built in Jerusalem. In the middle of the week (3½ years into the Tribulation), the lawless one will break the peace, declare himself to be God and desecrate the temple. It is called the abomination of desolation. Quoting Daniel, Jesus said: "Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)" (Matthew 24:15). At this point, God will bring Jacob’s trouble upon Israel (Jeremiah 30:7) which will last another 3½ years. This is called the Great Tribulation (Revelation 7:14). When Jacob’s trouble has been completed, the last seven years of transgression will have been completed, bringing an end to Israel’s two days or 2,000 years of history during Man’s Day. In that day, they will see Messiah.
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen. (Revelation 1:7) Israel’s mourning will be turned into joy as their sins are forgiven and the Lord gives them a new covenant.
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:10-12)
Israel will be healed following Jacob’s trouble and in the Kingdom Age will no longer be the tail but the head. They will be the head of the nations, for they will be above and not beneath (Deuteronomy 28:13). Through Israel, all the nations will be blessed (Genesis 22:18; Genesis 26:4; Isaiah 61:1-11; Isaiah 62:1-12; Jeremiah 30:1-24; Jeremiah 31:1-40Zechariah 12:1-14; Zechariah 13:1-9; Zechariah 14:1-21; Acts 15:16; Romans 11:11-36). Finally, they will be the people that God called them to be. The nations of the world down through history, and more so today, have not realized and do not realize that their future is divinely linked to Israel. God’s promise to Israel is joined with the land. Israel’s destiny is to be married to the land.
It will no longer be said to you, "Forsaken," nor to your land will it any longer be said, "Desolate"; but you will be called, "My delight is in her," and your land, "Married"; for the LORD delights in you, and {to Him} your land will be married. (Isaiah 62:4)
There are many in the world who want to see Israel wiped off the face of the earth, but they are fighting against God and His divine purpose and plan. They will fail! As God brings Israel into Jacob’s trouble, so will the nations of the earth suffer. As Israel suffers, so does the world. Why? Because God’s blessing of the nations only comes through Israel. Peace amongst the nations only comes through Israel. All nations that stand against Israel during the Tribulation will be condemned.
"I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided My land." (Joel 3:2NKJ)
Israel will be judged, followed by judgment of the nations (Matthew 25:31-46). Once the dead bones of Israel come alive (Ezekiel 37:1-28) and God’s people are once again in possession of all the land promised to Abraham, then they will be the head of the nations and the redeemed Gentile nations that remain and are commended by the Lord will come into blessing as well (Matthew 25:33-40).
"The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in My wrath I struck you, but in My favor I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day or night, that men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles, and their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, and those nations shall be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:10-12NKJ) But you shall be named the priests of the LORD, they shall call you the servants of our God. You shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame you shall have double honor, and instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they shall possess double; everlasting joy shall be theirs. (Isaiah 61:6-7NKJ)
There no longer will be any confusion. God confused the Gentiles at the tower of Babel, but in the Kingdom Age confusion will give way to rejoicing. All the peoples will know that it is God who rules in the kingdoms of men and that He alone has been the driving force in the history of the world. The Gentiles will know that God has been central in the entire history of Israel. God has been behind all their afflictions and they never ceased being His people. In that day, the house of Israel will no longer be in confusion either for they shall know that "I am the Lord their God from that day forward" (Ezekiel 39:22NKJ).
God knows all things, and in His wisdom He has long-suffered to bring about the plan that He has purposed in His heart from before the foundation of the world. Through the history of Israel, we see that God will bring forth His Kingdom on earth and this will involve Israel and the Gentiles; but one issue remains. Who will occupy the place of ruling in the heavenly places in the Kingdom Age? Who will ascend the throne of the Kingdom of Heaven with Christ and reign with Him in the heavenly sphere of the Kingdom, the place now occupied by Satan and his fallen angels? Who will enter the Reign of the Heavens? This is where the Church of God or the Christian comes into the picture.
God’s plan from the beginning has been to bring forth a new creation, something that would not fail, ever again, but would ascend to the heavenly throne to rule over the earth in righteousness and restore order to a corrupted earth. God did not give up on having man in dominion over this earth, but He needed a new man. Another way of stating this truth is that He needed a new nation, a heavenly nation, not an earthly one. But from where would this new man, this new nation come? The Jews forfeited this right. The Gentile nations were excluded because they were alienated from God, without hope in the world (Ephesians 2:12). If there were only two groups amongst mankind, then from where would the new man come? The answer is in Christ.
TheChurch Of God-InChrist For nearly 2,000 years since Calvary, God has been calling unto Himself a people from the Gentiles and a remnant of the Jews (Acts 15:14; Romans 9:27; Romans 11:5) to build the Church of God (Matthew 16:18). What is the Church? In the Greek language, the word church is ekklesia, which comes from the word ek meaning "out of" and klesis meaning "calling." Thus, the word church means "calling out of" or "called out of." Christ died and rose from the grave to call out from the world a people unto Himself. But this calling out is more than a call out of the world; it is a call out of all things old, of all things associated with the Jew and the Gentile. This is an entirely new work of God and this work is in His Son, who has not failed and never will fail to bring about what God has purposed. This work must be entirely new because God has a tremendous purpose for the called-out ones, the ekklesia. It is a heavenly calling and purpose. The Church is destined for the throne! For this reason, the work that God is doing in the called-out ones is an entirely new work. A New Creation In Christ A Christian is no longer a Jew or a Gentile but an entirely new creation in Christ. But by His (God’s) doing you are in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30). Can you grasp the significance of being in Christ? If you are in Christ, you have died to your old man, and your new life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). This is so tremendous that nothing like this has ever been done in the history of man. It is God’s doing, not man’s. Therefore, Paul wrote, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31). Why? Because God has done a new thing.
Therefore if any man is in Christ, {he is} a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
"New things have come" should be translated as "he has become new." The verb tense in the original Greek points to something that has occurred in the past that exists in the present time as finished. This same verb tense is used in reference to the finished work of the cross (John 19:30) and the work of the Spirit in bringing forth eternal salvation (Ephesians 2:8). In other words, those in Christ have been given a positional stand in Christ based on the finished work of the cross. It is done and nothing can be done to add to it or to take it away. Once a believer is in Christ, he remains in Christ as a new creation. A Christian’s eternal salvation and his positional stand in Christ are complete, just as complete as Christ’s finished work at Calvary. In Christ, all old things have passed away. Through the Holy Spirit, a people are being called out from among the Jews and the Gentiles who are now neither Jew nor Gentile. If a person was a Jew before the Spirit placed him in Christ, then he is no longer a Jew. If a person was a Gentile before the Spirit placed him in Christ, then he is no longer a Gentile.
One New Man
What does it mean to be no longer a Jew or Gentile? It means that the Christian is a new man, not just a group of people that have been called together retaining their original identity. When a person believes in Jesus and the finished work of the cross, he is placed in Christ in whom there is no distinction, neither Jew nor Gentile, but one new man, with an entirely new constitution. He has been brought into the last Adam, the second Man who is Christ. As a new creation in Christ, a believer has been brought into the one new man who is Christ. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall…that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:13-16) This is a very important distinction. This was a mystery that was in God’s heart. When the nation of Israel was brought forth, all of mankind was divided into two people with a dividing wall that could not be penetrated. The Gentiles were excluded from the promises made to Israel. There was no hope for the Gentiles. But in Christ, God broke down the dividing wall and opened the door for both the Jew and the Gentile to come out and be partakers of better promises in Christ. All past distinctions, regardless of which group a person was in before, cease for those who are part of this new man in Christ. This new man is entirely new. And have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-{a renewal} in which there is no {distinction between} Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:10-11) This new man is all of Christ; for Christ is all, and in all. The new man must be in the image and likeness of God to reign with Christ. Those who are in Christ are the ones who are being called out to ascend into the heavenly realm when the beloved Son of God comes.
One Body
Each individual believer is a new creation, a new man, but he is not to be alone. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, this one new man is also one body. But it is more than just a gathering of people as a body; it is the very Body of Christ. It must have been quite a shock to Paul, a zealous Jew, when he learned that the Gentiles were called into one body as fellow members of the Body. But Paul wrote that this is true. The Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Ephesians 3:6) Even more amazing is the fact that this body is also the Body of Christ, with Christ as the Head. For even as the body is one and {yet} has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12)
He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1:18; also Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:24).
Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church. In other words, the Body of Christ is made up of many new creations in Christ of which Christ is the Head. As the Head, it is Christ’s responsibility to bring His Body into the heavenly realm.
"In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, {there} you may be also." (John 14:2-3)
What a tremendous promise that our Lord Jesus has given to His Church: "I will come again, and receive you to Myself." When He comes He will be in the air, and it is in the air over this earth that He will first receive His people, His Body. This body is destined to be the fulness of Christ, to be full of Christ that He will be all in all in His people. For it was the {Father’s} good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him. (Colossians 1:19) For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10) And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:22-23) In Him dwells all the fullness of God, and His Body is to be the full expression of God. A Holy Nation
Finally, this new creation, the one new man in Christ, the Body of Christ is called to be a new nation. Prior to Calvary, the Gentiles had no rights to the Kingdom of Heaven. They were excluded from entering the Kingdom. Israel was offered this right but they rejected it. They were to be fruitful but instead they were barren, and thus the Lord took the offer of the Kingdom from them. Upon their rejection, the Lord Jesus offered the Kingdom to another nation.
"Therefore I say to you [that is, Israel], the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it." (Matthew 21:43NKJ; also Luke 20:16) This new creation in Christ is the new nation that is to bear fruit. In writing to sojourners and pilgrims (1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:11) of like precious faith (2 Peter 1:1), Peter revealed the identity of this new nation. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10NKJ) This holy nation is something entirely new. Prior to Calvary, Gentiles were not included as the people of God. They were living in darkness, not in the light of God. They had not received mercy. In other words, they were lost in the world. But because of the mercy of God, those called out from the Gentiles and the Jews are now a new people, God’s people who proclaim His praises as His own special people. Not of This Realm
What is the Church, the ekklesia? The ekklesia is an entirely new creation, not earthly, but heavenly; not of this realm, but of His realm; not of the old nature but of His nature; not of the flesh but of the Spirit, not of Adam but of Christ. The ekklesia was birthed with one destiny, and that is to ascend the throne with Christ to rule over this earth during the Kingdom Age. The ekklesia is not to be attached to this earth but to the One who is returning from heaven very soon. The ekklesia is the Body of Christ. The ekklesia is a holy nation. When He was headed toward Calvary, the Lord Jesus prayed to His Father on behalf of His disciples and those who would follow and believe in Him.
"I have given them Thy word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil {one.}" (John 17:14-15) The Lord’s disciples are in the world but they are not of it. Why? Because they are called out of it. The Lord told Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm" (John 18:36).
Unlike Israel and the Gentile nations, the destiny of the Church is not linked to any earthly land. The call to the Church, to all Christians is an upward call to the heavenly places in the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians are to be partakers of the heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1). They have the on-high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Php 3:14). Their calling is to an entirely different realm. This day has not come because our Lord and Savior has not returned. As Paul wrote, there is a hope laid up for Christians in heaven (Colossians 1:5). Paul was not referring to falling asleep in Jesus and going to heaven. It is the coming Kingdom of the Son that is the hope of every born-again child of God. Christians should be looking for His return to set up His Kingdom, not only on earth but also from the heavenly places. The Church is being called to reign with Christ from heaven during His Kingdom. This day is coming soon! When we look at the history of the three groups of people, it is interesting that the last group will be the first in God’s end-time dealings. First, the Church of God will rise from this earth, be judged and the faithful in Christ will occupy positions of power and authority in the Kingdom of Heaven. Second, Israel will be judged, healed as a nation, restored to the land and occupy their place as the head of the nations in the Kingdom of God. Finally, the Gentile nations will be judged and those commended and redeemed will populate the earth during the Kingdom Age, being blessed through Israel.
"Thus the last shall be first, and the first last." (Matthew 20:16) The Lord is true to His word.