Having explained the truth of the Gospel concerning the counter-alteration and the fact that
nothing can separate the faithful ones in Christ from the love of Yahweh, Paul,
now, returns to the subject of his kinsmen according to the flesh and their
elective advantages. He had introduced this subject in chapter 3, but had not
developed it.
Has this nation, then, become separated from Yahweh and His
promises given to her forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Has Yahweh
rejected His elect nation? How is the elect nation’s opposition to Jesus the
Messiah to be explained? How are those Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles in
Has Yahweh abandoned His holy, elect nation? Has this nation
been separated from the love of Yahweh her Elohim? Has a multitude of Jews
circumcised in heart to Moses and Yahweh’s Law been excluded from the blessing
in Christ? Has Yahweh’s purpose for
The problem of
Truth am I speaking in the interest of Christ; I am not lying on my own behalf, my conscience testifying together with me in the interest of a spirit of holiness [elective separation in Christ to Yahweh by the spirit of the counter-alteration], that my sorrow is great and in my heart is uninterrupted pain. For I had begun praying-aloud-publicly on my own behalf to be accursed, I myself, from this messiah on behalf of my brethren, my kinsmen according to flesh . . . (Romans 9:1-3 my translation)
With this declaration, Paul alludes to his own call and salvation. He had been publicly committed to oppose the Gospel of Christ. He had publicly testified on behalf of himself and his people (his nation) that he was determined to be accursed from this false, blasphemous messiah in order to manifest his loyalty to The One, Living, Elohim of Israel. To announce oneself as publicly accursed from this counterfeit messiah was to announce oneself publicly as the obedient, loyal, faithful servant of Yahweh and His holy covenant.
Saul of Tarsus, like Phinehas of old who zealously acted on
behalf of the holy covenant by executing the two who had blasphemed the
covenant (Num. 25:1-13), in zealous defense of the holy nation, tenaciously had
persecuted those Jews associating themselves with this blasphemous, counterfeit
messiah, this pathetic, shameful, crucified, Jesus of Nazareth. This same
circumcised-in-heart zealot blindly and ignorantly persecuting Yahweh’s
Anointed Son/King had been shown Yahweh’s national mercy on the road to
Saul had mistakenly opposed Jesus the Messiah as a result of
his ignorant mind and calloused heart. He had believed he had been acting on
behalf of Yahweh his Elohim and his people
As Saul of Tarsus had publicly announced himself accursed from
this false messiah, thus, perceiving himself publicly as the holy defender of
Yahweh, His covenant, and His nation, so, also, many Israelites, like Saul of
Tarsus, had continued to oppose the Gospel in blindness and ignorance. Yahweh,
in His appropriate time, would also show them mercy, opening their blind eyes
and melting their calloused hearts, resulting in their bowing the knee of their
hearts to Jesus the Messiah. Yahweh had not rejected
As regards, indeed, the Gospel, they [like Saul of
Paul, affirming
Though
For not all the ones out of
The biological seed of Abraham is not to be equated with Abraham’s seed of promise. The promised seed of Abraham is associated with the election of Isaac.
Ishmael, though Abraham’s biological seed, is excluded from the seed of promise. He is excluded on the basis of Yahweh’s election. He is not excluded on the basis of his faith or his works. He is not given the opportunity to belong to the seed of promise. Yahweh simply has not chosen him to participate in this elective calling.
Isaac is chosen by Yahweh to be the seed associated with Yahweh’s promises to Abraham. This is his by Yahweh’s election. However, being an elect seed, Isaac now is responsible to walk by faith. If Isaac fails to walk by faith in the likeness of Abraham’s faith, he will not be accounted by Yahweh as a member in the faithful seed of faithful Abraham.
Election is Yahweh’s choice. Election gives a person the possibility of becoming a member of the faithful seed of Abraham. Faith/faithfulness is the choice of the one elected by Yahweh to participate in the elect seed. Not all those participating in the elect seed are counted by Yahweh as faithful children of Abraham. Only those exhibiting the life characterized by faith/faithfulness are accounted by Yahweh as the promised seed of Abraham. Only these will be enjoyers of the Celestial Allotment promised to those faithful to the end.
The children of the flesh are Abraham’s biological seed, some of whom are elected by Yahweh to participate in the elect community. When Yahweh enters into the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, all the male elect children of the flesh are circumcised. This, then, becomes a requirement for all the elect male members of the elect community. However, enjoying such a membership by birth and circumcision does not guarantee one’s membership in the faithful seed of Abraham, the seed of promise, the seed accounted by Yahweh as the children of Abraham, the seed Yahweh accounts, on His own behalf, as His elect children, the seed promised the adoption of sonship.
The seed of promise is acknowledged, accounted, on the basis of that faith accounted by Yahweh for righteousness. The seal of the seed of promise is a life characterized by the faith/faithfulness of Abraham. Biological association with Abraham and ritual circumcision apart from faith/faithfulness makes one a child of the flesh rather than a child of promise.
The majority of Israelites in the course of
However, their unfaithfulness does not nullify the
faithfulness of Yahweh Who throughout Israel’s covenantal history has preserved
the faithful seed of Abraham, using them as His instruments through whom He
accomplishes His elective purposes. Thus, not all Israelites are Israelites. Not
all Israelites are accounted by Yahweh as members of the Israel of Yahweh. Not
all Israelites who are children of Abraham by birth and circumcision are
children of Abraham by faith. The children of the flesh fail as children of
Abraham and Yahweh (
However, the children of the spirit, the children of faith,
faithfully become Yahweh’s instruments of righteousness by which He achieves
His faithfulness to His promises. Throughout
Paul now proceeds to develop the relation of promise to election. The word of promise to Abraham is “At ‘this season’ I shall come ‘and there will be for Sarah a son’” (Rom. 9:9 CV). Paul is quoting from Genesis 18:14. Sarah, in her old age, is to give birth to a son in the course of the coming year. Thus, the promise to Abraham concerns a son. This son is to be Abraham’s heir, Abraham’s seed through whom the promises of Yahweh would be fulfilled. Abraham, already the elect of Yahweh, believes the word of Yahweh concerning the promised son. Thus, Abraham the elect is walking by faith. He had been promised a son through whom would come the promises made to his seed. Many years had elapsed. Sarah had passed the age of fertility. But Yahweh had preserved within Sarah a seed. This seed had been hindered from dropping down into the biological place of fertilization until the appropriate time chosen by Yahweh. Abraham’s faith in Yahweh’s word had been believed over the elapsing years.
Now, once again, Abraham would believe Yahweh’s word. In nine months, Sarah would bear a son. Isaac would be the Son of Promise, generated by Yahweh in Yahweh’s appointed time. Isaac would be a type of the future ultimate Son of Promise, THE SEED of Abraham through Whom all the promises made to Yahweh’s elect people would be fulfilled. Abraham the elect of Yahweh had demonstrated throughout the course of his life his faith/faithfulness, that faith which Yahweh had accounted for righteousness. Thus, Abraham the elect is also Abraham the faithful enjoyer of the promised Celestial Allotment (see Heb. 11:8‑19 CV, Greek text).
Election is Yahweh’s sovereign choice. But participation in
the Celestial Allotment and the terrestrial allotment of the
Ishmael had been excluded from the election. Isaac had been included. Ishmael had no opportunity to demonstrate the faith/faithfulness of the elect, since he had been excluded from the election. Isaac, on the other hand, had the possibility of demonstrating the faith/faithfulness of the election. Ishmael had not been excluded from the election either because of his mother Hagar or his own faith and deeds. This is demonstrated in the births of Esau and Jacob. Jacob and Esau had been born of the same mother, Rebecca, wife of Isaac. Nevertheless, Esau had been excluded from the election while still in the womb, while Jacob had been included in the election while still in the womb:
For not as yet being born, nor putting into practice anything good or worthless, in order that the purpose of Yahweh should be remaining according to election, not out of works but out of Him Who is calling, it was declared to her [Rebecca] that “The greater shall be slaving to the interest of the inferior.” According as it has been written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” (Romans 9:11-13 my translation)
Yahweh, according to His sovereign election, had favored Jacob apart from his deeds or faith while not favoring Esau apart from his deeds or faith. Jacob had been chosen to participate in the election solely on the grounds of Yahweh’s choice. Esau had been excluded from participation in the election solely on the grounds of Yahweh’s choice. Therefore, Esau, like Ishmael, had no possibility of demonstrating the faith/faithfulness of the promise. Esau, like Ishmael, could neither be saved nor lost. In order to be saved or lost one must be a participant in the election associated with the call of Abraham and the promises made to him. Esau, like Ishmael, had not even been given the opportunity or option of having his faith accounted for righteousness. Thus, justification by faith in association with the promises made to Abraham was not a possibility or option for anyone outside the election.
Salvation within the framework of the election meant deliverance out of the present age and into the age to come, within which the saved would enter into the promised Celestial Allotment. Salvation within this framework meant deliverance out of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and into the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant. This elective salvation did not in the least affect the ultimate destiny of the non-elect. The ultimate destiny of the non-elect did not necessitate participation in the election or justification by faith.
The ultimate destiny (immortal life in the image of Jesus Christ the Celestial Man) of humanity is associated with the gracious, merciful, compassionate, loving decision or verdict of Yahweh executed upon the first soulish man, Adam (the death and sin common to all soulish mankind), and that executed upon the last soulish man, Jesus the Anointed Son of Yahweh (the immortal life and righteousness common to all Celestial Mankind). Ishmael and Esau are not excluded from the salvation associated with Christ Jesus as the Second, Celestial Man, for this salvation is not based upon either works or faith, or both. This salvation is based upon the sovereign choice of Yahweh in association with the disobedience of the one man Adam and the obedience of the One Man Jesus Christ. Soulish man’s ultimate salvation from Death and Sin has already been decided by Yahweh in association with the obedient act of Jesus His Only-Begotten Son. Soulish/Mortal humanity (without exception) will be elevated to the status of Celestial/Immortal humanity (without exception). This is the argument of Romans 5:12 and 18.
What, then, is the validity of the charge that Yahweh is unjust? This charge is absurd! This charge itself is unjust, reflecting a misconception of Yahweh’s election. This charge reflects the accuser’s ignorance of the distinction between election and promise. Yahweh had declared to Moses, “I shall be merciful to whomever I may be merciful, and I shall be pitying whomever I may be pitying” (Rom. 9:15 CV). This statement is regarding election. In relation to election, Paul concludes,
Consequently, then, it is not of him who is willing, nor of him who is racing, but of Yahweh displaying mercy. (Romans 9:16 my translation)
Yahweh had extended mercy to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the sons
of Jacob, the nation
The scriptures, writes Paul, declare, concerning Pharaoh, “For this selfsame thing I outraged you, so that I should be displaying in the interest of you [in the interest of your hardness of heart] My power and so that My name should be thoroughly proclaimed throughout the entire land” (Rom. 9:17 my translation). Pharaoh first hardens his own heart in response to Yahweh’s command. This is his choice. This is his condition, his character. Yahweh could have shown him mercy. But Pharaoh is not among the elect. Yahweh elects to exclude Pharaoh from His mercy.
Instead, He takes Pharaoh’s already hardened heart, a heart glorying in his own false gods, and densifies his boastful glorying, causing Pharaoh to continue in his boastful glorying by blatantly defying Yahweh’s command. Yahweh, then, strengthens his dense heart of boastful glorying to make it steadfastly defy Him over an appropriately appointed period of time, during which Yahweh can display His power over nature and the gods of the Egyptians.
Pharaoh’s hardening of his own heart (his attitude of boastful
glorying) is increased in magnitude by Yahweh, causing Pharaoh to become
outraged. As a result of his outraged heart, he continues to defy Yahweh
against all reason. He absurdly increases his boastful glorying as Yahweh
continues to manifest His power throughout the
The testimony of the elect sons of Jacob to the nations around
them will soon become the testimony of the elect nation
Yahweh enhances Pharaoh’s self-inflicted condition in order to achieve His elective purpose. Pharaoh’s ultimate destiny is not involved in Yahweh’s elective decision to harden, densify, his already hardened heart. Hence, Yahweh’s favor or disfavor is in relation to His elect purpose only. He does not predetermine the condition of human beings, other than decreeing the universal condition of The Law of Sin and Death and its counter-altering Law of the Spirit of Life. In this condition, Adamic humanity is likened to one lump of clay. But Yahweh’s mercy or His hardening pertains only to His elective purpose. He elects some on behalf of the welfare of the non-elect,
Consequently, then, to whom He will, He is merciful, but to whom He will, He is hardening. (Romans 9:18 CV)
But, continues Paul, some would still object, protesting,
Why, then, is He [Yahweh] still finding fault? For who has withstood His intention? (Romans 9:19 my translation)
This protest misses the point. Yahweh does not show favor or disfavor in relation to every individual. His favor results in His showing some people mercy in order to bless, show mercy to all in the long run. His hardening, also, is associated only with some in order to bless, show mercy, to all. In His elective endeavors, Yahweh is not unjust, since, first, He does not predestinate the character or condition of those He shows mercy or of those He hardens. Second, He is not unjust since His elective endeavors seek and achieve the welfare of both the elect and the non-elect in the long run.
However, more than this, Paul argues,
O Man! Indeed, then, to be sure, who are you, questioning the justness of [answering-against] the interest of Yahweh?! The thing molded will not protest to the molder, “Why did you make me thus?” Or, has not the Potter authority over the clay, out of the same kneading [Adamic humanity] to produce one vessel, indeed, into honor [honorable service], but another into dishonor [menial service]? But if Yahweh, willing to display His indignation on behalf of His own purposeful interest and to make known His Power, endured with much longsuffering [patience] those vessels worthy of indignation having been prepared for [given over to] wastefulness by Yahweh, it is even in order that He should be making known the richness [wealth] of His glory upon those vessels of mercy, which He prepared before [elected before] for glory, even us whom He called, not only out from among Jews, but also out from among nations. (Romans 9:20-24 my translation)
What audacity has the creature who complains to the Creator concerning his place in the created order. As the potter has authority over the kneading, or lump of clay, so Yahweh the Creator has authority over mankind. In this instance, the lump of clay is Adamic humanity. The whole lump (kneading) is contaminated by Death and Sin. Yahweh, having determined the character or condition of the whole lump, also has authority over the vessels He fashions from this lump.
The majority of His fashioned vessels have been fashioned for dishonorable/menial services. Out of this majority a great number has been consigned to wastefulness because of their unworthy conduct of life. These, Yahweh has given up to their disqualified minds, resulting in their descent into the ignorance and darkness of idolatry (like the nations). But even among this majority there are those vessels whom Yahweh has fashioned for honorable/exceptional (noble, dignified) services (Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Julius Caesar, etc.). These are those who have thought and acted wisely even though having their place among the ignorant and worthless vessels who are not only worthy of destruction, but also deserving of the destruction to which Yahweh gives them over as a result of their own ignorance and foolishness.
Yahweh does not predetermine the thinking and acting of these vessels. They are free to think and act in accord with the knowledge available to them. Yahweh has not left them without His testimony. They have the capacity, the faculties, to encounter truth and act in accordance with this truth.
The nations as collective national bodies had abandoned truth for the lie, and Yahweh had given them up to their distorted minds and practices. In the process, He had patiently endured their ignorant and destructive ways, while simultaneously fashioning vessels of mercy, His vessels of election, fashioned for honorable service. However, even among these elect vessels, there were honorable vessels who fashioned themselves into vessels of dishonor, vessels of wastefulness.
Yahweh’s vessels of mercy had been shown favor in order to bless those vessels not shown favor. As Yahweh judges the vessels of dishonor, He also judges the vessels of honor, those elect vessels favored in order to achieve honorable/exceptional/noble service. Those vessels among the elect who fail to honorably respond to the mercy shown them will also be given up to wastefulness and destruction. There is no partiality with Yahweh.
This is precisely what happened to the elect Northern Kingdom of Israel given over to Assyrian captivity by Yahweh in 722 B.C. Her elect sister, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, was given up to Babylonian captivity by Yahweh in 586 B.C. Within these two elect nations had been vessels of honor. In spite of having to endure patiently the dishonor of their nation, those vessels of honor continued to serve Yahweh honorably in the midst of national humiliation. Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are only three examples of these noble vessels enduring patiently the humiliation of their disobedient people while continuing to faithfully serve Yahweh in a noble and dignified manner.
The disobedient Southern Kingdom of Judah had been given over to its disqualified mind by Yahweh, but had continued as Yahweh’s elect nation. Within this elect, dishonored nation, however, were those vessels of honor whose faithfulness Yahweh accounted for righteousness. These are the vessels of mercy whom Yahweh preserves and blesses, even in the midst of a disobedient elect nation removed from her holy Land of Promise. The nation remains Yahweh’s elect people even in the humiliation of captivity, but only the faithful are accounted children of Abraham and heirs of the promise. The faithful children of Abraham within the elect, but disqualified, nation are characterized by a circumcised heart. Yahweh knows those who are His. Yahweh perceives and acknowledges those circumcised in heart, even those, though circumcised in heart, who may be opposing Him and His law in ignorance and unbelief (like Saul of Tarsus) caused by the deception of their false shepherds.
Even the elect Northern Kingdom of Israel, given up to
Assyrian captivity by Yahweh, continued to contribute to Yahweh’s elective
purpose. Though Yahweh had made her Lo-Ammi,
not my people, and had not gone with her into captivity, nevertheless, these
people (now non-elect), undergoing the indignation of Yahweh, brought the
knowledge of the One, True, Living Elohim of Israel to those non-elect peoples
among whom they had been scattered. This was to prepare a people among the
nations for Yahweh’s name. The elect people among the exiled Northern Kingdom
of Israel, the majority of whom had become dishonored, disqualified, unfaithful,
nevertheless, along with those who had remained faithful, became a testimony to
the nations concerning the One, True, Living Elohim of Israel. They had been
scattered over time, throughout Asia minor (
Though these nations continued in their idolatry, they had become acquainted with Yahweh Elohim. Many among these idolatrous nations were being prepared for the future proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. In this manner, Yahweh’s judgment of His elect nation, His indignation, would glorify His name among the nations and set in motion events which would eventually culminate in the restoration, the reunification of the non-elect Northern Kingdom of Israel and the elect Southern Kingdom of Judah, thereby fulfilling the prophecy made by Ezekiel concerning the coming together of the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah (Ezk. 37:15-28).
Thus, Yahweh had patiently endured the disobedience of the nations, finally giving these vessels of dishonor up to their own disqualified mind, thereby allowing them to proceed into the darkness of ignorance, incurring their own wastefulness. In giving the nations up to their disqualified minds, Yahweh chose to elect a people of no consequence, upon whom He would bestow His mercy. At the calling of the children of the sons of Jacob, this people is characterized by Yahweh as a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Yahweh chooses to show this unworthy people His mercy in accord with the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deut. 9:5). But this people, as a collective body, does not deserve to be shown Yahweh’s mercy:
Know then that it is not because of your own righteousness that Yahweh your Elohim is giving to you this good land to tenant it, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deuteronomy 9:6 CV)
Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the vast majority of
the first generation called out of
The indignation of Yahweh was also poured out upon the
Southern Kingdom of Judah. Again, though the vast majority had become vessels
of dishonor, shame, there remained in
At the arrival of John the Baptist and Jesus, the Southern
Kingdom of Judah, representing elect
Among this faithful remnant were the vessels of dishonorable or menial service and the vessels of honorable or noble service. The majority of this faithful remnant consisted of vessels of menial service. These menial vessels responded positively to the proclamation of John the Baptist and Jesus, though they remained misled by their false shepherds. They gladly heard the words of the Baptist and Jesus, though they often misunderstood the full intent of the message they heard. Nevertheless, these faithful menial vessels received John the Baptist and Jesus as prophets of Yahweh.
Less in number among this faithful remnant were the vessels of noble service, such as Simeon the prophet and Hannah the prophetess, an elderly widow serving daily in the sanctuary (Lk. 2:25-38); Zechariah, the priest, the father of John the Baptist, and Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth of the daughters of Aaron (Lk. 1:5-7); Nicodemus (Jn. 3:1); Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-39); and Saul of Tarsus. Some of these noble vessels were not ignorant and blind (such as Simeon and Hannah), but most were ignorant and blind (such as Nicodemus, Gamaliel, and Saul of Tarsus), having been deceived by the traditions and commandments of the relatively recent fathers.
Yahweh had patiently endured among the elect nation those vessels of dishonor/shame who had been spurning His mercy from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity to the arrival of John the Baptist and Jesus. He had now appointed these worthless, wasteful vessels a time of indignation. The Baptist came proclaiming an “impending indignation” (Lk. 3:7 CV). He had come proclaiming the season of Yahweh’s salvation of His elect nation. Yahweh would be separating the vessels of dishonor/shame from the vessels of honor/glory. The vessels of dishonor/shame would be given up to the Second Death (the termination of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant at the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple made with hands) in order that Yahweh should be making known the wealth of His glory upon the vessels of honor/glory (these vessels, the faithful sons of Abraham, would enter into the promised Celestial Allotment according to Yahweh’s own elective interest). The vessels of dishonor/shame (Apostate Israel), by their rebelliously stubborn refusal to repent at the calling of Yahweh proclaimed in the Gospel, made themselves deserving of Yahweh’s just indignation, while the vessels of honor/glory, by their faith/faithfulness obedience to the truth of the Gospel to the end of the covenantal civil war, secured their worthiness to enter into the promised Celestial Allotment procured for them by THE SEED of Abraham, Jesus the Messiah. This glorious allotment had been prepared before by Yahweh for the faithful seed of Abraham.
However, the secret of
the Gospel of Christ had revealed that this wealth of glory coming upon the
vessels of mercy would come upon not only those called out from among the Jews,
but also upon those called out from among the nations. The faithful seed of
Abraham from among the nations would become fellow-citizens
of the New Born-From-Above Israel of
Yahweh. How and why was this coming about? These are the questions Paul is
about to answer in the next section of this letter to the Messianic Jews and
Gentiles in
The elect vessels of mercy being called out by the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ consist not only of those called out from among the Jews, but also of those called out from among the nations. It is this “but also” (Rom. 9:24) that Paul explains first. That the nations would jointly share in the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh had been concealed in the Law and the Prophets. The how and why of this secret of the Gospel had been revealed to the Apostle Paul who then informed Peter, James, and John concerning this secret.
Paul confirms this secret by quoting from Hosea 1:10. Hosea
had been a prophet sent to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This kingdom was to
be scattered among the nations due to her covenantal adultery. This nation
representing the ten northern tribes of
And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, . . . as David my servant did; that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. (1 Kings 11:38 KJV)
David had received the sure mercies of Yahweh, for he was a
man after Yahweh’s heart. Jeroboam, however, not being a man after Yahweh’s
heart, had caused
The Northern Kingdom of Israel, which had been Yahweh’s people under David and at the time Jeroboam had been given rule over her, was pronounced through the mouth of Hosea Lo-Ammi, not My people, because of the sin of Jeroboam. When this kingdom was scattered among the nations by Assyrian conquest, Yahweh did not go with her into her exile. Yahweh forsook her as Jeroboam had forsaken Yahweh. Thus, the scattered sheep of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had become absorbed among the nations, becoming gentiles. But Hosea had also prophesied,
I shall be calling those who are not My people “My people,” And she who is not beloved “Beloved,” “And it shall be, in the place where it was declared to them, ‘Not My people are you,’” There “they shall be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (Romans 9:25-26 CV)
The commissioning of Paul as the Apostle to the nations was in
fulfillment of this prophecy. Yahweh had begun to call the Lo-Ammi scattered sheep absorbed among the nations Ammi, once again, My people, when He had sent Peter to Cornelius and his household
and when He had directed those scattered at the persecution associated with the
assassination of Stephen to the Greeks in
And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. (Ezekiel 34:23 KJV)
Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. . . . And I will make them one nation in the land . . . and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; . . . And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. (Ezekiel 37:19, 22, 24 KJV)
He also alludes to the testimony of Zechariah:
And I will strengthen the
house of
When Peter had been sent to Cornelius, he could not explain
the spirit falling upon these uncircumcised gentiles. He had been completely
surprised by this event, together with those Jewish Messianics with him. They
had expected the gentiles to be blessed by restored
It was Paul to whom Jesus would reveal the how and the why of the salvation of the gentiles. This how and why had been a secret concealed in the Hebrew Scriptures. It would be explained by the revelation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision committed to Paul as Apostle to the nations. Those vessels being called out from among the nations and being shown mercy represented Lo-Ammi Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom of Israel absorbed among the nations as a result of the Assyrian exile, the stick of Ephraim now being joined to the stick of Judah (the Jews, representing the Southern Kingdom of Judah). In the hands of Yahweh and His Anointed Only-Begotten Son, Jesus the New Davidic Warrior-King, the two divided kingdoms were becoming one kingdom, one nation, one flock, one people, one Ecclesia consisting of the faithful sons of Abraham.
The whistle of Yahweh was now being heard by Yahweh’s lost
sheep among the nations through the sounding forth of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision
committed to the Apostle Paul. This once concealed, but now revealed Gospel
was the Gospel to the Ephraimites, the Gospel to the house of Joseph. In Jesus
the Messiah, Yahweh was now restoring the
These lost sheep were now being gathered and restored to the
one, elect, covenantal flock of
Why was Yahweh doing this? Because of His promise to David and
Ephraim/Joseph. How was Yahweh keeping His promise? By declaring the nations
covenantally clean and calling them back to Himself and His Elect Nation
through the proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision. Those faithful
Messianic Gentiles responding to the call of the Gospel were now being made joint-citizens, together with the
faithful Messianic Jews, of the New
Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, the newly covenanted
The revelation of this secret, argues Paul, also confirms the
fact that Yahweh has been faithful to His word concerning His people. The
promises to
Paul now explains the meaning of “not only out of the Jews” (Rom. 9:24). Not all the Jews are being saved as vessels of mercy in accord with Yahweh’s previously designed purpose for His elect nation. Isaiah had previously made clear the fact that a faithful remnant had always been necessary in order to achieve the welfare of the nation as a whole.
The fact that the majority of Jews had remained opposed to the Gospel did not indicate that the nation had failed to experience her salvation. Though a great number of Jews be found disqualified as a result of their uncircumcised, rebellious, stiff-necked hearts, a significant number would be brought to salvation by the suffering on their behalf of the faithful remnant preserved by Yahweh through the terrible affliction and persecution of the time of Jacob’s trouble. The manifestation in glory of this faithful remnant would open the blind eyes and melt the calloused hearts of those circumcised-in-heart Jews deceived into believing the lie of the traditions and commandments of the pseudo, hireling shepherds, the sons of Cain parading as the sons of Abel.
Not all
For a conclusive and concise accounting will Yahweh be
producing upon the earth [the inhabited
household of
Concerning
If the number of the sons of
Yahweh had in the past preserved the faithful seed of Abraham
out from among the unfaithful majority. The faithful seed had always suffered
at the hands of those whose hearts had been uncircumcised, at the hands of the
sons of Cain who had always attempted to deceive the circumcised–in-heart among
the nation. The faithful remnant had always patiently endured and stood firm
against the apostates on behalf of the entire faithful seed of Abraham,
especially those deceptively misled by the pseudo, hireling shepherds of
Apostate, Cainite Israel. This elect remnant had always been Yahweh’s
preservative within the corrupt, leavened lump of national
Unless the Lord of Sabaoth [Hosts] conserved to us [the
faithful vessels of mercy making up Yahweh’s
As the faithful remnant in the past had been used by Yahweh to
conserve the authentic seed of Abraham (Yahweh’s
The majority of Jews would become like
Since national Israel had always been characterized as disobedient, stiff-necked, uncircumcised in heart, and thus Cainish, it should be no surprise that this apostate nation not only would stumble against the stone of stumbling (Jesus the Messiah), but also fall and be crushed by this stone of stumbling. The apostate nation of uncircumcised heart had clung to the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. This nation had put its trust in the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death, refusing to acknowledge that this covenant would of necessity terminate in the Second Death.
This covenant had pointed to the Messiah and His consecrated
new covenant imparting immortal life. It had its place and had provided
terrestrial covenantal life in its period of authorization by Yahweh. The
righteousness of law (for
What, then, shall we be declaring? That nations, the
ones not earnestly pursuing righteousness, attained [appropriated] righteousness, but a righteousness which is out of
faith [the faithfulness of Christ].
But
The nations not earnestly pursuing righteousness represent those nations into which the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been absorbed. These Israelites had become Lo-Ammi, not My people, gentiles, having lost their covenantal identity. They became uncircumcised, no longer earnestly pursuing the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, though passing on the testimony concerning the One, True, Living Elohim to the nations within which they had been absorbed. Hence, many among these nations had been prepared by Yahweh for the proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision which He had determined before to send them.
These gentiles (including former Ephraimites) had not been dedicated to producing the works of the Law of Moses. They had not perceived the works of the law as the badge of their righteousness. Thus, the works of law had not hindered them from perceiving the truth of the Gospel when they had heard its proclamation. Consequently, they had attained, and continued to attain, the righteousness of Yahweh manifested in Jesus the Messiah through appropriating the Gospel by faith/faithfulness.
These gentiles (including former Ephraimites) had not been infected with the hubris (excessive, insolent arrogance) of the Jews, who, receiving the privileges and blessings of Yahweh, had arrogantly appropriated these advantages by excessive pride in producing the works of the law distinctly designed for them by Yahweh. These Jews, in their hubris, though earnestly pursuing the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, had not reached (arrived at) the goal of the righteousness of this law. They had failed to attain, appropriate, the righteousness of Yahweh, the goal of the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, manifested in Jesus the Messiah and revealed in the proclamation of the Gospel.
Why had they not reached this Yahweh-designed goal of the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law? Because, in their hubristic pride, their earnest pursuit of the righteousness of the law was out of works of law. They chose to honor the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law. They chose to trust in the righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant which was out of works of law rather than trust in the righteousness of Yahweh prophesied in the Law and the Prophets which was out of the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. Thus, they chose to love themselves and their personally achieved honor and glory rather than love Yahweh and His honor and glory: “How can you believe, getting [receiving] glory from one another, and are not seeking the glory which is from God [Yahweh] alone?” (Jn. 5:44 CV); “For they [apostate Jews] loved the glory of the men [pseudo, hireling shepherds] more than the glory of Yahweh” (Jn. 12:43 my translation).
Honoring only the letter of the law and loving the honor and glory coming from men more than the honor and glory coming from Yahweh, the Jews (the Southern Kingdom of Judah) stumbled against Yahweh’s stone of stumbling, Jesus the Messiah, the rock of scandal, an offense to the distinguished, arrogant reputations of the hubristic Jewish sons of Cain, giving and receiving their own fabricated honor and glories. These, rejecting the mercy of Yahweh offered in the Gospel, harden themselves, steadfastly opposing the Gospel to the end of the covenantal conflict in progress. These Jews not only stumble against Yahweh’s chosen stone of stumbling, but also fall and are crushed by this holy stone prophesied to be either Yahweh’s mercy or indignation.
However, not all Jews stumbling against this stone fall and are crushed. A significant, vast number of those whose hearts are circumcised, though at first stumbling, are caught and lifted up to stand on their feet by the mercy of Yahweh. Standing on their feet before this Holy Stone, having their blind eyes opened and their calloused, circumcised hearts melted, they humbly and jubilantly bow the knee of their heart to Yahweh’s Anointed Son/King. With much sincere gratitude, they receive the liberation of Jesus the Messiah, the New Davidic Warrior-King, entering into the ranks of the Holy Ecclesia, becoming citizens in the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh.
Having stumbled against Yahweh’s holy stone of stumbling,
their opposition to the Gospel and Jesus the Messiah is crushed while their
hearts are jubilantly exalted together with the exalted Stone of Yahweh’s honor
and glory. In the process, Yahweh’s Holy Stone becomes Yahweh’s
All those believing upon this Holy Stone and continuing in faith/faithfulness to the end of the covenantal conflict in progress would not be shamed-through-disappointment (Rom. 9:33, my contextual amplification of kataischuno), but glorified through exaltation to the Celestial Allotment of the seed of promise. Having rejected and being denied the honor and glory given by the men of Apostate Israel, they choose and receive the honor and glory coming from Yahweh. Shamed in the eyes of these shameful men, they are honored and glorified in the eyes of Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King.
Recognizing these two types of Jews (uncircumcised in heart
and circumcised in heart), Paul repeats his concern for all Israelites, his
kinsmen according to the flesh. These fellow-Israelites are the delight of his
heart. They are the elect, holy people of Yahweh’s elective purpose. Their
elective privileges should have consummated in their salvation. But this had
not yet occurred for national
Paul, nevertheless, continues to petition Yahweh on their behalf. He knows that not all Israelites are accounted Israelites by Yahweh. He knows the nation is divided. He knows the nation is involved in a civil war, the apostate, uncircumcised-in-heart, hubristically arrogant nation against the faithful, circumcised-in-heart, humbly contrite Born-From-Above nation. Many circumcised-in-heart Israelites, however, remain committed to the apostate nation due to their having been deceived into believing the lie of the traditions and commandments of their relatively recent forefathers taught to them presently by their pseudo, hireling shepherds.
All Israelites remaining within the jurisdictional influence of Apostate National Israel “have a zeal of Yahweh, but not according to valid acknowledgement” (Rom. 10:2 my translation). Even apostate, uncircumcised-in-heart Israelites have a zeal for Yahweh. But the zeal of all Israelites opposed to the Gospel is according to the traditions and commandments of the relatively recent forefathers. This zeal is not in accord with the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenantal Law as appropriately interpreted. It is not in accord with the letter of the law written on the heart.
Therefore, this zeal is misplaced. This zeal is not in accord
with the valid acknowledgement required by the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law.
This zeal has fallen short of the valid acknowledgement of the righteousness of
Yahweh manifested to all
Apostate Israelites, as undeceived sons/children of Cain, blatantly oppose acknowledgement of Jesus the Messiah. They comprehendingly stand firmly steadfast against the honor and glory coming from Yahweh, preferring the honor and glory fabricated by arrogant Cainite men. They place their confidence in an objective letter of law manufactured by the figurative hands of their disqualified minds, hence, producing an abstract, sterile righteousness of law-as-objective-written-code manipulated by arrogantly proud men boasting in their own judicial creation, benefiting themselves at the expense of others.
Ignorant of Yahweh’s righteousness which provides a pardon of sins and a pardon “from all [things] from which you [Jews] could not be justified in the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38b-39a CV), these invalidly zealous Jews seek to establish their own righteousness as defined by the letter of their own Mosaic Law as elaborated upon by the traditions and commandments of their own pseudo, hireling shepherds, teachers, and rulers:
For being ignorant of Yahweh’s righteousness/justification and seeking to establish their own righteousness/justification, they were not brought into subjection [by the Gospel] to Yahweh’s righteousness/justification. For Christ is a consummation of law into [resulting in a superior] righteousness/justification to everyone who is believing [into Him]. (Romans 10:3-4 my translation and elaboration)
Being ignorant of the goal of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law (the superior righteousness of Yahweh which provides a far greater justification than any objective letter of law can provide), these invalidly zealous Jews trusted in their Sinatic/Mosaic Covenantal relationship to Yahweh rather than the necessary New Covenant relationship to Yahweh to which the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law gave testimony. The appropriate understanding of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law would have necessarily resulted in the appropriate valid acknowledgement of the ultimate, superior righteousness/justification of Yahweh manifested in the person of Jesus the Messiah and revealed in the proclamation of the Gospel first sent to Jews.
But the Jews as a corporate nation sought to establish what
they mistakenly perceived to be Yahweh’s ultimate standard of righteousness,
the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant as verified, validated, by the works of law
required by this covenant, thereby avoiding being subjected by the Gospel to
the superior righteousness of Yahweh. Having misappropriated the function of
this gracious covenant given only to them, they had stumbled against Yahweh’s Holy Stone of Stumbling, the goal, the
consummation, not only of
Christ is not a consummation, an end, a telos of law, but a consummation, an end, a telos of the codified letter of law (the law codified within the framework of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant) as a means of establishing, attaining a valid righteousness in relation to Yahweh and man. Hence, Christ is a consummation of the codified letter of law as a means of attaining an inferior righteousness. This consummation of the codified letter of law results in the attainment of the ultimate, superior righteousness of Yahweh (into, eis, Rom. 10:4 Greek text, see my translation above) now given to all those believing into Christ. This New Covenant righteousness is a righteousness providing a justification of immortal life and, for those continuing faithfully to the end of the then present civil, covenantal conflict, entrance into the Celestial Allotment with its accompanying exaltation, the result of the honor and glory coming from Yahweh.
There had been a righteousness
of the letter of the law for
You will observe My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does them will also live by them: I am Yahweh. (Leviticus 18:5 CV modified)
But this righteousness became effective only when the letter of the law became written on the heart:
See! I put before you today life and good, death and
evil. In case you should hearken to the instructions [the letter of the law] of Yahweh your Elohim that I am enjoining
on you today, to love Yahweh your Elohim, to walk in His ways and to observe
His instructions, His statutes and His judgments, then you will live and
multiply, and Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in the land where you are
entering to tenant it. Yet should your heart turn around, and you are not
hearkening, and you are induced to bow yourself down to other elohim and serve
them, I tell you today that you shall perish, yea perish. You shall not prolong
your days on the ground where you are crossing over the
The letter of the law became terrestrial life and blessing to this elect, covenanted nation when the nation and her citizens hearkened to Yahweh’s instructions from the heart. Obedience meant loving Yahweh their Elohim “with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your intensity. These words which I am instructing you today will come to be in your heart” (Deut. 6:5b-6 CV). The righteousness out of the letter of the law was accounted (by Yahweh) to the Israelite who wrote the letter of the law on his or her heart, thereby resurrecting the dead, objective letter to subjective life, resulting in objective deeds of love toward Yahweh and neighbor and consistent compliance to the required works of law:
Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. (Proverbs 7:2-3 KJV)
Those Jews uncircumcised in heart wrote Yahweh’s Law on their fingers, but not on the table of their hearts. The letter of the law remained dead, being entombed in words buried in the intellect rather than being resurrected to life in words planted lovingly in the heart. Temporal, terrestrial life and good had been promised by Yahweh to a nation of citizens writing the letter of the law on their hearts, planting the word of Yahweh in the fertile soil of the heart where it would grow and become fruitful, producing a righteousness of mind and conduct to Yahweh’s honor and glory.
Thus, the righteousness out of the letter of law, in order to be produced in one’s life, required the faith after the likeness of Abraham. Faith places, plants, in the heart the dead letter of law entombed in dead words, bringing to life the letter of law through its resurrection out of its literary grave. The letter of the law apart from faith is dead. The inverse is just as true and vital, faith apart from the letter, the word of Yahweh, is dead in respect to producing the righteousness of Yahweh. The faith after the likeness of Abraham always produces righteous works, deeds, behavior, thinking.
The righteousness of the law constricted within the framework of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant requires works of law (ceremonies, rituals, holy days, festivals, animal and food sacrifices, libations). Faith under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant complies with these requirements. The righteousness of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenantal Law requires both compliance with the works of law and obedience to Yahweh’s moral, social, and economic commandments and instructions:
For Moses writes of the righteousness which is out of law [Sinatic/Mosaic Covenantal Law], that the man who produces those things [both the commandments/instructions and the works] will be exercising for himself the functions producing the terrestrial covenantal life and blessings in the sphere of the interest of those things. (Romans 10:5 my translation)
Thus, as long as the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant remains the authorized covenant of Yahweh, the righteousness of this covenantal law requires compliance with the works of law. However, this covenant also requires the righteousness of faith, without which the righteousness out of works is not accounted by Yahweh as righteousness. For Moses himself writes of the righteousness of faith:
For this instruction that I am enjoining you today, it is neither too difficult for you, nor is it too far off. It is neither in the heavens for you to say: Who shall ascend to the heavens for us and take it for us and announce it to us that we may obey? Nor is it across the sea for you to say: Who shall cross across the sea for us and take it for us and announce it to us that we may obey it? For the word is exceedingly near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to obey it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14 CV)
The word of faith had come down from the heaven of
Yahweh’s word had been brought to them; His word had been true; His word had been neither too difficult nor too far off. Therefore, His covenantal word could, and should, be believed by faith and could, and should, be obeyed in practice. Hence, Yahweh’s covenantal word was to be received by faith-accounted-for-righteousness and was to be obeyed from the heart in faithfulness of practice, which obedience to the covenant’s terms (commandments/instructions and works of law) produced the righteousness out of works of law.
With the establishment of the New Covenant of Yahweh, the old Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant was no longer authorized as a means of attaining covenantal life and blessings. The Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, therefore, could no longer provide an elective relationship with Yahweh. The faithful seed of Abraham was now required to come out from under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and enter within the sphere of the New Covenant. Only within the New Covenant could the faithful seed of Abraham receive the promise of justification of immortal life, the promise of the then present eonian life (the counter-alteration), and the promise of the Celestial Allotment.
The old covenant had required works of law. The New Covenant
did not require these works of law for the covenantal righteousness which it
provided.
Under the law of the old covenant,
In Christ, the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law had been terminated, consummated, as a means of attaining the righteousness of Yahweh. The Law of Yahweh no longer was restricted to the confines of the framework of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Thus, the crucifixion and death of Jesus the Messiah had not terminated, annulled, consummated the Law of Yahweh, rather His crucifixion and death had terminated, annulled, consummated the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of codified law.
Yahweh’s Law as objectively codified within the framework of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant had been consummated. The only valid Law of Yahweh would be that written on the heart. The law written on the heart requires creative appropriation of the laws of Yahweh as fitting each unique situation, relationship, decision. In such appropriation of Yahweh’s Law, men would be acting in the Likeness and Image of Yahweh exemplified in the life of Jesus the Messiah.
Paul takes the words of Moses recorded in Deuteronomy 30:11-14
and adapts them to the present proclamation of the Gospel. As Yahweh had
announced His word to
But the righteousness out of faith [now being announced in the Gospel] says thus: “You should not be saying in your heart, ‘who will be ascending into heaven?’” (that is, to be leading Christ down [from heaven, referring to His imminent Parousia]). Or, “who will be descending into the abyss [submerged chaos]?” (that is, to be leading Christ up out from among dead ones [referring to the life and growth of the present members of His ecclesiastical spiritual body in the midst of the dead apostate Israelites]. (Romans 10:6-7 my translation)
As Israel had confessed at Sinai the covenantal word of the faithfulness of Yahweh as true and had received it as acceptable with the mouth and, having written it in the heart, had proceeded to obey it, so those in Christ, having received the righteousness out of the faithfulness of Christ, had by faith confessed with the mouth the word of faith written in their heart concerning the sure promise of Christ’s imminent Parousia and their then present participation in His death and resurrection life (the newness of the new covenantal life according to the vivification of the counter-alteration of the spirit of Yahweh/Christ). Thus, in Christ, they were to be living the faith-obedient life. They were to be accounting themselves dead to The Law of Sin and Death, dead to the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and alive to Yahweh, alive to The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, alive to the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, under the grace of which they were to serve Christ in accord with the new terms of this new covenant. This meant sharing in the crucifixion sufferings of Christ by which the old Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of minorhood enslavement was being put to death and superseded by the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of adulthood (sonship) freedom.
While Christ was seated on His metaphorical/covenantal Davidic
throne in heaven, His spiritual, ecclesiastical Body on earth had been baptized
into His metaphorical/covenantal death and resurrected out from among the
covenantally dead Apostate Israel consisting of all those Israelites
covenantally dead under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. The Sinatic/Mosaic
Covenant was now the graveyard of the Second
Death.
Like
Faith accounted this Gospel as true, and faithfulness carried out the faith-obedience of the terms of the truth of the Gospel, the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of Yahweh. Faith-obedience to this truth, this covenant, amounted to the conviction that Christ had been led up out from among the dead of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant and would soon return. The righteousness out of faith, thus, declares,
“Near you is the Message [of Christ], in your mouth and in your heart.” That is, the Message of the faith which we [the Apostles] are proclaiming. (Romans 10:8 my translation)
This message is the message of Christ contained within the
truth of the Gospel. This message is for those already in Christ. This message
concerns the imminent Parousia of
Christ and the imminent glory to be
received by the faithful seed of Abraham. It is a message encouraging
faithfulness to the end of the present covenantal conflict, thus, encouraging
faith-obedience. The terms of the New Covenant can, should, and would be
fulfilled by those in Christ who walked in the newness of life of the counter-alteration, accounting by faith
the truth of the Gospel, the contemporary word of Yahweh for the New Born-From-Above
Because, if you should be advocating [accounting true what Yahweh declares to be the truth of the Gospel] with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and should be believing in your heart that Yahweh roused Him out from among dead ones, you will be saved [at the imminent consummation of Christ’s Parousia]. For with the heart it [this message] is believed into righteousness [faith-obedience], but with the mouth it [this message] is advocated into salvation [at the consummation of the Parousia of Christ]. For the scripture is saying, “Everyone who is acting faithfully upon the interest of His lordship will not be declared shamed-through-disappointment [my contextual amplification of kataischuno].” (Romans 10:9-11 my translation)
Those in Christ advocating with the mouth the lordship (Jesus as the Commander-In-Chief of the New Israel of Yahweh) of Jesus and believing with the heart that Yahweh roused Him out from among those dead in the graveyard of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant are the very members of His spiritual, ecclesiastical Body (His Ecclesia) who, as a corporate national body, are roused together with Him out from among the dead ones in the graveyard of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, the covenant figuratively associated with the Second Death, the covenantal death of Apostate Israel. Those faithful to the end of the covenantal conflict, those who conquer with Jesus the New Davidic Warrior-King, will not be declared shamed-through-disappointment because of their faith in the imminent consummation of Jesus the Messiah’s Parousia. For all these faithful ones will experience (as a result of their sharing in the sufferings of Christ to the end, the sufferings on behalf of the righteousness of the Gospel thus, bearing the then present shame associated with this Gospel) the honor and glory of the Celestial Allotment at the soon-to-come consummation of Christ’s Parousia. Their faith/faithfulness will have been vindicated.
The Second Death as the covenantal death of Apostate Israel is associated symbolically with the abyss, the submerged chaos of Romans 10:7 (my translation quoted above). Moses had not written concerning the submerged chaos. He wrote of crossing the sea. Paul adapts this reading to fit the current situation of the proclamation of the Gospel. The Greek word translated abyss, submerged chaos, or bottomless pit is abusson. When Jesus casts out the many demons within the man who calls himself Legion, He casts them into a herd of swine. This herd immediately stampedes over a precipice, falling into and drowning in a lake (Lk. 8:30-33). The demons had sought to escape the submerged chaos (Lk. 8:31 CV). But Jesus sends them hurtling into a lake. The submerged chaos, therefore, is associated with a lake.
The writings of the Greek Scriptures use this Greek word abusson metaphorically. Apart from Romans 10:7, the word is next used in Revelation 9:1:
And the fifth messenger trumpeted. And I perceived a star fallen out of the heaven [of the vision] into the earth [of the vision]. And to him was given the key of the well of the submerged chaos. (CV)
Out of this submerged
chaos ascends smoke from a large furnace, darkening the sun and the air.
This is metaphorical language depicting the spiritual state of Apostate Israel.
Also ascending out of the well of this submerged
chaos are demonic locusts having permission to torment the
In verse 11 of Revelation 9, the writer indicates that these
symbolic locusts have a king over them. This king is described as “the messenger of the submerged
chaos. His Hebrew name is Abaddon [destroyer], and in Greek he has the name Apollyon [the waster]” (CV). The submerged chaos is, therefore, the metaphorical description, for
the writers of the Greek Scriptures, of the corrupt condition of Apostate
Israel. The wild beast and the false prophet (representing Jewish apostates)
are cast alive into the
It is this metaphoric usage which Paul, in Romans 10:7,
borrows for his own exegetical purpose. Hence, descending into the submerged chaos refers to descending
into the graveyard of the Second Death,
the covenantal death of Apostate Israel, the nation committed to the
Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Apostate
Hence, when Paul writes in Romans 10:7, “Who will be descending into the submerged chaos —that is, to be leading Christ up out from among dead ones” (CV), he is not referring back to the physical resurrection of Jesus. He is referring to the then present covenantal resurrection (due to the counter-alteration of the spirit) of the members of Jesus’ Ecclesiastical Body, The Christ (see 1 Cor. 12:12-13 Greek text) which would be completed at the consummation of the Parousia of Jesus. It is this resurrection the faithful Messianics must be believing through active and continuous faith-obedience to the end of the then present affliction on behalf of the righteousness of the Gospel.
Paul concludes this section of the tenth chapter by declaring,
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek [circumcised and uncircumcised, Southern
Here, Paul refers to the initial response to the proclamation,
the evangelization, of the Gospel. The New Covenant of Jesus the Messiah makes
no distinction between Jew and Greek, between circumcised and uncircumcised,
between the Southern Kingdom of Judah and the Northern Kingdom of Israel,
between
Since Yahweh is Lord of all and is covenantally rich to all
those calling upon His name on their own behalf, how then should all these call
upon Him (as represented by His Anointed Agent,
His Name being Jesus) Whom they did not believe? The nations had long ago
turned away from Yahweh Elohim and had not even been looking for the Messiah (the Anointed One of Yahweh).
Paul answers these questions by an inspired adaptive citation of Isaiah 52:7a:
How beautifully-timed [literal, fruitfully timely, harvestingly timely] are the feet of those bringing a gospel of good things. (Romans 10:15b my translation)
Yahweh, through Jesus the Messiah, had commissioned Apostles
to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. These Apostles have been faithful to their
commission. The identity of Jesus as the
Anointed One of Yahweh, as the promised Davidic Warrior-King, as the
salvation of Yahweh for
The proclamation of this Gospel had not intended that all
those hearing it should believe it. Paul confirms this by continuing to cite
from the ongoing text of Isaiah. Paul argues that Isaiah (52:8), the very
prophet who had announced the commissioning of the Apostles, had proceeded to
also declare, “Lord, who believed our
tidings?” (
Consequently, this faith [proclaimed by the commissioned Apostles of Jesus the Messiah] is out of tidings, yet these tidings are through a message concerning Christ [as having been roused out from among dead ones, resurrected, ascended to the throne of David, and gloriously exalted]. (Romans 16:17 my translation)
The new tidings of the Gospel concerning the message of Jesus as the Messiah of Yahweh roused, resurrected, seated on the throne of David, and gloriously exalted had now been proclaimed to Israel, giving her a renewed opportunity to receive Him as her Messiah. But not all who had heard this message of covenantal salvation had believed the message. Not all who had heard this message had believed into Jesus as their roused, resurrected, and gloriously enthroned and exalted King. Although many had believed this message, the nation as a corporate body rebelliously rejected Christ’s merciful, loving, royal solicitation calling the nation to repent of her national sin and turn to Him, bowing the knee of their heart to Him in royal service.
Christ as both the
Medium and the Message, as both
Lord and Savior, as both King and Priest, had been rejected by Apostate Israel.
This had been prophesied by Moses, as well as the prophets sent to
The nations had been no better. Many had believed the message of the Gospel sent to them (the Gospel of the Uncircumcision, the message concerning Christ as the seed of uncircumcised Abram whose faith had been accounted for righteousness while yet being uncircumcised). The nations in the present and in the past had also been characterized as Cainish. Not all the uncircumcised are circumcised in heart. Not all the uncircumcised children of Abram are Abram’s children of faith.
In the past, the nations had heard the message of Yahweh and
had dismissed it, exchanging it for the lie and being given over to a
disqualified mind. In the past,
This, Paul confirms by quoting Psalm 19:4, which passage
refers to the testimony of Yahweh among the nations. The first section of this
Psalm (vs. 1-6) refers to Yahweh’s testimony among the nations, whereas the
second section (vs. 7-10) refers to Yahweh’s testimony to
By quoting this passage (Ps. 19:4), Paul also, by allusion,
refers it to the past and present situation of
But I am asking, did they [
The testimony of Yahweh deposited with Adam and the
antediluvian fathers, ending with Noah, had been heard and spurned by the
nations established after the flood. Following the dispersal of humanity after
its attempt to construct the
Paul now proceeds to confirm
But I am asking, did
Moses had instructed
This
Now, Paul declares, the Southern Kingdom of Judah has hardened her heart against the voice of Yahweh speaking in the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. This Cainite, Apostate Israel has stumbled against Yahweh’s stone of stumbling. Yahweh has made that stubbornness, that hardness, steadfast, even for the many circumcised-in-heart Jews remaining identified with the Jewish national commonwealth clinging to the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant for covenantal life and blessings. It is on behalf of these circumcised-in-heart Jews that the faithful remnant in Christ share in the sufferings of Christ.
As a result of the hardening of Apostate Israel, Yahweh has now extended His mercy, once again, to the Northern Kingdom of Israel, now represented by those among the gentiles who had not been searching for Yahweh, nor had been inquiring after Him. Having now been sent and hearing the proclamation of the Gospel by Yahweh’s commissioned servants, and having obeyed it, these Gentiles have received enthusiastically its message concerning the significance of Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension to the throne of David, and glorious exaltation in relation to the salvation of the nations, the reunification of the Southern and Northern Kingdoms, and the blessing of Abraham’s uncircumcised seed.
Yahweh has temporarily hardened the already hardened hearts of
the elect Israelites among the apostate nation, those whose circumcised hearts
are hardened due to the deception of the traditions and commandments of the
pseudo, hireling shepherd-fathers of the exile, in order to show His mercy to
the once Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of
Israel. The Southern Kingdom of Judah will remain unfavored until the
complement of the Gentiles (a people for Yahweh’s name from among the nations)
enters into the New Born-From-Above
Israel (Rom. 11:25; Gen. 48:19). At that time, Yahweh would open the blind
eyes and melt the hardened hearts of those circumcised-in-heart Jews opposing
Christ and the Gospel, as Saul of Tarsus had opposed Christ and the Gospel. At
that time, soon to come, all Yahweh’s
Because Apostate Israel has hardened her heart against Yahweh’s voice, Yahweh’s Messiah, Yahweh’s Gospel, and Yahweh’s New Covenant; has Yahweh cast away His people? This could be concluded on the basis of Paul’s last citation of Isaiah, “The whole day I spread out My hands to a stubborn and contradicting people!” (Rom. 10:21 CV, quoting Isa. 65:2). However, Paul firmly denies the possibility of this conclusion. Yahweh has not cast away His elect people.
Paul, himself, is proof of this. Here again, he alludes to his
own salvation on the road to
Perceiving with his mind and acknowledging with his heart the love and mercy of Yahweh in the face of Jesus the Messiah, Saul of Tarsus had immediately bowed the knee of his heart to his Lord, his King, and His Savior. He had previously hardened his heart in his blindness and ignorance, and, for a short time, Yahweh had made that hardness steadfast. But Yahweh is faithful to His word, to His promises made to Abraham and his legitimate seed. In spite of the blind and ignorant opposition of Saul of Tarsus, a legitimate child of Abraham, a circumcised-in-heart Israelite, Yahweh had remembered him; Yahweh had recognized him; Yahweh had acknowledged him; Yahweh had preserved him; Yahweh had redeemed him from his enslaved state of deceptive service to the lie of Apostate Israel:
For I also am an Israelite, out of Abraham's seed, Benjamin's tribe. God [Yahweh] does not thrust away His people whom He foreknew. (Romans 11:1b-2a CV)
The people who Yahweh “foreknew” are those whose hearts are circumcised. He foreknew only those He accounts as faithful children of Abraham. Not all Abraham’s biological seed who are circumcised in flesh are Abraham’s legitimate seed of promise. Only those Israelites circumcised in flesh and heart are accounted Abraham’s legitimate seed of faith.
Paul confirms this foreknown elect seed of promise to whom
Yahweh extends His grace and mercy by referring the Jewish and Gentile
Messianic sons of Abraham at Rome to the experience of Elijah (1 Kings,
chapters 18-19). This great prophet of
Lord, Your prophets they killed; Your altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they are presently seeking my soul. (Romans 11:3 my translation)
Paul rhetorically reminds his audience of Yahweh’s reply to Elijah,
I left to my interest seven thousand men who bowed not a knee to the image of Baal. (Romans 11:4 my translation)
Yahweh had preserved, protected, to His own elective interest,
a faithful remnant whom He foreknew. These faithful children of Abraham continued
to testify to the apostate nation. This faithful remnant would rescue others
from the deceptive covenantal adultery of the apostate nation. Their faithful
testimony and endurance of persecution in the midst of
Paul then, concludes,
Thus, then, also in the present season there has come to be a remnant according to an election of grace. (Romans 11:5 my translation)
Yahweh has continued to preserve to His elective interest
(purpose) a faithful remnant in the midst of an unfaithful nation. He is
presently calling out this legitimate seed of Abraham from the midst of
Abraham’s illegitimate seed. These faithful sons of Abraham are suffering
persecution for the sake of the righteousness of Yahweh, the righteousness of
the Gospel, the righteousness of Yahweh’s Anointed Son/King. They endure this
persecution on behalf of those legitimate children of Abraham still enslaved
under the deceptive lie of the apostate, pseudo, hireling shepherd-fathers of
Apostate Israel. These blind and ignorant circumcised-in-heart children of
Abraham are in the same condition in which Saul of Tarsus had been. Saul’s
salvation is the pattern of their imminent
salvation (1 Tim.
The current salvation of Yahweh’s elect, foreknown people is according to His grace, and, so, no longer out of works of law:
But if this [salvation] is to the interest of [Yahweh’s] grace, it is no longer out of works [works required by the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law], otherwise, this grace is no longer coming to be [in accord with Yahweh’s previously manifested] grace. (Romans 11:6a my translation)
The ancient remnant of election during the time of Elijah (the
Northern Kingdom of Israel) had been cut off from the cultic worship associated
with
Yahweh’s gracious mercy had preserved His elect people on the
basis of their faith apart from the works of law. This had been true of those
in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, as well as those in the Southern Kingdom of
Judah at the time during which the
This righteousness was not the righteousness of the
Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law. It was the righteousness of faith which
requires faith-obedience. The faithful in
In the then present proclamation of the Gospel, the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant no longer was authorized to provide covenantal life and blessings. It had been superseded by the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant. Therefore, the righteousness out of works of law was no longer valid. The only valid righteousness of Yahweh was that associated with the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah and the New Covenant. This was the righteousness of faith/faithfulness, the righteousness of the faith of Abraham accounted for righteousness.
Though the works of the law could and should be observed,
these works could no longer provide a righteousness of Yahweh, a righteous
covenantal relationship to Yahweh. Covenantal righteous relationship with Yahweh
was now provided by the New Covenant alone. The Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant had
become the graveyard of the dead. The elect people of Yahweh were being called
out from the grave of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant into the life of the New
Covenant. Thus, the people Yahweh foreknew,
the elect, legitimate children of Abraham, were being called out of the apostate
nation, Apostate Israel, into the faithful, righteous nation, the New Born-From-Above
What then? What Israel [masculine, the old national man given life and death at Sinai] is presently seeking for [the righteousness of Yahweh which is the goal of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant], this [righteousness of Yahweh manifested in the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah] he [Apostate Israel] did not encounter, but the election [the Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, the New National Man in Christ] encountered it. But the rest [uncircumcised-in-heart apostate Jews and the still blind and ignorant, deceived, circumcised-in-heart Jews] were calloused [hardened]. According as it is written, “Yahweh gave to their apostate concern a spirit of slumber [anesthetic numbness], eyes so as not to be seeing, and ears so as not to be hearing,” till this very day. (Romans 11:7-8 my translation)
Israel, the Old National Man given covenantal life at Sinai, the Cainite Israel condemned to covenantal death as a result of his worship of the Golden Calf, clinging to the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant for covenantal life and blessings failed to encounter the righteousness of Yahweh testified to by that very same covenant. The Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of law pointed to and was leading this elect nation to Jesus the Messiah. However, since Apostate Israel placed his confidence in the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant itself, instead of the One to Whom it had been pointing and to Whom it had been leading him, this Cainite nation arrogantly murdered and rejected the Anointed Son/King of Yahweh as Cain had arrogantly rejected the word of Yahweh and murdered his brother Abel.
Having already hardened his own heart, Cainite Israel had his heart steadfastly hardened by Yahweh in order for Yahweh to bless the nations (representing Abraham’s faithful uncircumcised seed and the previously Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of Israel). But within the deceptive clutches of Apostate Israel were the remaining Israelites of Yahweh. These also had been hardened by Yahweh until their appointed time, like Saul of Tarsus, to have their eyes mercifully and graciously opened and their calloused hearts mercifully and graciously melted, not out of works of law, but out of the grace of Yahweh through the faith accounted as righteousness. But, as David had accurately prophesied, the Cainite, apostate nation of Israel would come under the indignation of Yahweh Who was presently, according to Paul, in the process of executing His covenantal sentence of national death pronounced at Mount Sinai upon this stiff-necked and disobedient nation (Rom. 11:9-10).
Hence, although the Apostate, Cainite Israel had stumbled against Yahweh’s stone of stumbling and was in the process of falling down under the death-crushing blow of the stone-become-Rock/Mountain, the elect, faithful Israel within the apostate nation had only tripped over the stone of stumbling. In blindness and ignorance this faithful remnant had tripped. She had not tripped in blatant, arrogant rebellion. She had been deceived. Thus, she had temporarily tripped over the stone, but mercifully and graciously Yahweh would prevent her from falling and being covenantally crushed.
Instead, her tripping
would imminently awaken her from her
deceptive slumber, causing her to behold her Lord, her King, her Savior. Being
blind and ignorant, she had tripped over the stone, graciously being awakened
in time to regain her balance, her composure, rising to behold Yahweh her
gracious and merciful Elohim and His Anointed Son/King. Like Saul of Tarsus on
the road to
I am asking, then, did they [these blind and ignorant, circumcised in heart, deceived, faithful children of Abraham] stumble [trip] in order that they should fall? May it not be coming to that! But the purpose of their slip-aside [paraptomati = aside-slip, deviation, lapse] is the salvation purposed for the nations with a view to the provoking of them [the deceived, circumcised-in-heart Jews] to jealousy. (Romans 11:11 my translation)
Those Jews, like Saul of Tarsus, have been allowed to trip
over the stone of stumbling for a
short time in order for Yahweh to fulfill His purpose among the gentiles. The
Israel of Yahweh within the apostate nation (the deceived, circumcised-in-heart
Jews like the former Saul of Tarsus) is an elect instrument or vessel of
menial, common, dishonorable use. She is used by Yahweh to stir up affliction
by which Yahweh would prove, test, try the faithfulness of both the Messianic
Jews and Messianic Gentiles. By judging the message of the Gospel as a scandal
against the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant, the Jewish National Commonwealth (within
which the deceived, blind, ignorant, circumcised-in-heart
To you first was it necessary that the word of God [Yahweh] be spoken. Yet, since, in fact, you are thrusting it away, and are judging yourselves not worthy of eonian life, lo! we are turning to the nations. For thus the Lord has directed us: I have appointed Thee [Christ and those Jews in His Ecclestiastical Body] for a light of the nations; . . . (Acts 13:46b-47a CV)
This verdict had been in accord with Yahweh’s purpose revealed
in Isaiah. Yahweh had intended to use the blindness of
It is not the fall of this hubristic, arrogant, apostate
The vessels of dishonor, having prepared themselves for the
destructive indignation which Yahweh prepared before for those unfaithful,
uncircumcised-in-heart elect Jews, are those Jews belonging to Apostate Israel
and clinging desperately and tenaciously to the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant for
covenantal life and promised blessings. These Jews, stumbling against the stone of stumbling, fall and are crushed
to covenantal death (the Second Death)
by the stone-become-Mountain
Born-From-Above
Apostate
But if their slip-aside [their unintentional deviation as vessels of dishonor] is the wealth of a world-order [the new Abrahamic world-order of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant] and their deterioration [opposition to the Gospel, thrusting away of salvation, the dying of the Second Death, the lack of the counter-alteration] the wealth of nations, how much more the sum when these unintentional vessels of dishonor are added as a completion of the Israel of Yahweh?! (Romans 11:12 my translation)
The unintentional slip-aside of these deceived vessels of dishonor means the wealth of the new Abrahamic world-order of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, because salvation is extended to the gentiles (the previously Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of Israel). This is the world-order promised to Abraham. This is the world-order he looked for in faith:
For not through law [the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant] is the promise to Abraham, or to his Seed, for him to be enjoyer of the allotment of the [before promised but now present] world-order [established by Jesus the Messiah, Abraham’s promised Seed], . . . (Romans 4:13a CV modified)
The unintentional deviation of this deceived
And saying to them is Joseph, “You must not fear, for under the purpose of Elohim am I. And all of you, you devised evil against me, yet Elohim devised it for me for good, that it should work out as at this day, to preserve alive many people.” (Genesis 50:19-20 CV modified)
If their deviation (unintentional slip-aside due to blindness
and ignorance) is the wealth of a new world-order and their deterioration
(their severance from the national elective tree of covenantal life) the wealth
(the salvation on equal terms) of the nations (the authorization of the
proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision), how much more will be the
glory of Yahweh, His Anointed Son/King, and the Born-From-Above Israel when these deceived vessels, no longer being
deceived, are added to the sum total of the New
Glorified
In explaining this truth of the Gospel, Paul has the Messianic Gentiles especially in mind:
But I am speaking to the interest of you the nations in as much as, indeed, then, I, Yes I, am an apostle of nations, my ministry I am glorying, if somehow I should be provoking to jealously those of my flesh, and should be saving some [those whose hearts are circumcised] out from among them. (Romans 11:13-14 my translation)
Some Messianic Gentiles were coming to the conclusion that Yahweh had abandoned His people, the Jews. Some had concluded that the Messianic Gentiles were in the process of replacing the Jews as the holy people of Yahweh. From their point of view, the Jews had forfeited their elective prerogatives because of their unbelief.
Paul, however, understands the opposite to be true. The
Messianic Gentiles have their elective place in the Israel of Yahweh. If Yahweh
had abandoned Jewish Israel, then these Messianic Gentiles themselves would
have no access to the gracious mercy and compassion of Yahweh’s present
salvation. These Messianic Gentiles need to be reminded that salvation is of the Jews, as Jesus made
clear to the Samaritan woman (Jn.
Paul understands that his apostleship to the nations also involves the provoking of some of the Jews to jealousy, resulting in their turning back to the truth of Yahweh their Elohim. Through the seductive deception of The Adversary, they have been led astray from their covenantal Shepherd. They have become deaf to the voice of Yahweh the Shepherd of Israel. But the blessing of the Messianic Gentiles will provoke many of them to jealousy, realizing that the blessings which these Messianic Gentiles now have are rightfully theirs (the Jews) by covenantal promise. Some (whose hearts are circumcised), through this divinely inspired jealously, will break the deceptive spell of The Adversary which has anesthetized their minds and hearts to the truth of the Gospel. This is the will, the purpose, of Yahweh. This purpose will not fail to produce the intended outcome. To this outcome Paul is glorifying, magnifying his ministry to the nations.
Paul concludes this section of his argument as follows:
For if their [temporary] casting-away is a counter-alteration of a world-order [the counter-alteration of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant by the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant, see 2 Cor. 5:16-19], what is their [the circumcised-in-heart Israelites within Apostate Israel] taking-back, if not life out from among dead ones [the completion of salvation out from the death of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant into the life of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant]. (Romans 11:15 my translation)
The temporary casting-away of blind and ignorant Israel brought about Yahweh’s prophetic counter-alteration of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant (a covenant terminating in death and excluding uncircumcised gentiles) by the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant (a covenant providing immortal life and including the uncircumcised gentiles). The world-order of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant has now given way to the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant world-order. The world-order of the old covenant has been liberatingly counter-altered. That world-order had been designed for the guidance of men still in historical childhood. The world-order of the New Covenant had been designed for men entering into historical adulthood and maturity, men entering into mature sonship alongside Yahweh.
This altering process had not yet reached its conclusion. The
taking-back by Yahweh of blind and ignorant
As blind and ignorant elective Israel as vessels of menial dishonor had cast away from themselves the truth of the Gospel, resulting in the counter-alteration of the Sinatic/Mosaic world-order, so their taking-back, as a result of their reception of the truth of the Gospel, would terminate their usefulness as vessels of menial dishonor. This would result in the completion, the consummation of the corporate Resurrection-life of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh. Thus, the salvation of all Israel-as- accounted-by-Yahweh would become a reality.
Paul continues his explanation of the role of blind and
ignorant
But if the firstfruit of the dough is holy [sanctified, separated for Yahweh’s use], so also is the kneading [the whole lump of dough]. (Romans 11:16a my translation)
The dough represents elect
Those Jews hearing the Gospel and believing upon hearing are likened to holy vessels of honor. Those Jews blind and ignorant, though possessing circumcised hearts, rejecting the Gospel upon hearing its proclamation, are likened to holy vessels of menial dishonor needing cleansing. Those Jews uncircumcised in heart who blatantly and arrogantly oppose the Gospel as children or sons of Cain are holy vessels of contaminated dishonor.
Paul’s first analogy of the lump of dough refers to
His second analogy, not merely implied, but fully developed, is that of the two trees. He begins his analogy with the essential holy tree:
And if the root of the tree is holy, so also are the branches. (Romans 11:16b my translation)
The tree represents holy, elect
Abraham’s elect, circumcised seed would be placed under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Under this covenant, the elect, circumcised seed of Abraham brought down upon itself the indignation of Yahweh. The Northern Kingdom of Israel circumcised seed of Abraham had been judged Lo-Ammi and scattered among the nations by the Assyrian Empire. This circumcised seed of Abraham became uncircumcised among the nations. The Southern Kingdom of Judah circumcised seed of Abraham had been exiled by Yahweh under the Babylonian conquest.
Thus, the one holy tree had become divided into two separate trees. The first becoming unholy, uncircumcised; the second, though remaining holy (circumcised), becoming cut down to a withered and dry stump though covenantally remaining alive and bearing branches, few of which produced fruit. Jeremiah wrote of the judgment of this tree:
The Lord [Yahweh] called your name, “A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”; . . . And the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you . . . (Jeremiah 11:16-17a NASB)
Isaiah also wrote of the judgment of
I asked, “How long, my Lord?” And He replied:
“Till towns lie waste without inhabitants
And houses without people,
And the ground lies waste and desolate—
For the Lord [Yahweh] will banish the population— And deserted sites are many
In the midst of the land.
“But while a
tenth part yet remains in it, it shall repent. It shall be ravaged like a
terebinth and the oak, of which stumps are left even when they are felled: its [
But there had remained hope for such a tree, as Job had testified,
For there is hope for a tree,
When it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And its shoots will not fail.
Though its roots grow old in the ground,
And its stump dies in the dry soil,
At the scent of water it will flourish
And put forth sprigs like a plant. (Job 14:7-9 NASB)
This dried up, withered stump, its root now having scented the
living water of the resurrected Jesus the Messiah, had begun to come alive. The
water of life of the New Covenant had reinvigorated the stump and its branches.
The covenantal tree of
In the process of this reinvigoration, some of the branches had been broken off. These branches consisted of those withered and dried up and those already dead. Those withered and dried up are those characterized as circumcised in heart. Those already dead are those characterized as uncircumcised in heart. Paul explains,
But if some of the branches were broken out, but you [singular, a bough from the wild olive tree containing many branches], being a wild olive tree [the Messianic Gentiles representing the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the now uncircumcised, unholy, uncultivated tree of Joseph/Ephraim], were engrafted among them [the natural, holy, pure, honorable branches, the Messianic Jews], and became joint-partaker of the root [Jesus the Messiah as The Seed of Abraham] and the fatness [wealth, the counter-alteration] of the olive tree [the holy cultivated olive tree of the Southern Kingdom of Judah], be not boasting on behalf of yourself [singular] against the natural, holy branches [the Messianic Jews remaining in the tree and the non-messianic Jews broken off from the holy tree]. But if you [singular] are boasting on behalf of yourself against them, remember, you do not bear the root, but the root bears you. (Romans 11:17-18 my translation)
The dead branches, by their blatant, arrogant opposition to Jesus the Messiah and the Gospel, had cut themselves off from the reinvigorating sap of life. As dead branches removed from the tree, they are soon to be gathered for destruction. The withered and dried-up branches, also opposing Jesus the Messiah and the Gospel, have also cut themselves off from having access to the reinvigorating sap of the New Covenant life. However, unlike the dead branches which had blatantly opposed Jesus the Messiah and the Gospel as a result of their uncircumcised hearts, these withered and dried-up branches oppose the truth of the Gospel in the state of deception. Having circumcised hearts, Yahweh will show them mercy in His soon-to-come appointed time. Opening their blind eyes and melting their hardened hearts, turning back to Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King, these circumcised-in-heart branches will be grafted back into the tree.
The Messianic Gentiles, as a result of the removal of these Jewish antimessianic branches, had, as branches in a huge, main bough of a wild olive tree, been engrafted into the cultivated (holy) olive tree. This huge, main bough of a wild olive tree (representing the former Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of Israel), as a collective unit containing a number of branches, had been engrafted into the cultivated olive tree (representing the Southern Kingdom of Judah), thereby gaining access to the life-giving sap of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of Jesus the Messiah.
Paul warns these Messianic Gentile branches not to be boasting
against the Jewish natural branches, either those remaining in the tree or
those having been removed out of the tree. The Messianic Gentiles are not to
conclude that they are replacing
Yahweh has removed Jewish branches because of their unbelief. He has engrafted Gentile branches within a huge, main bough of a wild olive tree because of their belief in the truth of the Gospel. As long as these Gentile branches continue faithfully in the truth of the Gospel, they shall remain in the cultivated olive tree of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh.
The huge, main bough from the wild olive tree will remain engrafted in the cultivated olive tree. This is the work of Yahweh. This huge main bough will continue to bear branches. As long as these branches continue faithful to the truth of the Gospel, they shall remain in the cultivated olive tree. However, if these branches turn away from the truth of the Gospel, if they, too, cut themselves off from the life-giving sap of the cultivated olive tree, they also will be removed from the tree. Faithfulness to the end of the present covenantal conflict is necessary if one is to remain in the cultivated olive tree, the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh.
Paul reminds the Messianic Gentiles at
Hence, the Messianic Gentiles had become joint-partakers of the root of the cultivated tree of the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh. They were no longer uncircumcised citizens of the non-elect, unfavored nations. They were now Israelites, “fellow-citizens of the saints” (Eph. 2:19 CV), the Saints being the Messianic Jews, the natural branches of the cultivated, holy, new covenantal tree of the New Israel of Yahweh, the newly reinvigorated tree of the Born-From-Above Israel.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel, once a cultivated olive tree,
had become Lo-Ammi, a wild olive tree
planted among the nations. The individual Israelite members of this Lo-Ammi kingdom had been scattered as a
result of Yahweh’s indignation against the
This huge, main bough taken out of the wild olive tree,
through the evangelization of the Apostle commissioned to the nations (Paul),
continued to bear many branches representing the uncircumcised believers among
the gentiles. These peoples had been prepared before by Yahweh for the
proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision, thereby fulfilling the
promise Yahweh made to Abraham concerning the blessing of the nations through The Seed of Abraham. Although
uncircumcised, these branches became authentic, legitimate branches in the
newly reinvigorated tree of
Anticipating the objection of some of those among the Messianic Gentiles, Paul continues to warn the Gentile Messianics at Rome against a false and deadly misunderstanding of the present rejection by national Israel (the Jewish National Commonwealth represented by the Temple cult and the synagogues in the holy land and among the nations) of her Messiah and the Gospel of Yahweh her Elohim:
You will be declaring, then, “Broken out were branches
[Jews] in order that I should be engrafted.”
Beautifully put! Because of their unbelief they were broken out, yet you [Messianic
Gentiles] stand [are engrafted and remain engrafted] on
the basis of faith/faithfulness. Be not haughty [regarding yourself too highly], but be fearing to your own welfare.
For if Yahweh spared not the natural branches [Jews], neither will He be sparing you [Gentile Messianics if you do not continue walking by faith/faithfulness]!
Perceive, then, Yahweh’s kindness and severity! Indeed, upon those who fall
[as a result of unbelief], severity [removal
from the tree, the Born-From-Above Israel].
But upon you [Gentile Messianics],
Yahweh’s kindness, if you should be persisting faithfully in the interest
of His kindness. Otherwise, you also will be chopped out [hewn from the tree of the Born-From-Above
Some Messianic Gentiles had reached the conclusion that the Jews were being rejected by Yahweh in order to transfer His favor from them to the Gentile Messianics. This haughty attitude, if not checked, would result in a covenantally destructive hubris (a pseudo arrogant pride) among the Gentile Messianics akin to that of the apostate uncircumcised-in-heart Jews who were personally committed unswervingly to the abominable opposition of Apostate Israel to the New Born-From-Above Israel. Believing the Jewish branches had been removed from the favor of Yahweh in order to favor themselves, these Gentile Messianics were boasting self-righteously against the humiliated Jews. They perceived themselves to be superior to, to be worthier than, the inferior, worthless Jews who had prided themselves as being above all other peoples.
Paul refutes such a fleshly, soilish attitude. He concedes
that the breaking off of the Jewish branches has resulted in the engrafting of
the Gentile branches. But he reminds the Messianic Gentiles at
The Jews removed from Yahweh’s favor, from Yahweh’s people,
from Yahweh’s new, reinvigorated Born-From-Above
Israel, had been removed as a result of their rejection of Jesus as
Messiah, their blatant disobedience to the voice of Yahweh speaking to them in
the proclamation of the Gospel. The Gentile Messianics had been engrafted into
the covenantal tree of the new
But the erroneous attitude of some of them threatened to return them to their own debilitating self-righteousness, thereby being cut off from the righteousness of Yahweh manifested in Jesus the Messiah and revealed in the truth of the Gospel. Turning from the righteousness of Yahweh to their own haughty self-righteousness would result in their removal from the new, national, cultivated olive tree of covenantal life. The continued favor and righteousness of Yahweh required a life of faith/faithfulness to Jesus the Messiah and the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant to the consummation of the imminent Parousia of Jesus the Anointed Davidic Warrior-King. Paul, therefore, admonishes the Gentile Messianics at Rome, on behalf of their own welfare, to fear Yahweh and remain faithful to their vow of faith to Jesus the Anointed Son/King of Yahweh, for it is written, “For the Lord [Yahweh] shall judge his people” (Deut. 32:36a KJV) and, as the writer of Hebrews would testify, “Fearful is it to be falling into the hands of the living God!” (Heb. 10:31 CV).
Continuing his argument, Paul deduces that if Yahweh judged the natural branches (Jews) disqualified from remaining in His favor because of their unfaithfulness, He will certainly judge the unnatural branches (Gentiles) disqualified from remaining in His favor if they also become unfaithful to the truth of the Gospel. As the unfaithful Jews had been cut off from the grace and salvation of the new, invigorated, Born-From-Above elect, holy Israel of Yahweh, so also would the unfaithful Gentile Messianics be cut off from the grace and salvation of the New Born-From-Above, elect, holy Israel of Yahweh.
The Messianic Gentiles had been shown Yahweh’s kindness, His mercy and compassion, by proclaiming to them the Gospel of the Uncircumcision and accounting their faith for righteousness. But to those unbelieving, unfaithful Jews who had stumbled against the stone of stumbling, He had shown His severity by disqualifying them as citizens of His Israel. His severe judgment against them cut them off from the living water invigorating His Israel. While the new nation (the cultivated olive tree) flourished as a result of the counter-altering spirit of life, the Jews clinging to the old Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant (the dead branches and the withered and dried branches of the old nation) had been severed from Yahweh’s Israel, becoming covenantally old and decrepit, on the verge of being gathered for covenantal burning (enduring the destruction of the Second Death, the termination of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant of death).
Yahweh’s kindness shown to the Messianic Gentiles would continue only if they continued faithfully in faith-obedience to the truth of the Gospel as Abraham had continued faithful to Yahweh’s word of promise to the end of his life. It was possible for them to apostatize. If becoming apostate, as the uncircumcised-in-heart Jews, they also would be hewn out of the cultivated olive tree (lose their citizenship in the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh). Having graciously been placed in Christ, they would spurnfully be expelled from the elect, holy Body of Christ, being placed among the dead natural branches (uncircumcised-in-heart Jews, Apostate Israel) as previously holy but now contaminated branches suitable only for the soon-to-come judgment of fire.
In order to finally discourage the self-righteous, arrogant, haughty attitude of some of the Gentile Messianics, Paul confirms the humbling fact that those Jews who have been cut off from the new Israel because of unbelief will be grafted into the new Israel if they should repent of their unbelief, turning back to Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King. Indeed, this would be the near-future experience of all the presently deceived circumcised-in-heart Jews, blindly and ignorantly opposing Jesus as Messiah and the truth of the Gospel as Saul of Tarsus himself had done. Yahweh has not forsaken His people. He is both able and willing to graft them back into their own cultivated olive tree (into their own reinvigorated, recovenanted, elect, holy nation). If Yahweh’s mercy had chopped a main bough containing many flourishing branches out of the olive tree wild as a result of the natural condition of uncircumcision, how much more would be His mercy to the natural branches which had been discarded, even as Ezekiel had testified,
But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him: in his righteousness that he hath done [his turning back to Yahweh and His righteousness] he shall live. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD [Yahweh, Elohim]: and not that he should return from his ways, and live? . . . For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, . . . (Ezekiel 18:21-23, 32a KJV)
The Gentile Messianics, as a collective whole (the huge, main bough of flourishing uncircumcised branches representing the uncircumcised seed of Abraham), had been hewn out of the naturally uncircumcised wild olive tree (the uncircumcised, uncovenanted nations, including the absorbed Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of Israel) and, contrary to the nature of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant (requiring circumcision), had been grafted into the cultivated (covenanted) olive tree of Israel (Abraham’s circumcised seed). If Yahweh had gone to such an extreme for the unnatural branches, how much more extreme shall be His merciful effort on behalf of the natural branches (those who have been deceived by The Adversary and his ministers, those who are presently enemies yet remain elect for the sake of the forefathers [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob], those who oppose the truth only because of their blindness and ignorance, those whose hearts are circumcised, hence, those who belong to Yahweh)! Many of the opposing natural branches would be grafted back into the new cultivated olive tree, the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh’s mercy, Yahweh’s righteousness, Yahweh’s love.
The Gentile Messianics at
That all
For I am not willing for you to be ignorant, brethren,
of this very secret [which has been under
discussion], in order that you should not be victimized by your own
conceits, that a temporary, partial callousness to the concerned Israel [those Jews belonging to Yahweh on the basis
of their circumcised hearts] has come, until such time as the complement of
the nations should be entering. And thus all
A temporary, partial callousness (hardening of heart), due to
blindness and ignorance caused by the deception of the pseudo, hireling
shepherd-fathers, has come upon the unbelieving but concerned (zealous)
circumcised-in-heart Israel of Yahweh. These circumcised-in-heart, yet still
unbelieving, Israelites are numbered by Yahweh among those He is accounting as
authentic
Yahweh has elected to make steadfast their partial callousness to Jesus and the Gospel until the time arrives when the complement of the nations (the complete number of Messianic Gentiles) enters into the New Born-From-Above Israel. This refers to the completion of the evangelization among the nations by the Apostle Paul and others who have been authorized to proclaim the Gospel of the Uncircumcision. The phrase complement of the nations alludes to the literal Hebrew text of Genesis 48:19 where Ephraim in the future is to become the fullness of the nations. The New American Standard Bible translates this passage as follows:
When Joseph saw that his father [Jacob] laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it displeased him; . . . But his father . . . said, . . . “his [Ephraim’s] descendants shall become a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 48:17a, 19)
The Hebrew word translated multitude in this passage is translated in the Greek Septuagint by the word plathos, a form of the Greek word used by Paul, plaroma, meaning fullness or complement.
Ephraim represents the Northern Kingdom of Israel which had become Lo-Ammi, not My people. Thus, Ephraim, as the Northern Kingdom of Israel, becoming Lo-Ammi and absorbed among the nations, literally became a multitude of nations. Ephraim prophetically became the fullness or complement of the nations when responding to the call of Yahweh heard in the proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision sent to the nations under the administrative office of the Apostle Paul, commissioned by Yahweh.
When the Apostle Paul would have completed his administrative commission among the nations, the time would have arrived for Yahweh to open the eyes and melt the hardened hearts of those Israelites remaining in unbelief due to the deception of The Adversary. These are the Israelites, circumcised-in-heart Jews, accounted by Yahweh as the faithful seed of Abraham. They remain within Apostate Israel for a season predetermined by Yahweh according to His elective purpose by which He would fulfill His promise to reunite the Northern Kingdom of Israel with the Southern Kingdom of Judah, thereby restoring the unity of the Davidic Kingdom, building again the covenantal house of David through Jesus the promised Son of David, the gloriously exalted New Davidic Warrior-King. By calling a people out from among the nations, Yahweh had also fulfilled His promise to Abraham concerning the blessing of the nations through his Seed, Jesus the circumcised Messiah of the Israel of Yahweh. This New Born-From-Above Israel consisted of both Abraham’s faithful circumcised seed, as well as his faithful uncircumcised seed.
When the Gentile mission of the Apostle Paul had been
completed, the Ecclesia of Jesus the Messiah would be manifested in glory,
signaling the already approaching Parousia of Jesus the Davidic Warrior-King.
As a result of this manifestation in glory, the blind eyes and hardened hearts
of the circumcised-in-heart Jews remaining seductively enslaved to the lie of
Apostate Israel will have been opened and melted, resulting in their repentant
return to Yahweh and belief in Jesus the Messiah. These, then, will be added
(the natural branches, persisting no longer in unbelief, grafted back into the
cultivated olive tree) to the number of already faithful sons of Abraham (both
circumcised and uncircumcised branches already in the cultivated olive tree).
Being added to the Body of Christ, they enter the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh. Together, these two groups
form the Israel of Yahweh accounted by Yahweh as the national faithful seed of
Abraham. Thus, all
In Romans 9:26-27, Paul cites Isaiah (59:20-21) to confirm the
fact that this event had been prophesied, although concealed as to its secret,
literal fulfillment. Isaiah had declared that the rescuer of Yahweh’s
Jesus the Messiah as Yahweh’s rescuer arriving out of Zion would also turn away the ungodliness of blind and ignorant Jacob stained and humiliated by the abominable, shameful opposition to Yahweh during the prophesied time of Jacob’s trouble. In this dishonorable opposition, they had ignorantly participated to their shame, although deceptively seduced, not realizing they had been opposing the truth of Yahweh. As Rescuer of this deceived seed of the Woman within Apostate Israel (circumcised-in-heart Jews having a zeal of Yahweh, but not in accord with the Gospel of Christ, see Rom. 10:2), Jesus the Messiah would simultaneously begin to execute judgment against Apostate Israel while initiating the salvation of His circumcised-in-heart people blindly and ignorantly serving The Adversary while duped into remaining committed to the shameful, abominable cause of Apostate Israel. In opening their blind eyes and melting their calloused, hardened hearts, they would be enabled to perceive and acknowledge their sins, their shame, repentantly returning to Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King under the merciful and compassionate kindness of Yahweh Who looks not only on the outward appearance, but also into the heart. Such repentance is worthy of the forgiveness of sins provided by the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of Yahweh.
According to Paul, in relation to the present proclamation of the Gospel, these seduced, blind and ignorant, circumcised-in-heart Israelites, are to be considered enemies of the Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh (Rom. 11:28). But as far as the election is concerned, they are to be considered beloved in accord with the promises made to the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). These Jews, whose hearts are circumcised and whose eyes are blind and whose minds are ignorant, are, nevertheless, faithful children of Abraham presently deluded by the lie of the real enemy, the sons and children of Cain within the apostate nation, the Israel after the flesh, the Israel uncircumcised in heart. This nation opposes Yahweh and Jesus the Messiah both in outward appearance and in heart. To this apostate nation belongs the vengeance of Yahweh. He will judge it in righteousness. The very Law of Moses which it tenaciously clings to will judge it. For this apostate nation has not even heeded the testimony of Moses and the prophets.
But until Yahweh executes His judgment, all circumcised Jews
were to be treated as beloved because
of the fathers, because of their part in Yahweh’s election. For only Yahweh
could distinguish between those circumcised in heart and those uncircumcised in
heart. Therefore, though all were to be considered enemies in relation to the
Gospel, all non-messianic Jews were to be loved on account of Yahweh’s election
of
The deceived seed of the Woman (dwelling among Apostate Israel’s seed of the Serpent), the seduced-into-blindness-and-ignorance, faithful, circumcised seed of Abraham, will be separated from the unfaithful circumcised seed of Abraham. The uncircumcised-in-heart Jews have prepared themselves for Yahweh’s righteous vengeance. They have disqualified themselves from the promises made to the elect seed of the fathers. Yahweh’s promises associated with election are unchangeable. He remains faithful to those He accounts as faithful ones among the elect:
For unchangeable-in-purpose are the grace-effects and the calling of Yahweh. For even as you [plural, Messianic Gentiles, especially as representing the Lo-Ammi Northern Kingdom of Israel] once were stubborn to the interest of Yahweh, but now were shown mercy as a result of their [Apostate Israel’s] stubbornness; thus, also these [the blind and ignorant Jews of the Southern Kingdom of Judah whose hearts are circumcised] now were stubborn [kept blind and ignorant, calloused, hardened] in order that, as a result of the mercy shown to you [by the authorization and proclamation of the Gospel of the Uncircumcision], they also should be shown mercy [by Yahweh’s opening of their blind eyes and melting of their hardened hearts]. For Yahweh jointly-enclosed [imprisoned, locked-up together, delivered up to disobedience] the all [Abraham’s elect seed of promise, the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah] into stubbornness, in order that He should show mercy to the all [Abraham’s faithful children as accounted by Yahweh]. (Romans 11:29-32 my translation)
The promises (grace-effects, gifts, including
The elect seed had been placed under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. This elect seed had split itself into two kingdoms as a result of unfaithfulness to Yahweh’s Law. Both kingdoms, due to their continued disobedience to Yahweh’s covenantal law, had been delivered up to their disobedience. Both kingdoms, becoming impersuadable by Yahweh’s Law and by Yahweh’s commissioned prophets, had been imprisoned, locked-up together in their stubbornness.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been made Lo-Ammi and had not been shown mercy,
becoming absorbed by the nations after being taken into captivity by the
Assyrian Empire. The Southern Kingdom of Judah, also failing to remain faithful
to Yahweh’s covenantal law, had been given up to the Babylonian Empire. But
Yahweh had shown her mercy, going with her into her captivity and continuing to
speak to her through His prophets. Yahweh had shown the Southern Kingdom mercy
on behalf of His covenant made with faithful-in-heart David. He had not shown
mercy to the
With the proclamation of the Gospel of the Circumcision to the Jews, Yahweh had continued to show His mercy to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Many had believed this Gospel. But the apostate Jewish nation as a corporate cultic body had blatantly and arrogantly opposed the mercy of Yahweh extended to it through the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus, and through the ministry of the Apostles commissioned by Jesus the exalted Messiah. Many others among this apostate nation, though circumcised in heart, were blind to and ignorant of the truth of the Gospel. This faithful elect, circumcised-in-heart-and-body (seed of Abraham) had been denied Yahweh’s mercy. He had left them in this calloused condition for a season. He had made their blindness and ignorance steadfast until His appointed time of mercy.
As a result of His denying them mercy, their stubborn impersuadableness to the truth of the Gospel resulted in Yahweh, once again, extending His mercy to the Northern Kingdom of Israel representing the nations and Abraham’s uncircumcised faithful seed. This mercy had been represented by the Gospel of the Uncircumcision, the commissioning of the Apostle Paul as Yahweh’s official apostle to the nations, and, thus, the calling out from among the nations a people for His name in accord with His elective promise to Abraham that He would bless the nations through Abraham’s seed. Yahweh had now been calling out from among the nations the faithful uncircumcised seed of Abraham whom Yahweh had been preparing over many years for the time when He would show them His mercy in the proclamation of the Gospel sent specifically to them, the Gospel of the Uncircumcision, that Gospel sent by Yahweh among the nations to call to Himself the faithful, uncircumcised seed of Abraham.
This mercy now shown to them would shortly result in Yahweh’s
mercy being shown to Abraham’s faithful circumcised-in-heart-and-body seed left
blind and ignorant within the apostate Jewish Commonwealth of the unfaithful
circumcised seed of Abraham. Thus, Yahweh had imprisoned, locked up, delivered
into disobedience the entire elect seed of promise in order that He should show
the entire elect seed of promise His ultimate mercy revealed in the Gospel of
Christ, which consisted of the Gospel of the Circumcision and the Gospel of the
Uncircumcision. In the end, the entire faithful elect seed of promise, the
entire faithful elect seed of Abraham as accounted by Yahweh on the basis of
faith accounted for righteousness, would enter into the promised Celestial Allotment
of the all, the entire faithful elect
seed of promise. Hence, according to Paul, all
Paul concludes this section of the letter with a paean to Yahweh his Elohim, Israel’s Elohim, and the One, True, Living Elohim of humanity (all Adamic men and women under the verdict of the death common to all of them and, now, since the obedience of Jesus the Messiah, the Second Adam [Man], under the verdict of the life [immortal] common to all of them):
O, Yahweh’s depth of wealth, both of wisdom and knowledge! How impenetrable-to-investigation [inscrutable] are His judgments, and untraceable His ways! (Romans 11:33 my translation)
The depth of Yahweh’s wealth consists of His wisdom and
knowledge manifested in His Only-Begotten (Generated) Son, Jesus the Messiah,
the only legitimate Son of Adam, the Son/Seed of the Woman, the Son/Seed of
Abraham, the Son of David. This wisdom and knowledge manifested in Jesus became
through His life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and exaltation poured
out richly upon
The wealth of Yahweh prepared for the Man made in His Likeness
and Image (and the habitation created for this Man) had been hidden in Jesus
His Only-Begotten and Anointed Son and revealed in the Adamic world-order
beginning with the birth of Jesus in
This wisdom and knowledge began to be revealed to both
celestial and terrestrial beings in a babe born to a common Jewish couple whose
covenantally royal lineage had been hidden from
Yahweh’s judgments in association with this hidden wisdom and knowledge had been hidden in His revealed word spoken by His commissioned prophets. These judgments had been impenetrable to investigation until He had chosen to reveal them to His elect servants. His ways associated with this hidden wisdom and knowledge, though leaving visible tracks within the holy Hebrew Scriptures, disappeared into the hidden depths of the revealed word, becoming untraceable until the appointed time for their manifestation. According to Paul, that time had come. All those in Christ now had access
to all the riches of the assurance of understanding, unto a realization of the secret of the God and Father, of Christ, in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are concealed. (Colossians 2:2b-3 CV)
This had come about as a result of the proclamation of the Gospel:
to bring the evangel [Gospel] of the untraceable riches of Christ to the nations, and to enlighten all [in Christ] as to what is the administration of the secret, which has been concealed from the eons in God [Yahweh], . . . (Ephesians 3:8b-9a CV)
The depth of Yahweh’s wealth intended for all Adamic humanity
had been explained by Paul in chapter 5, verses 12 and 18, of this letter to
the Messianic Jews and Gentiles in
Neither celestial nor terrestrial beings knew the mind of the Lord of all creation until He chose to reveal it. To whom is Yahweh a debtor? Neither celestial nor terrestrial beings have made Yahweh a debtor by giving Him something for which He must pay as an obligation of debt. All creation is in debt to Yahweh, and Yahweh has not failed to graciously pour out His riches upon those unable to purchase such riches. Hence, no being has advised Yahweh concerning His purposes. What Yahweh has purposed, no being can question, advise, or negate:
Because out of Him and through Him and into Him are all
these things [concerning mankind,
The purposes of Yahweh manifested in and poured out through Jesus the Messiah come from and through Yahweh alone and accomplish His predetermined will according to His predetermined interest. Although Yahweh uses agents, He alone is the source, the medium, and the goal of all that which is accomplished in and through Jesus His Only-Begotten, Anointed Son. The all these things of Romans 11:36 does not refer to the cosmos, but to those things related in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures concerning Adamic humanity, the planetary habitation of Adam’s progeny, the nation Israel, the nations, and the promised, elect, faithful seed of Abraham.
Consequently, Paul, the Jewish Apostle commissioned to proclaim the Gospel first to the Jews and then also to the gentiles, perceiving the faithfulness of Yahweh and the triumphant success of the Gospel, concludes his paean with the following verbal crescendo:
To Him be the Glory associated with His achievement accomplished in and through Jesus the Messiah into the coming eons [ages]! (Romans 11:36b my translation)
The glory of Yahweh associated with His achievement accomplished in and through Jesus the Messiah, His Only-Begotten and Anointed Son will continue to affect the course, not only of the then present eon about to be consummated, but also the following eons still to come. The then present Mosaic Eon was shortly to come to its predetermined end. The coming eon soon to supersede it would be the beginning of a long line of eons in the continued progression and creative exploration of the New Jesuic Humanity headed by Jesus Christ, Yahweh’s perfected Celestial Man.
Paul now encouragingly exhorts the Messianic Jews and Gentiles
at
I am encouraging you, then, brethren, through the compassions of Yahweh, to present your bodies a living, holy sacrifice [consecrated, set apart for special use by Yahweh], well-pleasing [acceptable] to Yahweh, your logical priestly service [according to your participation as priests in Yahweh’s Kingdom of priests and to the sound mind of Christ which should now be your mind as renewed by His spirit]. And be not conforming yourselves to the interest of this eon [age], but be transforming yourselves through metamorphosis [the metamorphosis of the counter-alteration] according to the interest of the renewing of your mind [by the spirit in order to come into accord with the mind of Christ] for you to be proving-by-testing [in your daily conduct] what is the skillfully-good, even well-pleasing [acceptable] and maturing will of Yahweh. (Romans 12:1-2 my translation)
All those in Christ, as a result of the compassions of Yahweh, form a new spiritual priesthood. The Messianic Jews supersede the Aaronic Priesthood, while the Messianic Gentiles supersede the Levitical Priesthood. All in Christ are a new creation, a new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. This new creation is a nation of priests. Each is to offer his body a living, holy sacrifice acceptable to Yahweh on the basis of the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant.
Under the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant each Israelite was to offer up to Yahweh an animal sacrifice. This sacrifice was to be slain and offered up through the mediation of the priests. In Christ, each one is put to death through Christ’s crucifixion and burial. Each also shares in His resurrection out from among the dead. Hence, each as roused and resurrected to new life is to present, offer, consecrate, his counter-altered living body to Yahweh as a living sacrifice, a new creation, a new priest serving Yahweh under the terms of the New Covenant.
Hence, in Christ, each one is a priest consecrating to Yahweh his roused and resurrected body. Each one is simultaneously the holy offerer, the priestly-mediator, and the sacrifice. This sacrifice is much more well-pleasing to Yahweh, since it is a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice. The New Covenant not only supersedes the old covenant, it is also far superior. It is a covenant of life, rather than a covenant of death. Its priests are consecrated with the blood of the living Christ, not the blood of dead animals. Thus, each one in Christ is to present his roused and resurrected living, counter-altered body to Yahweh as a living sacrifice fit to serve Yahweh in body and mind. Each is to serve Yahweh during the then present covenantal conflict in accord with his new logical priestly service based upon the terms of the New Covenant.
This service is logical, rational, because it is in accord with the sound mind of Christ Who had previously given His disciples a new commandment in order that they love one another. The new commandment which would result in their loving one another according to the terms of the New Covenant is the commandment to lay down one’s soulish life for one’s brethren (Jn. 15:12-13; Jn. 10:17-18). Here is the rational command which demands the presentation of one’s soulish body as a living, holy sacrifice. This is the mind of Christ which He obediently carried out in accord with Yahweh's commandment:
Let this thinking [mind] be in the sphere of your interest which also is in the interest of Christ Jesus . . . He humbled Himself having become obedient unto death, even the death of a cross. (Philippians 2:5, 8b my translation)
In Christ, he that saves his soul loses it. He that loses his
soul by suffering on behalf of righteousness saves it (Matt.
This mind of Christ should be the mind of the Messianic Jew
and Messianic Gentile as renewed by the counter-altering
spirit. The thinking of this mind refuses to conform to the interest of the
then present eon, the Mosaic Eon, during which
The interest of the mind of Christ is in accord with the terms of the New Covenant. This mind refuses to conform itself to the soulish/soilish mind of the flesh under the deceptive seduction of The Law of Sin and Death. The mind of Christ is in the process of transforming the mind and body, through the counter-altering spiritual metamorphosis of the spirit of Yahweh/Christ, from the soulish/soilish life to the soulish/spiritual life of the renewed mind and counter-altered body of The Law of the Spirit of Life. This mind calls for the loving of one’s brethren and one’s neighbors. This means bearing their infirmities and enduring their persecutions due to either blatantly arrogant opposition or opposition due to blindness and ignorance.
Losing one’s soul means the loving acceptance of sensual
suffering (suffering experienced through the five senses) on behalf of the
welfare of one’s brethren and neighbors. It means loving one’s enemies during
the eschatological civil war between Apostate Israel and the New Born-From-Above Israel, which would
soon separate the children of Abel from the children of Cain, the children of
Yahweh from the children of The Adversary, the children of
The logical priestly service in Christ demonstrates the
maturity of the new status of sonship
now a reality in Christ and through His counter-altering,
indwelling spirit. This counter-alteration is a metamorphosis
taking place in the darkness of the death of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant
wherein the Messianic Jews and Gentiles share in the death and sufferings of
Jesus the Messiah while sharing simultaneously in His resurrection life, the
counter-altered life imminently
resulting in the final, completed resurrection, the metamorphosis out of the
soulish/soilish cocoon of death into the spiritual/celestial allotment of
Celestial Life. This logical priestly service is contributing to the salvation
of all
Jesus the Messiah had demonstrated this logical priestly
service of a living, holy sacrifice well-pleasing to Yahweh. He had
demonstrated in His concrete daily life love for Yahweh and love for neighbor.
He had demonstrated Yahweh’s compassion, mercy, and justice. He had kept the
essence, the spirit of the letter of the law written on the heart. He had borne
the hatred and animosity of His enemies in order to achieve their spiritual
welfare. He had obeyed His Father and Elohim, Yahweh, on behalf of the
salvation of all
As a rabbi of
In the case of the woman caught in adultery, Jesus had taken into account the hypocritical sin of her accusers and the unrighteous social and religious circumstances which had driven this woman into sin. He neither condoned her sin nor the sin of her accusers. He had accurately diagnosed the sin of each participant in the judicial process, providing ample opportunity for each to repent and return to the righteousness of Yahweh’s Law. His judgment had been just and merciful. His judgment had sought the covenantal welfare of all the litigants involved in the lawsuit. He had concretely manifested Yahweh’s love for the sinner while operating within the righteous appropriation of the Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. For this righteous judgment He would receive hatred and persecution from the ruling elite of Judaistic society and religion. In spite of this hatred and persecution, He continued to extend to those enemies His love and the love of His Father. He continued to seek their covenantal welfare, even unto the death of a cross. Vengeance belongs to Yahweh. Both John the Baptist and Jesus had warned the nation of the coming judgment. Both extended to the people ample opportunity to repent and return to the righteous ways of Yahweh contained in the Sinatic/Mosaic Law. The Apostles of Jesus continued to extend this compassionate mercy of Yahweh in their proclamation of the Gospel of Christ.
Paul is no exception, as clearly indicated in this letter to
the Messianic brethren at
The mind of Christ is the mind of the national, corporate Body
of Christ. Paul encourages all the Messianic brethren in
All the Messianic brethren are to consider all the unconvinced and opposing Jews as beloved brethren because of the fathers, because they remain dynamic participants in Yahweh’s covenantal election. Only Yahweh is able to read the heart. Only Yahweh is able to distinguish the faithful seed of Abraham from the unfaithful seed. Only Yahweh’s accounting of those fit to be incorporated into the New Born-From-Above Israel has any authority. Therefore, until Yahweh separates the false from the true seed of Abraham, all Jews would be considered beloved brethren (Rom. 11:28). As Jesus, in His love, had borne the hatred and persecution of many Jews who had opposed Him and His teaching, so also should all those in Him bear, in their love, those Jewish brethren who continue to remain unconvinced or opposed to Jesus the Messiah (see Rom. 12:21).
In the one covenantal/spiritual Body of Christ there are many members, each member having a distinct function. Though those distinctions vary, each member is a vital part of the one Body. Therefore, each member is to honor and seek the welfare of the Body as a whole. No member is to be despised, humiliated, ill-treated, or abused. Each is to be loved, appreciated, honored for his distinct function in contributing to the welfare of the Body as the corporate Israel of Yahweh. No individual member (or members) is to promote his own importance at the expense of others. No individual member is to arrogantly exalt himself over any other member, thus treating the other as socially inferior. This applies to any subgroup within the Body.
The Body of The Christ
as the living, holy, elect nation of Yahweh must be unified. There must be
harmony among all the members of the one
Body. Any corrupting member or members would be removed from the Body by Yahweh, thereby becoming a
contaminated member (vessel) necessitating his destruction, his expulsion from the one, holy Body. Paul refers to this One, Holy Body as “we, the many” (
For any member to be scorned as a result of being perceived inferior in wealth and/or honor is to be conformed to the then present eon, the Mosaic Eon consisting of the Jewish Commonwealth riddled with social and religious stratification which has been scorning and excluding many members perceived as socially and religiously inferior on the basis of a distortion of the Sinatic/Mosaic Law, as well as the nations (the gentiles) operating in accord with a distorted system of honor and shame produced by a disqualified mind as perceived by Yahweh. Considering some gifts or ministries of the spirit as inferior or shameful in contrast to those perceived as superior or honorable is the product of the mind of the flesh. This mind despises and corrupts the One Holy Body of the Christ. Such service is contrary to the logical priestly service of the member who presents his body a living, holy sacrifice for Yahweh’s holy use in the salvation of all Israel (circumcised and uncircumcised). Service according to the mind of the flesh denies the death and resurrection of Christ. Authentic service conforms to the truth of the Gospel, the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant signaling the already then present power of the new eon soon to be arriving.
The mind of Christ is to concretely express the love of Christ.
This love especially suits the eschatological character of the then present
season during which the Mosaic Eon was approaching its consummation. The eschatological
love characterizing all those in Christ requires the sacrificial offering
up of one’s soul (the suffering of the five bodily senses borne on behalf
of the righteousness of the Gospel). This love will demonstrate the constitutional
terms of the Emancipation Proclamation
of Jesus (see also Matthew, chapters 5-7). This emancipation proclamation
has now become, for the Messianic brethren living in the eschatological days
of the Mosaic Eon, the constitutional law of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant
of the
The love [characteristic of Christ and all those in Him] is without hypocrisy, abhorring the malignant, holding-fast [tenaciously cleaving to] the interest of the skillfully-good [constitutional laws of the New Covenant], the interest of tenderly-affectionate brotherly-embracing of one another, the interest of the honoring which takes the lead in rendering honor to one another, the interest of the diligence which is not lazy [slothful], activating the interest of the [counter-altering] spirit, slaving for the Lord, rejoicing in the [eschatological] expectation [the consummation of the Parousia of Jesus the Messiah], enduring the coming tribulation [affliction], persevering in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints [Jewish Messianics, especially in Jerusalem and Judea], pursuing hospitality. (Romans 12:9-13 my translation)
This eschatological love rejoices confidently in the soon-to-come Parousia/Approach of Jesus
the Messiah, the consummation of which results in the entrance into the promised
Celestial Allotment. Having this sure expectation, this eschatological love
gladly endures the affliction on behalf of the righteousness of the
This love manifested by the Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles is to bless those who persecute, rejoice with those rejoicing, lament with those lamenting. This love calls for being mutually disposed to one another. This love abhors arrogant superiority and intellectual snobbery. It emotes spiritual humility and meekness. It does not render evil for evil. It seeks peace with all men (Jew, Greek, Barbarian, wise, unwise). It does not seek to avenge itself. It leaves vengeance to Yahweh, the righteous and compassionate judge. It conquers evil with the skillfully good truths of the Gospel of Christ, the skillfully good constitutional principles of the New Davidic/Abrahamic Covenant of the New Restored Davidic Kingdom of Jesus the Anointed Davidic Warrior-King:
But “If your enemy should be hungering, give him the morsel; if he should be thirsting, give him to drink; for in doing this you will be heaping embers of fire on his head.” Be not conquered by [the present eschatological] evil; but conquer this evil with the good [of the Gospel]. (Romans 12:20-21 CV)
This exhortation implementing the Emancipation Proclamation of Jesus pertained primarily to those in Christ enduring the sufferings, afflictions, and persecutions of the eschatological consummation of the Mosaic Eon. The principles expounded in the Emancipation Proclamation of Jesus were not meant to be taken out of their eschatological context and appropriated as universal principles to be implemented in all historical periods and circumstances. The Emancipation Proclamation of Jesus obeyed by those in Him during the eschatological days of the Mosaic Eon was designed for the New Born-From-Above Israel of Yahweh, a holy nation of priests, which nation did successfully implement the principles of the Emancipation Proclamation of Jesus. No other nation or people has been authorized by Yahweh to implement this constitutional system of law (see Matthew, chapters 5-7), though many of its principles can and should be appropriated by the peoples of the present nations of our contemporary world.
As the Emancipation
Proclamation of Jesus is designed for and applicable to the nation of
Synagogue worship and service had been developed as a result
of the Babylonian exile. The Messianic Jews and Gentiles are to perceive
themselves as righteous citizens of
These non-messianic Jews continue to have the opportunity to repent and believe the Gospel (thus, dynamic status rather than static). Only Yahweh knows the hearts of these Jews. It is still the day of salvation: “Lo! Now is a most acceptable era! Lo! Now is a day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2b CV). The day of Yahweh had not yet arrived. The coming judgment, though imminent, had not yet been implemented. There is still time to repent. Therefore, these Jewish brethren, though unconvinced of the truth of the Gospel and, in the case of some, even zealously opposed to the Gospel (as Saul himself had been), are to be extended the love of Yahweh expressed by Jesus the Messiah for His people.
Many of these Jews are presently stumbling against the stone of stumbling, but not all will
fall and be crushed under the weight of the destructive judgment of the
Sinatic/Mosaic Covenant. Many would come to believe into Jesus as Yahweh’s
Messiah, especially those most zealously opposed to the Gospel for the sake of
the fathers. These, because of their circumcised hearts, persecute most
ferociously that which they sincerely and unhypocritically (in their blindness
and ignorance) perceive to be covenantal blasphemy against Yahweh and
Therefore, the Jewish Messianics are to be zealously obeying
the Law of Moses as a testimony to their fellow-Jews and as a fulfillment of
the Law and the Prophets. The Messianic Gentiles are to obey the Noahic
commandments applicable to all gentiles dwelling within the nation of
In the meantime, the Messianics are to imitate the mind and behavior of Jesus, Paul, and David (when David refused to rise up against King Saul who lawlessly sought David’s life). Jesus had respected and honored the Jewish authorities as Yahweh’s anointed authorities, even while challenging their erroneous policies and false teachings, their own traditions and commandments which had negated the commandments of Yahweh. When the authorities seized Him, Jesus submitted Himself to their authority, leaving vengeance to Yahweh while manifesting the gracious mercy and compassion of Yahweh, even for Yahweh’s disobedient, authorized authorities.
Paul, appearing before the Sanhedrin in
Paul obeyed the Mosaic Law and rendered to the cultic and synagogue authorities of his nation the honor due them according to the Law of Moses. David, himself, having been anointed by Samuel as Yahweh’s Anointed One to whom Yahweh would give the kingdom, practiced this same principle. When fleeing from the unrighteous persecution of King Saul whom he had served and continued to serve according to the righteousness of the law, he had gained an advantage over Saul and could have slain him. However, David refuses to do so, declaring,
Yahweh forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, Yahweh’s anointed [Messiah], to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of Yahweh. (1 Samuel 24:6 KJV modified)
The Jewish and Gentile Messianics in
The responsibility of these authorities is the covenantal welfare of the people of Yahweh. This meant securing the righteous implementation of the Law of Moses. When these authorities no longer implemented the righteousness of the law, forcing the righteous Messianics out from the midst of the synagogues, then, and only then, would these Messianics be free from their obligation to dwell within the Jewish Community, sharing with this community of Yahweh the truth of the Gospel. Thus, they all are obligated to love their Jewish non-messianic brethren in accord with the Law of Moses and to honor the synagogue authorities by righteous subordination to their Yahweh-authorized authority. If this results in persecution, affliction, humiliation, or ridicule, they are to suffer such unrighteous treatment for the sake of Jesus and the righteousness of His Kingdom, all the while seeking the spiritual welfare of all their Jewish beloved brethren.
The community, the nation, in the eyes of Yahweh, is one unified nation, in spite of the present division which would soon break out into blatant civil war. The civil war is not to be caused by the unrighteous thinking and behavior of the Messianic Jews and Gentiles. By remaining faithful to Jesus the Messiah and the truth of the Gospel, the unrighteous civil war would be the result of the stubbornness and disobedience of the Jewish Commonwealth when it would unrighteously expel from its midst Yahweh’s righteous people, Yahweh’s appointed watchmen on behalf of the people.
The New Born-From-Above
Israel of Yahweh would not return evil for evil, but would return the evil
of Apostate Israel with the love and righteousness of Yahweh associated with
Jesus the Messiah, the Gospel of Christ, and the New Davidic/Abrahamic
Covenant. Failure to remain faithful to the truth of the Gospel concerning all
Jews would hinder the ultimate restoration (salvation) of all
And the word of the Lord [Yahweh] came to me saying, “Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them, ‘If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from among them and make him their watchman; and he sees the sword coming upon the land, and blows on the trumpet and warns the people, then he who hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, and a sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. . . . But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’” (Ezekiel 33:1-4, 6 NASB)
As Yahweh had appointed Ezekiel a watchman over His people, so had Yahweh in the then present eschatological days of the Mosaic Eon appointed Jesus and the Messianic Jews and Gentiles watchmen over His people the Jews, citizens of the Southern Kingdom of Judah. To this end, Paul writes,
To no one are you to owe anything, except to owe one
another in the community of
You shall not commit adultery,
You shall not murder,
You shall not steal,
You shall not testify falsely,
You shall not covet,
and if there is any other commandment in the Law and the Prophets, are all summed up in this:
You shall love your associate as yourself.
This love of Yahweh expressed in the life of Jesus is
not working evil to your non-messianic and Messianic associate in
This righteous, eschatological thinking-behaving in relation
to the Jews as Yahweh’s elect people is all the more important because the
season of Yahweh’s indignation (His vengeance against those Jews determined to
remain stubborn and disobedient because of their uncircumcised hearts) is very
near. For those Jewish and Gentile Messianics at
The dark night of the Mosaic Eon is progressing vigorously
toward its predetermined consummation. The day of Yahweh’s vengeance against
His enemies, the day of Yahweh’s indignation against Apostate Israel, is near.
The day of salvation is swiftly drawing to a close. Apostate
Those Messianic Jews and Gentiles in
Watchmen, wake up out of covenantal sleep! Sound the trumpet
of warning (boldly sound forth the testimony of the truth of the Gospel)! The
sword of Yahweh is fast approaching. Those Messianic watchmen neglecting their
responsibility in Christ will be held accountable by Yahweh for the blood of
those Jews slain by His sword of righteous vengeance. These negligent watchmen
will also have their part in Yahweh’s righteous judgment against the stubborn
and disobedient Jews. Forfeiting their salvation, expelled from the Body of
Christ as contaminated and contaminating, they will have their part in the
In the minutia issues of faith-obedience to the New Covenant, such as dietary issues of religious purity or holy days, the Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles are not to be judging or scornfully rejecting one another. The Israel of Yahweh must be unified, mutually loving one another, and holy, thereby nationally glorifying Yahweh. The minor issues stemming from the freedom in Christ are to be a matter of conscience: “Let each one be fully assured in his own mind” (Rom. 14:5b CV); “Now everything which is not out of faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23b CV).
One should not practice what one’s conscience is not fully assured. To practice that which one’s conscience doubts as appropriate is sin, that is, is missing the mark of faith-obedience. In those non-essential matters, Yahweh alone is authorized to judge His servants. Each will be praised or corrected by Yahweh Himself. For all in Christ “shall be presented at the dais of Yahweh” (Rom. 14:10b CV modified) where each will have his service evaluated.
This judgment is not one of condemnation, but of reward for faithful service during the eschatological period of persecution and affliction suffered on behalf of the righteousness of the Kingdom. This judgment is only for those in Christ who have shared in His sufferings on behalf of the righteousness of Yahweh. The dais of Yahweh is equivalent to the Bema Seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) Who, acting as Yahweh’s authorized, Anointed Agent, evaluates the service rendered by His servants during the eschatological conflict of Israel’s civil war (see 1 Cor. 3:1-23). Only those faithful to the consummation of the Parousia participate in this presentation before Jesus the Messiah.
Isaiah had prophesied of this honorable presentation of Yahweh’s triumphant, conquering, valiant spiritual-warriors before their victorious, exalted Lord and Davidic Warrior-King:
Living am I, Yahweh is saying, For to Me shall bow every knee [of My faithful warriors of valor], And every tongue [of these valiant warriors] shall be acclaiming [the glory of] Yahweh! (Romans 14:11 CV modified)
Paul, thus, warns the Messianics at
Consequently, then, we [Messianic Jews and Gentiles] are pursuing that which makes for peace and that which is for edification of one another. (Romans 14:19 CV)
Hence, no one in Christ, appropriating his legitimate freedom in relation to the minutia issues, should, by this freedom, be placing a stumbling block before a weaker brother, whose conscience might be offended by the appropriation of such freedom:
For if, because of food, your brother is sorrowing, you
are no longer walking according to love. Do not, by your food [covenantal minutia], destroy that one
for whose sake Christ died. Let not, then, your good [your freedom in Christ] be calumniated [spoken against], for the
As Jesus the Messiah had borne the reproaches of the
disobedient Jewish authorities on their behalf, seeking their welfare, their
edification, so as to be properly fitting into the New Israel of Yahweh, the
As Jesus “has become the Servant of the Circumcision, for the sake of the truth of Yahweh, to confirm the patriarchal promises” (Rom. 15:8 CV modified) to Abraham’s circumcised seed, as well as to his uncircumcised seed, so also those in Him should be servants of the circumcision (the Jews), seeking to confirm the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by loving those beloved unconvinced, circumcised Jews. Those in Christ are to be dwelling together with them in peace within the framework of synagogue worship and service and to be compassionately testifying to the truth of Yahweh, announced in the Gospel, concerning the promised Celestial Allotment which is The Hope of Israel. The confirmation of this hope implied the salvation of the nations, the uncircumcised seed of Abraham.
Salvation is of the Jews. If the Jews have not been saved, neither have or can the gentiles be saved. If the circumcised seed of Abraham (the Jewish nation) has not been saved and given access to the counter-alteration (sharing in the likeness of Christ’s death and resurrection) and its accompanying Celestial Allotment (The Hope of Israel), then the uncircumcised seed of Abraham (the Gentile nations) cannot and had not been given access to these patriarchal promises.
Both the Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles must understand
that the salvation of the Jews has been confirmed by the present salvation of
the nations. This is now a present sign to the non-messianic Jews, those who
continue to be unpersuaded by the truth of the Gospel. The prophets themselves
had foretold that the nations would glorify Yahweh for His mercy to
“Therefore I [the prophet David] shall be acclaiming Thee among the nations,” “And to Thy name shall I be playing music.” And again he [the prophet Moses] is saying, “Be merry, ye nations, with His people!” And again he [the prophet David] is saying, “Praise the Lord, all the nations,” And “let all the peoples laud Him.” And again Isaiah is saying, there will be “the root of Jesse, And He Who is rising to be Chief of the nations: On Him will the nations rely.” (Romans 15:9b-12 CV)
The Hope of Israel has now been confirmed by the salvation of the nations, by Yahweh’s calling out from among the nations an uncircumcised people for His name.
Consequently, Paul’s priestly service as “the minister of Christ Jesus for [into] the nations” (Rom. 15:16a CV) is vital to the salvation of all
The salvation of these Gentiles referred to as “the approach present of the nations”
(Rom. 15:16b CV) is in the process of becoming well received by Yahweh as these
Messianic Gentiles conform their thought and behavior (a) to the truth of the
Gospel, (b) to the truth of the Apostolic Decree concerning these Messianic
Gentiles (now joint-citizens of the Saints,
the New Born-From-Above Israel), and
(c) to the righteousness of Yahweh demonstrating to the non-messianic Jews the
faithfulness of Yahweh to both Israel and the nations. Such righteous thought
and behavior would become a testimony to the circumcised-in-heart non-messianic
Jews still unconvinced of the truth of the Gospel concerning Jesus as Messiah,
still unconvinced of the present restoration of
The faithfulness of these Messianic Gentiles is to be
perceived by all in Christ as Yahweh’s gift directly associated with the
suffering of the Messianic Jews on behalf of
The Gentile Messianics are to subordinate themselves to the
synagogue authorities and to the non-messianic Jews in accord with the
righteousness of Yahweh associated with Jesus the Messiah, in accord with the
truth of the Gospel, and in accord with the terms of the New Davidic/Abrahamic
Covenant. This righteous, faith-obedience subordination is to be offered up to
Yahweh for the benefit of those non-messianic Jews presently stumbling, but
soon to regain their righteous standing before Yahweh and His Anointed Son/King
as a result of the opening of their blind eyes and melting of their hardened
hearts by the revelation of the glory of all those in Christ. Thus, the
righteous thought and behavior of the Messianic Gentiles among the Jews, both within
and outside their synagogues, are in the process of being well received by
Yahweh as these Messianic Gentiles have been sanctified by the counter-altering
holy spirit. Their faith-obedient thought and behavior among the Jews, as well
as the collection gathered from among the Messianic Gentiles in
However, both these righteous endeavors are soon to result in
the outbreak of blatantly arrogant civil war, separating Apostate Israel from
the New Born-From-Above
Paul has completed his evangelization in the eastern
territories of the empire: “so that, from
Whether Paul actually fulfilled this final evangelization is
not recorded. If this western territory was included by Yahweh in the
territories to be evangelized, Paul would certainly have fulfilled his
apostolic obligation. The important point to remember is that the Gospel would
be proclaimed in all the territories within the
As it turned out, Paul did get to
While in
Since all these events had been recorded elsewhere, there was
no need for Luke to continue his historical account any further. The Gospel had
been proclaimed to all those chosen to hear it. There was no need to write of
the coming Parousia and Day of Yahweh, for this period had been thoroughly
described symbolically and metaphorically in the Book of Revelation. After the destruction of
Paul, understanding the eschatological season and the signs of
the conclusion of the eon, assures the Messianic Jews and Gentiles at Rome that
Yahweh, the Elohim of peace, will soon be “crushing
Satan under your feet swiftly” (Rom. 16:20b CV). Satan, The Adversary
ruling over Apostate Israel will soon be defeated, removed from his authority
over an arrogantly disobedient
Satan would shortly be removed from his assigned position over humanity. He would be removed as Yahweh’s Prosecuting Attorney against mankind. There would no longer be a need for such a prosecuting attorney. Jesus the only legitimate Son of Adam, the Only-Generated Son of Yahweh would now become the sole Advocate of humanity. His advocacy would secure the future triumph of mankind in its quest to attain the maturity of Celestial Sonship.
Satan would shortly be crushed under the feet of the Ecclesia
of Christ, the New Born-From-Above Israel
of Yahweh, during the swift occurrence of the events making up the Parousia
of Christ and the Day of Yahweh. Yahweh, the Elohim of the peace prophesied in
the Law and the Prophets, was about to be vindicating the suffering of His
faithful people. He would administer just judgment against Apostate Israel and
lead His elect, holy, New Born-From-Above
Nation into the peace of her promised Celestial Allotment. The hope of
Now To Him [Yahweh] Who is able to establish you in accord with My Gospel [the Gospel of the Uncircumcision confirming the salvation of Israel] and the proclamation of Christ Jesus in accord with a secret revelation having been hushed in eonian times, but now manifested, and, through prophetic scriptures [both Greek and Hebrew], according to the authoritative decree of the eonian Elohim [the Elohim Who creates and designs the eons], being made known into all the nations for faith-obedience—To the only and wise Elohim [Yahweh] through Christ Jesus be the glory into the eons of the eons. Amen! (Romans 16:25-27 my translation)