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Not Gentiles anymore: part of Israel through Yeshua

Many believers call themselves "Gentiles who believe in Jesus." Scripture says something very different, and it changes how we live.

One of the biggest mistakes in Christian teaching is a small phrase: "We are Gentiles who believe in Jesus." It sounds harmless, but who we think we are decides how we live. If I'm a Gentile, then the Torah "was for Israel, not for me." If I'm part of Israel, then seeking and keeping God's commandments is simply what His people do.

Paul says "you were"

Paul speaks of believers' Gentile identity in the past tense: "You know that when you were of the nations…" 1 Corinthians 12:2. "Remember that you, once of the nations in the flesh… were at that time… alienated from the citizenship of Israel… So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of Elohim" Ephesians 2:11-19. "If you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" Galatians 3:29. See Believers from the nations become Israel.

The new covenant is made with Israel

God announced it plainly: "I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… I will put My Torah within them, and write it on their hearts" Jeremiah 31:31-33. The letter to the Hebrews quotes the same promise Hebrews 8:8-10. There is no covenant with "Gentiles." Whoever is in the new covenant is in it as part of Israel, and that covenant writes God's Torah on the heart The New Covenant is made with both houses.

Back to Sinai

At Sinai, God told Israel: "you shall be a special treasure to Me out of all the peoples… a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" Exodus 19:5-6. Peter applies those same words to believers scattered among the nations: "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people… who once were not a people but now are the people of Elohim" 1 Peter 2:9-10. Those last words come from Hosea, who spoke them about the scattered house of Israel Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:23.

So the restoration of all things Acts 3:21 brings God's people back to where Israel stood at Sinai, before the northern tribes turned away from His commandments and were taken by Assyria. Now that people includes those from the nations who join Him through Yeshua, under one Torah: "One Torah and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who dwells with you" Numbers 15:16; Isaiah 56:6-7.

Why this matters

Once a believer sees that he's no longer a Gentile, the question "Is the Torah for me?" answers itself. It's also why the label "Judaizer" misses the point: it assumes believers are still Gentiles "Judaizers"? What the word really meant. Who belongs to which tribe, only God knows; He is the one who "registers the peoples" Psalm 87:6. Belonging to Israel comes through Yeshua, not through finding a family line.

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