Tag Archives: Curse

Jesus Versus the Jerusalem Jews!

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Excellence, LifeGiving, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training

Luke writes that Jesus, while in Jerusalem, said this before He ascended into the dimension called heaven.

Luke 24

“46 Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

How could “all the nations”, not just the Jewish nation, hear the message of repentance if the people empowered to preach it refused to leave home and preach it? And why did they disobey Jesus who would die to secure the forgiveness every nation was supposed to receive?

The Jewish men who heard Jesus say these words didn’t leave Jerusalem until they were forced out by persecution perpetrated by the Pharisees’ angry hit man, Saul of Tarsus. They planted themselves in Palestine instead of going throughout the planet!

Acts 8:1

“And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”

It was only after the gospel was being preached by members of the Church did the leaders [apostles] of the church begin venturing out of “their house”. Leaders are supposed to lead but these leaders became followers. They only provided “leadership” after the Holy Spirit circumvented their leadership and worked His work outside Jerusalem through those appointed by the “leaders” to serve tables and those fleeing for their lives. Those fleeing for their lives shared the faith that would save other’s lives.

It was almost a decade after Jesus told His apostles to leave Jerusalem and go into Judea, Samaria and then to the ends of the earth [into all the nations] before they obeyed His command.

I believe the answer to their disobedience lies in the lie they believed about the restoration of the kingdom to natural Israel. “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” [Acts 1:6]

It is interesting to me a decade passed and a decade is 10 years. The Law is made up of 10 Commandments. The Law reveals sin and brings death in disobedience to it. So, Jesus sent death into the house [Jerusalem] and His house [Church] because the apostles disobeyed His “command” to go into ALL the world and preach forgiveness of sin.

This is an Adamic [carnal, fleshly] mistake!

The first man Adam, the original apostle of Christ, failed to take Paradise to the planet and in doing so sucked the serpent into the Garden. The serpent sucked the Life out of God’s leaders when they were seduced by his schemes!

The 1st century Jewish apostles were more concerned with when God was going to restore His kingdom to natural Israel than in discipling to Christ the nations of the world Christ told them to invade. That command and commission is to fulfill the promise to Abraham in the gospel of Christ, “I will bless those who bless you [Abram], and I will curse those who curse you [Abram], and in you [Abram] all the nations of the earth will be blessed” [Genesis 12:3]

Galatians 3

“8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

The blessing of Abraham is salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Or as Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel.” [Mark 1:15]

Today, what God said to Abram has been hijacked by those who still believe God is going to restore natural Israel to a place of prominence! They say God said, “I will bless those who bless Israel and I will curse those who curse Israel.” Whether out of ignorance, naiveté or deception this belief is damaging to those it infects.

The blessing and cursing have everything to do with the acceptance or rejection of Jesus, who is the Son of God and Son of Man! It involves natural Israel or the natural descendants of Abraham, the Jews, but it is not just about them. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” [John 3:36]. That applies to every person regardless of ethnicity, gender or socio-economic status.

And once the “He who believes” believes, he, along with everyone else who believes is one with Christ Jesus, and are Abraham’s descendants, his heirs according to the promise made to him in Genesis 12:3.

Galatians 3

“28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise..”

John, the Jewish disciple Jesus loved, said this:

John 3

“16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 21 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

  • God so loved [loves] the world, not just Israel
  • God sent His Son into the world, not just Israel
  • God wants to save the world, not just Israel
  • God sent the light into the world, not just Israel
  • God does not want the world condemned, not just Israel

In fact, the entire New Testament revelation reveals that truth!

Palestine is not the prize. The planet is!

Romans 4:13

“For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.”

That is why the meek will inherit the earth!

God had to convert a Jewish religious terrorist [Saul/Paul] before the Jerusalem Church got serious about the Great Commission! It got so bad that God moved the center of world evangelism from Jerusalem to Antioch of Phrygia in the region of Galatia!

The church in Antioch was not formed by the forging apostolic force from Jerusalem. No, it was formed by believers who came from various places due to the persecution related to Stephen’s martyrdom, and preached to the Jews in Antioch. After that men from Cyprus and Cyrene came and preached the gospel to the Greeks!

Finally, the Jerusalem Church sent Barnabas to Antioch to encourage the Jewish and Greek believers there to remain faithful to Jesus. Barnabas was not one of the original apostles!

And by the way, it was the Antioch church that Paul was a leader in and was sent out to evangelize the world from. And it is the place the believers [Jews and Greeks] were first called Christians.

The Jerusalem Church produced the Judaizers who followed Paul around harassing the converts to Christ in his ministry. These Law based believers tried their best to pull the saints back under the Law of Moses.

There are contemporary Judaizers still trying to trick saints into slavery!

There are those today who have read Jesus’ words found in Luke 24 and still will not leave Jerusalem! If they do venture out beyond Jerusalem they attempt to persuade the gullible to come back under their control. Using the “Jewish root” lie they lie in wait for those who do not know their Bible.

The root of Christianity is Jesus, not Judaism!

Jerusalem and Judaism have never been Jesus’ focus. The nations are Jesus’ focus! Jesus is called, “Desire of the nations,” but some believers only see Jesus as the Savior of the Jews, or the Jewish Savior! Jesus came into the world He created as a Jewish person but let’s not go overboard with that truth.

First, God chose the Hebrew people out of all of the ethnic groups on the planet because He chose them, not because they earned that choice.

Deuteronomy 7:7,8

“7 The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.”

God made a decision and honored His covenant commitment to the forefathers [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob], who were all men of faith in God and faithfulness to God.

Second, God divorced Israel in the Old Testament because of their constant adulteries with other gods, who are not God.

Isaiah 50:1

“Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away.”

Jeremiah 3:8

“And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.”

Third, Jesus abandoned them [Jerusalem] to seal their fate with God. Fourth, Peter and Stephen, two highly visible Jewish men of God laid the blame of Christ’s murder at the door of natural Israel’s house.

Matthew 23:38

“Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!”

And lastly, Paul said not to view Jesus, or anyone according to the flesh [ethnicity, gender, or any other natural status symbol].

2 Corinthians 5:16

“Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.”

On the day of Pentecost Peter preached a scathing sermon in Jerusalem. It was so effective it pierced many Jewish hearts and 3,000 repented and received Christ.

Acts 2

“22 Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know — 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and [you] put Him to death. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ —this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter said it was God’s predetermined plan and foreknowledge that the Jews would hand Jesus over to the Romans to be murdered. God chose the Jews to bring Jesus physically into the world and He chose them to physically take Him out of this world. So much for celebrating an elitist attitude.

Now, for all the idiots out there are looking for a reason to mistreat Jewish people because of their complicity in Jesus’ death, you need to check your heart and loyalty to the God you say you are defending. God orchestrated the entire plan!

Stephen, in front of the Sanhedrin who were after more blood from those who believed in this Jesus, released his own scathing sermon.

Acts 7

“51 You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. 52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

This is painful to face, but it is more painful to listen to and or watch as these Jerusalem loving [preferring] and Christ hating [not preferring] Judaizers to this day defend the natural Jewish people, putting their interests above the Lord they say they love and serve.

And do not point to your “supernatural showmanship” to qualify you as a a genuine spokesman for Christ. Jesus said to watch out for those who over exaggerate their relationship to Christ by pointing to the supernatural. He called them false [misleading] prophets [spokesman] who are ravenous wolves [serve for what they can take from the saints not what they can give to the saints]. They destroy through their deception not even realizing they are deceived.

There is still an elitist spirit that permeates Jewish believers in Christ and that elitism manifests in several ways:

1.They won’t call themselves Christians

  • Are they anti-Christ?

2.They see Jewishness as the pinnacle of being the people of God

  • Paul teaches being naturally Jewish is irrelevant!

3.They label people antisemites who don’t bow at the feet of Zionism

  • Should they be labeled anti-Christ?

See how easy it is to malign someone’s integrity and character?

Forgetting that the gospel was preached to Abraham [Abram] in God’s statement about the nations being blessed, they reduce that revelation to fit their narrow narrative. And by the way, the Hebrews [Jews] are not the only semitic people on the planet. Jesus is the Savior of the Arab people too. The Arabs are semites, but you rarely if ever see them defend the Arabs.

They will not defend the non Hebrew semitic peoples, so – are they antisemites too?

Throwing that label out is indefensible and has no place in the Christian community, unless you are absolutely pure in you antisemitic and anti-Christ positions!

God promised Abraham that Ishmael would be blessed and the blessing of Abraham includes the salvation of all people, even the descendants of Ishmael!

These present day puritans are quick to label nonconformists to political Zionism antisemites. Memo to those people – we are not antisemites. We are pro Savior of the world! We are not anti Jewish or anti Jerusalem. We are pro Jesus the Christ!

Your immaturity and irresponsibility is showing and it is not pretty!

Jesus and the New Testament writers clearly revealed the world is God’s focus and the focus of His work, not just Jerusalem and the Jewish people! Jerusalem and the Jewish people were the starting line, not the finish line.

“Beginning from Jerusalem” is what Jesus said!

The word beginning denotes the first place, not the only place. It also means to rule over. Jesus never intends to rule from Jerusalem. In fact He is forbidden to be a priest or King in Jerusalem or any other city in the world.

“My kingdom is not of this world” is what He told Pilate! It is still not of this world and it will never be of this world. It is in this world! It has always been in this world! And it will always be in this world! But it is NOT of this world!

His rule from Jerusalem is based on that is where He lived, died, was buried, was resurrected and ascended, as a Man. When He returns He will hand the kingdom of heaven back to Father God, and then the end will come! The end will come, not the millennium!

Maturity in the things of God requires the people of God to leave where they began with God, and go to where God is leading them. Even Paul, the writer of Hebrews, makes this truth clear.

Hebrews 6

“1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God [See Luke 24:46,47 above], 2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. 3 And this we will do, if God permits.”

Paul explains what maturity looks like in chapter 5. Keep this in mind and go back and read these 2 verses in chapter 6 again, with the context in view.

“8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

Paul is saying these Hebrews should have matured and become teachers, but they were still carnal Christians [infants] in need of other people to supply them milk. He is saying they should have moved on from elementary school [pre-school] to graduate school! These carnal Christians [Hebrew believers] were not even getting their own milk. They drank milk from the breasts of those who were more than happy to keep them unhealthy and immature.

The saints have got to grow up!

The saints have got to get their own milk so that one day they can eat their own meat!

Meet me oh Lord, let’s eat!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin

A Hisstorymaker!

God Has Only One Holy Nation!

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Excellence, LifeGiving, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training

Who is the holy nation that is God’s very own possession?

This blog follows Foolish Preachers Versus The Foolishness Of Preaching where I wrote in more detail on the importance of the message of the cross of Christ being protected from being made of no effect.

This issue is one of the many where the cross of Christ is reduced to no effect, especially among those who hold to a “special favored status” theology for natural Israel. What I mean by that is the notion that “all of Israel will be saved” when they see Jesus coming in the clouds instead of having to come to the cross for their deliverance from sin.

As I stated in Foolish Preachers Versus The Foolishness Of Preaching blog I addressed this and so much more in two teaching series’ – WHO IS THE ISRAEL OF GOD, And What Does That Have To With Me; and JESUS AND JERUSALEM.

Well meaning and [I will be kind] most probably mistaken Christians promote that the natural State of Israel, and unsaved Jewish people, are God’s possession and holy nation.

You see them write or say things like:

  • God will bless those who bless [natural] Israel [the unsaved Jews] and God will curse those who curse [natural] Israel [unsaved Jews].
    • There is not one verse of Scripture in the Old or New Testaments that say this. In fact, the very opposite is said in the Scripture.

Or they say or write,

  • The day America turns its back on [the State of] Israel [unsaved Jews], is the day God turns His back on America.
    • This irresponsible statement is based on the previous statement and has zero basis in Scripture.

What does the Scripture say? The Scripture must be our only guide to understanding this very important truth that is clearly laid out for the intellectually honest to see.

By the way, God turned His back on natural Israel and spoke Ichabod [the glory has departed] over it 2000 years ago. God has not stopped loving them. He loves everyone where they are but that never means He loves where they are.

By the way, they became enemies of the cross when they rejected God, and His plan of salvation for the whole world – by the cross of Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son. They remain enemies of the cross to this day!

Matthew 23:37,38 NKJV

“37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate.”

Listen to the impact of His words – “See! YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT TO YOU.”

First He said “Your house”. This is a clear revelation that it was not His house. Jesus was also making the point that “their house” was of their own making. God’s house is now the individual and corporate body of Christ that is made up of everyone who has been born again and surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Next He said, “Is left”. Jesus made a present tense [2000 years ago] declaration that God was abandoning them, right then. And by the way, God has never moved back in to that “house”.

Then He said, “To you”. Can it get any scarier than this. “YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.” Another way to see this portion of His denunciation is to realize that He was very serious about their isolation and the removal of His protection. By the way, He is not protecting them even to this day contrary to the popular theological arguments to the contrary.

They have been on their own for 2000 years! Please do not say God brought them back to their land. God has not brought them back. For God to be responsible for their return He would have had to violate His own word stating that for Him to restore them to the land they would have to repent for violating their relationship to Him.

I cannot recall where they have repented for murdering the Son of God!

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” [Acts 2:36]

“Desolate” literally means, abandoned, divorced, uninhabited, deprived of the aid and protection of others, especially of friends, acquaintances, kindred, a flock deserted by their shepherd, a waste [place].

Jesus said, “See! I HAVE LEFT you all alone, and you will remain on your own unless, and until you repent.

Verse 39 says, “For I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” When Jesus says, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” He was speaking of His current and contemporary coming at the time He was speaking, 2000 years ago.

Jesus was not talking about some time in the distant future from when He was speaking. He was speaking to His generation which was the terminal generation – for within 40 years the end came for them.

“Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”[Matthew 23:36 NAS] It takes a lot of manipulating the text to stretch “this generation” 2000 years into the future.

Why this extreme rejection of this historic people who had been chosen by God out of all of the nations on the planet thousands of years before? The answer is found in verse 38, “BUT YOU WERE UNWILLING.”

Friends, it is NEVER a good plan to be unwilling to do God’s will. It is never a good idea to continuously reject the overtures of a loving God who continuously does everything He can to reach you.

“How often I wanted to gather you together under My wings.” Jesus was expressing His exasperation at the lengths the natural Jewish people had gone to reject His every overture to love and protect them. He was also stating the many times He wooed them, called them, corrected them, communicated to them to come to Him – in the Old Testament!

We must understand that until Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected everything in the Gospels was Old Testament. The New Testament was being revealed [it was being unveiled, uncovered] through the life and ministry of Jesus but it was not inaugurated until the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

They left God no choice but to move on from them to a people who would value Him and His love for them.

Matthew 21:43

“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you [natural Israel] and given to a people [born again saints], producing the fruit of it.”

This is the punch line [pun intended] that followed a scathing parable illustrating how natural Israel had been unfaithful to God, to the point of killing His Son, and He had had enough.

So, who is the only true nation that belongs to God.

Psalm 33:12 NASB

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.”

There is ONLY one nation on this earth who can claim this verse as their own. That nation is the nation whose God is the Lord Jesus Christ!

1 Peter 2:9, 10 NASB

“9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people OF GOD; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

God has NO other nation and He has no other people that are His possession [inheritance] and to proclaim otherwise is not Scriptural and very unwise.

If you hold to the belief that there is some other nation, an unholy nation, that God calls His own possession then you are diluting the effectiveness and affect of the cross of Jesus Christ.

I have written blogs and taught extensively on this deceptive doctrine that carried out to the extent of its illogical logic reduces the sons and daughters of God [the Church and the Bride of Christ – God’s holy nation] as second class citizens and hostages of a God who according to those who hold to this doctrine punishes people who reject the false notion they perpetrate on an uninformed people.

Should we love and bless the unsaved Jewish people and the State of Israel?

Absolutely!

But not under the threat of a curse from God coming to ruin our lives.

We are supposed to bless those who curse us according to Jesus in Luke 6:28. We are to love our enemies according to Jesus in Matthew 5:44. But never is a curse from God associated with not doing these things. We are told that doing these things make us like our Father.

What God do they serve? I believe they serve a god they have created in their own minds. Minds which are not renewed in the New Testament revelation Jesus and the original apostles and other writers of the New Testament preached.

We will see in the following Scriptures the reason we [the holy nation of God as the people of God] are to love and bless all the nations of people of the earth, not just the Jewish State [nation, people].

How are we to love them? By telling them the truth about their need for repentance and God’s forgiveness.

In fact, John the apostle writes this in his gospel that Jesus, the Son of God and Man said.

John 3:16,17 NASB

“16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

  • To me these two verses clearly state God’s heart is the world, not just the Jewish world. God sent Jesus into the world to save the world. The unfortunate truth is that many in the world, both the Jewish and non-Jewish world, refuse to believe God by receiving Jesus as God’s only hope and Savior of the world.

John 3:18 NASB

“”He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’”

  • Jesus makes it abundantly clear that those who do not believe in Him are ALREADY judged by God, and those who do believe God does not judge. So, quit with all the God is going to curse you if you do not bless natural [the State of] Israel and the natural Jew.

John 3:36 NASB

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

  • Those who believe in God’s Son, Jesus, HAVE eternal life and those who do not believe not only will NOT SEE life, but they are presently abiding in the wrath of God. God’s wrath is upon those who reject Jesus, not on those who do not bless those who have rejected Jesus.

Do I have to go on? No, but I will!

John 8:31,32 NASB

“31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”

  • To those Jewish people who “believed” in Him he said, “You MUST continue in my word to qualify as My true disciples.”
    • Thus, those Jewish “believers” who ceased believing in the continuing revelation of the cross and all of the benefits revealed and released through it ceased being His disciples – PERIOD!
    • We need to understand that even demons believe in Jesus but that does mean they are in a right relationship with God [James 2:19]
    • We also need to understand Jesus made all of these statements prior to dying on the cross and that every one of His original  disciples were Jewish, believed on Him, but had to come to the cross in order to be saved.
    • So, if there is some other way for the Jewish people to be saved, like seeing Jesus in the clouds, then God will have to apologize to all of the Jewish converts in the first century and beyond who  were persecuted and killed for their faith in the cross of Christ.

We have already heard from Peter in the text from 1 Peter above where he very succinctly reveals who the real people of God are post cross of Christ.

Now let’s take a quick look at what Paul the apostle had to say concerning our subject.

Paul

Galatians 3:6-9 NASB

“6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

  • Abraham, according to Paul, was an Old Testament believer in the New Testament Gospel. Abraham’s faith was in the message that God was going to bless the entire world, not just the Jewish world, through their faith in the message of the Messiah, which is salvation from sin and the punishment of sin by the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and Holy Spirit baptism to all who would believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth as their personal Savior and the Lord of their life.

Now, as to the assertion that God will bless those who bless natural and unsaved Israel and curse those who curse them, let us take a look at what God actually said and to whom He said it.

Moses

Genesis 12:1-3 NASB

“1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

  • Ah! The promise of blessings and curses was given to Abram who became Abraham. This is the same Abraham who Paul said the gospel was preached to and who believed the gospel.
  • So based on the text where the misguided and mistreatment of what God actually said, a curse is reserved for those who do not bless the Abraham who believed God through the receiving of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as well as all those who like Abraham, have believed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
    • Folks, this is not complicated. God said what He meant and He means what He says. “And in you [Abraham the believer] all the families of the earth will be blessed [by believing God just as Abraham did].”

So, to accurately divide and rightly handle the word of truth [God], we must admit that this promise was not made to a natural people but a born again person who had believed God’s gospel that through him ALL the nations [people] of the earth would be blessed by believing the gospel as he did.

Therefore, this promise cannot and does not pertain to the natural and unsaved [unbelieving] Jewish people called the State of Israel, for they are not inheritors of the promises of Abraham – Period!

So, why do people still follow this misguided teaching? Because they, just like those in the first century that were misguided “believers”, want to keep the flesh in the forefront of their theology, to their demise. These folks are persecutors of the cross of Christ. They are deluded and they distort and dilute the power of the message of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Paul

Galatians 6:12-16 NASB

“12 Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. 16 And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”

  • I wrote about verses 12-14 in my previous blog so I will not comment here.
  • Paul in verse 15 makes it very clear that there is no advantage nor disadvantage in being Jewish or not being Jewish. The point of this text is “a new creation” which we know to be those “in Christ.”
  • There are those who try to parse the last verse where it says, “peace be upon them [the new creation – the believers in Christ Jesus], and upon the Israel of God”, as meaning there are two separate and distinct groups of people Paul is talking about.
    • One is the new creation meaning those who are in Christ Jesus, and
    • The other is the Israel of God meaning the natural and unsaved Jewish people

Let’s look at another text and see if this way of interpreting the Scripture holds up.

Mark

Mark 16:7 NASB

“But go, tell His disciples and Peter, `He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’”

  • Is the angel of the Lord saying that Peter is not one of the disciples by there being an ‘and’ between the word ‘disciples’ and ‘Peter’? Could it be that because of Peter’s denial of Jesus three times that he forfeited his place among the twelve? Or is the angel simply specifying that Peter needs special attention as a disciple and one of the future pillars of the Church because of his poor choice?

I want to tell you that Peter never was removed from his place in the special group of the apostle’s of the Lamb. And in the same way the use of the word ‘and’ in Paul’s text in Galatians 6 does not communicate a separation into two distinct groups. It simply communicates the special designation of the Israel of God – those who are part of God’s new creation, those who are in Christ Jesus.

Lastly, do not believe the “believers” who want to take you back into a natural reality and diminish or destroy your faith in and faithfulness to the revelation of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Believe it or not we still are dealing with Judaizers who cannot or will not let go of the notion that God’s blessings are tied up in natural and still unbelieving Jewish people.

They will accuse you of spiritualizing the text. I know because I get accused of that often. I also get accused of twisting the Scripture to fit “my theology.”

There is a principle in interpreting Scripture. It is simply take literal what is literal and not to take literally what is not literal.

Paul said this, “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.” [1 Corinthians 15:46]

This is another principle that must be understood to understand the Bible. The Old Testament, among other things, was about a natural people [Israel] seeking spiritual encounters with God. The New Testament, especially starting in the Book of Acts, is about a spiritual people living in a natural world.

First [OT] the natural. Then [NT] the spiritual. Jesus illustrated this in John 3 in His conversation with Nicodemus. He gave him natural examples of spiritual truths but Nicodemus could not understand those spiritual truths because the natural mind cannot receive anything from the Spirit of God [1 Corinthians 2:14].

These naturally minded people are either unaware of, or do not care to admit, that all of the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus, and no one and no where else.

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us [saints].” [2 Corinthians 1:20]

Stay close to the cross of Christ and the Christ of the cross, for in Him you live, and move, and have all of your being.

For more information on this subject please watch my series on Youtube/Bethel Church Brunswick, GA or download it from iTunes on WHO IS THE ISRAEL OF GOD, And What Does That Have To Do With Me, and my series called JESUS AND JERUSALEM.

Keep HIS Faith! Keep HIS Passion! Keep HIS Truth!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury
One of His Hisstorymakers