We are the true Israel
We share the faith of Abraham as did the true Israelites then and now (Galatians 3:7; Romans 4:28-29; 9:6-8)—their faith was in God as is ours whether we make explicit reference to Christ or not—although we eventually will by the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God whether we know it or not. Furthermore, knowledge doesn't save us. We are saved because we trust God (who is triune whether we realize it or not). We are saved through faith by Grace because God loves us (Ephesians 2:4-9). A Jew is not just outwardly a Jew, but a Jew is a Jew because he has the faith of Abraham (Galatians 3:7; Romans 4:28-29). Those of us who trust God today are just as much a Jew as those who believed before us. The biological descendants of Abraham who do not believe God are not true Jews.
Abraham did not have the kind of information about Jesus that we have, but he had enough information and faith to be saved. All we must do to be saved is trust God, but we want something more impressive. We want to require people to master deep, intricate doctrinal matters in order to be saved; but that is not how we got saved. That is something we do after we get saved. It’s like Naaman who was told by Elisha that if he washed in the Jordan River he’d be healed of leprosy; but Naaman was not impressed. He said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy." (2 Kings 5:11). He wanted something more sensational; and likewise, we want to give a sensational answer to the question, “What must I do to be saved?” But, of all people, a Hollywood screenwriter provided us with a good answer. In the movie "Oh, God," in which George Burns played the role of God, and a little girl wanted to be his campaign manager, she said she had come up with his campaign slogan. It would be "trust God." I couldn't have said it better myself because it really is just that simple—trust God and you are saved. We were saved simply because we trusted God, not because we understood deep, intricate theological issues, but simply because we trusted God.
When trying to lead people to Christ, too often we want to give them a copy of Moody's Handbook of Theology and say, "Study this, and when you're done, we'll give you an exam. If you pass, you will make it into heaven." But Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:2-3) and "Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:14-15) and "Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4)." So, we don't need a PhD in theology in order to be saved; quite the opposite—we need to become like children (See also Luke 18:17). However, we don’t want to remain children.
We want to grow into mature Christians. That’s why we should study the bible and, of course, pray for understanding.
Keep in mind that Abraham didn't even have the bible. It hadn't been written yet—not for another 430 years. Nor did he have explicit knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth or his saving ministry. Yet he got saved—How? —via imputed righteous or more specifically, the covenant of circumcision.
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In this blog I take a close look at a wide variety of topics using the Bible as my lens. When we look at the world through the lens of scripture we discover life-changing truth that transforms us. We discover our
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