36 Comments

  1. Ohhh!!! I LOVE word studies! I love finding out what words from the Bible truly mean. It makes Bible study so much richer. Thanks for this post, Diane. I have chosen it as my feature this week on G & T.

    1. Thank you so much Aimee!! I am so glad you enjoyed it and thank you so much for choosing it for Grace & Truth!!

    1. Thank you so much!! Yes I love digging into the meaning behind scripture, whether it’s really looking into the meaning of a word or digging into the original language!

    1. Down on the lower right side of the screen you will see an icon with a heart and then a symbol with a couple of lines with circles on the end? Click that and you will be able to sign up!

  2. I love your article but I have one question…what is “One New Man” in Christ. What does that mean. The Bible says there is neither Jew nor Greek…

    Thanks

  3. Even though I no longer see my first comment from today I just want to say that I do understand what you are saying about the one new man now. Thank you.

    1. Hi Marsha…your comment didn’t show after you submitted because they have to come to me for approval first to avoid spam comments. So I am just now getting to them.

      When the Bible says there is no longer Jew nor Greek, it means that there is no longer a relationship with God based on one’s standing as a Jew. When the Gentile believers in the first century came to Jesus, they came from pagan societies for the most part. In the ancient world, their gods were the center of their families, their communities and their lives. When they came to faith in Jesus, they had to give up their entire identity (not unlike some places in the world today) and were expelled from their societies so they became very much centered in the communities of their Jewish brethren. They felt like they were out of place and were lacking something if they too weren’t circumcised like their Jewish brothers. They felt (and some made them feel) as though they had to become Jews. That would have actually negated what Jesus accomplished by bringing all to God. So what is meant by no longer Jew nor Greek is that God is God of ALL people who come to Him and there is no distinction made based on whether you are Jewish or not. He is not only the God of the Jews but God of the nations and if believers in Jesus were circumcised it would be like saying He was still ONLY the God of the Jews. So it doesn’t imply that if you are Jewish you should all of a sudden lose your identity (much like I still have my Jewish identity while I follow Jesus) and it doesn’t mean if you are Gentile you need to become a Jew. It was written at a time when people were joining a faith that was new to them and it was to let them know you don’t have to become something else in order to follow the Lord.

      I know you said you understood it now but wanted to write that in case anyone else had a question about it too 🙂

  4. Hello,

    I’ve been studying a lot about the end times lately, and it seems that there is a major evangelistic move to bring non-believing Jews back to God in the end times. What bothers me about that is why is God going to save a lot of Jews that live now but not their forbears who have already died. They don’t seem to get the same opportunity as the people at the end. Does that make sense? Curious if you have any thoughts about that…

    1. This is where the previous covenant with Israel comes in. This new covenant does not negate the old covenant. God does not break covenant. So while Yeshua has ushered in a covenant through which all the nations of the world can come to the God of Israel, which had not been possible before without conversion, the old covenant was available to the Jews who came before Him. I hope that makes sense.

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