As many of my readers know I grew up in the Christian Church, even though I am Jewish. It was not until I was in my twenties that I returned to the roots of my faith. There was one underlying belief system running through the church though, that never really sit right with me. Opps did I say one, there where many, but for this article we are going to focus on the one that is bugging me today. That being the belief system that Christians are Gentiles, which have merely been saved by grace. 

 

So while this article is about the gentile mentality we must take a look at the whole grace dichotomy first to really make since of it. Traditionally in the Christian church the word grace is thrown around as an escape phrase when someone’s sin has been exposed. Now don’t get we wrong without grace NO FLESH could be saved. But grace the way it is being used in the church is detrimental to ones salvation. Grace is not a license to sin. Grace is for those sins that we committed before coming to the knowledge of truth, or those sins that we commit unknowing after we have come to the knowledge of truth.

 

The sad thing is.  In Many Christian church’s around the world a popular catch phrase is being regurgitated from behind pulpits. The diatribe goes something like this. We all sin every day and without grace none of us would have a chance. Even though the entire message of the bible is to live without sin, pastors excuse it from behind the pulpit. They do this for a verity of reason but more then likely it boils down to one of these two. #1 they are excusing their own sin to keep their position or, #2 they are excusing the sin of their congregants so as to not affect their attendance numbers or revenue stream.

 

While some denominations are greater offenders than others, all are guilty of using this get out of hell free card, in some form or fashion. I am going to get to the scriptures that address this in this article but there is one more lie taught in the church that needs to be addressed first. The lie which states grace did not come until Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection. They will more then likely miss quote a scripture saying, “through Moses came the “LAW” but through Yeshua we received “GRACE”. Let’s take a real look at that scripture and start tearing this heretical belief system apart.

 

John 1:17 for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

 

Ok we see clearly that the LAW was given to the people buy Moses, but GRACE and TRUTH was given by Yeshua. While they mention both the law and grace in their, misquote of this scripture. They neglect to mention the truth part of this verse. I don’t know if it is intentional or just that with truth being subjective in the modern church, they just don’t know how to define it. So I will define it the way we are commanded in Scripture to, buy using the word.

 

First of all you need to understand that the Hebrew word used when we see the word “LAW” is the word “TORAH”. The Torah is the first five books of the bible believed to be written by Moses. It is in these first five books that we find the Mitzvah (commandments) delivered to Moses by Yahweh (GOD). It is the compilation of these Mitzvahs that comprise the Torah. Now that we are all on the same page as to what the word “LAW” actually means let’s define what the word truth means when used in this context.

 

Psa_119:142  Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.

 

Mal_2:6  The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.

 

Here we see that both King David and the Prophet Malachi proclaim that the “LAW” is “TRUTH” or rather that the Torah is truth. So if we were to rewrite the verse that started this it would read like this…. ( for the Torah was given by Moses, but Grace and Torah came by Yeshua the Messiah) It was Messiah Yeshua who spoke with Moses on the Mountain. It was Yeshua who met with Abraham in the desert. It was Yeshua how walked with Adam in the cool of the morning in the Garden. But that is a whole other teaching that we will not go into in this article but maybe it will spark you to search it out for yourself.

 

Now there is just one more word that needs to be defined before we can move forward and that is the word Grace. What is grace according to Scripture? Does it mean what the modern church is defining it to mean. Is it really a get out of hell free card? Or is it something else? Let’s first prove that grace did not come at the cross, and then we will define it in its correct context. Maybe then we can answer all these questions and begin to bring some clarity the whole Christian gentile belief. So let’s go back to the Scriptures and see grace in its true form.

 

Gen_6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

 

Exo_33:12-13  And Moses said unto the LORD, See, thou sayest unto me, Bring up this people: and thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in my sight. Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

 

Now that was just two examples of Grace long before the Cross. There are literally hundreds. There are numerous times that Israel messed up and should have received death for breaking the Fathers Torah but he gave them grace and allowed them to remain. Sure he brought judgment to them for their sins. He even kicked the whole nation out of the land he promised them so that they would learn the error of their ways. But even in his Judgment he was showing them grace. The only way to be redeemed to the father is to be in right standing with him. No Sin (breaking the Torah 1John 3:4) will enter into the kingdom. So grace in many cases is in the Judgment that Yahweh brings. It is not a get out of hell free card. It is bringing you into right standing with the father.

 

It is only threw the shed blood of Messiah Yeshua that our sin’s can be removed from us to be remembered no more. Just as the shed blood of the Passover lamb staved off death from the children. The Torah says in my words that if we break his mitzvah that we hate Him, and that he will judge those that hate him to the third and the fourth generation. It is through the shed blood of the Messiah that our children can be released from that judgment the same way the first born of Egypt were released by the blood on the door post. This is grace. Grace is that we can be reconciled to the father after we have broken the “LAW” (torah).

 

The penalty for breaking the Mitzvah is death, whether that death is literal in this life or separation from the father after this life is over. Grace removes that penalty when we acknowledge that we have broken the fathers’ commands and do Teshuva (repentance). Teshuvah is much more then just saying you are sorry though. It is to have hatred for your sin, to confess your sin, and to purpose in your heart to never commit that sin again. This is not simply saying you are sorry to remove your guilty feeling. Grace makes it possible for you to be reconciled to the father even though you are guilty of sin it does not make it possible for you to live in sin. (Continue to break the torah)

 

I could go on and on proving this point but I don’t want this to turn into a book about grace since this is an article on Christians referring to themselves as gentiles. I just wanted you, the reader, to have this information fresh in your mind as we talk about the whole gentile dichotomy.

 

It is not uncommon when speaking to a Christian who says they believe in the same God that you do to hear them say the aforementioned phrase “I am a gentile, Saved by grace”. Most of them maybe all of them do not even realize what they are proclaiming over themselves. When they profess that they are a Gentile they are in fact saying that they do not believe in Yahweh. They are really saying that they are part of the nations that reject the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And then Adding a lie to it saying they are saved by grace given by a Elohim that they do not really believe in nor live according to his commandments.

 

Now I don’t want to be to harsh because they do believe in the same messiah and the same Elohim that we believe in they are just seeing him from the warped view of some denomination or church doctrine. Many of them really just do not know because they have for the most part been fallowing him from this warped perspective for their whole lives. This is how their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, spiritual leaders and friends have worshiped him. This is the accepted norm and any real outward thinking that challenges this belief is looked at as though it is questioning Elohim and not just someone who is questioning what they have been taught.

 

So let’s first take a look at what the word Gentile really means. When used in its singular form “gentile” it is the Greek word Hellen. It is used to refer to those that believe in Hellenism. This is the period of time when Rome had control of the known world and worshiped a plethora of false gods. So by saying you are gentile you are in fact confessing that you worship false gods and not the Elohim of Israel from which our faith was given birth. Even when you use it in it Plural form both in Greek and Hebrew it means someone who is from other nations and who does not worship the same Elohim as Israel. In Greek it is the Greek word Ethnos and in Hebrew it is the Hebrew word goy just in case you want to look it up.

 

Now we can get to the meat of this article. And answer the questions posed as briefly as possible.  Are Christians who have accepted the Messiah as their redeemer gentiles? With what we have already discussed hopefully you are already beginning to see some truth in this matter, but lets get to some scripture so we can tie a knot in it and there will no longer be any question in your mind as to who you are as a believer.

 

Many believers that have just come to faith in the messiah don’t really know what they are. They only know that they are not the same as they were before they believed. Are they now Jews or do they remain gentiles or are they something different all together. As with many things where there is a point of contention the truth of the matter lays somewhere in the middle and the only way we can find that “TRUTH” is to go to the foundation (TORAH) and work our way forward. Just as a believer has been delivered and led out of being a slave to their sins lets go to where Israel was sent a deliverer in Moses and they were led out of their Slavery into the promises of Yahweh.

 

Exo_12:48  And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

 

Exo_12:49  One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

 

Lev_24:22  Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.

 

Now I could have ended it with the first verse I posted and make the argument that Yeshua is our Passover lamb and if you partake of him then you become as one who was born in the land. Remember none of the people who are hearing this verse for the first time had ever been in the land. So he was saying clearly that the person that keeps the covenant and partook of the Passover was to be counted as part of Israel and no difference was to be made between them.  I posted the other two verses to make the point even if you do consider yourself a Stanger (Gentile) still it does not absolve you from keeping the torah if you want to be counted as part of his people. I however don’t want to stop there because this concept goes much further and much deeper.

 

The Torah teaches us that when the stranger that abides with us accepts the covenant that their children become as our children and one who is natural born or as one who is born in the land. Again remember it was at least forty years before anyone would actually go into the land when this commandment was given. This is even truer with the messiah Yeshua.

 

Rom 11:13-21  For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

 

At the beginning of this Passage Paul is talking to gentiles and declares that he is an apostil to the gentiles. If you go back to the beginning of this chapter you will see that he qualifies himself as part of Israel saying that he is of the tribe of Benjamin. He says that he wants to by any means necessary provoke the gentiles to live as he lives. He lived as a Kosher Jew. He was not telling them you can just keep doing the things they were doing. He was also making the point that the Jews had not been forsaken by the father but that they were dispersed so the rest of the world would have opportunity to hear the truth about Yahweh and be reconciled to him. He was also making the point that even if they were cast away that they themselves would be reconciled to the father and be brought back to spiritual life.

 

He tells them that even though some Jews are not holy that because the first fruits were holly, then the rest will be made holly also. And that if the roots are holly then the branches are holly as well. He used the analogy of the olive tree stating that some of the natural branches (the Jews) had been broken off and that gentiles are now grafted into the fatness of the olive tree being wild olive braches. Just as a wild olive branch that has been grafted into the tame (tended and cared for) olive tree will begin to become tame as well.

 

Understand though that the people he was talking to were farmers, vineyard tenders, and herdsmen so they fully understood the analogy he was using. A wild olive branch is still an olive branch it just had not been tended to and pruned. They were dying but now they can partake of the fatness of the good olive tree which will give them life. He puts them in check telling them you don’t give the root life but it is the root that gives you life. Meaning the root can and will live without you but you can not live without the root. Making them understand that the root does not conform to the branches but the branches conform to the root. If the branch does not conform to the root then it will wither and die and fall off.

 

Then Paul makes this final statement trying to drive the point home to them. If you say the natural branches where broken off so you can be grafted in then you are right. But the reason they were broken off is because of their unbelief. He tells them this and then warns them that they should be fearful because if the natural branches are broken for unbelief by the master then don’t think highly of yourself because Yahweh will do the same to you.

 

The point is. Even though a person was a gentile at one point when they come to faith in the Elohim of Israel they have now started their journey in becoming part of Israel not to remain a gentile. They at that point start conforming to the will of Yahweh not continue to walk after their own ways and desires. They are a new creation in Messiah Yeshua no longer that thing they were before.

 

Eph_4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Col_3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

2Co_5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

 

Just as it was with the sojourner that left Egypt with the children of Israel that embraced the commandments of Yahweh, it is the same with this new term Gentile. They eventually were absorbed into one of the tribes and counted as one who is natural born, the same is true with one who comes to faith in the messiah. They are no longer a Gentile worshiping false Gods. They are made new and are no more counted as strangers but as sons and daughters of Israel. Again they are NO LONGER strangers but the chosen people of Yahweh to be counted as part of Israel.

 

Now what happens to one of these Gentiles who come to faith in the messiah? Are they held to different standard, or are they exempted from keeping any of the commandments that where delivered to the children of Israel by Moses? I will try to make this as short as possible but you need to realize that if you are no longer a gentile but made part of Israel no matter what your pastor has told you there is a standard that the father requires of you.

 

Act 15:19-21  Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.

 

Now most of the time when a Christian hears this portion of scripture verse 21 is conveniently left out or not expounded on. The short of the back story here is this. Many of the Jewish believers in messiah were saying that the new converted gentiles should be made to keep the entirety of the torah before they could be accepted in as one of them. So the Apostils brought the matter to James and Peter in Jerusalem to decide. They prayed about it and sought the father on it and this passage is the conclusion of that debate.

 

Now a traditional Christian pastor will tell you that gentiles are absolved from keeping the Law (Torah) and all that they have to do is the four things described in this passage, if they will even go that far. But this was never meant to be the end or the entirety of their walk. It was only the beginning. This was the requirements for them to be able to come into the temples and learn the torah. James makes this perfectly clear in verse 21. They only needed to do these four things then they could go to the synagogues and learn the Torah (Law delivered to Moses).

 

One final point that I hope will drive this home both for the Jew and those that use to be gentiles. We should not be walking in condemnation of those that are not fully walking in the torah we should be trying to teach them in love. If they reject it at first then maybe they are not ready yet. But when you try to force them they will dig their heels into what ever denominational doctrine they were raised in, and you make it harder for them to come to the truth of his word. And here is the final point to anyone who might have started reading this article under the impression that they are a gentile. Or maybe want to hang on to that identity of being a “Gentile saved by grace”

 

 

Rev 21:10-12  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,  Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

 

 

I have never met even one Christian that did not believe in the city of New Jerusalem descending from the heavens. So I ask you to read this passage with a clear and open mind. John is seeing this city in the spirit and describing it in great detail. The part I would like you to focus on is the gates that he describes on this city. He says there are twelve gates, and at each gate there is an angel posted. Now really focus for a minute because this is really important. On each one of the gates there is a name written of each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

 

With the knowledge that each gate has name of one of the twelve tribes and an angel standing guard at that gate could you please tell me were the gate of the gentile is. Yeah it is hitting you hard right about now, it’s meant to. If you are not part of Israel you are not getting into the city of New Jerusalem. You will forever be separated from Yahweh; if this is the case then every promise given to Israel is meant for you. Likewise every commandment that was given to them is now commanded of you also and you will also inherit every curse for breaking them after you have knowledge of them.

 

I hope this helps you in understanding who that you truly are in Messiah Yeshua and also help those that are already walking in torah to be a little more understanding of where you are in your walk and help you rather then hinder you in your journey.

 

Shalom covenant keepers

 

James Gillispie.