Q&A – WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL? Part 5

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Q&A – WHAT IS THE MYSTERY OF THE GOSPEL?   Part 5

Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Over the past four posts we have identified the existence of the mystery, the nature of the mystery, the promise of the mystery and the dilemma of the mystery.  We have all the requisite pieces; so now, let’s put the puzzle together.

In the Torah, we see the history of Adam’s race beginning in the Garden of Eden.  We see the fall of man, and the corruption of man bringing us to the flood of Noah.  All of humanity is destroyed except Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives.  A very basic covenant is made between IAUE and Noah after the flood; but not one cut in blood.  Finally, IAUE selected Abram in Ur of the Chaldees with whom to establish a unique relationship among all the peoples of the earth.  With Abram, IAUE cut a covenant in blood and changed Abram’s name to Abraham, promising him to be the father of many nations.

To Abraham, IAUE promised a supernatural birth to produce his heir of the covenant; and Isaac was so born to him and Sarah.  Unto Isaac was born twins, Jacob and Esau; but the younger of the two was selected by IAUE to be the heir of the covenant (Romans 10:9-13). IAUE changed Jacob’s name to Israel; and unto him were born the twelve patriarchs of the Hebrew race…the covenant people of IAUE.  The rest of the Scriptures is devoted to IAUE’s promise to Abraham to bless his descendants, to be their Elohim and for them to be His people.

At no time does the narrative of the Scriptures change its focus on the family of Israel; though at the point of the divided kingdom where ten tribes moved north to establish the Kingdom of Israel, having forsaken the promise of the Messiah who would come from the tribe of Judah, the focus is splintered to follow the movements of the House of Israel and the House of Judah in order to keep an eye on all twelve tribes of Israel. This is a necessity in order to fulfill IAUE’s promise to Abraham.

The Old Testament Scriptures ends with Judah and Benjamin returning from captivity in Babylon to reestablish the city of Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple and to resettle the promised land; while the House of Israel is lost to the nations. They cannot come home to their inheritance in the promised land because they have been divorced by IAUE, scattered throughout the nations of the world, now strangers and aliens to the covenants and promises of IAUE.  This is actually the stage upon which the New Testament Scriptures begins.  It is a story of how IAUE put in motion His plan to bring back the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  You will remember from our last post that Messiah himself said that he had come ONLY for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.  This is the mystery that was revealed to the apostle Paul. 

Even though our “Christian” heritage has taught us to understand that the New Testament was all about us, we have been misled into a wrong belief. It is all about the promise IAUE made to Abraham, and to Isaac and to Jacob. IAUE is still dealing with the original covenant He made with Abraham; but through a tweaked version of that covenant.  The original covenant said that IAUE would bless Abraham and his descendants, and that through his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed (Genesis 22:17-18).  Paul explains to the Galatians that this seed was referring to Yahushua Messiah.

Galatians 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Messiah.

This latter half of the Abrahamic Covenant was not engaged until Yahushua cut the new covenant in his own blood.  By his death, Yahushua activated the second half of the Abrahamic covenant, removing its weaknesses and flaws and perfecting the relationship between IAUE and the children of Abraham forever.

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith IAUE, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith IAUE.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith IAUE; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them an Elohim, and they shall be to me a people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know IAUE: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Notice, again, that the new covenant is made, not with the pagan peoples of the world, the gentile nations who are not of the lineage of Abraham; but it is made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah.  The New Testament is the revelation of how IAUE restores the House of Israel and brings the stick of Ephraim back together with the stick of Judah unto one NEW MAN (Ezekiel 37:6-19). IAUE has not cut a covenant with us who are gentiles.

Ephesians 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

12 That at that time ye were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world:

13 But now in Messiah Yahushua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah.

I would imagine that you have never read this passage of Scripture and thought it was referring exclusively to the lost sheep of the House of Israel; but that is exactly about whom Paul is speaking.  They had become like the Gentiles in the flesh by no longer circumcising their male children. Physically, you could not tell them apart from the Gentiles.  They were without Messiah, for their forefathers had said, “What promise have we in David?”  They had become aliens to the united Kingdom of Israel.  They had become strangers from the covenants of IAUE.  Then, we find a unique term that is used only of the lost sheep of the House of Israel…they are those “who were sometimes far off.”  The Gentiles had ALWAYS been far off; but the lost sheep of the House of Israel had not always been far off…they became far off when IAUE scattered them throughout the nations of the world.

Leviticus 26:33 And I will scatter you among the heathen…

Deuteronomy 4:27 And IAUE shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither IAUE shall lead you.

Deuteronomy 28:64  And IAUE shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

When the Jews (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) returned from captivity in Babylon, they remembered these words of Moses.

Nehemiah 1:8 Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:

9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.

The Jews did turn to IAUE and began to keep His commandments.  They remained in the land and did not follow after other gods from that point forward.  This is why the Scriptures, foretelling of the New Covenant says it will be made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah; but then speaks only to the House of Israel when it speaks of putting a new heart within them that will turn them from their faithlessness to know IAUE and obey His commandments.  The Jews had already made the decision to be faithful to IAUE and His commandments.

Paul unravels the mystery of the gospel to the Ephesians in the next two verses of chapter 2.

Ephesians 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

He abolished in his flesh the enmity…the law of commandments.  What law in particular does he mean?

Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Paul is addressing the Jews in Rome, people whom he knew were aware of the law.

Romans 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

This was the dilemma.  This was the enmity set between the Jews and the House of Israel.  The ten tribes of Israel had left her husband, IAUE, to play the harlot with pagan gods; hence she is referred to as the adulterous House of Israel.  The law goes on to say (and because Paul knows they know the law, he knows they already have calculated this in to the discussion) that if the one she has married puts her away, SHE CANNOT COME BACK TO HER FIRST HUSBAND.  That is called “an abomination to the land.”  How to solve this problem was the mystery.

When a woman (the ten tribes) having married her first husband (IAUE), is put away by her first husband, she is not lawfully able to marry another; because to do so would violate the law of marriage.  If she marries another, she commits adultery.  The House of Israel was put away by IAUE and did marry another…all the pagan gods of the gentiles.  She can NEVER come back to marry IAUE.  IAUE is the one who made the law, so He is fully aware that these tribes are lost sheep, now.  However, he devised, in His majestic unsearchable wisdom, that He could create a scenario in which the woman can remarry without committing adultery and without needing to come back to her first husband.

THE MYSTERY UNFOLDED:

Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Messiah; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto Elohim.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Messiah constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

The lost sheep of the House of Israel can never remarry IAUE because the law of the marriage endures as long as the husband is alive, and IAUE cannot die; so there is no way Israel can return to IAUE in marriage.  However, there is one way in which she can remarry without being an adulteress; and that is… if SHE DIES.  If she dies, and lives again, she is free from the law of the marriage and can marry another; and THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IAUE ENABLED THROUGH THE SACRIFICE OF HIS SON.  Paul clearly declares that in Messiah, we all die, in order that we can be married to the one who died for us, that is, to Messiah Yahushua.  In this way, the House of Israel becomes the bride of Messiah, the son of IAUE; and IAUE becomes her father instead of her husband. In this way, IAUE can keep His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It only requires the lost sheep of the House of Israel to become betrothed to the Messiah that their forefathers rejected.

Ephesians 2:16  And that he might reconcile both (the House of Judah and the House of Israel) unto IAUE in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of Elohim;

20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Yahushua Messiah himself being the chief corner stone;

21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in IAUE:

22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of Elohim through the Spirit.

Next:  How the Gentiles enter into this mystery.