We come to the third main teaching of chapter 2, and that is the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. With the coming, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the ascension, and the giving of the Spirit of the Messiah, something new, something radical, has taken place, both for Jews and Gentiles – but especially for Gentiles.

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Paul is writing as a Jew, as one of the chosen people, and as an apostle to the Gentiles, to Gentiles. The word “Gentile” has the same meaning as the Hebrew word “goy” or goyim – nation or nations. It simply means someone who is from a nation other than the nation of Israel.

Paul is writing to Gentiles who believe in Messiah. They are still Gentiles after coming to know the Jewish Messiah. They are still Gentiles after becoming Christians. An African is still and African, a European is still a European, and an Asian is still an Asian.

Those who were Gentiles, who were not born Jews, who were being called the uncircumcision – either by non-Messianic Jews, or by Jewish Believers who were Judaisers, demanding that Gentiles not only believe in Messiah Yeshua, but be circumcised and follow all of the laws given to Israel. To be called uncircumcised means that they were considered to be outside of the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants. They did not have a covenant relationship with God. They did not participate in these precious agreements between God and the Jewish people. Even the New Covenant was specifically made with the people of Israel. Gentiles were not partakers of these covenants that brought with them such great promises and blessings.

Note well that Paul uses the phrase, the “so-called circumcision.” It is referring to Jewish people who were either non-Messianic, who refused to follow King Messiah; or it was the Judaisers who added to the requirements of the Gospel, and became legalists. Paul refers to them as the “so-called circumcision” because the reality of the situation was that their relationship to God was not right. Non-Messianic Jews can be called the so-called circumcision, because unless a Jew follows Messiah, then the reality of the situation is that he is not really circumcised in God’s sight. He is outside of Israel’s covenant with God. Contrary to what people like Mark Kinzer teach, the Jewish rejection of Yeshua is a no to God! And the Jewish Believers who went too far, and pressured Gentiles to convert, their relationship to God was very much suspect.

The great Rabbi from Tarsus lets us know that there is the circumcision which is done in the flesh that is performed by human hands, which may be of very limited benefit, and that conversely, there is another kind of circumcision, a cutting not of the flesh by human hands, but a cutting of the heart done by the hands of God. When a human being comes to know and believe that the God of Israel is the only true God, and that Messiah Yeshua is the Son of God that He sent, something miraculous takes place. The Lord cuts away the hardness of the human heart that is resistant toward God, and removes the boastful pride of life – all the independence and indifference and pride and arrogance.

Here is the truth: Jewish person, if being part of the New Covenant, that agreement between God and Israel that is based on the death and resurrection of the Messiah, is essential to being Jewish, then you are not really Jewish unless you believe in Jesus! And, Gentiles person, if you are joined by faith to the Jewish Messiah, and you received the Holy Spirit, then though you is a Gentile outwardly, on the inside, where it really counts, you have been circumcised. You have received the circumcision of the heart. You have entered into the New Covenant. You have a real and true and genuine relationship with the God of Israel. In one sense, you are more Jewish than the so called circumcised, even if they are the most orthodox of Jews!

Gentile Christian, if you are envious of the Chosen People, stop envying, stop being jealous of the Jewish people. There is no need to. In fact, be bold in Messiah. Know who you are in Messiah. You are chosen! You are circumcised. You are complete. You are loved by God. You truly have a New and Everlasting Covenant with God. You are a son or Daughter of the Eternal God! Know these things and you will find that the Jewish people start becoming jealous of you!

Paul wants these Gentiles, these non-Jews, to remember something – to keep in mind, the horrible condition that they were in, and that terrible situation that God delivered them from. Remember that formerly you, the Gentiles remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

This master teacher wants these Gentiles to remember that before they embraced the Gospel, this most excellent good news about salvation made possible by the King Messiah, five seriously bad things were true of them.

1. They were separate from Messiah. They were not connected to Yeshua of Nazareth. The Son of David came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel. He limited His time and energy and ministry to the Jewish people. The Gentiles, before they knew about the Messiah that God had sent to Israel, were unfamiliar with, and had no relationship to the Son of God, the Prince of Life and the Savior of the world.
2. They were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. The nation of Israel had many advantages – we were chosen by God; we were the first born son among the nations; we were blessed with the knowledge that there is only one true God; we had great fathers, prophets, priests and kings; we were the recipients of great miracles; we enjoyed great deliverances; we were blessed with the giving of the Torah, and the Temple service and the sacrifices, the covenants and the promises, and the glorious dwelling Shechinah presence of God. The other nations were not connected to the nation of Israel, which was connected to all these wonderful things. They were aliens, strangers, without all the rights and privileges that being a citizen of Israel would entitle them to.
3. They were strangers to the covenants of promise. The God of Israel is the kind of God who is personal, and actually make deals with human beings. The Lord made a covenant with Noah that included all human beings, and the one promise of this covenant was that the world wouldn’t be destroy a second time by a world-wide flood. Fire and plagues maybe, but not a flood! The Lord also made additional agreements with Israel that contained many wonderful promises: He made the amazing promise that the Lord would be our God forever. He promised to provide us with a beautiful land with abundant resources to enjoy; the Lord promised us genuine atonement. The Lord promised to meet all of our needs, and even beyond meeting our needs, to bring us wealth, prosperity, fame and honor. He promised to exalt us above all the nations of the world. Our God promised to make us a light to the nations; He promised to protect us, to bless us, and to give us ultimate victory. He promised us success, wealth and prosperity. He promised to send us the Son of David who would bring us physical and spiritual salvation. He promised us life in this world and life in the world to come. The Gentiles were strangers to these covenants of promise, and were not entitled to these good things!
4. The Gentiles had no hope. They were hopeless. Hope is knowing that you will actually receive something good in the future. You know that it will happen, because it is true – it really will happen. The nations apart from Israel had no hope because the reality was that they would not get the best things in the future – good things like participation in the resurrection of the righteous; passing through the Day of Judgment and not being condemned; everlasting rewards. They had no hope of making it to Heaven, or experiencing eternal life in the New Heavens and New Earth.
5. The Gentiles were without God in the world. The nations of the world were without God in this world. You can be a human being and be without God? Yes. You can be with God, and you can be without God. You can have God, or you can be without God. What a horrifying, frightening, terrifying thought – to be without God, abandoned by the One who made you, rejected by the only One who can save you! Sin has so devastated humanity that the Gentiles are without God.

Let me summarize: All the nations of the world, with all their babel of religions and ideologies and traditions, their cacophony of thoughts, all their actions and deeds done with mixed motives, are separate from Messiah, the Savior. They are excluded from the nation of Israel and all the blessing and advantages and privileges that have come to the Jewish people. They are strangers to the covenants of promise. They are not participants in these wonderful agreements with their glorious promises of atonement and blessing and success and salvation. They have no hope of Heaven or reward or eternal life. They are Godless – they are without God in the world.

Hindu, Buddhist, New Ager, Islamist, Voodooist, atheist, agnostic, Communist, Secular Humanist, you deluded human being who thinks that you are a good person, you are without Messiah. You have no covenant relationship with the living God. You are without God. You are without hope. This is what the great apostle to the Gentiles wants the Gentiles to know, to understand, and to remember.

But this is not the end of the story. The spiritual Titan from Tarsus goes on to teach the Gentile Believers that what was true of the Gentiles before they heard the Good News about Messiah is no longer the case. They situation has been reversed! But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah.

But now, but now, but now! Thank God for His but nows! Thank God for Messiah Yeshua! Thank God that it is now possible to be in Messiah! Thank God for not leaving the world hopeless. Thank God for seeing our pathetic condition, and in spite of our pride, and our desire to be independent of Him, and our horrible rejection of Him and His values, the Almighty still loved us, and sent the Messiah!

Thank God that you Gentiles, who used to be far off – far off from God, far off from Messiah, far off from the chosen people with our many blessings, from the covenants that contained these wonderful promises, far off from hope – thank God for His love and mercy and grace, and that the Almighty has exerted His divine energy and activity so as to bring you near!

Believers in Messiah are now near! Near to God (He is living in You, and You are living in Him); near to Messiah (He also is living in you, and you are living in Him); near to the nation of Israel (which means that Gentile Christians need to know about, and be sympathetic to, and stand by as much as possible, the nation of Israel and the Jewish people); near to the wonderful promises of blessing and salvation; near to hope for salvation and everlasting blessing and rewards and life!

And how did God bring the nations of the world near? There was only one way that would do it. There was only one thing that would do. They were only one precious price to pay to accomplish so great a task – the blood of Messiah. It was Yeshua of Nazareth, a perfect man, sinless, full of grace and truth, full of wisdom and humility and submission to the will of God, full of love, full of self-sacrifice, it was His willing death on the cross, His whipped and beaten body nailed to that wood, His infinitely precious blood that was shed, that brought the nations of the world near.

The religions of the world couldn’t and can’t and won’t and will never bring the world near.

Pre-Messianic Judaism couldn’t bring the world near.

Post-Coming-Of-Messiah-Non-Messianic can’t bring the world near.

Your good deeds, your best efforts, can’t bring even you yourself near!

Only God the Father, sending Messiah the Son, who offered Himself through the Holy Spirit, and whose blood was shed, could bring you and the nations of the world near.

Are you near? Do you follow Messiah? Do you believe that He died and shed His blood, to bring you near? Are you close to Him? Do you hear His voice calling you, requesting that you follow Him?

Gentiles who were far from the God of Israel, and far from the blessed promises and privileges of Israel, and far from the people of Israel, if they welcome Messiah, are no longer far, but near. How near? Very near. So near that they actually become one with the faithful remnant of Israel, the Messianic Jews. The Christian Gentiles form a new entity with us. We become a unified new humanity, full of peace and love and unity, with the division between Jew and Gentile gone!

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. Gamliel’s greatest disciple uses the barrier of the dividing wall to illustrate this separation. In the Temple, there was a wall beyond which Gentiles could not pass. Jews could go beyond the barrier, and get closer to the Most Holy Place, and one Jew could even enter the Most Holy Place, but Gentiles could only go so far. They had to remain outside of the Temple. This wall separated Gentiles from the presence of God, and it also divided Jews and Gentiles.

But now the division is gone. The division isn’t removed by demanding that Jews stop being Jews. This barrier isn’t taken away by Gentiles ceasing to be Gentiles. This division of humanity into Jew and Gentile is overcome when Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles come together in a new group, in a new unified community, with peace between the faithful remnant of Messianic Jews who are still Jews, and Christian Gentiles who still are Gentiles, but both groups loving each other and working together to serve the same God who loved us, and poured out His mercy and grace and Spirit on us.

I believe that is what God is doing here at Congregation Shema Yisrael. It seems to me that we are a special part of the Body of Messiah because we are trying to become this one new man, this new humanity, where Jews remain Jews, and Gentiles are Gentiles. I’m and hopeful, because I think that the Lord may have very good things in store for us as we try to be faithful to Him and His Word and work out His truth in our community.