When Paul wrote to the Romans about the sovereignty of God in the salvation of men (Romans 9), he also wrote concerning the mystery of His plan for the nation of Israel, and the important role that faith plays in being one of God’s children (Romans 10,11).
Writing to the Gentile Christians, Paul said: “For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” (Romans 11:24) The Holy Spirit could not make it clearer than that. The Jewish people are the “natural branches” and the Gentiles (the “wild” branch) are the grafted-in people. In speaking of this Jew-Gentile group of people called the Body of Christ, Paul in writing to the Ephesians said: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:14-16)
According to Hebrews 8:10-13, the “new covenant” that God makes with Israel is the covenant that we are grafted into. Our Lord Jesus Christ has made this covenant relationship between Jew and Gentile possible through His sacrifice on the cross. Hebrews 10:7-10 reads: “‘Then I said, “Behold, I have come- In the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Your will, O God.” ’ Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The Lord Jesus Christ is The Head “over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” (Ephesians 1:22-23)
One day, the Church in Glory will be singing a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9). Praise be unto The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, Who makes us one in Him! Truly, there is just one body (Ephesians 4:4).
