Joel M Bradshaw

6This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.–Ephesians 3

Promises were once made by God to Abraham and his descendants.

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. (Genesis 12:2)

 And God said to [Jacob now renamed Israel], “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 35:11-12)

The issue here is not that God changed his mind and replaced the Jewish people with Gentiles. No, according to God’s plan, His salvation tent was getting wider.

Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:

“ ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. (Acts 13:46-48 quoting Isaiah 49:6)

In our text today, Paul called Gentiles HEIRS. In Christ, the Gentile believer is seen as equal as the Jewish believer. Nobody is more ‘chosen’ than the other. In fact, Ephesians 1:4 spoke of God choosing even before there even was an Abraham, Isaac, or a Jacob.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

The point no longer is DNA and ancestry, but by faith belonging to Jesus. God didn’t replace His tent, but He did make it wider.–JMB