One New Man

A Study Of The Jewish Roots Of Christianity and Restoration of The Jewish/Gentile Branches Together as One New Man Unto Christ!

The One New Man teaching is not a doctrine that teaches two different ways of salvation -one for the Jews, one for the Gentiles. We must ALL come the same way - through the blood of Jesus Christ and faith in Christ Crucified. There is no other name whereby men, be them Jew OR Gentile, must be saved except that of CHRIST. The one new man is CHRIST to whom both Jew and Gentile find reconciliation and unity through His blood. This message and section is ultimately a message of prayer and intercession and to bring awareness to the Gentile part of the New Covenant Church of Israel's role in Bible Prophecy and how the roots of our Christian faith have ties to the foundation of the Jewish people. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Judah's father, where we get the term 'Jew') and their descendants from Moses to David to Isaiah to Ruth to JESUS were the foundation of the Jewish nation.

The tenets of the Law of Moses were to point us to CHRIST, the one to whom ALL prophecy and Law fulfills. Christ came to give us a better covenant than Judaism! HE IS THE COVENANT! Our faith must be in HIM! We say this because there has been a lot of recent preaching/teaching that says the Jews have a special way they must be saved. That is unscriptural and false. The One New Man teaching is to point us to reconciliation in CHRIST, not give a sense that Gentiles must become Jews and Jews must become Gentiles to find favor with God. GOD FORBID. The Body of Christ is made up of two parts - Jew and Gentile. The Jewish Root of salvation is CHRIST, the one whom the Gentiles were grafted in as a result of Israel's unbelief. We as Gentiles must never be high minded but FEAR lest we be cast off as well because of the same unbelief Israel had in Messiah so long ago. If we don't believe, our fate will be the same as them! That's the message of Romans 9-11 and really the foundation of the One New Man teaching.

We have placed a doctrinal statement of the Messianic Community in this section to give information on how most Messianic Fellowships worship and believe. We are ok with about 90% of their belief statements. As Gentile believers, we're not called to live as Jews to receive blessing from God. We're ALL called to live worthy of the calling we have been placed in as a result of the blood of Christ. If, as a Jewish believer, one wishes to live culturally as a Jew, then they do not need to be rejected by the church.

But many well-meaning Messianic believers want to take the cultural question and make it a spiritual requisite to receive blessing from God. Some go even as far as saying salvation is based on Jewish customs, etc. Just as the Judaizers of the first church, who opposed the message of Grace given to the Apostle Paul, sought to bring the church back into Law by preaching that one could not be saved by faith in Christ alone, but by faith AND observing the Torah (LAW), many today are advocating the same damnable doctrine!

That spirit and doctrinal stance by the Judaizers (Read the Paul's Letter To The Galatians') almost destroyed the early church and sadly, it's coming close to destroying the present day church as well. The body of Christ is comprised of both JEW and GENTILE. As Gentiles, we are grafted into the Jewish vine. BOTH ARE SAVED BY FAITH IN CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED!

Our experience with Messianic fellowships has been that more emphasis is placed on the cultural issues of being Jewish to be in good standing with God instead of the SPIRITUAL ones which deal with faith, humility and love. I'm not saying that as a criticism but as an observation. Believe me, we Gentiles have no room to judge the Jewish believer who wishes to keep the Sabbath, observe the Feasts and follow the laws of Kosher to merit favor with God. We have just as many traditions and ceremonies to choke a mule that we consider part of "Christianity."

Whatever one does, be it Jew or Gentile, it must be anchored by FAITH IN THE CROSS OF CHRIST! God's favor on us as believers is not because of our "works" or the efforts of our flesh to please Him. God is pleased with one thing and that is HIS SON - CHRIST JESUS. When we embrace THE SON OF GOD, and anchor our faith in what He has done for us at Calvary, then and only then are we pleasing to God. We are not pleasing to God because we keep the feasts, reading and keeping the Torah, or following a certain type of worship - be in Davidic, Messianic or singing just plain regular old-time worship choruses on Sunday. God is not wrapped up in a DAY. If we want to worship on Saturday (the Sabbath) go for it. If we wish to worship on Sunday have at it. But if we are worshiping on one of those days to obtain righteousness - we are fallen from GRACE!

NEIGHBOR GOD IS WRAPPED UP IN A PERSON - HIS SON JESUS CHRIST!!!!!! I've seen worship services in Messianic congregations that put a great deal of emphasis on the TORAH with less emphasis on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certain elements of the service include holding a box up that contains a "Torah" with people "kissing" it in a symbol of worship. NEIGHBOR, We don't worship a BOX! (NO DISRESPECT MESSIANICS)! We worship the SON! To this writer, that is not different that what the children of Israel did in the wilderness when Moses lifted up the serpent on the pole for salvation only to have them worship the object a short time later in idolatry. Moses had to take the very symbol down that God used to bring healing. The serpent on the pole was only a sign to the coming CHRIST who would be lifted up as the serpent was to bring HEALING to the world - THROUGH THE CROSS! The symbol was just that - a symbol. And neighbor - ANY OBJECT, I don't care what it is - that we hold up as an object of worship instead of worshipping the LORD JESUS in Spirit and in Truth - is an object of idolatry.

There is a great need today for the two parts of the Body - Jew and Gentile - to come together, yes! There is a great need for the divide between Jewish and Gentile believing people to come into unity and fellowship as "ONE NEW MAN" in Christ. That is the entire purpose of this study! But neighbor, through many dangers, toils and tears, I have learned a hard lesson in life and it's this. Whenever we seek to walk in anything other than true Biblical faith and the truth of the Word of God, led by the SPIRIT OF GOD (Who only ordains and anoints the parameters of what Christ did at the Cross), we fall from GRACE and wind up in LAW. When we do that we bring spiritual death to our lives! The law came by Moses, but GRACE and TRUTH comes through THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. A Works-oriented and based walk with God after we get saved, can never bring maturity and development of the believer - be that believer JEWISH or GENTILE! Most know that we're not saved by works - but neighbor, do we understand we're not KEPT by works either! We're kept by the HOLY GHOST who is SEAL of our redemption!

Only the HOLY SPIRIT can do that. So in studying these lessons and reading the Messianic statement of faith, please understand that we recognize the Messianic Communities' right to observe the Jewishness of their faith. But when they or any movement for that matter start thinking that by expressing themselves in a Jewish way or observing works brings greater favor upon them by God - WE STRONGLY DISAGREE! The Gentiles are just as important to the ONE NEW MAN as the Jewish people are. We don't lessen either's role in this ONE NEW MAN experience in CHRIST. We can't do this individually or without the other. The Gentile Branches need the Root of the VINE of Romans 11, but the Root also needs the Branches to grow as well. THE VINE GROWS UP INTO CHRIST AS ONE NEW MAN IN HIM! It does not grow as ONE NEW MAN of the Jewish faith or the Gentile faith. THERE IS NOT TWO SEPARATE FAITHS NOR IS THERE TWO WAYS OF SALVATION. WE ALL MUST COME THE SAME WAY. Israel rejected this way and was cast aside because of their unbelief as a nation. We need to fear, lest we being lifted up in that same pride, are cast off as well!

A tremendous amount of the background for this study was taken directly from "The Last Lap," an excellent book by Sid Roth from Messianic Vision (WWW.SidRoth.org) and Don Finto's book, "Your People Shall Be My People," on the coming together of the One New Man. You should really pray about supporting Sid's ministry with your offerings. God is doing an awesome work in Brunswick, Georgia! Shalom. A Complete Bibliography Is At The End Of This Study That Is Currently Ongoing. Get These Books and let the Lord minister to you! Shalom and Love.

One New Man 2 - Coming in March 2006-A continuation of the study on the church's role as intercessor and partner with Israel as it concerns the end times and coming of the Lord. We've been patiently putting together new lessons for nearly a year now and we have the end in sight for part two of this study! Look for it soon on Spirit Journals