Relational Grace Podcast

Breaking the Chains: No Help Wanted, No Help Needed - Can Gentiles become Jews? What’s the difference between Hebrews and Jews? When was Abraham’s salvific experience? Why does it all matter?

August 15, 2022 Nick Harris with Ariel Ministries Episode 68
Relational Grace Podcast
Breaking the Chains: No Help Wanted, No Help Needed - Can Gentiles become Jews? What’s the difference between Hebrews and Jews? When was Abraham’s salvific experience? Why does it all matter?
Show Notes

In this series we have been examining what Pastor Harris calls the Pharisee Gospel. Over the past seven episodes we have taken a close look at the various arguments of a group of Pharisee Christians used to convince believers in Galatia that they should abandon the concept of grace and submit to Jewish law. These Pharisee Christians were so convincing that many of the Galatians believed and concluded that they had not been saved at all.

All this confusion began because these Galatians had bought into the Pharisee Christian argument that the only way for anyone to become saved was to become a Jew. Since the Galatians had not become Jews it appeared to them that even though they had believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ that they really had no relationship with God. The grace message had to be an illusion, after all they had been reminded again and again that Jesus himself had said that salvation is of the Jews. But that raised a huge question which was this, since they were not Jews, was there any way for them to be saved? Afterall, how on earth can a gentile become a Jew?  The Galatians had certainly asked themselves this. Isn't the term Jewish, an ethnic classification as well as a religious classification.  Well they knew the answer to this, of course it is.

Since being Jewish is a matter of genetic lineage, how can any gentile ever be saved? Obviously it would be impossible. But before Pastor Harris provides these answers, let us be reminded of one thing.  In the Bible, God’s chosen people, the Jews, are also known as Hebrews. And there is a subtle but important difference between the Jews and the Hebrews. 

The term Hebrews represents the entire lineage of the man known as Adam Bentera. While the term Jew represents one of the 12 tribes that descended from Adam Bentera.  That tribe is the Tribe of Judah. According to Word of God, the tribe of Judah was the tribe that finally inherited the promises that God had originally told Abraham.

So when we use the word Hebrew we are talking about the offspring of Adam.  When we use the word Jew we are talking about one portion of the offspring of Adam. With that in mind, Pastor Harris will demonstrate how the Pharisee Christians dealt with this issue with Gentiles being saved since they were not the offspring of Adam.  Then he will tell us how the apostle Paul understood how Gentiles become Jews.

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