Paul has waxed eloquently in the Book of Romans that it is the Covenant of Abraham (a Hebrew covenant) that established the promises for future “seed of Abraham”. And that it is the seed of Abraham who will be the inheritors of God’s Kingdom. So, Believing gentiles, if you trust Christ then you are seed of Abraham and you are an inheritor of God’s Kingdom; that’s the promise. But what specific group of people held that promise in the form of a covenant given to them by God? The Hebrews. So how did gentiles get into a position to be seed of Abraham? We were grafted into the Hebrew’s covenants by our trust in Messiah Yeshua (Paul will discuss that at length in Romans 11). That is, if we trust in the perfect faithfulness of Jesus Christ then we will be included in the promises and terms of the Covenants of Abraham and Moses even though we are not physical Hebrews.
Gentiles Grafted In
11 So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespass usalvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion2 mean!13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as vI am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14 in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and wthus save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means xthe reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 yIf the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.17 But if zsome of the branches were broken off, and you, aalthough a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root3 of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. 19 Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you bstand fast through faith. So cdo not become proud, but dfear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. 22 Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, eprovided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise fyou too will be cut off. 23 And geven they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
The next advantage is the Jews’ possession of the Law of Moses, which Paul calls the giving of the Torah; another covenant with the Hebrews. It is the Torah and nothing else that defines sin according to the Apostle John in 1John3:4. The Law of Moses was given to Israel at Mt. Sinai to God’s elect AFTER God had redeemed Israel from Egypt by means of the 10 plagues. According to Yeshua in Matthew 5, all who follow Him are to obey the Law of Moses; and this is because the Law of Moses is ONLY for the already redeemed (the Law is not a means of redemption). Are you a gentile following Yeshua? Then obey His command to obey the Law of Moses; Yeshua says it is your duty and that your status in the Kingdom of God will be determined by how well or poorly you obeyed The Law.
Gentile Believers: we indeed have a covenant relationship with God. But the covenants are not ours; they were given to, and they belong to, Israel. This is why we are called “grafted-in”. We can only be grafted into something that already exists, and it must be into something alive and well. It does no good to be grafted into a dead stump because a graft gets its nourishment from the roots of the tree it has been grafted into.
Ezekiel 37:24-28 CJB
24 My servant David will be king over them, and all of them will have one shepherd; they will live by my rulings and keep and observe my regulations.
25 They will live in the land I gave to Ya’akov my servant, where your ancestors lived; they will live there- they, their children, and their grandchildren, forever; and David my servant will be their leader forever.
26 I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give to them, increase their numbers, and set my sanctuary among them forever.
27 My home will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.
28 The nations will know that I am ADONAI, who sets Isra’el apart as holy, when my sanctuary is with them forever.'”
30 “Here, the days are coming,” says ADONAI, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra’el and with the house of Y’hudah.
And certainly this passage is emphatic that the new covenant is for Israel. Even so the Church has got it right that gentiles can be included, grafted in. But the Church has also gotten it wrong by making Christianity a new and separate religion, whose God is Jesus, and this to the exclusion of the God of Israel, Yehoveh, His Word, the Torah and even the Jewish people.