“To the Jew first…” Some believe the Jews are special in God’s sight and that the Gentile is second-rate. A random reading of Ephesians shows the Gentile was not an after thought with God. They were not “stuck in,” as some teach, after Israel rejected Christ. We are not a fill-in, but part of God’s eternal plan. First does not necessarily mean preference, but simply, in order. A dying patriarch blesses each of his children, according to their ages, not according to his affection, for he loves each the same. Speaking of Jews and Gentiles, Paul says, “…there is no difference…”
God’s love for a Jewish saint of the Old Testament and His love for a Gentile saint of the New, is the same. “Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.” We are “…joint heirs with Christ.”
There is nothing God ever did for a believing Old Testament Jew that He cannot, and will not, do for a believing Gentile of the New Covenant. He loves us the same; He answers our prayers the same; He leads us the same; and He provides for and protects us the same. As one of my children used to say when she was small, about identical things, “We’re same-alikes.”
The Jew was not God's pet, but a pattern.
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