The doctrine of a thousand years’ reign with Christ on earth creates anew the problem of ethnic superiority. Jesus came to tear down the middle wall of partition which kept mankind divided into hostile camps–the wall between Jews and Gentiles.
It is God’s eternal purpose “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). The fulness of times is located for us by Paul in Galatians 4:4: “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.”
Since that time, all national, racial, social, political, and economic distinctions between people are lost when men and women accept the mercy of God which He offers through His only begotten Son, our Saviour. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
A new kind of Israel has come into being since Jesus gave His life as a ransom for sin. The old Israel which was composed of those who were born as Jews physically has, since our Lord’s death on the cross, been removed from special privileges and lowered to the common level of all mankind. Paul says to all who would revive that ethnic distinction: “There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him” (Romans 10:12).
A Jew as such has no standing before God any more than any other sinner, “for God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all” (Romans 11:32). We are told that “he is not a Jew which is one outwardly…but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly” (Romans 2:2-29). The new birth through faith in Jesus Christ makes a new creature who, with others of like spiritual nature, make up the New Testament “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:15-16).
The kingdom of God, therefore, is based upon a spiritual people composed of both Jews and Gentiles who have been saved by the precious blood of Christ. That is the “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people” (1 Peter 2:9) of whom Peter speaks. Such redeemed people are “lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices.”
