How should we approach this scripture? How do we deal with the exegesis that extends and extends it beyond any reasonable exegesis?
By sticking to the text. This is about salvation and the Law. Under the law, salvation belonged in the temple, and was for the Jews. The Amorites were not allowed to enter the temple until the 5th generation. No man who had been castrated could worship. No leper. There were places for the congregation, then the levites, then the priests, then the High Priest. There were veils and regulations.
No person could enter the temple unless ritually clean, and with their sins and guilt atoned for by blood. On the day of Atonement, and only that day, the High Priest could enter the holy of holies, to confess the sins of Israel and obtain forgiveness for that year.
The choosing of Israel and the regulations have some truth: we are in nations. God is righteous.
But he is also just, and through Christ all nations can be bought to him. Paul is telling the Gentile nations that theydo not need to be Jewish. Christ is enough.
Ephesians 2:11-22
11So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” — a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands — 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling-place for God.
In Christ we are one, true. But we are not melded into some grey goo. We are, in Christ, still Kiwis, Aussies, Afrikaners, Zulus, Quebecois, Assyrians, Arabs and… yes, Jews. There is nothing wrong with being a member of your nation or tribe. There is nothing wrong with most of the customs of that tribe: and when nations covert they should put their evil away.
Including in that nation that falsely thinks it is an ideology, the United States. This may happen. Hat tip to Mundabor, who noted this, but quoting from the enemy.
Alabama senator Jeff Sessions has been grilled so far today about everything from his stance on immigration to how he plans to act if incoming president Donald Trump violates the law during an ongoing Senate confirmation hearing for his attorney general nomination.
Unexpectedly, he pledged to uphold and “respect” Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared unconstitutional a state law that bans abortion. Asked by Senator Dianne Feinstein to confirm he still believes the decision was “one of the worst, colossally erroneous Supreme Court decisions of all time,” Sessions agreed, adding, “It violated the Constitution, and really attempted to set policy and not follow law.”
But, he added, “Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. It deserves respect and I will respect and follow it.” Sessions’ life-long track record on women’s rights, and particularly their right to choose to have an abortion, is poor, as Quartz has reported earlier.
To that staunch radical Feinstein I have but one word: Repent of your feminism. The souls of the unborn, ripped untimely from their womb, in the name of some fictional right that was made up out of thin air will accuse you. Seek Christ. Confess your sins, and seek Christ while he may be found.
As should we all. Christ calls us. Leave the delusions of this failing elite, and join him.