One New Man?

Shalom Fellow Israelite,

In the early nineties we joined a local congregation in the town where we were living at the time.  At one point, because of some questions that arose, I decided to explain to the pastor the subject of the historic division of the two houses of Israel (Isaiah 8:14) and their future restoration to form the one house of Jacob again. I brought up the fact that YHVH placed a wall of partition between the two (see 2^nd Chronicles 11:4), while each one continued in its respective specified prophetic destiny. After about two hours of going through the Tanach and New Covenant books, the pastor responded as follows: "I can't refute the scriptures you presented but WHAT GOOD IS IT? We are all ONE NEW MAN in Messiah." Through the years this One New Man has become a defining doctrine of the Messianic churches, somewhat like the Catholic belief that the Church is the Israel of God. If this doctrine is a true picture of the ‘no Gentile’ and ‘no Jew’ identity, then why are the Jewish believers still identifying themselves as Jews, and the non-Jews as Gentiles? There seems to be something missing in this all-encompassing One New Man interpretation. From all appearances and with the (unfortunate) prevalence of envy, strife and contention maybe at this time it is still just a "One New Baby"?  (See 1 Corinthians 3:1-3). 

Labelling ourselves now “New Man” takes us away from the prophetic Scriptures that pertain to the history and calling which is upon the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Taking on this identity before its time will rob us of our identity as Israel - YHVH’s people. Moreover, it also blurs the “identity of Elohim” Himself as the Elohim of Israel (see Exodus 3:6, 15), and the testimony of His faithfulness in keeping covenant with the forefathers of His People.

I would like to suggest that, the One New or Renewed Man is parallel with the term “the sons of Elohim” who will be revealed when all that has been spoken by the prophets of old is fulfilled (Ref. Acts 3: 19-21; Ezekiel 37:19-28). Yeshua, as the Redeemer of all Israel, must complete His task of bringing the whole house together again, as well as back to the lands that were promised in the covenants.

In His first coming as the suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53), He broke down the “wall of partition” through his atoning death, as stressed by Paul (see Ephesians 2:14). However, the problem that still exists between Ephraim and Judah is seen in Isaiah 11 where the prophet points out the envy and jealousy that prevail between them. Nevertheless, the prediction still stands that these two are to become “sons of Elohim” (Hosea 1:10) and one nation in His hand and in the land (see Ezekiel 37). Hence are these Israelites indeed the same sons of Elohim mentioned in Romans 8?  Is the whole creation still groaning because of an identity issue?