There is no more compelling a message than the message of the good news in Y’shua haMashiach (that’s Jesus the Christ in Hebrew). This message of good news, which is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, came to the Jews first, before it came to any other nation on Earth (Romans 1:16). One of the first things that every Jew who comes to faith in Jesus recognizes from their reading of the New Testament, is just how Jewish the gospel of Jesus Christ really is. Yet for many Jewish believers, their experience in the church, that which is meant to be God’s family or God’s household, is somewhat different. They often realize that many of the things that Jesus identified with in the Torah (five books of Moses), Old Testament Prophets and Writings are not identified with by their local church, unless they choose to be involved in a strictly “Messianic” or “Messianic Jewish” church that identifies more strongly with the Jewish traditions. This should not be the case. Why? Because it is the church itself that needs to change, adopting the teachings of Christ Himself and of the Apostles, that point back into the Old Covenant Scriptures, whereby the deepest and most accurate revelation is given from which the message of the good news of Jesus Christ finds its true doctrinal foundation.
The term “good olive tree” is what the apostle Paul used to describe the family of God or the household of God:
“For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?”
(Romans 11:24) The Scriptures (ISR 1998)
Paul is referring to the Gentiles as those who have been cut out of the wild olive tree and grafted into the good olive tree. He then refers to the Jews and Israel as those who though cut off from their own good olive tree, can be re-grafted back into that same good olive tree.
Whether you are Jewish or Gentile, you are grafted into the same good olive tree.
It is not as if the good olive tree from which the Jews and Israel were cut off was destroyed and replaced with a new olive tree specially made for Christians. On the contrary, the good olive tree from which the Jews and Israel were cut off remains and the Gentiles are to be grafted into that very same good olive tree. Therefore the Gentile believers are those who have been adopted into the very same household to which the Jews and Israel belonged. The Gentile believers are seen by God as no different to the Jews and sons of Israel who once belonged to the household of God but were cut off because of unbelief. The Jewish believers and the believing sons of Israel are seen by God to have been restored back into their own good olive tree.
So who are we and what is the Good Olive Tree?
The short answer is that we are the body of Christ in all its fullness, with Christ at our head, our living Lord and Saviour, the image of the Living God, the firstborn over all creation, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead, the root and the offspring of David, the Living One, who was dead and is alive.
The long answer is much more complex, because it is not rooted in our identity in Christ, but in our identity as members of the human race.
Consequently, though we are united in our faith in Jesus and are members of the same family, we are diversified by our differences of interpretation of Scripture.
Some of us want to call ourselves “Messianic”, because we identify with the Old Testament ordinances given to Israel, practiced by the Jewish people.
Some of us do not want to be called “Messianic”, but would prefer to say that we are “Hebrew Roots” Christians, wanting to identify with Old Testament ordinances but not wanting to identify ourselves with the Jewish religion.
Some of us identify as “Christian”, not wanting to be seen as “Messianic” or “Hebrew Roots”, rather reasoning that as God’s adopted family, we should naturally identify with anything given to mankind by God, be it “old treasure” or “new treasure”.
What we do have in common is a sincere desire to know God, to live according to His terms and to understand and do His will.
What we also have in common is that we know and understand that the Scriptures, the Word of God, not only in Romans 11:24 but elsewhere, teach us that as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we are grafted in or adopted into the very self-same household to which the Jews and the sons of Israel belong. We are all grafted into the good 🫒olive tree.
Because we are grafted into the same household, we identify ourselves with the same ordinances that were given by God to the Jews and to the sons of Israel. Why would we identify with God’s ordinances any differently just because we are not Jewish or just because we do not presume to descend from any of the lost tribes of Israel? How can we identify differently to God’s ordinances when we have been grafted or adopted into the very same family to whom He gave His ordinances.
So then, what are those ordinances which we identify with, given by God first to the Jews and to the sons of God but now given to the ingrafted believers in Jesus?
Clearly the Scriptures tell us that in Christ we are no longer under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14). The context of this passage in Romans affirms that grace does not provide us with an excuse to sin. Rather, grace is given by God to us as a remedy to enable us to escape from imprisonment to sin, in order that we should live a life that is pleasing to God.
Nevertheless, we are no longer under the law. This is where Christians may become confused. If they are no longer under the law, why should they identify with the law? The law teaches us the mind of God. Without the law, we would never know His holy ways. Jesus is our remedy to escape sin by grace, but the only way that we could ever know what sin is would be to study the law. Whenever Jesus taught on righteousness, he did so on the basis of the law. Jesus expanded on the law, always going back to the letter of the law in order to teach us how to live according to the spirit of the law (Mathew 5:17-20; 13:52; Luke 16:17). Paul and the other apostles did the same. Paul commended Timothy for his knowledge of Scripture, which was able to make him wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15,16). At that time, the Scripture to which Paul referred to was the Old Testament, because the New Testament Sciptures were still in the process of being written.
So the ordinances that have been given by God to the Jews and to the sons of Israel have been given to the Gentiles who have been grafted or adopted into the household of God. Some of these ordinances can no longer apply. For example, animal sacrifice has been replaced with the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. However, the Shabat and God’s appointed times cannot be erased, because they are not replaced by Jesus, but rather given meaning and significance through Jesus. For example, when provided with an opportunity by the Pharisees to define His terms of the Shabat, Jesus did not in any way abolish the Shabat, but affirmed the Shabat by placing it under His lordship and authority as “Lord of the Shabat” (Mathew 12:8).
That is why many of us who consider ourselves to be grafted or adopted into God’s household through faith in Jesus Christ, keep the Shabat and the mo-ediem. Just as the Shabat was a sign between God and the Israelites (Exodus 31:17), so too it is a sign between God and all the believers in Jesus, be they Jew or Gentile, because they all have been grafted or adopted into the household of God.
Therefore, without any legalistic obligation to be under the terms of the law, we identify with every aspect of the law upon which our life of freedom in the Holy Spirit can be founded. We establish and uphold the law (Romans 3:31). “Histanomen” is the Greek word for “establish” in Romans 3:31 and it means literally “to make to stand”.