The One Who Is Two

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. -Ephesians 3:2-6

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

I have to admit, in examining my understanding of non-Jews vs. Jewish distinction in the Messianic community, I hit speed bumps. The Apostolic Scriptures can seem pretty ambiguous as to whether or not Gentiles and Jews who have come to faith in the Jewish Messiah remain two separate things or, based on Ephesians 3:2-6 among other verses, we have become "one new man". The latter would be the argument, both of the traditional church and of the One Law movement within the Messianic realm, but it strikes a rather sour chord with those Jews who believe that, to be Jews in Messianism, they must retain a specific cultural and ceremonial distinction from their Gentile Christian brothers and sisters.

Ephesians 2:12-13 says:

...remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

This seems to say that both Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews are citizens, as well as co-heirs in Israel. Usually, if you are made a naturalized citizen of a nation in which you were not born, once citizenship is conferred, you have the same rights and responsibilities as any citizen born in that country. That again, is the rationalization both for the Christian church and One Law movements in saying that they are "Israel". The church says they're "Israel" and have taken the place of the Jews, and One Law says they are "Israel" and are identical to Jews in form, function, and identity. The former says that the Jews have been "unchosen" and that God subsequently "chose" the church. The latter says that God created a new, really big bucket called "chosen" and dumped all Jews and Messianic Gentiles into the bucket so that they're all the same anyway.

But is that what really happened?

I have to admit, when I reviewed an article written by Nazarene Pastor Jirair Tashjian called Did Christ Abolish the Law?, he used scripture to represent his position reasonably well (not that I agree and you can see my review for the details).

Then, in my review, I said the following, which momentarily surprised me as I realized the implications of my statement:

Yes, Paul said neither Jew nor Greek, but he also said neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28) and the last time I looked at my wife, I noticed that we were different in form, function, and role…yet we are “one flesh” (Matthew 19:5-6).

In Ephesians 2:15, it says Yeshua's (Jesus's) purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, which really bothers me. It seems to very much support the supersessionist position of the church and the position of One Law in joining Jews and Gentile Messianics as one unified and amorphous object, rather than two distinct objects encased in a single container (black and white sheep in a flock). How can this be reconciled? Is the Bilateral Ecclesiology faction of Messianic Judaism in error? What can they say to get past what Paul has recorded?

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. -Genesis 2:24

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” -Mark 10:5-9

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:26-28

Follow the logic here.

An individual man and an individual woman are made into "one flesh". This is what happened "in the beginning" and it is confirmed by Yeshua in his teaching on divorce and marriage. Paul writes that there is no Jew or Greek and no male or female. But does a man and a woman really become one, homogeneous, androgynous being?

No, of course not. Anyone who is married knows that a husband and wife remain very much individual, distinct human beings from one another. They take on a singularity of purpose in a family, especially as parents, and they surrender some of their individual freedoms for the sake of the relationship and both must work to nurture and grow the relationship, but they don't surrender everything about themselves.

In other words "one flesh" isn't literal in an absolute sense. It describes a special sense of intimacy (in a marital relationship, this includes physical intimacy), but they don't morph into one, new flesh, leaving everything about who they once were behind. In fact, it's everything that they are as individuals that each marital partner "brings to the table", so to speak, that makes the marriage strong and thriving. And as most married people know, we don't marry our opposite sex clones.

Now let's take all that and apply it to "one new man". I'm going to assume (yes, this is my interpretation) that we can compare the "one flesh" and "one man" analogies. I'm going to pretend that we can look at them as functioning in pretty much the same way. If two different human beings can be "one flesh" (in purpose) in a family and yet retain their individual forms, functions, and roles, why can't Jews and Gentiles as "one man" also retain their individual forms, functions, and roles?

See where I'm going?

I'm not about to attempt to expand this metaphor into every practice and procedure used in Christian vs. Messianic worship at the moment (so this blog post doesn't become 20 pages long). I just want to show how it's possible, based on scripture, for Christians and (Messianic) Jews to be "one new man" and still be two separate and distinct entities. The "container" (whether marriage or the Messianic "flock") does change something about the individuals within the container, but it doesn't alter them or change them into something completely different on a fundamental, behavioral, and structural level. Married men are still men and married woman are still women. Messianic Gentile disciples are still Gentile and Messianic Jewish disciples are still Jewish.

Thoughts?

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh