To understand the scriptures fully, it is necessary to have spiritual understanding; and, spiritual understanding comes only from the Holy Spirit. Thus, to understand the scriptures, one must be led by the Holy Spirit. Ignoring that requirement is a primary reason for myriad false teachings in all the false religions of the world—christianity included.
The disciples had the same problem with the scriptures that most religious folks do—they didn’t understand them spiritually, but only physically. They understood the literal words, but could not see the spiritual real substances within the words until their eyes were opened to be able to comprehend them:
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. Luke 24:45
One of the biggest problems with christianity is that it teaches a false salvation—which means that folks are being told they have the Holy Spirit simply because they have made a human decision, or prayed a human prayer. Apart from the direct confirmation of the Holy Spirit, that’s not salvation. And, if it’s not salvation, then there is actually no Holy Spirit involved in it; thus, there is no spiritual understanding.
Without the Holy Spirit, then, what is purportedly taught from the scriptures misses the point, and is based not on truth, but on human blindness. Those who are lost in the counterfeit can read the scriptures and conclude things that are diametrically opposed to what the Holy Spirit actually meant in His words, because they cannot glean the spiritual meanings within those words.
That is the reason that so many christians point to physical Jews in physical Israel as being “God’s people,” when those physical Jews openly reject Messiah Yahoshua. Most christians have no idea who the true Jews are—and they think it has something to do with physical people.
Moreover, there are religious groups out there who claim to be part of a “lost tribe” of physical Jews, or that one group of physical Jews are “fake Jews,” but some other physical Jews are true Jews. It all comes from spiritual blindness.
The ancient physical Jews (in the Hebrew, they are “yahudiy”) receiving the physical covenant (Ten Commandments) were a physical foreshadow (picture, representation) of Messiah Yahoshua’s bride Y’isra-el receiving the spiritual covenant (seal of the Holy Spirit) on the Feast of Weeks that followed Messiah’s resurrection (Acts 2).
The physical Jews were not the real substance, but only a symbol of it. The physical foreshadows in scripture always precede the revealing of the spiritual real substance. The foreshadow is never the real substance, but merely an object lesson for instruction and understanding.
So, the physical Jewish people in the world today are nothing different from any other race or ethnic group—there is nothing spiritually significant with ANY race of people, for the real substance has been revealed, and that is Messiah’s bride—a spiritual people, not a physical one.
Paul tells us in Romans 2:29 that the “true Jew” is the person who is circumcised spiritually—not of the flesh. Circumcision of the flesh was only a foreshadow representing the spiritual real substance, which is circumcision of the heart. And, those whose hearts have been circumcised reproduce others who have the indwelling Holy Spirit. That is how spiritual reproduction works—physical reproduction is a foreshadow of it.
Paul also shows us in Romans 11 that Y’isra-el has nothing to do with anything physical, for he says that the physical Jews who were part of physical Y’isra-el (because they had the physical covenant) would be cut off from true Y’isra-el, which is spiritual, if they did not believe in Messiah Yahoshua. He also said that, if they subsequently believed, they could be grafted back into Y’isra-el, just as the Gentile converts were.
So, Y’isra-el is not physical, it is spiritual. Being a true Jew (yahudiy) is not physical, but spiritual. Messiah Yahoshua is a Jew, and His bride MUST be a Jew as well, according to the wedding traditions. Those who are given the spiritual covenant (seal of the Holy Spirit) are the true Jews who make up the true Y’isra-el. It is all a spiritual construct, but the carnal person sees only the physical (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Those who lack spiritual understanding focus their beliefs on what is physical, and don’t understand that the real substance is always spiritual, and not physical. And, that lack of spiritual understanding defines the masses who are lost in christianity, the counterfeit of the true faith.
The false teachings of salvation that are peddled by so many in christianity completely ignore the physical foreshadows that detail for us the spiritual real substances, such as the Passover journey from Egypt to Mt. Sinai, which is a picture of the true path to salvation—believe, endure in belief, and then receive the covenant.
The Passover journey was mirrored in the way of the tabernacle—the priestly journey from the Outer Courtyard, through the Holy Place, and into the Holy of Holies, wherein was the covenant. The false notion of christianity’s salvation-by-decision can be found nowhere in the scriptures, and is a product of spiritual ignorance.
Those who have the COVENANT are the JEWS who comprise Y’ISRA-EL.
The physical Jews made up physical Y’isra-el because they had the physical covenant. The true Jews make up true Y’isra-el because they possess the spiritual covenant—the covenant of marriage (“ketubah”) to the Bridegroom, who is Yahoshua the Messiah. The real substance is spiritual, not physical.
I am a true Jew by adoption (justification) and by marriage (covenant). I don’t have a drop of physical Jewish blood in me, but that has nothing to do with the spiritual real substance of who I am in Messiah Yahoshua.
For more information: Circumcision and Spiritual Reproduction