24.What was the condition of the new Christians before they received Christ?

They were separate from Christ. They were excluded from the commonwealth, the citizenship, of Israel. They were foreigners to the covenants of promise, to the promises of the Scriptures. They were without hope and without God in the world.

What, therefore, can we say about a non-Jew the moment he receives Christ into his heart? The non-Jew becomes part of Christ. He becomes a citizen of the Israel of God. He becomes an heir of the promises of the Scriptures, of the writings of the Prophets of Israel. He possesses the hope of the Kingdom of God. The God of Israel now is his God.

That is why we state that there is no such thing as a "Gentile Christian." The moment we receive Christ we become part of the Israel of God. In the Israel of God there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The reason for this is, the Kingdom of God consists of the new creation that comes into being when a human being receives Christ. The new creation is neither Jewish nor Gentile, male nor female.

There is no racial identity in the Kingdom of God. The Jew ceases being a Jew, in the Kingdom. The Gentile ceases being a Gentile, in the Kingdom of God. There is only the one Body of Christ in the Kingdom of God. All else is of the first,adamic creation and the first, adamic creation does not enter the Kingdom of God.

This does not mean that a Jew loses his valuable heritage when he receives Christ. Christian teaching has required that the Jew become a Gentile in order to become a Christian. This is an error. If anyone must change, it is the Gentile. Christianity began with the Jews and will end with the Jews. The Gospel of Christ always is to the Jew first.

The Jew remains a Jew and the Irishman remains an Irishman. Neither is required to abandon his culture or customs. But in the spiritual Kingdom of God there is no racial distinction between the Jew and the Irishman because the Kingdom of God is the new nature that has been born of God, not of earthly parents.