re body of Christ:
some people use that expression about the church--the redeemed Christian community. If it helps people focus on what is true in Christ, great. The important thing is that we are not talking about the ethne Israel.
God does not care about ethnicity anymore.
When Jesus started his earthly ministry, faithless Jews were already cut off and bound over to where the disobedient Gentiles were. There were Jews though who of course were saved, they were the remnant.
Since Jesus was crucified, then all have a chance to be saved, even the faithless Jews who were cut off.
There isn't going to be another time when the Jews get some kind of other chance that no one else in the world gets. All our bound together.
The NT says it is not concerned with the ethne Israel retroactively, such as in Rom 9. It says it was never talking about the ethne.
Sound like we agree.
re Abraham
I don't know what the disagreement is about Abraham. we are saying the same thing. I don't typically use the expression 'in the body' when talking about OT people, but it seems you do.
The Jews that had faith before Jesus came, and during Jesus' time on the earth...those Jews are in the body of Christ. All must be in the body of Christ to be saved. The scriptures speak about the SPIRITS OF THE righteous made perfect by the blood of Christ. The spirits of the righteous means those who have died in the flesh but who lived on in their spirits.
Hebrews 12:23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
I was referring to the much-quoted 'Abraham believed and it was credited to him for righteousness.' Some people gawk at this as being added back in later, because there seems to be nothing in the passage about the question of needing righteousness. But Paul says it as key, doesn't he?
Circumcision is a WORK, a work that would later be the seal evidence of following the purification works.
Abraham was the first to do the WORK of circumcision.
Circumcision, are no circumcision in itself is not sinful, EXCEPT to NOT get circumcised when God commands it then makes it a sin.
Paul explains that since Jesus, we are not saved by works. The works Paul is speaking about is the righteous works called the purification/ceremonial works, such as circumcision, and the sacrifice of animals.
Please believe it that Paul is NOT saying we are not saved by faith without obedience.
That would be insane.
Abraham OBEYED, and that is the reason God gave Abraham the promises!
Genesis 26:4-5 I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, becauseAbraham obeyed me and kept my requirements, my commands, my decrees and my laws."
re what changes in justification
Justification is God crediting the righteousness of Christ to a person who believes 1, that it is needed, and 2, that only Christ's righteousness is sufficient because it is divine and human at once. A person's account has therefore been refreshed. They may or may not have a delightful time on earth because of this, as in Rom 8's ending. But nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ (justification).
A person can lose salvation.
As for Jesus justifying us, we are cleaned by his blood and no one has to use the blood of animals just to go to the temple to worship God where His Spirit was, for we are cleaned by Jesus and become the temple.