Scripture Queries and Answers: Gentiles the Israel of God?; Reigning Over, Not On, the Earth

Narrator: Chris Genthree
 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Q.-Gal. 6:1616And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:16). Does this scripture give any sanction to the idea that we, believers from among the Gentiles, are now “the Israel of God”? What is the true force?
X.
A.-The verse plainly intimates two classes, the general one of the saints who walk as Christians by the rule of the new creation in Christ, and the specified one, not of Israel now no longer for the time God's people, but such of them as were true to the Christ they were baptized unto (where is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one in Him), who are therefore designated “the Israel of God.”
S.
A.-The accusative is used for the object where activity was to be expressed. The propriety of this as to the nations is plain. The dative (among other senses) is employed for fixed relationship where it is not condition, occasion, or circumstance. The genitive expresses rather the simple fact. But there is another element in the text, which distinguishes it from Matt. 6:1010Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10), the usage of the preposition with verbs of governing; and the Septuagint abounds with proofs that, as ἐν is used for the locality where the king lived, ἐπὶ is for the sphere of his reign.