It will be well to seize the distinctive positions which the Jew and the Gentile occupied before God in the Old Testament days, before the formation of the body of a rejected and risen Christ was revealed. The quotation of two Scriptures will mark this distinction plainly.
As to Israel, I read, “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen” (Rom. 9:4-54Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:4‑5)). As to the Gentile, “Wherefore remember, that ye, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:11, 1211Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:11‑12)).
The simple reading of these passages will show that all the blessings, and privileges, and promises, and hopes that God then gave, were confined to the elect nation of Israel, and that, to partake of these blessings, a Gentile should come in and partake of them subordinately to the Jew, in whom they were vested as the vessel of blessing.
We read in 1 Corinthians 12:12,1312For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12‑13), For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Now, before the formation of such a body out of both Jew and Gentile could take place, it was necessary that God Himself, who had surrounded Israel with a “wall of partition,” should remove the same. It was not sufficient that the wall of partition which God had placed around the Jew had been almost obliterated by the unfaithfulness of those who had been thus hemmed in. The partition wall existed as fully in the mind of God, and to faith, as though there had never been an unfaithful Jew on earth. God had placed it there, and God must remove it Himself, ere He would form the body of which we read here.
The prophets had spoken of a day of which it was said, “Rejoice ye Gentiles with his people,” &c. But even in such a state of blessing, “Gentiles” remained “Gentiles,” and “His people” remained “His people.” They never spoke of this “body,” where Jew and Gentile alike have lost their national position — where there is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free. There are three things before God in the world. Paul enumerates them in 1 Corinthians 10:3232Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: (1 Corinthians 10:32). They are, “The Jew, the Gentile, and the Church of God.” In the last mentioned, both Jew and Gentile have ceased to be such before God, believers from amongst both having been incorporated into this body of which we speak. The prophets spoke of the time when that which we know familiarly as the millennium, or more correctly, the “kingdom,” will have been established on the earth; then the Jew will be the central nation, and the Gentile will rejoice with the people of Jehovah: a state of things which will come in after the Church has been gathered, and is with Christ in heaven.
The foreshadowing of the removal of this “wall of partition” was frequently seen in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Himself in the gospels. Instance the woman of Samaria who could not understand how that the Lord, a Jew Himself, should ask drink of her who was a woman of Samaria, as the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. (See John 4, see also the case of the Syrophenician woman in Matt. 15.) Before this “wall of partition” was removed, it was “unlawful for a man, that is a Jew, to keep company, or come unto one of another nation” (Acts 10:2828And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath showed me that I should not call any man common or unclean. (Acts 10:28)).