The natural reading of this text, admittedly, seem

Larry Sanger @lsanger@sangerfeed.org · 1y

Inviting feedback from the easy grace camp and dispensationalists. 🧵

This, like some passages in Isaiah and Psalms, is taken as a key *Christian* prophecy (and I agree, it certainly is):
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Ezekiel 36:26-27 KJV
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
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Note what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say, “I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you, and you will prosper.” Nor “…and you will believe fervently.” Nor “…and you will be free of the law.” No, it says, “…and cause you to walk in my statutes”.

James says as much; Paul does as well. Jesus certainly does, indeed it’s one of his main themes. The Gospel *is* the coming of the healing Spirit who fills us with faith indeed, but that leads to a faithful walk.

Larry Sanger @lsanger@sangerfeed.org · 1y

Replying to @lsanger@sangerfeed.org

The natural reading of this text, admittedly, seems straightforward: God’s Temple will be among the Israelites, and the Gentiles will know God sanctifies the Jews:
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Ezekiel 37:27-28 KJV
My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [28] And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.
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Many modern non-Jews read this, looking at modern Israel and assume it means they, “the heathen,” will not be sanctified as part of Israel, and they will not be near the sanctuary.

What makes this less clear are the later texts that say the Gentiles can be grafted in, that God can raise the very stones to be children of Abraham, etc. Moreover, our Lord tells us in his own voice and through his apostles that whoever is faithful to him is adopted and accepted as his son, as one of his people.

Larry Sanger @lsanger@sangerfeed.org · 1y

Replying to @lsanger@sangerfeed.org

As Jesus says: “one fold, and one shepherd.”

What this means about the country of Israel or about the sanctuary, I don’t know. What I do know is that I have been engrafted *into* the true vine, that I am in the *one* fold.