Greg,

That was a very interesting letter, last week.

I have a few questions for both you and Mike:

(Is the covenantal relationship with Israel generational, beginning with Abraham, Isaac, Israel, the sons of Israel, then down through their generations?

Is this not described using the word seed, requiring a birth of the subsequent generation?

The physical inheritance of the promised land was through physical birth?

Also, is the singular word, seed, used, as collectively referring to the house of Israel down through the ages?)

Genesis 9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

Genesis 13:15 For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

(To inherit the physical blessings of the covenant, didn't one need to be born as a descendant of Israel?

But did not the LORD also speak of a new covenant?)

Jeremiah 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

  32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

  33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

  34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

(The new covenant is also collectively with the house of Israel?

Could that be referring to when the following is speaking of?)

Isaiah 66:8 Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

Romans 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

  27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

(And, again, is this in context of the new covenant with the house of Israel?

So, was Jesus speaking of this very thing, when he said to Nicodemus?)

John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

(He first spoke to Nicodemus in second person singular, "thee".

But then he immediately switched to second person plural, "ye".

So, was he speaking directly to Nicodemus, yet also speaking to the whole house of Israel collectively being born again?

However, he also said this a few lines earlier:)

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

(Where Jesus was speaking in the third person singular, "a man", and, "he".

He said a man be born again, where it is a singular man.

Was this because, for all Israel to be saved, born again, at that day, it will be necessary for each one of the remnant of Israel to believe individually?

So is there not both the singular and plural aspect of this?)

Singular ("whosoever"):

I John 5:1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

Plural ("us", "we"):

James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

(But then regarding a new creation:)

II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

(So, is that because we are not born into that, but are a new direct creation, as a son of God?

If so, is this a little similar to Adam?)

Luke 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Genesis 1:26a And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

  27a So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;

(Seth was not a son of God; Seth was not created, he was born, begotten of Adam, so he was a son of Adam.

But Adam was not born, he was created.

Yet Adam fell by sin, and death passed upon him and subsequent generations.

So, for a fallen son of Adam, to escape the curse and death, they must be created anew, by grace through faith in Jesus?

And thus become newly created sons of God?)

Philippians 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

(So, is this the difference that Paul referred to?

In this church age of grace, we are not born again in the remnant of Israel, but are created new in Christ Jesus?)

.