When the Scripture states, "There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek," it is evident that it refers to their standing before God. In his own eyes the Jew is much better, 1:e., superior to the Gentile, and the Gentile, likewise, supposes he is far in advance of the Jew. These comparisons, before God, who looks upon the heart, are worth nothing. Neither the Jew nor the Greek have any standing whatever in His presence. The declaration of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul is that "there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:22, 23; 10:11-13).

We learn then, from the Word of God itself, that in the sight of God the Jew is not a whit superior to anyone else. Tested by divine standards he has failed, just as has the Gentile. The latter never had any standing before God, whereas the Jew did have a national status based on his blood-relationship to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-not to Abraham alone, for this would have included Ishmael; nor to Abraham and Isaac only, for this would have allowed Edom to come in also. But God had said to Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth," and He added, "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2).

But the standing Israel had as coming through these patriarchs was forfeited by them, for they depended upon their own faithfulness to the covenant given from Sinai. When they accepted the terms Moses brought to them three months after they had left Egypt, they virtually took the same position as that occupied by the nations. Leaving the "principle of faith" by which the "fathers" lived before God, they adopted the "principles of the world" as a means by which to walk.' But this was to renounce dependence upon God Himself, and to take up "with the "weak and beggarly elements" of "law-keeping." It may be asked, "Did not God Himself propose the covenant of works to Israel?" He did. And full well He knew the desire of their hearts to relinquish faith as the only means of relationship with Himself, that they might claim blessing from God on the ground of self-merit. In fact it is recorded by the Lawgiver himself, "They are a perverse generation; children in whom is no faith" (Deut. 32:20).

God took up the Jew in order to show that the culture of a "degenerate vine" cannot produce "good fruit." When God said to that people, "I had planted thee a noble vine; wholly a right seed," He was referring to what the patriarchs were, men of faith in Him. The nation that sprang from them ought to have produced something for God if natural heredity is of any spiritual value. The whole history of that people shows that it is worthless from the divine standpoint. After this trial, if any boast, it is but vain-glory (Isa. 5:1-7; Jer. 2:1-22). There is a tendency with some today to speak as if the Israelite had a certain superiority over the Gentile, but we have seen that before God he has none. It goes without saying that the nations had nothing to boast in at any time. They were idolaters from the beginning of their existence as nations. What good could be expected from people who left God entirely, for false gods? That is what the whole earth did at the time of Babel. (We except certain individuals preserved by faith in the primitive revelations, as Job, Melchisedek, etc.). It was then that God revealed Himself as the "God of glory" to Abraham, separating him from idolatry, establishing in him a pure worship, giving to him promises to be made good entirely by reason of His good pleasure. These promises, in no wise conditioned on anything in Abraham, either past, present, or future, will all surely be fulfilled in their own time.

To attempt to make anything more of the Jew than of others from a spiritual standpoint-and there is nothing else worth noticing-is virtually to deny that God has passed judgment upon them along with the rest of mankind. It was to one of the highest representatives of Israel that the Lord declared:"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." All that the Lord said to Nicodemus, as to the worthlessness of the flesh, would be admitted by the Jew if said concerning Gentiles only. The Jew is shrewd enough to see that the nations, having cast off God, can have nothing before Him to their credit. But it is harder for him to realize that he is no better. Yet the Lord taught Nicodemus that what is "born of the flesh is flesh." We know that the underlying boast in the heart of the Israelite in regard to his ancestry, is that he is of the "seed of Abraham." But with all the national distinctions belonging to the race, the same evils came out in the Jew as were found in other men. The degenerating tendency to idolatry followed them all through their history, from Egypt till they returned from the Captivity in Babylon. At that time, as the Lord declared, the "unclean spirit" left them for a season, to return later with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself" (Matt. 12:43-45). When this takes place that same people will furnish the dwelling-place for this awful combine of wicked spirits, when the final apostasy from God is fulfilled. But that will be the end of apostate Israel. They will be succeeded by a "nation bringing forth the fruits" of the Spirit, in all of whom God's law will be written in the heart (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:16-38). When a Jew is converted, to Christ, while he may retain certain marks peculiar to the race, these are not the things which the Spirit of God' works in him, being but remnants of what .belong to the "flesh," which (the Lord says) "profiteth nothing." To make anything of these, is to give recognition to that which stands condemned before God. The main point in all this, is that God has set man, as coming from Adam, wholly aside, to make way for the "new man in Christ." Therefore we read, "If any man be in Christ, it is new creation. Old things passed away; behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God" (2 Cor. 5:17, J. N. D., New Trans.). The superiority of the Jew was one of the "old things," but it is a distinction which, before God, has passed away. In the new creation such distinctions have no place. Any tendency therefore to renew them is to lose sight of the truth of the new creation.

God loves the Jew as He loves all men. It would have well suited Nicodemus if Jesus had said that "God so loved Israel, that He gave him the place of His firstborn son." But the truth is that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." This wonderful declaration was made to a representative Israelite, and was to him a divine revelation concerning God. A Jew might easily suppose that God would love him, because of his being of the favored people; but that He should love the world, was an entirely new revelation. It gave that Jewish leader a wholly new conception of God and of His love.

But God does not love the Jew more than others. When it says they are "beloved for the fathers' sakes," we are to understand that God has not abandoned them as objects of mercy. Because of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God will not cease to work in grace among them to save those who believe, nor fail to fulfil His promises toward them. But He will not allow man to interfere with His sovereign right to go beyond the limits of Israel, to call whom He pleases to partake of His mercy.

It is said of God that He would "have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." If the Jew supposes that God has no desire beyond the limits of his own people to bring men to know Him, he is mistaken. The fact is that God desires to save both Jew and Gentile. The time is drawing near when God, to fulfil His Word to the fathers, will again work in the heart of the nation, and gather them together for blessing under the reign of their Messiah. But that very time will witness the incurableness of the heart of unregenerate man, because multitudes of that very people will follow the lead of Antichrist, fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus, who declared to them, "I am come in My Father's name, and ye receive Me not. If another come in his own name, him ye will receive." Will there be anything in this in which the Jew can boast? (John 5:43).

We must beware of setting aside the truth in order to follow what is pleasing to the flesh. There seems a certain glory to make more of the Jew than of other men; but if it be to make anything of the Jew as such, it is giving place to the flesh, and robbing Christ of what belongs to Him alone! Instead of making anything of a people who have in every respect hated and denied and slain the One they ought to have loved, there should be the sole desire to honor Him whom God delights to honor. In saying this, we do not attempt to degrade the Jew, or to place him in any sense inferior to the Gentiles. The latter could not have sunk lower than when they set God, aside voluntarily for idolatry. But the Jew sank to the same level, as we have seen.

Doubtless God will raise up Israel to the pinnacle of glory in the coming day of His power (Isa. 52:1-10); but it will be those of the nation who are first brought to the dust before Him, who receive His sovereign mercy. Neither the Jew nor the Gentile, either now or at any time, have any ground for boasting, except as Paul, when he said, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation. And as many as walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God" (Gal. 6:14-16).

There is abundant evidence, both from their own Old Testament Scriptures, as well as from the New, that God has purposes of blessing yet future for that people who have come from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which will then place them in a position superior to the Gentiles. And at that time, during the whole of the Messianic age, when our Lord Jesus Christ will reign visibly over the earth, the same Scriptures show plainly that the Gentiles themselves will openly acknowledge the superiority of the Jew over them. But this is due to their peculiar relationship to the King of kings, who acknowledges them as His "brethren." That age, which we speak of as the Millennium, will witness the exaltation of those who, having come through unequaled tribulation, will have learned repentance, and shall "look upon Him whom they have pierced," and mourn for Him with genuine sorrow which is the fruit of the Spirit of grace which shall be poured upon them at that time (Zech. 12:10-14; 13:1).

To ignore or to deny these things would be as wrong as to suppose that the Jew at the present time has any superiority over others, as far as God's estimate of man is concerned. To exalt any race or nation of men over others in the present period during which "grace reigns unto eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord," would be a slur upon that grace, as it would also be a denial of the truth as expressed in God's Word.

It is largely the result of failing to see where sin has brought man-whether Jew or Gentile-into the place of irreparable ruin, out of which nothing can deliver him but the sovereign grace of God in an entirely new creation in Christ Jesus, that causes some to suppose that God looks with more favor upon one class than upon others. But the Word is most decided and clear upon all this; even as it declares that throughout this whole period of the display of the riches of His grace, "Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

And the same Word is just as clear that in the "age to come" when the Messiah's glory shall be revealed, Israel shall have a place of special honor and power throughout the earth, being restored to their land under the righteous rule of their once-rejected King. And Scripture also makes it most clear that God will do this, not for Israel's sake at all, but for His own Name's sake, to exalt His Name throughout the earth, in the eyes of the heathen (1:e., the Gentiles), among whom that Name had been dishonored and defiled by the former wickedness of the people of Israel (Ezek. 36:16-38). Let us learn from His Word both the place in which man is seen during this present time, whether Jew or Gentile, as ruined through sin, and the object of sovereign mercy by God; and also the special place to be given to Israel as the dispenser of blessing to man in the age to come. But this latter could not be, unless that people first be brought themselves to God, and as thus regenerated, go forth as the vessels of God's purposes of blessing to the whole earth.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen" (Romans 11:33-36). Wm. Huss