"Let us then draw near to Him with holiness of spirit,
lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, loving
our gracious and merciful Father, who has made us
partakers in the blessings of His elect. For thus it is
written, When the Most High divided the nations,
when He scattered the sons of Adam, He fixed the
bounds of the nations according to the number of
the angels of God. His people Jacob became the
portion of the Lord, and Israel the lot of His inheritance.
And in another place [the Scripture] saith, Behold,
the Lord taketh unto Himself a nation out of the midst
of the nations, as a man takes the first-fruits of his
threshing-floor; and from that nation shall come forth
the Most Holy. Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion
of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain
to holiness, . . ." - Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians
While Clement's statement could perhaps be seen as
ambiguous, the following assertions of Justin Martyr
in Dialogue with Trypho (around AD 160) cannot:
[1] And Trypho remarked, What is this you say? That none
of us shall inherit anything on the holy mountain of God?
And I replied, I do not say so; but those who have
persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they do not repent,
shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain. But the
Gentiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented
of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive
the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets,
and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even
although they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circumcised,
nor observe the feasts. Assuredly they shall receive the
holy inheritance of God.
[2] What larger measure of grace, then, did Christ bestow
on Abraham? This, namely, that He called him with His
voice by the like calling, telling him to quit the land
wherein he dwelt. And He has called all of us by that
voice, and we have left already the way of living in which
we used to spend our days, passing our time in evil after
the fashions of the other inhabitants of the earth; and
along with Abraham we shall inherit the holy land, when
we shall receive the inheritance for an endless eternity,
being children of Abraham through the like faith. For as
he believed the voice of God, and it was imputed to him
for righteousness, in like manner we having believed God’s
voice spoken by the apostles of Christ, and promulgated
to us by the prophets, have renounced even to death all
the things of the world. Accordingly, He promises to
him a nation of similar faith, God-fearing, righteous,
and delighting the Father; but it is not you, ‘in whom
is no faith.’
[3] What, then? says Trypho; are you Israel? And speaks
He such things of you? . . . . "As therefore from the one
man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has
been called Jacob and Israel; so we from Christ, who begat
us unto God, like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph,
and David, are called and are the true sons of God, and keep
the commandments of Christ.
If it is about all of national Israel being saved, then why
did Paul say only a remnant of them would be saved?
--
Lord, help me get up when I fall. I can fall by myself.
.
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