Eber versus Israel

Contents

Part VII — Romans 9 and John 1 Speak with Legal Clarity

23. Romans 9: Not All Israel Are Israel

24. John 1: Not of Blood, Flesh, or Man’s Will, But of God

5 25. John 3: Born from Above, Water and Spirit

Part VII — Romans 9 and John 1 Speak with Legal Clarity#

Section 23 — Romans 9: Not All Israel Are Israel#

After the Name, the Seed, the witness line, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jabbok, Israel as son-nation, the true

Son, the covenant streams, and the movement toward the nations have been traced, Romans 9 can now

speak with legal clarity.

Paul does not treat the Old Testament as a mistake. He does not invent an identity category disconnected

from Scripture. He speaks as one grieving over Israel according to the flesh, while also making a

distinction Scripture itself requires.

He begins with solemn witness and sorrow:

“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,”

— Romans 9:1

“That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.”

— Romans 9:2

Paul’s distinction is not contempt. It is sorrow joined to legal clarity.

He identifies the privileges belonging to Israel:

“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;”

— Romans 9:4

“Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came…”

— Romans 9:5

The historical witness is real. Israel had adoption, glory, covenants, law, service, promises, fathers, and

the flesh-line through which Christ came. Those witnesses are not erased.

Then Paul gives the legal distinction:

“Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of

Israel:”

— Romans 9:6

This is one of the central verses of the whole document.

Paul says two things at once. First, the word of God has not failed. Second, not all who are of Israel are

Israel.

The failure is not in God’s word. The failure is in assuming that outward association exhausts Goddefined identity.

Paul continues:

“Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children…”

— Romans 9:7

“But, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.”

— Romans 9:7

Paul is not creating a new argument. He is returning to Genesis.

Abraham had more than one son, but God identified the promise line through Isaac. The promise line

was not controlled by mere natural descent, household proximity, or human assumption. It was

identified by God’s word.

Paul then states the principle plainly:

“That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God…”

— Romans 9:8

“But the children of the promise are counted for the seed.”

— Romans 9:8

This is the seed-kind issue stated legally.

Children of the flesh are not automatically the children of God. The children of the promise are

counted for the seed.

This does not make flesh unreal. Paul has already acknowledged Israel according to the flesh, and Christ

Himself came according to the flesh from Israel. The issue is not whether flesh exists. The issue is

whether flesh alone defines God-authorized identity.

Paul says it does not.

This directly connects to the apple and tomato illustration. A label may be present. A family connection

may be present. A historical association may be present. A surface resemblance may be present. But

seed-kind must still be identified according to Scripture.

Paul then moves from Isaac to Jacob:

“For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

— Romans 9:9

“And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;”

— Romans 9:10

“For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil…”

— Romans 9:11

“That the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;”

— Romans 9:11

Election is not the main burden here, but Romans 9 does show that God’s identity work is not controlled

by man’s claim.

Jacob did not self-elect into the name Israel. Jacob did not self-name. Jacob did not control the promise.

God gave the promise. God gave the name. God identifies the seed. God defines the children of promise.

Paul’s statement therefore fits the whole witness stream already traced.

God covered Adam and Eve. God promised the Seed. God distinguished Abel’s offering from Cain’s. God

preserved Noah. God brought out Abraham. God identified Isaac. God carried the promise to Jacob. God

gave Jacob the name Israel. God called Israel His son. God revealed the true Son. God sent the Spirit. God

defines who is of God.

Romans 9 does not break the Old Testament. Romans 9 shows what the Old Testament had been

demonstrating all along: outward association is not enough to define God-authorized identity.

This is why Paul can say:

“For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:”

— Romans 9:6

The phrase of Israel becomes the point of examination. To be outwardly of Israel is not automatically to

be Israel in the full God-defined sense.

John 1 will now answer the source question in the Son.

Romans 9 asks the identity question inside Israel. John 1 answers the source question through the

eternal Word who came into the world.

Together they speak plainly: not all Israel are Israel, and the children of God are born of God.

Therefore, God-authorized identity cannot be self-claimed, self-named, inherited by blood alone, created

by flesh, or established by man’s will. It must be of God.

Section 24 — John 1: Not of Blood, Flesh, or Man’s Will, But of#

God

Romans 9 gives the legal distinction: “For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel.”

John 1 gives the identity-source answer.

John begins with the Word:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

— John 1:1

This is not merely the beginning of a Gospel account. It reaches back to creation itself.

The One through whom the identity will be clarified is not a later teacher with a private theory. He is the

eternal Word.

John continues:

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

— John 1:3

The Word is Creator. The identity question must therefore be brought back to the Creator’s authority.

The One who made mankind has authority over mankind’s identity, purpose, life, light, and inheritance.

John says:

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”

— John 1:4

“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

— John 1:5

The identity issue is now connected to life, light, and darkness. This fits the contrast patterns already

traced: Cain and Abel, Babel and Abraham, self-made name and God-given name, fruit of the flesh and

fruit of the Spirit, outward claim and being of God.

John later says:

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

— John 1:9

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”

— John 1:10

The Creator came into His own world, and the world did not know Him.

Then comes the covenantal grief:

“He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

— John 1:11

The true Light came to His own, and His own received Him not.

This is not a small identity issue. If outward possession of a label were enough, then receiving the Son

would not be the dividing point. But John makes receiving Him central.

Then John gives the open door:

“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God…”

— John 1:12

“Even to them that believe on his name:”

— John 1:12

The phrase as many as received him matters.

John does not say human will creates sonship. He does not say the label itself gives power. The power to

become sons of God is given to those who receive Him and believe on His Name.

Again, the Name returns.

The document began with the severity of God’s Name. It traced Israel as a God-given name ending in El.

It showed that God identifies Himself by His own Name and covenant titles. It showed that His Name can

be profaned. It showed that Babel makes its own name while God’s people receive His Name.

John now says that those who receive Him believe on His Name.

Then John gives the legal identity-source statement:

“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man…”

— John 1:13

“But of God.”

— John 1:13

John removes three foundations:

not of blood

not of the will of the flesh

not of the will of man

Then he gives the source:

but of God

This is one of the clearest identity statements in Scripture. The children of God are of God.

This does not discard the earlier witness. It explains the earlier witness’s deepest direction.

God covered Adam and Eve. God promised the Seed. God received Abel’s offering by faith. God preserved

Noah. God brought out Abraham. God counted Abraham righteous by faith. God identified Isaac as the

promise line. God gave Jacob the name Israel. God called Israel His son. God promised cleansing, a new

heart, and His Spirit. God sent the true Son.

Those who receive the Son and believe on His Name are given power to become sons of God. They are

born of God.

This is why no self-election into Israel can stand. No one can establish God-authorized identity merely by

blood, flesh, man’s will, or label if the identity is not of God.

A tomato labeled apple does not become an apple because of the sign. A holy category placed as a label

does not make the thing holy by label. A claim does not settle the question by usage. The question is

whether the identity is of God.

John’s answer is not abstract. It is through the Son: those who receive Him, those who believe on His

Name, those who are born of God.

Romans 9 says not all Israel are Israel. John 1 says the sons of God are born of God.

Together, they force the central question:

Who IS Israel according to God?

Not merely who claims the name. Not merely who has the outward label. Not merely who has blood,

flesh, or human will. But who is of God through receiving the Son, believing on His Name, and being

born of God.

Name.

Section 25 — John 3: Born from Above, Water and Spirit#

John 1 says the children of God are born of God.

John 3 develops that identity further.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night:

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:”

— John 3:1

Nicodemus is not presented as a stranger to Israel’s Scriptures. He is a ruler of the Jews. He has religious

standing, scriptural knowledge, and recognized position.

He says to Jesus:

“Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God…”

— John 3:2

But Jesus does not answer by treating Nicodemus’s position as sufficient.

Jesus says:

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

— John 3:3

A man may be learned. A man may be a ruler. A man may stand near the Scriptures. Yet Jesus says a

man must be born again, born from above, or he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus asks:

“How can a man be born when he is old?”

— John 3:4

Jesus answers:

“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

— John 3:5

This continues the identity-source issue from John 1.

John 1: born of God.

John 3: born from above, of water and Spirit.

The identity cannot be self-produced. A person cannot climb back into the womb. A person cannot

manufacture birth from above. A person cannot create Spirit birth by the will of man.

Jesus continues:

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

— John 3:6

This is a direct identity distinction.

Flesh produces flesh. Spirit produces spirit.

Seed produces after its kind. The children of God are born of God. The Spirit-born are born of the Spirit.

Jesus says:

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

— John 3:7

“The wind bloweth where it listeth… so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

— John 3:8

This is not man’s control. It is God’s work.

Nicodemus asks:

“How can these things be?”

— John 3:9

Jesus answers:

“Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?”

— John 3:10

That question is important. Jesus expects a teacher of Israel to recognize this pattern from Scripture.

Why?

Because the Old Testament had already spoken of cleansing water, new heart, new spirit, and God’s

Spirit within.

Ezekiel says:

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean…”

— Ezekiel 36:25

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you…”

— Ezekiel 36:26

“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes…”

— Ezekiel 36:27

Jesus is not inventing a disconnected idea. He is revealing what a master of Israel should have seen.

Water. Spirit. New heart. God’s work. God-caused walk. Restoration for God’s Name’s sake.

This connects John 3 back to the whole evidence stream.

The children of God are not merely people with an outward label. They are born from above. They are

cleansed by God. They receive God’s Spirit. They walk by God’s work. They enter the kingdom by God’s

way.

John 3 also moves toward the Son of man being lifted up:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:”

— John 3:14

“That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

— John 3:15

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…”

— John 3:16

Here the Son returns to the center.

Israel was called God’s son. Jesus is the only begotten Son. The children of God are born of God through

receiving Him and believing on His Name. The Son of man is lifted up, and those who believe in Him

have eternal life.

This is the movement from Israel the son-nation to the true Son, and from the true Son to the many sons

born of God.

The pattern can now be stated with increasing clarity:

Israel as a name ends in El. God gives the name. God identifies Himself as the God of Israel. Israel

becomes the son-nation. The son-nation points to the true Son. Those who receive the true Son are given

power to become sons of God. They are born of God. They are born from above, of water and Spirit.

They are not produced by blood, flesh, or man’s will. They are produced by God.

This is why the identity question cannot be reduced to outward claim.

If a teacher of Israel should have recognized the need for water and Spirit, then the Old Testament had

already been speaking toward this reality.

John 3 is not a detour. It is the next legal witness.

The children of God are born from above.