Hi JD731, let me address your early points.
1) An unregenerate sinner cannot be placed into the spiritual body of Christ. This is a total fiction, as regeneration occurs within Christ. Where are we made alive? Ephesians 2:5, together with Christ.
Thanks Van. Let me address Ephesians 2:5 and suggest you are misunderstanding the word "together" in that verse when you say it is the believer and Christ who are together in that verse.
First of all he is explaining how the body of Christ, of which he is the HEAD, is being formed. Look at what he says in Ephesians about this.
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him [to be] the head over all things to the church,
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and
he is the saviour of the body.
You will notice in verse 23 that a distinction is made between the head and the body. We must honor that distinction in our thoughts and it seems you have not done that with your statement here. [
regeneration occurs within Christ. Where are we made alive? Ephesians 2:5, together with Christ]
Here is what Eph 2:5 says. - [Eph 2:5
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)]
Let me interject a thought here that is often missed in these types of discussions and it is this. The NT was not written in June of 2022. It was written in the beginning of the church age by chosen eye witnesses of the resurrected Jesus Christ and in a time of great transition wrought by God in his dealing with his own people Israel and the gentiles. The epistles, especially those of Paul, are the explanation of the history that unfolded in those first years of the book of Acts, where God is viewing two people groups, Jew and gentile, and placing the believers into the body of Christ, the church that is a brand new thing on the earth after the eternal counsel of God.
The epistle to the Ephesians was written from a prison in Rome in 60 AD.God had been saving gentiles since 40 AD when he sent Peter to the Italian Cornelius and his family and for the first time OPENED THE DOOR OF FAITH to the gentiles and allowed gentiles to partake of the spiritual blessings of his promise to Israel of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and a righteous relationship with him through the blood of Christ and faith in him.
Ac 14:27 And when they were come (to Jerusalem), and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.
Rom 15:25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their (the Jews) spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
The Jews in Jerusalem had first received the Spirit on one of their seven feast days, Pentecost, in 30 AD in the very beginning of the building of the church of Jesus Christ upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, whom he had given the Spirit in John 20 on the same day of his resurrection.
Ac 11:14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
17 Forasmuch then as God gave them (the gentiles) the like gift (the Holy Ghost to indwell them) as he did unto us (Israel), who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
So, with this in mind we should take a fresh look at Eph 2:5. The word "us" in referring to those of both people groups that God knows about, Jew and gentile, and they are saved by Jesus Christ and placed together into the body when they become one with one another and with Christ, the head.
One must understand that the baptism of the Holy Ghost on gentiles is not placing them into the church and regenerating them, but it is pouring out the Spirit on the whole world in such abundance that each and all sinners may drink him in by believing in Jesus Christ, who died for the whole world and rose from the dead. That is the explanation given by Peter in Acts 11 when he addressed the Jews in Jerusalem about the event.
Ac 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also
was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Titus 3:4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
This is my explanation of why I disagree with your take of regeneration taking place in the body of Christ rather than when the Spirit indwells the believer in Christ, albeit the placing of that believer into the body as an immediate sequence.
One more word about Jews and gentiles "together" in the body of Christ.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us (Jew and gentile in context) together with Christ, (by grace ye [gentiles] are saved
6 And hath raised us (Jews and gentiles) up together, and made us (Jews and gentiles) sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye (gentiles) saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
The principle under which the Jews were saved was by promise. God had promised in the OT to give them the Holy Ghost and salvation. He had never made any promise to gentiles and so the gentiles were saved by the principle of the grace of God.
We can thank God for that.
Eph 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13
But now in Christ Jesus ye (gentiles) who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
