Today's Scripture Reading (October 4, 2026): Ezekiel 36
Christianity started as a
small provincial belief system. Our best guess is that, at the time of the
death of Jesus Christ, the one whom the faith is named and patterned after,
there were at most 500 true believers in Christianity. No distinct people
groups were the target audience for the belief system. For the Jews, the target
audience for the faith is evident. Judaism is aimed at the children of Abraham,
through Isaac and Jacob. Jacob was renamed Israel and became the father of the
nation the Bible calls the Children of God. For Islam, the other sister faith
of Christianity, the primary audience is the children of Abraham through
Ishmael. But for Christianity, the audience, at least according to the Apostle
Paul, is the children of Abraham through faith (Galatians 3). In other words, Christianity's
primary audience is the world, or at least the portion of the world that wishes
to claim to be the descendants of Abraham in Spirit, whether or not they are
physically linked to the patriarch.
Paul finds an echo of the
Old Testament belief in Abraham in the gospel presented in the Christian
Testament. Paul writes, "Understand, then, that those who have faith [in
Jesus Christ] are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify
the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All
nations will be blessed through you" (Galatians 3:7-8).
So, starting with Paul,
this small provincial faith with no real target audience has seen itself as the
realization of God's promise to Abraham and to Israel. It is a promise that
somehow, through them, they would bless the world. Admittedly, the church has
often failed at the task. Somehow, at the same time, the world has often been
blessed by God through the church.
This same idea echoes in Ezekiel's
words. God says he will show Israel the holiness of his name, and then the
world will know that holiness "through them." The idea was that
because Israel knew the holiness of God, then they would be able to share that God
with the world. The holiness of his name was summed up in the love that sent
God to a cross to die for the sins, not of the descendants of Abraham through
Isaac and Jacob nor of the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, but of the
children of Abraham by faith. In other words, those who are the children of
Abraham because they have chosen to be just that: the children of Abraham. They
were not born into that position, but have voluntarily chosen to wear that
identification badge and share God's love with the people.
With Jesus Christ lifted on
the cross, we have seen God's holiness. Now it is time to share that holiness
with the world. Those willing to see that sacrifice made on their behalf will
also know that the holiness of God has truly been proved before their eyes.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 37
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