Ezekiel has so far provided a bare few glimpses of hope for the gentile nations – but verses 21-23 of Ezekiel 47 are the clearest statement of salvation for Gentiles who join themselves to Israel.
Notice that for Ezekiel the foreigner is to be given a full inheritance with the native-born. Ezekiel (like Jesus' own disciples) would probably assume that this would include circumcision. But as Paul points out in Romans 4,
“the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith” (Romans 4:13 – or, to use the language of verse 10, he received this promise “before he was circumcised.”)
Paul's conclusion follows very neatly from Ezekiel's premise: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (2:19-22)
In other words, Ezekiel's requirement that believing Gentiles be included in the inheritance sets up Paul's whole theology of the “one new man” in Christ.
Or, to say it another way, Ezekiel 47-48 finally comes to pass in the resurrection of Jesus!
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