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1You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. 3We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; 8for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not of works, that no one would boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

11Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), 12that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of separation, 15having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace, 16and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility through it. 17He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. 18For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, 20being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; 21in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

"Taking Away" the Kingdom of Heaven

"Taking Away" the Kingdom of Heaven

Passage Study | Matt 21:43 | Daniel G Garland

When Jesus said, "'...the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it'" (Matt 21:43 NAU), "the chief priests and Pharisees...understood that He was speaking about them" (v. 45). But exactly what was taken from them, and to whom was it given? 

In the Parable of the Landowner (vv. 33-41), the vine-growers correspond to the people of Israel and their leaders up to that point in history. Instead of producing fruit for God, the owner of the vineyard, they shamefully mistreated the prophets God sent to them. Finally, they killed his son (vv. 38-39). In doing so, they fulfilled Psalms 118:22-23 which speak of Jesus as "The stone which the builders rejected," which "became the chief corner stone" (v. 42; Mark 12:10-22; Luke 20:17; Acts 4:11; Eph 2:20; 1 Pet 2:7). 

Jesus asked His audience what the owner of the vineyard would do to those vine-growers. The leaders of Israel answered correctly, "...'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons'" (v. 41). What is taken away from Israel, then, is not the vineyard (kingdom), unconditionally promised to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David (Gen 12:2; 2 Sam 7:12-17), but the current privilege and responsibility of producing its fruit (v. 43). Until the day that Israel is restored (Matt 19:28; Rom 11:26-27), the people that are accountable to produce the fruit of God's kingdom comprise the church (1 Pet 2:9-10), which includes Jews and Gentiles in one body (Eph 3:4-7).