“‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.’”
Jeremiah 31:31
Most Jews don’t believe in Jesus for several reasons. We fear being cut off from our Jewish friends, family, and the larger Jewish community. We fear being told we’re no longer Jewish. We fear the echoes of history and the atrocities committed against Jewish people for millennia by those who called themselves “Christians.”
But in spite of the high cost and the perceived hardships, turning to Jesus should be the most Jewish thing we could do. Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). He said, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Jesus came to fulfill and complete us as Jewish people, to make us kosher (clean), not to dismiss our Jewish identity.
Jesus told His Jewish listeners, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9); and then, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11). To the Jews of His day and to all Jewish people today, He says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
But in spite of the high cost and the perceived hardships, turning to Jesus should be the most Jewish thing we could do. Jesus said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). He said, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). Jesus came to fulfill and complete us as Jewish people, to make us kosher (clean), not to dismiss our Jewish identity.
Jesus told His Jewish listeners, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9); and then, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (v. 11). To the Jews of His day and to all Jewish people today, He says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).
Scripture Focus
Luke 4:14-20
Insight
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Torah.” (Rabbi Saul of Tarsus; see Galatians 4:4)
Bible In A Year
- 2 Kings 9-10
- Proverbs 15
- 1 Peter 2-3
