The world of biblical faith is divided in many different sections – about 41,000 just in Protestant Christianity alone. However, the main issue, I believe, that faces biblical faith is this huge division between Christians and non-Messianic Jews. Many Christians have it in their heads that the Jews don’t believe in Jesus because he was so against their way of life; well, that’s only partly correct.
It’s no secret that non-Messianic Jews do not believe in Jesus as Messiah; I mean, it’s in the name. But not all non-Messianic Jews deny Jesus as Messiah just because he spoke against the rabbis of old. Rather, it’s because they have a misunderstanding of Jesus and his teachings that biblically justify their denial. Yes, according to their understanding of Jesus, they are perfectly justified in their denial of his messianic position. And who is to blame? Answer: (most) evangelical Christians. Even though many evangelicals wish to see their Jewish brothers and sisters come to the saving knowledge of Christ, their expression and description of the man called Jesus is far from acceptable to Jews; but it doesn’t have to be this way.
What is it that Christians are saying about Jesus that makes Jews misunderstand him? Well, the popular teaching of the Christian church is that Jesus showed up some 2,000 years ago to abolish the commandments given to Israel by God through Moses and to set up this new age of no-law grace. First of all, the commandments in the bible are more than just commandments; they are the regulations of the covenant made between God and his people. To throw them out is to basically nullify the covenant in which God says, “Obey my words and I’ll take care of you forever because I love you.” Second, the bible actually tells us that if someone comes and begins teaching us to abandon the commandments of God, that person is actually just a test by God to see if you will stay loyal to him. Consider this passage from Deuteronomy:
“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”
(Deuteronomy 13:1-5)
Wow. That’s powerful. Before the time of Jesus, the bible clearly foretold of a time when Israel would be facing false prophets – prophets that would teach Israel to disobey God and to follow after other gods. According to the bible, if you are obeying the commandments of a god or gods, you are following after it/them. Likewise, if you abandon the commandments of a god or gods (including Yahweh), you are abandoning following it/them. So when Jews hear from evangelical Christians about a man named Jesus who came to abolish the commandments of God and to follow him, they immediately think of Deuteronomy 13 and conclude that this man must be a test by God to see if they will stay loyal to him. And because of that, they killed him. They literally believed him to be a false prophet!
So what does that mean for us? Well, if you haven’t figured it out by now, if we teach a Jesus that abolishes commandments, we are preventing our Jewish brothers and sisters from coming to the saving grace of God through Christ. It’s our fault. What we can do then is teach the true Jesus to our brothers and sisters – a Jesus that came “not to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17) the commandments of God. We can teach a Jesus that does not aim to make us follow after a different God by destroying commandments, but one who wishes to draw us closer to the God we already serve by paying the penalty of our shortcomings.
