JFJ Forums

Recently I was speaking at a small church, and when the service was over I was approached by a very nice lady who began to tell me how wonderful she thought it was that I as a Jew had come to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. I thanked her, and she continued on to say that she believed that Jewish believers in Jesus were very special, and that she thought that we had a special understanding of things, which meant we should be leading the Body of Christ.

Statements like this often leave me feeling that I am caught in a difficult and uncomfortable position, somewhere between wanting to be polite and wanting to correct what I believe to be error. You see, I think that what this woman said to me is utterly and completely off-base. Unfortunately, it has been my experience that a large number of Christians subscribe to the same set of views regarding Jews who believe in Jesus. I don't want to in anyway diminish the genuine and sincere love that many Christians have for our Jewish people. Yet that same love has caused some in the Body of Messiah to elevate Jewish believers to a position within the Body that I for one don't think we really deserve. They have placed us Jewish believers in Jesus up on a pedestal simply due to the fact that we are Jewish.


Want to read the rest of the article? Visit The Jews for Jesus Blog!

I feel I can empathise with the old lady. When she said you were special I do not think she was placing you, as a Jew, on a pedestal; on the contrary she probably understood you were special because God said you were a 'stiff-necked' people.

Exodus 32:9 (NKJV)
And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!

DavidJ

This particular post has given me much food for thought over the past week or so. Since I came to know, love and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord He has placed in my heart a great love for the Jewish nation and also a desire to pray fervently for that nation. However, this sums up what I believe the Bible tells me about the nation of Israel.

Deuteronomy 7:6-11 says of the nation of Israel:

(6) For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. (7) The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: (8) But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (9) Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; (10) And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face. (11) Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.

Since God is holy, the people He chooses for Himself must also be holy, a principle that continues under the New Covenant. As God lives by high standards, so must His people keep those same high standards as an example to the rest of the world. Just as a human government sends out ambassadors to other nations to represent it in its affairs within those nations, God chose Israel to represent Him. What were His reasons?

God chose Israel to be His own people, a special treasure for His own purposes. He chose them to demonstrate His love for them. He simply loved them.

When God loves someone, He puts a great deal of responsibility on them.

God chose Israel to keep His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with whom He also had a special relationship., He chose them to make a covenant with them, under which they were to keep His commandments and obey Him in everything. In return, He would bless them immensely.

God's choice of Israel was an act of love for them, even though He knew from the start that they would ultimately fail. God knew from the foundation of the world that all mankind would need a Saviour (I Peter 1:19-20 and Revelation 13:8), including Israelites. Yet, if any people were to succeed as God's model nation, it would be the children of Abraham. This is not because they were better, but because they of all people had a relationship with God, which had begun with Abraham. They had examples in their own ancestry that they could study to see that it could be done if they remained close to God.

To help them to succeed, God gave them His laws, another act of love. Moses writes:

Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people." For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)

Even in their laws Israel were to be a model nation for the rest of the world, not just for the Gentiles to notice, but to emulate. The Israelites should have made a great impression on the Canaanites, Philistines, Edomites, and all the nearby nations. This respect and admiration should have then spread beyond them to other nations.

Yet, because they failed to live by those good and righteous laws and to take advantage of God's nearness to them—in reality, they failed in just about everything He asked of them—their influence as a model nation rarely stretched beyond their borders. Too often, Israel was instead outright pagan!

Even we, as Christians (Jew or Gentile) very often fail to be model Ambassadors of Christ in the nations and peoples around us and even, like them, indulge in outright paganistic ritual; e.g. papism and the like.

I went to your blog and read the rest of your commentary Chad. It is excellent! You have a great blog.

I thank the Lord for you Chad and the insight He has given you regarding this subject: Christians placing "Jewish believers in Jesus up on a pedestal simply due to the fact that we are Jewish." But some Jewish believers feel that way about themselves also.

It is very encouraging to see that you find your identity and worth in Jesus Christ and not in your Jewish ethnicity.

May the Lord bless you!

The wall of seperation was broken down at the cross. We are one new man in Christ. I think many gentiles are just rejoicing to see the scales or judgment of blindness fall away for the jewish people.
Even so jewish believers do have an honored place in the economy of God.
We have suffered double for our sins, and we will be rewarded double for our good works in Christ.

Hey Chad,

Phil 2 [3] Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Evens matters out a bit,  Eh?

Romans 1:16 (KJV)- For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

There is divine wisdom in the above verse. For if the root withers, the branches wither too. If the root is strong, then we, the wild olive shoots who are grafted into the Tree of Israel, will be also be well nourished.

The climax of sin is that it crucified our messiah Y'shua. Jews for jesus has risen above the historically conditioned hostility of traditional judaism towards Y'shua of Nazareth, the holy one of israel! This can only happen through the power of God. Scripture soberly informs us, “There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved”.

Glory be to God,

Amen
Nick