How Jewish Should We Be?

A few months ago I met a very intelligent man who is greatly interested in the Torah and the Old Testament Scriptures in general, as well as being a professing Christian. We spoke about the Hebrew language and the common interest we have of it, and then he proceeded to invite me to practice reading Hebrew. Through e-mail he sent me the reading material as well as a doctrinal statement of what he believes. His statement included several Old Covenant laws that he thought we should be following, from dietary laws to following the Sabbath, and many more in between. This got me thinking more in depth about Christianity's Jewish roots and the obvious question follows, "How Jewish should a Gentile Christian be?"


One of the first statements this friend made was that God made an unconditional covenant with Abraham concerning his seed. Those who bless his seed will be blessed, and those who curse his seed will be cursed (Gen. 12:1-3). This leads my friend to be very desirous to bless Jews, which is a good desire. But who exactly is the seed of Abraham, simply ethnic and/or religious Jews? I think the New Testament would say differently, particularly Paul. I go two places in Paul's letters for this answer, Galatians 3:16, 29, and Romans 9:6-9.

Galatians 3 deals fairly extensively with this issue, but these two verses seem to tie things together nicely. Christ is the seed of Abraham (3:16) and if we are "Jew, Greek, slave, free, male, or female"(3:28) in Christ then we are Abraham's seed, "heirs according to the promise"(29). Also in Romans 9, Paul says clearly that not all who "descended from Israel are Israel" but rather the children of the promise, who we saw in Galatians, are those of us in Christ. There would be much more in Scripture to interact with in regard to this subject, but these Scriptures seem very clear. I am not trying to make a statement against ethnic or religious Jews, but rather I want to be where Scripture is in who is really Abraham's seed.

Although this short writing only answers who Abraham's true seed is, hopefully we can start thinking through more clearly what if looks like to be a Christian. Other places in Scripture speak of Christ declaring all foods clean (Mark 7:19), of not allowing others to judge you according to "holy" days (Col 2:16), and the book of Galatians is Paul's response to the new believers there turning to a different gospel, a gospel of Jesus plus law. So does being a Christian look like being a Jew of the Old Covenant? I think not. Actually a Christian may look very different from culture to culture, yet always having the bond of the Spirit with other believers and a life marked (however imperfectly) by a pursuit of knowing Christ more fully. We are in such a good place living on this side of the cross and the completion of God's special revelation, that we can see the progress of God's redemptive plan fulfilled in His church!

Long Time No Blog

It has been over three months since I have written in my blog. I have always struggled with journaling and it looks like that struggle has carried over to my blogging. Not that blogging is a moral issue but it is always good to persevere in things that you start.
This reminds me of a very precious spiritual truth, one that I have written on before. This truth is that God always accomplishes what He sets out to do. Not only does He not change His mind (Num. 23:19), but if God speaks or plans it, it is finished (Job 42:2; Is 55:11). In fact, in God's mind, our glorification as believers is as done as our predestination and justification (Rom. 8: 29-30). This truth is so comforting, knowing that if I wake up tomorrow I will be a Christian because God is the Author of my faith (Heb. 12:2) and He is committed to His work in me (1 Thess 5:23-24). He has decided it, He will surely do it! Yes!! God is not like me!!

You Must Be Born Again

A cool thing happened to me the other night; I was reminded once again of how dependent I am upon the Spirit to know and understand God. Again, this happened while I was delivering Chinese food. I had a break and was reading John 3 where Jesus tells Nicodemus, "unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God". Jesus reiterates this a couple of verses later saying, "You must be born again". Then Jesus goes on to speak of the Spirit's sovereignty in regeneration. As I was reading this, the song from the Valley of Vision CD was playing, "Who Made Me to Know You". What a cool moment it was for me, as I am reading those amazing words that I must be born again, this song is proclaiming, "Who made me to know you but you... Thank you, Father, for the Spirit's work in me, for opening my eyes to the Christ of Calvary"... What a good place we are in, fellow believers, for the Spirit has chosen to act upon us, regenerate us, and cause us to see Christ! Without the Spirit's enlightenment, all of this would be folly to us (1 Cor. 2:14).

A Mere Breath

Bentley, the son of my friends Danny and Nikki, was able to come home Wednesday from the hospital, the place where he spent the first month of his life. Bentley had some tears in his lungs which caused him to not be able to breathe on his own. We are so thankful that God healed him and sustained his little body through so much trauma.

As I was reading in the Psalms a couple of weeks ago, I came across this verse in chapter 39 verse 5... "Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!" This got me to thinking about how fragile life is, how we are truly just one breathe away from being ushered into eternity. Do I live life in light of this reality? Do I feel my complete dependence upon God for even my next breath? Do I evangelise with the mindset that all unbelievers are one breath away from eternal torment in hell? Am I living with a thankfulness and humility that I cannot keep myself alive, much less do a spiritual work in my heart that saves and sustains me? (which God has so graciously done!) All to often I do not. We are just as dependent on God for our next breath as Bentley was, and is! May we, along with Moses (who saw a lot of death in the wilderness as CJ Mahaney points out) pray, "teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom" (Ps 90:12). We are, after all, "a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes" (James 4:14).

Taste It Again For The First Time

Remember that old Kellogg's Cornflakes commercial, "Taste it again for the first time." I think this is a good illustration of what God is calling us to concerning His gospel, savoring it again like it was the first time. Often as humans we grow bored with what we do every day, but the miracle of it all is just this, that as we continually come back and reflect on Christ's work on the cross on our behalf and live in the good of all that His sacrifice and resurrection provide, this work, and our Savior and God, become all the more sweet. We never grow tired of it as the Spirit teaches us again and again of the depths of Calvary. I am reminded of a few Scriptures in the Psalms...

16:11-You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forever.

34:8-Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

36:7-8-How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

The miracle that we can know God through Christ is quite sweet! May we spend hours relishing Christ!

Amazement

There are at least two things I am amazed at; my continuing sin, and God's continuing grace. I was reflecting on this tonight, that my affections for Christ are so weak at times. I find myself drifting through the day giving short thoughts to my Saviour but nothing that affects my heart very much. Not only are my sins of commission bad enough, whether it is gossiping, anger, or just judgment in my heart, but to think through how self-centered I am or how unaffected I am at times by the gospel is really amazing. It really is!

If a cop were following me on the road I probably wouldn't even go two mph over the speed limit, much least 10. Yet I actively sin in the face of the One who sees my every move. Also, if a human I knew were to give their life for me, I think I would never lack love for them and the mention of them would truly affect me. Why am I then at times so unaffected by Christ and His work?

My second amazement though overwhelms my first, namely that Christ continues to love and perserve me until the end! While I was still a sinner Christ died for me (Rom 5:8), which is beyond me, but for Christ to continue to pursue me even after I have known Him and His goodness yet reject Him is perhaps more amazing. I'm reminded of what Paul told the Galatians in 4:9, "But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?" Amazing, sounds like me. Yet again, even more amazing..."For I am sure that neither life nor death...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38-39). God, the One in charge, whom I owe my life to, is the One who continues to pursue me because I am so prone to wonder. I stand on the promise that I was drawn by the Father and that Christ will raise me up in the last day (Jn 6:44). I worship my Creator even now for this objective truth!!

Christ's Accomplishments

About 2 months ago I, along with others, was asked if perhaps Gal 2:20 (I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me) should change our traditional way of thinking about Christ's substitutionary death. We would commonly say that "Christ died for us" or "on our behalf" when speaking of His substitution. (note Gal 2:20 says we have died with Christ).

To begin with, I would like to say that I am thankful for questions like this because they cause us to once again reflect on the cross of Christ and the manifold blessings that flow from His work there. Also, it's just good practice to sharpen our thinking about these things so we can better articulate them to others and to ourselves, with the end goal being worship and obedience. Also, I want to say that I definitely don't have all the answers here but maybe some of these thoughts will get us thinking.

Basically, what I would say to this question is that there are numerous blessings, as well as countless aspects of what Christ did on the cross, so I don't think being "crucified with Christ" contradicts our traditional thinking about Christ dying in our place. 2Cor 5:21 speaks of a divine switch, our sin to Christ and His righteousness to us. Rom 8:16-17 and Gal 4:7 speak of our adoption into Christ and our becoming heirs along with him. Col 2 speaks of "the handwriting of requirements against us" being nailed to the cross so that we are now free from the law. Rom 3:21-25 speaks of us being justified (declared righteous), redeemed (bought out of slavery), and God's wrath against us being propitiated (satisfied). These are just a sampling of what was accomplished on Calvary. In my view, the Gal 2 passage could be tied closely with Rom 6:5-6 in which we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection as well as Hebrews 2:10-18, where it says that Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers (what a great verse!!) and it goes on to expound the benefits that come from being this closely connected with Christ. So Christ did take our place, receiving the wrath that we so deserve, yet He also identifies with us and we receive the blessings of salvation, from legal righteousness (2 Cor 5:21) to power to live righteously (1 Cor 15:10).

May thinking through this lead us to be more like our Saviour who humbled Himself and took the form of a servant, willingly dying for our good and for the Father's good pleasure!