You have your religion, and I have mine. Jesus is for the Gentiles, and if he helps them, great. In fact, Judaism teaches that the righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come. But for us, the Jewish people, we have the Torah. That is our portion.
What an insult to the Gentiles! If Jesus did not fulfill biblical prophecy, if he is not the promised Messiah of Israel, if he was not born of a virgin, if he did not die for the sins of the world and rise from the dead, if he is not coming back as King of all kings to rule and reign here forever, then he is the Messiah and Savior of nobody.
He is a false prophet and the writers of the New Testament were either deceivers or deceived. If he did do all these things, then he is the Messiah and Savior of everyone—both Jew and Gentile. As for the Torah, it remains our portion, but it is only through the Messiah that we can truly interpret it and live it out.
At the risk of repeating myself, I want to remind you that if Jesus the Messiah—Yeshua HaMashiach—is not for the Jews, then he is for nobody. The argument that Jesus is for the Gentiles is not only insulting and demeaning to them, but it is historically absurd. In fact, the life and ministry of Yeshua occurred in such a deeply Jewish context that for as many as ten years after his resurrection, his followers told only other Jews the good news that the Messiah had come and died for our sins. They thought this message of the Jewish Messiah was for Jews only! It was quite a shock for many of them to accept the possibility that Jesus was for the Gentiles too. This is basic, historical truth. 15
Maybe an analogy will help. Let’s say that the Lubavitch movement—an ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement that spans the globe but originated in Eastern Europe—continued to grow, proclaiming to Jews around the world that the Rebbe (their spiritual leader and Grand Rabbi) was the Messiah, gaining a positive hearing from some Jews and a negative hearing from others.
Now, let’s say that twenty years later, the Lubavitcher rabbis began to feel that they should also tell the Gentiles about the Rebbe, and millions of Gentiles began to follow him, totally eclipsing the hundreds of thousands of Jews who believed in him. Then, let’s say that the rest of the Jewish community began to ostracize the followers of the Rebbe, claiming that he was not really the Messiah and saying glibly, “Look, if he helps the goyyim (“Gentiles” in Yiddish), that’s fine, but the Rebbe is not for Jews!” What would a surprised Lubavitcher say in response? Something like: “You’ve got to be kidding! If the Rebbe is not for us Jews, then he is for no one.” The same is true in regard to Yeshua our Messiah.
“But,” you respond, “your analogy breaks down. Jewish followers of the Rebbe continue to live a Jewish lifestyle, whereas Jewish followers of Jesus don’t.” A moment ago you were criticizing Messianic Jews for maintaining their Jewishness, calling us deceivers (1.5). Now you attack us for not maintaining our Jewishness! The facts are undeniable and indisputable: Jesus and his followers were thoroughly Jewish in the most biblical sense of the word, and Jews who have followed him through the ages have often experienced a deep reawakening of their Jewishness. 16
As for the traditional Jewish concept that the righteous of all nations are accepted by God—regardless of their religion—it is important to remember that our Hebrew Bible gives a very dismal picture of the moral state of the human race (see vol. 2, 3.15), and it would be a real mistake to exaggerate the number of “righteous” people in the world today. Even if we use Jewish tradition as our measuring rod—remembering that this tradition is often much more liberal than the Bible when it comes to dealing with human sin—we see that the vast number of people on the earth are unrighteous. How so? They regularly violate the so-called seven laws of Noah, laws that Judaism believes are binding on all peoples of all nations. 17
These laws, derived by the rabbis from Genesis 9:1–6 in particular, are considered to be universal in nature and forbid (1) blasphemy, (2) idolatry, (3) sexual immorality, (4) murder, (5) robbery, and (6) eating a portion of a living animal. The seventh law calls for the establishment of courts of justice. The prohibition against idolatry alone eli-minates the majority of the human race throughout history along with more than two billion people today (Hindus, tribal peoples, etc.).
If we add in atheists—including all of the communist world (that includes China)—then almost one billion more are contained in the number of nonrighteous. 18 If we focus on just one more law, namely, sexual immorality, it is clear that most of the human race falls seriously short of even the Rabbinic standard of righteousness. Using the Hebrew Bible as our guide, virtually no one makes the mark without divine help.
So while it is nice to make apparently broad-minded statements such as, “Judaism teaches that the righteous of all nations have a place in the world to come,” the fact is that hardly anyone ends up being righteous enough! It is like the owner of a professional basket-ball team saying to a group of people who are under five feet tall, “We are an equal opportunity employer.
We will not restrict you on the basis of color, creed, or education, and we will give a lucrative contract to any of you who can make the team.” Thanks for nothing! That kind of generosity we can do without.
The simple truth is that all of us—both Jews and Gentiles—fall far short of God’s mark, and that is why he was kind enough to send Jesus the Messiah to all of us. 19 Instead of condemning us for our sins, he sent the Messiah to save us from our sins. How? By living a perfect life, showing us the way to God by his deeds and words, and then dying in our place as the ransom that paid the debt we could never pay. It is through Jesus that both Jews and Gentiles become righteous. Without him, all of us are in trouble. With him—and with him alone—we have hope.
As you read on, you will be surprised to learn how the Torah, along with the rest of our Hebrew Scriptures, points to Jesus the Messiah, coming to full realization, application, and meaning through him (see, e.g., vol. 3, 4.1). Thus, it is not only the Torah that is our portion but the Torah and the Messiah that belong to us. It is our privilege to share these unspeakable treasures with the nations of the world.
As Jews, we have a unique relationship to the Torah and the Messiah, but not an exclusive relationship. And through Jesus, we can all become children of the living God, Jew and Gentile alike, each with our special callings and gifts, yet all sinners redeemed by the same Savior. And so in the end, there will be one God, one Messiah, and one family. 20 Who could object to that?
15 See Acts 10–11 for the first recorded instance of a group of Gentiles becoming part of the fellowship of (hitherto all-Jewish) Messianic believers.
16 I recognize, of course, that there were many Jews, especially in past centuries, who forsook anything Jewish as a result of their “conversion.” There are, however, several reasons for this: (1) In most cases, their “conversion” was more of a social change than a true, spiritual transformation, hence no awakening of their true Jewishness would follow from this. (2) Especially in the Middle Ages, there was little possibility that Jews who followed Christianity would thereby recover their Jewishness because they were often forced to renounce their Jewishness in the “conversion” (e.g., baptismal) process; see 2.8. Of course, the “Christianity” to which they converted was often less faithful to the Bible than the Judaism they left.
17 See Charles B. Chavel, ed. and trans., The Commandments (London: Soncino, 1967), 2:434, regarding idolatry.
18 I say almost one billion because, in the fifty years following the communist takeover of mainland China, there has been a remarkable spiritual revival among the Christians in that country, and they have grown from approximately one million to as many as one hundred million during that time, despite severe persecution and hardship. For the remarkable story of this church, shining in the midst of its sufferings, see now Danyun, Lilies amongst Thorns: Chinese Christians Tell Their Story (Ventura, Calif.: Gospel Light, 1993).
19 In one of the most beautiful verses in the Hebrew Bible (Isa. 53:6), the prophet wrote that, “All of us [Hebrew, kullanu], like sheep, have gone astray, each one has turned his own way, but the Lord has laid on him [i.e., the servant of the Lord, Jesus the Messiah] the iniquity of all of us [kullanu].”
20 Note the words of the prophet Isaiah, speaking of a time of future spiritual unity between Israel and some of its arch enemies: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance’ ” (Isa. 19:23–25). Through Jesus our Messiah, we can see the beginning of the realization of passages like this, among others found in our Hebrew Scriptures.
Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 1: General and historical objections. (15). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.