Salvation Is Jews

"He didn't create Israel to abandon it"

GOD SAW ahead and provided for Israel. He knew where they’d be today and what would happen to them to become who they are. Jesus prophesied Holocaust (Matthew 24:9; Revelation 13:17-18). He revealed Himself in John’s Revelation as King, able to open the seals (Revelation 5:9). He gave history, then in the future, now fulfilled. Israel is exactly who God said they would be. Israel today is who He wanted them to be when He wrote the Law.

The Law is God’s Word. Torah is God’s Word. It is eternal. Covenant. We, Gentiles, are not in it. It was given to Jews as their promise of salvation. Redemption. We don’t get this. The Remedy Translation tells a Truth of us in James 2:19. The apostle James says, ”But some will argue, ‘Gentiles simply trust God, while Jews work to be saved.’ Show me how a person gets well by trusting but not applying God’s treatment to their lives, and I will show that real healing only happens when we do both—trust God and follow his treatment plan.” Dr. Timothy Jennings is the writer of the Remedy. His use of medical terms for salvation is immensely helpful to me. It is the “treatment plan.” But I want you to notice our opinion of the Jews, as he stated it.

”But some will argue, ‘Gentiles simply trust God, while Jews work to be saved.’” (James 2:19, Remedy)

This is what I see all the time in our services. Maybe not directly. As I have said, growing up, I knew Jesus was a Jew. I knew He Fathered the Jews, though not in those words. I knew the disciples were Jews. But I also believed Israel was not saved. The church taught this. The Gospel, as we have taught it, isn’t Jewish. We’ve modernized it and removed their methods and thought patterns. So much so, we don’t see them rescued by their King. Jesus is King of the Jews, King of Israel. Why would He fail His people? This makes no sense and is so far outside of God’s character of love and compassion. He didn’t create Israel to abandon it, but instead, knew them and sealed them as His.

What are Jesus’ words in the Gospels? He described them and us, the church, as old wine and new wine. At the same time, we’ve got to get over saying they are “old” and have passed away. These are the words of the apostle Paul, A JEW, but not what he meant. He pleaded for them to be saved, and in that hour, in his day, the temple remained, and they kept offering sacrifices in it. An unnecessary thing. They saw it as eternal. Jews today say the same. But they know G_d as redemption, as Father, having lived without the temple for thousands of years.

Of the wine, Jesus said, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved (Matthew 9:17).” BOTH THE NEW AND THE OLD WINE ARE PRESERVED. It isn’t that the Gentile church has replaced Israel. In fact, Paul said God had removed the dividing line between us (Ephesians 2:14). Again, his words are also the words of James. What we keep stumbling over is HOW. We’ve designed altar calls, moving many to the lobby, and the Jews, they don’t give them. So who’s right? We miss the point. It isn’t right vs. wrong. It’s how we should speak of them, and how they will speak of us.

A young woman Jew came out of surgery with a cross-shaped scar, and, at first, it upset her. Then she had a realization. What she said is eye-opening. “In ancient Hebrew, the letter tav was once written as a cross. In the Book of Ezekiel, a mark was placed upon the righteous to protect them from destruction. A mark of survival. It meant: You shall live.”

Tav is the first letter in five key Hebrew words: תּוֹרָה (Torah, teaching/instruction/word), תְּפִלָּה (tefillah, prayer), תְּשׁוּבָה (teshuvah, repentance, return), תִּקְוָה (tikvah, hope), and אֱמֶת (emet, truth).”

Do you get this? The cross was originally the first letter in the Hebrew words for the WORD, PRAYER, REPENTANCE, HOPE, and TRUTH.

Jesus is Hebrew. He speaks Hebrew. He died on the cross because He was Jew, labeled Jew. If you ever are privileged to speak to Him face-to-face, you will be staring at Jews. Salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22). Jesus did not destroy their covenant. He fulfilled it. Matthew 5:17. They are where God said they should be. We are so very wrong in our words. What we think is them working for their salvation is, instead, that they know it is theirs and they honor it. Everything they do is for covenant. We speak derogatorily of it all, from their clothing to their hair, to their eating and form of worship.

Jesus is them. He grew up as them. Heaven is full of Jews.


----------
Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com