Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: benning@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Do Jews need Jesus? Message-ID: Date: 28 Apr 91 22:24:14 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 60 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu ?_?_ Do Jews need Jesus _?_? >............. My interpretation of Christ's message in the New Testament >regarding the Jews is that they are saved by God's grace and the ancient >covenant He made with the Israelites a millenium before Christ's birth. >-Jeff Fields With all due respect, Jeff, your notions about the Jewish people being saved (atoned) through the covenant of Moses stems from a faulty perception based on self-righteousness. This self-righteousness is a distortion of G-ds righteousness. Supporters of this view judge what they will allow G-d to be and do by their own feelings, rather than Scripture. We have Nicodemus as an example. Here was a man who surly followed the Law as close as any man could. He was able to recognize that Jesus was a man sent from G-d, and came to talk to him one night. When Jesus and Nicodemus began to engage in conversation, Jesus didn't say "keep up the good deeds and you're a shoe in." But he did say to a man who was in tune with the Spirit, that he needed a total rebirth of his soul and spirit. And Nicodemus obeyed. We must ask ourselves with all seriousness: If Jews do not need Jesus, then who does? If we presume that G-d is competent, we have to answer the question of why G-d would send a savior to the Jewish people when the savior was needed by the gentiles and not the Jews. And if we can give a valid answer to these questions, then surly they apply to other religions. The question then becomes: Who really needs Jesus? If Jews don't need to be saved, why was there Calvary? Was it a meaningless act? Did Jesus' suffering accomplish anything? Doesn't all this trivialize the cross? IT IS FOOLISHNESS to say the Jewish people don't need Jesus, when the message of the Messiah came from the Jewish prophets. If the gentiles were the ones who needed a Messiah, why was he born Jewish, in Israel? We must face the fact that the truth, that the Jewish people DO need Jesus, makes us all feel a little UNCOMFORTABLE. These are the people who are always picked on. Our own history has black marks in our treatment of them. And we must also admit that doing G-ds will isn't always easy. Truth is seldom convenient, unless it is a truth designed by us for us. Yes, speaking to our Jewish brothers about Messiah Jesus, and their need for Him as savior will offend some. We may even take great abuse, like Paul took when he spoke to his brethren. It will also bring joy to others. We are to sow seeds. G-d will do the rest. The offense comes from when we force them to listen and respond to Jesus. I hope we have all learned that it is G-d who changes the heart and not us. If your efforts with our Jewish brothers and sisters is unfruitful, don't get angry at them, but seek G-d and ask him to bless your ministry. [Proverbs 16:3; 3:6] We can't force anyone to believe, but we MUST tell them about Jesus. If Messiah Jesus is the only way of salvation -and the Scriptures teach that He is- the worst form of anti-Semitism is keeping the message of the Messiah of the world from them. For a good reference book on this subject see the New Testament, especially Matthew, John, ACTS, Romans. "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of G-d for the salvation of everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then for the Gentile." [Romans 1:16] Bruce Benning __________ benning@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com -------------Religion may inform and reform------------- ----------but only Messiah Jesus can Transform----------