Christ and Other Gods Part 4: Is Judaism Separate from Christianity?

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“Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise”.

Galatians 3:23-29

Over the summer, I traveled to the Brooklyn borough in New York City for a few days to visit relatives. NYC is known for its ethnic diversity as well as religious diversity. I saw Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, a few mosques, but what seemed to pop up as much as Christian churches were the Jewish Synagogues. In fact, I recall seeing more synagogues than churches. My relatives told me that most of their coworkers and neighbors were Jewish, and the distinct orthodox-Jew uniform was often seen as we walked the streets. Being a small-town Missouri girl, I was much more used to being surrounded by Baptist and Pentacostal churches, so my experience in NYC allowed me to witness the practice and everyday lives of people who had very different beliefs and cultures from me. The large Jewish population in NY is mostly due to the settlement in 1654 and the Jewish immigrants that followed until roughly the 20th century. While most people are aware that Judaism preaches a different message from Christianity, many view it as another road to heaven, or that they are still God’s people because they are the people of Israel, the same people that God guided through the desert in the book of Exodus. There are also many Jews who believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Do we consider them Christian Jews? In this article, we will be looking at the core beliefs of Judaism, how it differs from Christianity, and what Christ says about Judaism.

Understanding the Jewish Background

According to the United Religions Initiative, Judaism is considered to have started about 4000 years ago with a Hebrew man named Abraham. God told Abraham that He was the only God and that He would bless the descendants of Abraham and his wife Sarah as the people of God. So all of Abraham’s descendents were Israelites. God made a promise to lead the Israelites to their own land (the “promised land”). An Israelite and prophet named Moses many generations after Abraham was given the 10 commandments by God, which was the law of God, to teach the people.

Jews have experienced enslavement and much persecution in their history, so they scattered across the globe to escape, especially from the Romans and Babylonians. This dispersion of Jews from Israel is named “the Diaspora”. After WWII, the Jews wanted to protect their culture and ethno religion, so Palestine was divided in 1948 to make a Jewish state for Israel in the same land that the bible referred to as “Canaan,” but this caused great dispute between the Jews and Muslims because the Muslims also wanted rights to that land, and this dispute has carried on between Israel and Iran in the Middle East to the present day. But Jews are not just in Israel; they can be found all over the world.

Today, Judaism is considered to be an ethnoreligious group, so it is composed of people who share both a religious background and ethnic background. One is born Jewish, and at the same time, one can practice Judaism, but it is not both for everyone.¹

Jewish Texts and Beliefs

There are three primary sacred texts for those who practice Judaism. The name of the Hebrew bible is the Tenakh, and it contains 3 parts. The Torah is the first 5 books of the Tenakh (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), and it contains the 10 commandments and other laws that Jews must keep. The Nev’im contains the books of specific prophets, and the Ketuvim contains some poetry, other books of the prophets, and some of the books of history. The Talmud is a collection of the discussion of Rabbis written about 2000 years ago about how to apply the laws in the Torah to everyday life and specific circumstances. So the Jews use these sacred texts to determine how to live their lives.¹

An article from BBC explains more of the doctrines in Judaism. They believe in a God who is Creator, and who is able to have a personal relationship with people. This relationship is in the form of a covenant, so God protects and provides for the Jews as long as they keep the Torah and live holy lives. They see obedience to God as worshiping God, so their whole life is worshiping God in faith. The actions of faith are what count towards salvation. Those who are born from Jewish parents are born Jewish themselves, so Judaism is a religion that is traditionally centered in the home since all family members are considered participants from birth, and celebrations/ceremonies are done together.²

Different Denominations of Judaism

Of course, there are many different “denominations” of Judaism, and some of these denominations can contain people who are atheists but claim a connection through their Jewish ethnicity. The My Jewish Learning Website provides descriptions of these three denominations:

1. Reform Judaism: Most Jews in America are considered reformed. Despite being called “reformed,” it is perhaps the most liberal of the denominations because their ethnicity is considered more important than the Jewish laws and beliefs, so they are usually advocates for social and political progression and general humanitarianism. There are many reformed Jews (not all) who do not believe in a God at all.

2. Orthodox Judaism: they are considered the most strict to traditional Jewish beliefs and observe the “Shabbat” (Sabbath), the day of rest on Saturday, by not working or doing any form of labor.

3. Conservative Judaism: considered to be the “half-way mark” between Orthodox and reformed because they still recognize some traditions and Jewish beliefs, but they are also often supporters of liberal social progression.

There are many other subcategories of Jewish denominations, but these are the main denominations that most are familiar with.³

From Judaism to Christianity

Of course, Christians and Jews believe in the same old testament of the Bible. Christianity came out of Judaism because we believe that Christ served as the final (and only) fulfillment of the law. To understand this transition from Judaism to Christianity, we will look at how the bible explains prophecy, covenants, and salvation.

In the old testament, God had declared that He would bless Abraham and all of the generations of Israelites to come from him. He specifically declared to Moses that He would make the Israelites His people, and He would be their God (Exodus 6:7). God made a covenant (several, actual) with the people of Israel that basically meant if they upheld their side by keeping the law, then He would uphold His side by making the Israelites a holy and separate nation. To make up for all the ways that the people of Israel failed to keep the law, God required that the people of Israel make an atoning sacrifice with animals (Leviticus 9:7). In Exodus God had given the Israelites a specific place called the tabernacle to make these sacrifices. He gave specific instructions to the Israelites on how to build the tabernacle and appointed high priests to make the sacrifices. The reason Jews do not make sacrifices today is because the tabernacle, which was located in Jerusalem, was torn down in 70 AD by Romans, and there is no other place appointed by God to make sacrifices. The Jews today believe that upholding the law will save them, but there is no longer a way to uphold the law of sacrifice regularly with animals. There were very specific instructions for how to present the sacrifice. It had to be an animal without any blemish that belonged to the people. The sin of the person would fall to the sacrifice so that their own sin was paid for by the shedding of the animal’s blood (Leviticus 1:4). However, the people of Israel kept sinning and sinning, so when would these sacrifices end so that they could stop repeating offenses against God and keep their covenant with Him? It is very clear that payment for sins in the form of sacrifice is necessary, and that no sacrifice is not an option to be blameless before God “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life” (Leviticus 17:11). There is no resolve in the old testament from the cycle of sin. In fact, many of the old testament books in the Bible display the great ways that Israel failed God because there is no one who is perfect, no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:3).

But there were prophecies of hope that a savior would come and make things right despite the sin and failure of the Israelites and their kings, for even the great King David had failed as a sinful man in the end. Yet Christ perfectly fulfilled all of the prophecies within the old testament. He was exactly what God’s people had been hoping for all along. There are many examples in the old testament of prophecies that Christ directly fulfills in the new testament:

• God would eventually bless all nations through the lineage of Abraham - not just Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:3). Jesus, a descendant of Abraham in the genealogy, provided a way to be adopted by God for all nations, Jews and Gentiles (Matthew 1:1; Matthew 24:14).

• The ruling scepter would stay with Judah until “He to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be His” (Genesis 49:10). Christ, the Son of God, reigns forever on the throne with His scepter (Hebrews 1:8).

• The savior would be born from a virgin, and His name would be Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14). Christ was born of the virgin Mary, and His name was Immanuel (Matthew 1:23).

• A spotless animal was required for the sacrifice that atoned for the sins of the Israelites (Exodus 12:5). Christ served as the perfect lamb, completely without blemish to pay for our sins with His righteous blood (1 Peter 1:19).

• The book of Daniel prophecies that there will be an end to sin and an atonement for wickedness (Daniel 9:24). Jesus was proclaimed as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

• The Savior King would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Zachariah 9:9). Jesus came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:8-1).

• In Exodus, God told Moses that the people needed the blood of the lamb as a passover sacrifice so that God would spare their homes and only strike the Egyptians (Exodus 12:21-27). Christ is described as the passover lamb who has already been sacrificed so that God would spare those who trust Him (1 Corinthians 5:7).

• In Numbers, Moses lifted a bronze snake on a pole so that those who were bitten by the poisonous snake would look at the bronze snake and live (Numbers 21:9). In order to provide eternal life, John says that Christ, the Son of Man, would be lifted up like the snake in the wilderness (John 3:14-18).

• David prophecies in the Psalms that the savior’s clothing would be divided and they would “cast lots” (Psalm 22:18). When Christ was crucified, the soldiers cast lots for His clothing (John 19:23-24).

• Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah will overcome death, and He will be the Sovereign Lord who wipes away the tears from their faces (Isaiah 25:7-8). Because of the work of Christ, there is victory over death, so death has been defeated in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54).

• God promised that a faithful priest would be raised who would do everything He wanted, and He would grant this priest a house that lasted forever (1 Samuel 2:35). Christ was this faithful high priest who served God perfectly and provided atonement for sins (Hebrews 2:17).

There is a great article that shows 55 old testament prophecies directly fulfilled in Christ (with the direct quotes of the verses, unlike my paraphrasing) that has a lot more examples, but the evidence is clear: Jesus is the Messiah that God’s people had been waiting for.⁴

Yet the old covenant God made with the Israelites changed with the coming of the Messiah. Christ established a new covenant, which is predicted in the book of Jeremiah, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). We know that this new covenant is found in Christ because He is the Messiah who fulfilled the law God made for the Israelites, being a perfect man, and He declared to the disciples during the last supper that His blood was the new covenant that would provide this forgiveness of sins, saying, “‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:20). The blood of Christ became the new covenant, and this covenant is made with all who put their faith in Christ and the work He did for us on the cross, and this faith is not limited to one nation (Israel) but for people of any nation and ethnicity who trust in Christ (Matthew 28:19). Paul, a Jew who converted to Christianity and became one of the greatest missionaries in history, wrote to the church of Galatia in the new testament where people were applying the principles of the old covenant to their salvation in Christ, that is, that following the law would save them. Paul says, “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:23-29). The old covenant required that the people of God follow the law, but they could not follow the law perfectly because of their sinful flesh, so Christ became the new guardian of our faith. Our salvation is not dependent on how we perform or how well we keep the law because Christ has fulfilled the law perfectly for us, so when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we “put on Christ” so that His blood covers our sins and washes us as righteous and clean before God (1 Corinthians 6:11). Our salvation is entirely the grace of God and not our works so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). So being right with God as a law-keeping Jew in the old covenant has transformed to a person of any ethnicity, gender, or social status saved by trusting in Christ, which is entirely a work of grace. There are many who reject this teaching of the gospel out of the belief that having a view of salvation that is not based on our works and being completely free of sin means that we will go on sinning more and more, thinking that it does not matter if we sin or not. “Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:15-18). We are no longer under the enslavement of sin and its deception, but “now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Romans 6:22). We do not shrug at our sin or desire it more and more if we are truly in Christ because our hearts have been changed to be softened to Christ, so we obey what Christ taught us because we have been set free from our sin and love Him (John 14:15). Salvation is no longer about actions but about the heart, which in turn affects our actions. All of our righteous fruits are purely because of sanctification, the work of Christ and guidance of the Holy Spirit within us because we have no room to boast in our own ability to obey God a part from Him. If a person believes that they are “free to sin” without consequences because of the work of Christ, then they do not understand the work of Christ at all, either the suffering He endured because of our disobedience to God or the command of dying to the self and living for Him - a command He has given to all who believe in Him. The people of God are those who trust in Christ alone, not their works or any other being, so that God changes their hearts and adopts them as His sons and daughters. We are not merely people of God but children of God.

Can Jews be Saved by God?

So can a Jew be a Christian too? The answer is yes and no. There are many people of Jewish descent today who claim that Jesus Christ is their only Lord and Savior from their sin, and technically, there is not a place in the bible where it says that Jews cease to be Jews. In Romans, Paul describes the gentiles who receive salvation from Christ as the “wild olive shoot” that is grafted into the olive tree with its natural branches so that everything shares the nourishment of the root. Considering the context of Romans chapter 11 where he talks about Jews and Gentiles, the natural branches of the tree are the Jews because they are God’s people in the old covenant. The root of the tree is Christ, who is the Messiah that has always existed and came to fulfill the new covenant as promised. Paul tells us that the wild olive branches grafted into the tree should not “be arrogant toward the branches [Jews]. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, ‘Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.’ That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith” (Romans 11:18-20). Christ did not come to abolish the law, so the Jews in the old covenant do not necessarily cease to be God’s people in the new covenant. Rather, the Jews who did not really have faith in God but only externally obeyed Him (as they all failed to do perfectly) and claimed Judaism by ethnic heritage, were taken out of the olive tree because they did not have the faith that ultimately led to Christ (Genesis 15:16). Even before Christ’s walk with us on earth, He has always been the Messiah. The olive branches that did not have faith in God were cut off so that the tree could graft in the wild olive branches that did have faith in God. To be part of the tree, whether Jew or Gentile, means that you must grow from the root that is Christ. So the people who claim Judaism today by doctrine of salvation through the old covenant law rather than purely for ethnic reasons are not saved. When Christ spoke of a new covenant, He made the old covenant obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). The old covenant no longer applies, and living as if you are still under the conditions of the old covenant is a rejection of Christ, who has completed everything that had to be done for the old covenant. We know that anyone who cannot confess Christ as their savior does not know God the Father (1 John 2:23). But if a Jew or Gentile repents and believes in Christ as their Lord and Savior, they will be saved.

Final Thoughts

Judaism as a religion after the resurrection of Christ is not the same Judaism in the old testament. Not only are Jews unable to make sacrifices as commanded by the law but they have rejected Christ who is the true God in the flesh, and He is the only reality we can put our faith in. When Christ came, the Jews could rejoice that the Messiah had come to rescue them. While many are still born with Jewish ethnic heritage, the practice and doctrines of Judaism itself have become obsolete when Christ proclaimed Himself as the fulfillment of the old covenant of the law, making the new covenant that is found in Him. The old testament speaks of God’s people inheriting the promised land, and the new covenant reality shows God’s people receiving the beautiful inheritance that is Christ and the gift of salvation from the just wrath of God.

I hope this helped cover a bit of ground considering the change from Judaism to Christianity and why they are not the same, but covenant theology itself could be a whole book of an article. Luckily, there is already a book written about covenant theology that can fill in all of the many, many things I did not talk about! I would recommend giving it a peek if you have more questions specifically about covenant theology as revealed to us through the old and new testament.

References

1. “Judaism: Basic Beliefs.” United Religions Initiative, https://www.uri.org/kids/world-religions/jewish-beliefs. Accessed October 27, 2021.

2. “Jewish Beliefs.” BBC, 14. Sept. 2009. https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/beliefs/beliefs_1.shtml. Accessed October 27, 2021.

3. “The Jewish Denominations.” My Jewish Learning, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jewish-denominations/. Accessed October 27, 2021.

4. “55 Old Testament Prophecies About Jesus.” Jesus Film Project, https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/old-testament-prophecies.html. Accessed October 27, 2021.