A gracEmail reader who is weighing the claims of Christ writes: "I cannot hold in scorn humans whom I know to be decent and caring, simply because they have a different belief about salvation. Is my Jewish friend a sinner because he practices his religion? He certainly does many of the very things we ascribe to Jesus as being virtuous."
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I do not believe we need to hold anyone to scorn. My understanding of Scripture (both Jewish, which we call the Old Testament, and Christian, which includes also the New Testament) is that people sin when they go against God. People feel guilty for sinning when they violate or disregard what they themselves understand that God wants -- in their thoughts, words and deeds (Rom. 5:13). I know nothing inherently Jewish which is sinful for that reason. The Jews have received much spiritual light from God (Rom. 3:1-2). Through the Jews came God's Messiah, the Savior of all nations (Gal. 4:4). The first followers of Jesus all were Jews. Even today, many Jews accept Jesus as the Promised One from God. Despite what many people say and think, it is not anti-Jewish to believe on Yeshua ("Jesus").
I further understand that all responsible people capable of making decisions -- Jesus alone excluded -- have sinned in that very sense. That includes you and me and your friend and everyone else we know. At times, we all have gone against what we ourselves knew (whether from reading or hearing the Bible ourselves, from others who reflected Bible teaching, or from God-given intuition or conscience) to be right and wrong, for which we are accountable to God who made us (Rom. 1:18--3:23).
God has dealt with sin decisively and uniquely in the substitutionary, representative life and death of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 5:18-21). There is no other arrangement for dealing with sin (Heb. 1:3; 9:28; 10:12-14). The atonement which Jesus brought about is an objective, historical reality, whether we know it or not and whether we accept it or not (Col. 1:19-20). That objective reality which Jesus accomplished is a different question from its subjective enjoyment, so I will comment on each aspect separately in the gracEmail to come (1 Tim. 4:10).
A gracEmail reader who is weighing the claims of Christ writes: "I cannot hold in scorn humans whom I know to be decent and caring, simply because they have a different belief about salvation. Is my Jewish friend a sinner because he practices his religion? He certainly does many of the very things we ascribe to Jesus as being virtuous."
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What Jesus did, objectively counted for all those who finally will be saved (John 6:37-39; Rom. 8:28-39). It does not count for those whom he did not represent -- which turns out to be those who, in every situation and with whatever degree of knowledge of God or the Bible, consciously, intentionally and persistently refuse to repent of their sins and to submit their wills to God to live in creaturely trust and dependence on him (John 3:19-20). These people cannot complain about that, for they knowingly and personally reject God as their God (with what that should imply for a creature made by God and totally dependent on him) in their way of life (Acts 13:45-46; 2 Thes. 2:8-12).
The gospel is the good news, the happy report, of what Jesus did for sinners. It carries the invitation to believe it, to trust it, and to begin to live as God's forgiven people (Mark 1:14-15; 2 Cor.6:1; Titus 2:11-14). Those who believe the gospel and respond in repentance and faith (a basic interior U-turn which involves recognizing God for who he is and giving him his rightful place in our lives) will evidence that in the course of time, progressively more fully with practice and experience, by God's power, through a life of obedience to God and to Christ, of thankfulness, worship and service to others. This is the essence of what it means to become a Christian, and to grow as a Christian (Eph. 4:20--6:9).
Anyone who accepts the objective event which the gospel communicates, begins personally to enjoy subjectively the multitude of benefits which characterize fellowship with God through Christ. This is the beginning of what the Bible calls "eternal life," which is not only life that goes on throughout eternity, but also life of a transcendent quality because it involves fellowship with the Creator who alone is inherently eternal (John 5:27-28; 17:1-3; 20:30-31).
I believe the Bible teaches that, at the End of this world, there will be people who were objectively covered by Jesus' atonement who did not understand that now, and who therefore did not now subjectively enjoy its benefits in this life. That, I suspect, will include all sorts of people who now might be found among many world religions. It certainly includes faithful people, Jew and Gentile, who lived before Christ. But that is strictly God's business, since only he sees the hearts of people and knows who is living reverently toward him with a heart disposed to acknowledging him as God (Acts 10:1-4, 34-35; 18:9-10; Heb. 11:39-40). Our assignment is to take to all the world the good news of eternal life now, and the certain hope, through Christ, of life forever in the Age to Come.
A gracEmail reader who is weighing the claims of Christ writes: "I cannot hold in scorn humans whom I know to be decent and caring, simply because they have a different belief about salvation. Is my Jewish friend a sinner because he practices his religion? He certainly does many of the very things we ascribe to Jesus as being virtuous."
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As one speaking on the authority of Scripture, I am authorized to promise that whoever believes in Jesus has forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43); that whoever refuses to repent will perish (Luke 13:3); that whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16). Whoever understands the gospel -- truly understands it -- and rejects it will be lost (Mark 16:16). But so will the person who understands other, lesser, light from God and chooses to reject that.
I am not authorized to judge those who have not heard, or those who have heard with their ears but not with their hearts. I do not believe that your friend is condemned because he is a Jew. However, since I believe that the gospel message communicates an objective reality, I do not believe that Judaism can reconcile anyone to God, apart from Jesus Christ (Heb. 10:1-4, 11). I do not know what God sees in your friend's heart -- or in yours, or perhaps even in mine.
I am limited to saying that those who now enjoy God's salvation are those who know and believe what Jesus accomplished for sinners (Eph. 1:13-23; Col. 1:3-6). I am limited to saying that the only certain hope of life hereafter is through knowing and trusting Jesus Christ now (John 6:40, 47). I am limited to saying that those who finally will be lost will be people who have knowingly rejected God's rule in their lives based on the knowledge of God they personally had (Rom. 2:5-6). And I am limited to saying that God can and may and will finally save whomever he wishes, in keeping with what he sees in hearts -- and that he will do so only through and because of the atonement which Jesus Christ alone has accomplished (John 14:6; James 4:12).
A gracEmail reader who is weighing the claims of Christ writes: "I cannot hold in scorn humans whom I know to be decent and caring, simply because they have a different belief about salvation. Is my Jewish friend a sinner because he practices his religion? He certainly does many of the very things we ascribe to Jesus as being virtuous."
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I have discussed some of these points in more detail in several short articles and brief booklets on my website which I encourage you to read. Those would include "What Calvinists and Arminians Have in Common"; "The Saving Love of God"; One Life, Death & Judgment"; "Four Gospel Slogans"; and "The Grace of God."
Some Christians are quick to say that everyone who does not know Christ now is certainly finally lost. I think they say more than Scripture says. Others who profess to be Christians are quick to say that everyone who lives a decent and generally moral life now is certainly finally saved. They, also, say more than Scripture says. I have tried to state in these four gracEmails what I believe Scripture does say, which turns out to be both less and more than some others might speculate.
May God bless you, guide you and teach you as you consider these things (John 6:44-45). Others are not responsible based on what you and I might know. We, however, are responsible for how we respond to the light that we personally have. Through no merit of our own, we have been blessed with much light, especially this -- that "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
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