[546 words]
The Jews, under the Old Law, were God’s chosen people. God dealt with them, and blessed them, in ways that He did not with Gentiles. But when Jesus died on the cross; that Old Law died with Him, for He “took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (Col. 2:14). Jesus said, “if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins”(John 8:24). Jews must now believe and accept Jesus as their Savior. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). Peter was shown that God is no respecter of persons when Peter witnessed the Holy Spirit falling on the house of a Gentile in the same manner as He did the Jews (Acts 10). The apostle Paul discusses the salvation of the Jews, “For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek….Hath God cast away his people? God forbid….because of unbelief they were broken off…”(Rom. 10:12; 11:1, 20). The apostle, having shown that Gentiles are saved by their “obedience of faith” in Christ (Rom. 1:5; 11:20), then says of the Jews: “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again And so all Israel shall be saved…” (Rom. 11 :23, 26). The word “so” in this passage is an adverb describing “manner.”
Therefore, the Jews, if they are saved at all, will be saved in the same manner as the Gentiles: obedience to the gospel of Christ. In the great commission, ten clays before the ascension of Christ, the apostles had their assignment to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”(Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16).
There is no Scripture that indicates that God will deal with the Jews in a different way than He will with the Gentiles either now or at His second coming. In fact, He had made it crystal clear that He will deal with all Jews and all Gentiles in exactly the same way, as Peter said to his fellow Jews concerning the Gentiles, “And God…giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them” (Acts 15:8-9).
The only way any Jew can be saved is through faith and obedience to Christ. God, through Jesus Christ, makes no distinction between Jew and Gentile. The Jewish nation lost their relationship with God when they rejected Christ by saying to Pilate, “We have no king but Caesar”(John 19:15). Peter says that Christians are now God’s chosen people, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people…” (1 Peter 2:9-10). “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, ‘Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons’”(Acts 10:34). This shows clearly that God deals with Jews and Gentiles in exactly the same way, on the same basis.
I.D. Byars
Hooker church of Christ
Hooker, OK