Do Jewish People Go to Heaven?

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Friday, July 31, 2015
Jeff Lampl

 “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me”
John 14:6  

“God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
Romans 11:29

I have always found it easiest to buy into a certain ideology and then fit the Bible into that particular ideology/theology.   It’s easy, simple, and there are lots of people ‘on my side’ who think the same way who are eager to say “amen” to my views.  It’s also easy for the theological “us’s” to marginalize the “them’s” who don’t read the Bible the same way that our theology demands it to be read.    It’s easy, convenient and keeps me in the “right”.     

But the more I read what the Bible actually says, the more my neat little categories fall apart.   The Bible is a subversive book!    It simply won’t allow us to stay “where we are” for very long without challenging some assumption that we had concluded was a done deal.  

The above two scriptures are like that.   I believe John 14:6 to the core of my being.   I haven’t even a shred of doubt that it is true.   I find it to be the most inclusive statement in the bible (although I have to admit that I have most often heard it quoted as a way to show who is “out” vis-à-vis we who are “in”),  

In Romans 11, the apostle Paul concludes a long and complex argument by stating flatly that God promises are irrevocable.   Irrevocable.  Never to be abrogated, never withdrawn, under full warranty, never canceled, never rescinded.    God will not break his covenant with the Jewish people.    

What does this mean? This passage has been debated for two millennia.  Does it mean that all Jews go to heaven even though they don’t believe in Jesus as Messiah?  But what about John 14:6?  Was Paul just confused or wrong or just confused?   So I’ll interject my latest “two cents” worth into the debate in the form of a few questions which I hope will help you to wrestle (just as they help me wrestle) with exactly what scripture actually says.  

Could it be that Jewish people, like everyone else on earth who is saved, are saved by grace?   Could it be that many Jews, when seeking to be the best Jews they can be for the sake of God and for the sake of the world living under the old covenant, will discover on the day of judgment that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross applies to them too?  

Could it be that in seeking to be the most faithful Jew they can be, relying on God to help them, that their obedience is far more than working one’s way into heaven, rather their acts of obedience are themselves acts of faith done out of gratitude for God’s having elected them by Grace (saved by Grace through faith as Ephesians 2:8 says)?  

Could it actually be that God’s promise to be faithful to his chosen people, even though they don’t believe the Messiah has yet come, “trumps” their disbelief the case of faithful Jews who love God?   Is it possible that God’s promise is more powerful than Jewish unbelief?  Could it be that God’s covenant to God’s people triumphs in spite of His elected people’s failings?  

Read through Romans 9, 10 and 11 and attempt to do so objectively, putting aside your particular theological lense/glasses, and seek to wrestle with scripture as presented.  

What do you think?

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