Actually
they did, at least many of them.
All of the first Christians were Jews.
Only one of the authors of the New Testament was not a Jew (Luke) and
only two of the 27 New Books of the New Testament were not authored by Jews
(Luke and Acts). All
the apostles were Jews and all the founding members of the church were Jews.
Nor did these Jewish followers of Jesus consider themselves anything
other than faithful Jews who believed that the Messiah had come.
They still attended temple worship and they did not call themselves
Christians, rather they came to be known
as followers of the “Way”.
as followers of the “Way”.
According
to some estimates by 50 AD, 20 years after Jesus” crucifixion, one third of
the population of Jerusalem were followers of the way including many prominent priests and Pharisees. It was said that
across the nation of Israel at that time there were more followers of Jesus than there were Essenes, Pharisees, and Sadducees
combined.
Soon
the apostle Paul began to bring this message of Jesus’ death and resurrection
to gentiles (non-Jews) with the message that they can be accepted by God by
Grace through faith without relying on obedience to Torah.
But how could this be?
Paul
had made the connection between Jesus’ last supper, his death on the cross,
and the Old Testament passages that describe the death of an innocent, first
born, perfect sacrifice as a substitutionary, sacrificial atonement for human
sin. Paul had
seen that Jesus, the faithful, obedient Jew had become himself that atoning
sacrifice, and that his sacrifice was sufficient for anyone who simply believed.
Especially important for Paul were the passages such as the one below,
where the prophets foresaw a new covenant to come.
“The
day is coming,” says the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took
them by the hand and brought
them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as
a husband loves his wife,”
says the LORD. “But
this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,”
says the LORD.
“I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their
hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
Jeremiah 31:31-33
It
seems to me that there is something incredibly human and incredibly important
going on here. First
the most astonishing thing in the world:
Jesus became the faithful Jew who faithfully kept the Old Testament
covenant. And
Jesus, God having
come to earth, not only kept the covenant with God but also died at the hands of people like you and me who couldn’t keep Torah. This is astonishing. God credits Jesus’ faithfulness to God to me who is unfaithful! Is that not unfathomable? Nothing
for me to get right first. Nothing. God says here it is, Jesus’ faithfulness is now your faithfulness. Just believe it and accept it and say thank you!!! But don’t I have to do something? God invites you to say yes to him and then just spend the rest of your life loving Him back. With an attitude like that God will take from there.
come to earth, not only kept the covenant with God but also died at the hands of people like you and me who couldn’t keep Torah. This is astonishing. God credits Jesus’ faithfulness to God to me who is unfaithful! Is that not unfathomable? Nothing
for me to get right first. Nothing. God says here it is, Jesus’ faithfulness is now your faithfulness. Just believe it and accept it and say thank you!!! But don’t I have to do something? God invites you to say yes to him and then just spend the rest of your life loving Him back. With an attitude like that God will take from there.
Second,
the most human thing in the world is to rail against this message.
“I’ve been a good Jew all my life, and you mean to tell me this
irreligious people who just believe get the same benefits from God that I get!
No way”. Even non-Jews find this message simply too fantastic. "There’s no free lunch” we say. “We Americans do things the old fashioned way, we earn it”.
Such
has been the push back against the message of Grace from the beginning, not only
from faithful Jews, but also from many Christians over the millennia who have
sought find ways to insert various “do’s” into the message of Grace.
How
about you? Is
your life with God simply one of living your life as a “thank you” to what
He has already done for you?
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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