The End of Jewishness, Chris Field, Good Friday 18 April 2025
These thoughts were prompted by reflections on seeing Christians become distracted with the trappings of Jewish tradition (over the past 65 years).
While I’m not an expert on such things I hope the following notes provide a prompt to live out our Christian life enjoying salvation, relationship with God, fullness of the Holy Spirit, being born again, living by faith and enjoying all the blessings of God.
If we do that we won’t need to add any extra salt to our life, because it will be wonderfully full in the first place.
So read on ……
Paul tells us about the many special blessings on Israelites, including their ancient history of God’s favour and Christ coming through the Jewish line. (Romans 3:1,2, 9:4,5)
Yet we see in the life of Jesus and in the early church the history and specialness of the Jews laid aside as a new spiritual age opens.
The axe was laid to the root of the tree and all things that were once ‘gain’ ended up as loss, as it is replaced by the excellency of knowing Christ as Saviour and Lord and the source of our righteousness and adoption into God’s family.
This was, of course, a terrible upset to the Jewish people, so controversy followed John the Baptist, Jesus, the Apostles, the early church and new testament writings. The process of leaving the old behind was more than a struggle, it was offensive even to many who put their faith in Christ.
The Judaisers kept insisting that Christians be circumcised. The liberty found in Christ cut across centuries of limitation and compliance to holy days, sabbaths and dietary requirements.
The Hebrew Scripture made no secret of God’s plan to bring in the Gentiles, but at the same time Paul refers to that as a hidden ‘mystery’ only revealed through Christ (Colossians 1:26,27, Eph 3:6).
It seems the Jews assumed that Gentiles would be included only if they became converts to Judaism (proselytes). That was far less than God had in mind, as a new body, the church, a universal family of believers, completely negated all the value of being Jewish.
Through Christ ‘Jewishness’ counts for nothing. There is no advantage in our Christian walk through being Jewish, being circumcised, honouring the Jewish festivals or holy days, singing in a minor key, speaking Hebrew or the like.
This is a shocking overturn of the Jewish religion and centuries of Old Testament focus on the Jews.
It is hard for modern western Christians without a Jewish heritage to comprehend how offensive Christ and Christianity were to the Jewish community into which it was spawned.
Let me point out some of the moments when the offence and resultant antagonism were evident.
John the Baptist challenged his Jewish audience telling them that God can raise up children to Abraham from the stones. “And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” Matthew 3:9
John also spoke of the axe being ready at the root of the tree.
“The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:10
Note that the Jewish leaders struggled to respect John as from God.
Jesus amplified John’s comments, saying the kingdom would be taken from the Jews.
“Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” Matthew 21:43
And Jesus challenged their claim to special status as children of Abraham.
“Abraham is our father, they replied. If you were children of Abraham, said Jesus, you would do the works of Abraham.” John 8:39
Note the message Jesus spoke to his own townsfolk, causing them to want to kill him.
“there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah ….. when …. great famine swept over all the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon. There were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian. On hearing this, all those in the synagogue were enraged. They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way.” Luke 4:25-30
Why were Jesus’ words so shocking?
He pointed out God’s special care for Gentiles, without them having claim to Jewishness or Abraham. Naaman and the widow were foreigners receiving God’s grace while the Jews missed out.
Consider too that Jesus kept upsetting the Jewish leaders by working on the sabbath, and allowing his disciples to rub the heads of grain on the sabbath, which is the same as working on the sabbath.
When challenged about it Jesus seemed to discount the whole idea of sacredness, quoting David and his men eating sacred food, and declaring himself lord of the sabbath. (Luke 6:1-5)
Jesus also upset the Jews by giving forgiveness to people without any of the religious processes established by Moses. He simply told people they were forgiven. (Mark 2:5, Luke 7:48-50)
Jesus talked of having other sheep outside the Jewish community.
“I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them in as well, and they will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock and one shepherd.” John 10:16
To the Jews this meant the outsiders would become Jews, but that was not God’s plan. The new thing God was doing needed to supersede what existed, swallowing it up into something new.
As the reality of Christianity unfolded we discover that Christ is our righteousness, removing the need for the law or religious works to be right with God (2Corinthians 5:21).
We find Jesus to be our sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:3).
We are not under law, but under grace (Romans 6:14).
Christ is our passover (1Corinthians 5:7, John 1:29, 1Peter 1:19).
Christ is our peace with God (Ephesians 2:14, Romans 5:1).
Christ is our High Priest (Hebrews 3:1, Hebrews 4:14).
Christ abolished the demands of the law (Ephesians 2:15).
Christianity is the true circumcision. “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh” Philippians 3:3
Things that were only available through Jewishness are replaced in a far more wonderful way in Christ. The old is passed away and something new has come. There is a new body.
The early church was at first Jewish, which included proselytes (converts to Judaism).
Then the gospel went to the Samaritans through Philip and to the Gentiles through Peter preaching to Cornelius and his household.
Peter, as a Christian, was shown a vision of all manner of creatures and was told to “kill and eat”. Peter objected, as a Jew who respected the Jewish food laws, but God repeated the vision three times, so it is established (by two or three witnesses a thing is established – 2Corinthians 13:1).
Peter realised that the vision about food also related to taking the gospel message to the Gentiles.
“And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Acts 10:28
Jews and gentiles did not eat together under Judaism, but in Christianity that no longer holds.
Yet intimidation by the Jews was a challenge for the believers, including Peter. Paul rebuked Peter when Peter, in the gentile church at Antioch, ate with gentiles, but stopped doing so when Jews visited from Jerusalem.
“When Cephas came to Antioch, however, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself, for fear of those in the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not walking in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?” Galatians 2:11-14
Note “the truth of the gospel” overturns Jewish regulations, establishing a new paradigm of liberty.
At the birth of the church Jewish Christians created difficulties as they tried to conform Christianity to the old covenant they were raised in. They struggled to understand how completely Christianity did away with the old covenant and all the values of Jewishness.
Paul understood the depth of transformation, possibly because he had the privilege of being caught up to heaven and meeting Jesus.
Paul made several sweeping statements discounting any specialness in being Jewish.
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
“For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him.” Romans 10:12
“Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.” Colossians 3:11
“For in one Spirit we were all baptised into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.” 1Corinthians 12:13
“We who are Jews by birth and not Gentile ‘sinners’ know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:15,16
In sending Jesus God ended the Jewish systems and religion.
Things that were important under the Jewish order were no longer relevant.
Christians (including Jews) were to live in a new order, providing great freedom from laws, rules and regulations, and delivering the righteousness that the law promised but could not provide.
Paul himself treated as worthless all his Jewishness, in which he excelled.
“But whatever was gain to me I count as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things as loss compared to the surpassing excellence of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God on the basis of faith.” Philippians 3:7-9
When Paul challenged Jewish believers not to go back to reliance on their Jewish religion he referred to it as worthless, and going back as going into slavery.
“But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and worthless principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” Galatians 4:9
Christianity has nothing to do with Jewishness. Circumcision, holy days, law, rituals, Levitical priests, sacrifices, food laws, new moons and sabbath keeping have no value any more.
Instead Christians are alive to God and serve God out of their spirit, as the Holy Spirit leads them.
“But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” Romans 7:6
Consider the sabbath in the light of Paul’s words.
“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.” Romans 14:5
This newness in Christ is for the ‘nations’, not just for the Jews.
“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19
Note, however, that God has not abandoned the Jews. God’s plan is for the Jews to be saved in a most significant way. God has not given up on the Jews, but he has abandoned Judaism and all the trappings of Jewishness.
In Christ all Jews can become believers, just like the gentiles, in the same way Peter and Paul did.
When Jews come to Christ they come to Christ, not a fulfilled form of Judaism. They come into the liberty with which Christ makes them free. They too are set free from their Jewishness.
The ultimate church will not be skewed toward Yiddish idioms, Hebrew language, minor key music, tassels on clothing, etc, but will enjoy the same wonderful liberty all Christians currently enjoy.
To turn back to the trappings of Jewishness is to abandon the wonderful blessing and freedom Christ purchased for us.
Note too that when the Jews turn to Christ it will bring about wonderful spiritual impact, which Paul described as “life from the dead”!
“For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” Romans 11:15
It is worth noting that God abandoned Jewishness in some interesting subtle ways, amplifying his intent to create an international body of believers in a new family, a new flock, the church.
While Jesus was born a Jew, and kept the law, operating in the system of Judaism, he was never named Joshua (which is what the name Jesus stands for) but Jesus. Even the Jewish gospel writers, having opportunity to call Jesus Joshua or Yeshua, simply called him Jesus.
Jesus bore a gentile name, as he stepped into history and did away with Judaism and opened salvation to the whole world.
Paul told the very first converts to be baptised in the name of ‘Jesus Christ’. (Acts 2:38)
Our saviour is the Lord Jesus – despite being born a Jew, into the Hebrew world of Judaism.
Allow me one final scripture passage, Romans 8:1-5
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:1-5
The righteous requirement of the law is FULFILLED in us. We are righteous. Not by the law and the trappings of Judaism, but by faith in Christ. We are made free from the law of sin and death.
We live by the Spirit, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which sets us free.
Christianity is a life of walking in the Spirit, refusing to come under the trappings of law which could not save the people who were most dedicated to it, so it certainly won’t help us.
Jewishness is a spent force. It has nothing to offer.
Paul, who excelled in Jewishness, counted it a negative, not a positive.
Paul calls going back to that stuff going into slavery, and he identifies Jewish laws and practices as weak and worthless.
We should love the Jews, as Paul did, and maybe some of us will be called to preach specifically to the Jews. But Christianity is a new ballgame, far more wonderful than Jewishness could ever be.