I am of the Jewish faith, and we don’t believe in Jesus (Continued)

Israel’s rejection of her Messiah was foretold by the Hebrew prophets, “I am a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my own mother’s sons”28 and again “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”29 God blinded Israel to the coming of her Messiah in part because he came into the world to fulfill his mission of dying for the sins of the elect. Had Israel and Rome recognized who Jesus Christ was, they would never have crucified him.

Some are concerned that trusting Christ will mean forsaking their rich Jewish heritage. Nothing could be further from the truth. The essence of all that is good in the Jewish tradition derives exclusively from its connection to the true and living God, who her called to be his own. Those things which are of divine origin and which are revealed in scripture are the essentials, but those things that are of merely human origin are the non-essentials. For example, believing as Abraham did is essential, but eating certain foods may not be essential.

Consider Abraham’s faith. Abraham “believed God, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”30 In other words, Abraham was justified through his faith, just as all Christians and completed Jews are today. And what could be more Jewish than following in Abraham’s footsteps, and enjoying a right relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through faith in the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World? This is the rich heritage promised in the Law and the Prophets for those whom God has loved and chosen for Himself.

†