Do Jews Believe in Jesus?
-No human can obey the law perfectly. Only Jesus was able to fulfill the law. (John 1:17) That’s why we all (Jews and Gentiles) need Christ’s grace. Until and unless the Jews are drawn to Christ by the Lord God (John 6:44), they will never come to believe in Jesus and embrace His perfect work as the only One who obeyed the Law perfectly on their behalf; they will continue to depend on their own imperfect works of righteousness, which will never save them.
The Jews hold to “their” law, and they harken to “Father Abraham” as their claim to legitimacy and as benefactors of God’s blessings. They still cling to their nationality rather than to the Gospel, about whom the entire Bible is focused (Mark 1:1). The line to the Messiah (Jesus Christ) did not begin with Abraham, nor does it end with the Jewish nation. Abraham is not the beginning of a new redemptive narrative being introduced to Scripture. (See Romans 2:29)
The Bible records God’s predetermined redemptive plan for humanity, and He has no “Plan B.” God chose Abraham as part of the plan from whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come (see Luke 3:23-38). Abraham was a vessel through whom God would bring the Messiah—Abraham didn’t choose God. God chose Abraham.
Jesus fulfilled the seed promise given to Adam (Genesis 3:15). And the Messianic lineage runs through Abraham, so Abraham is not in isolation from the rest of humanity. He is a continuation of God‘s promise to humanity to bring a Savior (Jesus Christ). The physical component of Abraham‘s descendants is significant, but not as an end in and of itself because in Abraham and his descendants, God gives a physical picture that really is symbolic of what happens to us in Christ (Romans 4:13). The Abrahamic Promise encompasses all nations and is not limited to the Jews.
Regarding the prophecies that point to and are fulfilled in Jesus (and there are over 300), the following are just a few: Isaiah 7:14 (fulfilled in Matthew 1:22-23), Micah 5:2 (fulfilled in Luke 2:4-7), and Isaiah 35:5-6 (fulfilled in Matthew 21:1-9). John’s Gospel expounded on Jesus’ miracles (signs) that affirmed His authority and identification as the Messiah.
The Gospel of John reveals many of the miracles/signs John recorded, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). And in most instances, the Jewish leaders were among the crowd that included His disciples.
A very telling confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders is recorded in John 8:48-59, “The Jews responded to him, 'Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?’ ‘I do not have a demon,’ Jesus answered. ‘On the contrary, I honor My Father and you dishonor Me. I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks it and judges. Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.’ Then the Jews said, ‘Now we know You have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are You greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do You claim to be?’ ‘If I glorify Myself,’ Jesus answered, ‘My glory is nothing. My Father — about whom you say, ‘He is our God’ — He is the one who glorifies Me. You do not know Him, but I know Him. If I were to say I don’t know Him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know Him, and I keep His word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.’ The Jews replied, ‘You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.’ So they picked up stones to throw at Him. But Jesus was hidden and went out of the temple.”
Christians are the only people who believe in Jesus as Scripture requires (John 3:16). The Spirit gives people life, and through that life, they are saved by belief in Jesus as Messiah. A person is brought to faith in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (John 6:63), and God regenerates a person’s heart so they can believe in Him as Savior and Lord. By grace we are saved (Ephesians 2:8). We do nothing. Christ has done it all. We believe all He has done, is doing, and will do. do. We believe He imputed His righteousness to us when He defeated death on the cross. He lived the life we cannot, and He died the death we deserve.
Yes! Absolutely, yes!
If God has predestined to draw a person—any person—to the Lord Jesus Christ (John 6:33; Romans 8:29), they will be saved and will become part of the church (Acts 11;1-18).
The Apostle Paul gave an emphatic declaration to the Galatian church, “For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:27-29).
Romans 8:1-4 (esp. v. 2), “1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, 4 in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Pray for the Lord God to draw Jewish people to Himself through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we can welcome them into the Kingdom of God, where all are “new creations in Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).
