Was Jesus Jewish? “Whoever claimed that Jesus was a Jew was either stupid or telling a lie….Jesus was not a Jew. He was an Aryan.” So said Houston Chamberlain, nephew of Sir Neville Chamberlain. Houston was the son in law of German composer Richard Wagner.
Who was Richard Wagner? You’ll be interested to hear what Hitler said of him, “Whoever wants to understand National Socialist Germany must know Wagner.” Wagner was an absolutely brilliant composer, he loved the “old heroes” who were warriors and conquerors…he was also rabidly antiSemitic, claiming Jesus was not Jewish but Aryan, and that he shed Aryan blood, and would lead Germany back to the greatness that was hers (Lutzer, 82).
Hitler’s views of Jesus were identical. In Richard Weikart’s book “Hitler’s Religion,” he explains Hitler’s view of Jesus, “Jesus was not a Jew, but a fellow Aryan….he claimed Jesus was Germanic…he denied Jesus was a Jew, most likely the offspring of a Roman soldier, possibly with a Jewish mother.” (80). Hitler was famous for often referring to the Gospel scene of Jesus using a whip to drive out the Jewish money changers in the Temple. For Hitler, this showed Jesus was antisemitic, that Jesus himself was not a Jew, that instead he was an Aryan fighter in a struggle to exterminate the Jews. The idea of a warrior Jesus and a warrior Christianity, both of which are distinctly Aryan and for Aryans, was Hitler’s view. In Munich in 1922 Hitler said “The Christian religion is created only for Aryans, for other people it is absurd.”
The telos of Hitler’s Christianity was the eradication of the Jews so that the Aryan race could be purified and evolve into the highest type of human so as to ultimately step fully into its destiny for world domination (MK242, 424, 181, 183). This is why Hitler’s Christmas speech in 1926 stated that the work Christ had begun was not finished, but he – Hitler – would finish it. That work was the fight against the Jews for the elevation of the Aryans. He often carried a whip and said, “In driving out the Jews I remind myself of Jesus.”
In Mein Kampf Hitler says Aryans are the highest image-bearers of God, over all other races, and profaning the Aryan race is a sin against God (242), and being the highest image-bearers they are the highest among the races and have a divine right to subjugate and enslave other lower races. For Nazi Germany, Christianity was reshaped into Positive Christianity, a Christianity that eliminated the Old Testament and any Jewish connection to Jesus, a Christianity by Aryans for Aryans, a Christianity with an Aryan militaristic Christ, a fighting Christianity that embodied the warrior ethic, and a Christianity that was subordinate to the State and in service to the State. The State – not God. Because the State, according to Mein Kampf, was most important. Follow this: Hitler said the State’s role was to protect and promote the Aryan race’s purity, which would lead to world domination of the Aryan race. So ultimately, Positive Christianity was created as an alternative to true biblical Christianity because Hitler needed a Christianity in Germany that would serve the ultimate purpose for Germany of eliminating the Jews and promoting the purity of the Aryan race.
There is a lot there that is resurfacing today in the conservative movement politically and in the Church. There is a ton more there that we are going to explore in a class to begin not too long from now I’m telling you you will want to be part of. But here’s my question: Is your Jesus a Jew? Believing Jesus was Aryan is as bad as believing Jesus was black, which we saw a lot of back in the BLM days a few years ago. If your Jesus is not Jewish, you’re a heretic. Denying Jesus was Jewish is as bad as denying He was God, or denying He was even human. You have what 2 Corinthians says is “another Jesus,” and one that can’t save you from your sins and deliver you from God’s wrath. Is your Redeemer a Jew? Whether you’re Jewish or Gentile you had better make sure your Savior came as a Jew. Paul said in Galatians 4:4, “When the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, BORN UNDER THE LAW.” That’s Jewish. Our sermon title today is “JESUS THE JEWISH REDEEMER.”
Our sermon has 2 halves to it: 1) Jesus was Jewish and 2) Jesus was the Jewish Redeemer
JESUS WAS JEWISH
We saw last week that Jesus was truly human. But among the many groups of humans on this earth which one did He come from? Paul restates what the Scriptures unanimously teach: Jesus the Christ came as a Jewish man.
Notice the progression in the verse: It begins with eternity, “but when the set time had fully come.” That is a time in history, but it was “set” in eternity past by God before history began. Who existed then? Jesus -but not humanly, but as the eternal Word, who was with God and WAS God (Jn 1:1). His deity is clear there and even more clear when Paul says, “God sent His Son.” Being the Son of God is a title of divinity – it is a reference to His divine nature. But this eternal, divine Word of God came down and became a human, as Paul then says, “born of a woman.” And what kind of human? A Jewish human, for he says, “born under the law.”
Being born under the law means Jesus was Jewish – and as a Jewish man was obligated to fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic Law. He was born to Jewish parents who were under the Law (Mt 1); circumcised on the 8th day in obedience to the Law (Lk 2:21); consecrated to the Lord as His parents’ firstborn son as the Law required (Lk 2:22-24). His entire life was lived obediently to the Law of Moses. He famously declared in Matthew 5:17, “I did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.” And that is what He did
The reason we see Jesus living under the Law and adhering to the Law (perfectly) in the four Gospels is because it was still the era of the Mosaic Law that God initiated 1500 years earlier at Mount Sinai in Exodus. Even though the Gospels are in the New Testament section of the bible, their events take place in the final years of the Mosaic Law’s time period. So that is why Jesus as a Jew, was living how a Jew was supposed to live, under the Law God gave the Jews.
But while He lived under the Law during His life, it was upon His death and resurrection that the Law came to an end. It reached its terminus. “Christ is the end of the Law” Romans 10:4 declares. This is exactly the point Paul is making in Galatians 4, where the immediate verses prior describe an analogy. That analogy is where a father puts his young son under a guardian’s authority temporarily until the child grows up to be a young man. When the time comes, set by the father, the son is released from the authority of the guardian, and goes forward into his new adult life free from the authority of that guardian. The guardian served a purpose for a temporary time, then when the time came, his purpose as a guardian was over.
That is the analogy Paul is using to describe the Law, which was a Guardian over God’s “son” Israel. From Israel’s youngest days beginning at Mount Sinai it was placed under a Guardian by God, the Mosaic Law. A time was set by God when that guardianship would terminate. That time was the coming of Jesus, who would live under the Law during His earthly life, then die and be resurrected, and with His resurrection a new era would begin – a post-Mosaic Law era. In this new era after the Law people are now called to faith in this crucified and resurrected Son of God, who became a Jewish man, died a man, for the sins of all men, in order to save men.
APPLICATION: Jesus lived under the Law not as an example for us to try and follow the Law and to obligate us to follow the Law. Jesus lived under the Law because He was Jewish. He was the only One ever who lived perfectly under the Law and upheld the perfect righteousness of the Law (Romans 7:12). He was the only one in History whom the Law did not condemn, but it validated His perfect righteousness. In validating His perfect righteousness, He was proven as the one and only qualified sacrifice who could be offered for the sins of all other men. The Law held in custody all men because the Law condemned all men for their sins. But Jesus paid the penalty the Law demanded of all men, Jesus paid it for all men. So when someone accepts Jesus their sins are forgiven, their sins are counted as paid for in full by Jesus on the Cross, and they are united to Christ, the One whom the Law does not condemn, and they are seen now as perfectly righteous as Jesus is, because it is the perfect righteousness of Jesus that they are credited with. Their sins are gone, Christ’s righteousness has replaced them. Christ took them on Himself, and gave them His perfect righteousness.
Another important thing to understand about Jesus being Jewish is that salvation is from the Jews. Salvation has gone out into the world to all nations, to all peoples, and it has gone out from the Jews. The Great Commission in Matthew 28 was given to Jewish Apostles who would bring the name that saves to all nations. Right before He ascended to heaven Jesus told those Apostles, “you will by my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth.” Jewish Apostles going out from Israel proclaiming a Jewish Savior to everyone else in the world.
Jesus told the woman at the well “Salvation is from the Jews.” Romans 11:26 says “The Deliverer will come from Zion.” Acts 13:23 declares “From David’s descendents God has brought to ISRAEL the Savior Jesus, as He promised.” Salvation came to the Jews, then went out from the Jews to all the world. Paul explained the obligation of Gentile believers to materially bless the Jewish believers because salvation came to them from the Jews, “They [Gentiles] were pleased to help the Jews, and indeed they OWE IT to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews spiritual blessings they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.”
That salvation would go out from the Jews was always the plan. Abraham’s descendents – the Jews – would bring forth the man who would save and bless all nations (Gen. 22:18 and Acts 3:25). He would be from Israel, not Esau. He would be from the Tribe of Judah and a descendent of David. It is this Jewish One who would come for the Jews – but not only for the Jews. The wild branches were ingrafted to a Jewish tree.
APPLICATION: The Jews may have rejected their Messiah, and they may be set aside for now, but do not foolishly think that God’s word will fail and that they will not repent. All God has said concerning Israel will come true. And all the remnant, all the true Jews – those with faith – will constitute the nation of Israel in a coming kingdom where Jesus will reign from THEIR capital, Jerusalem.
- Prophets. Prophesied the Messiah would come a Jew, not another nation.
- Represent. Us in life. He lived perfectly undettheLaw so that tueLawhadno condemnation for Him. It proved His righteousness, proving His qualification to bethe Savior. That righteousness would become ours through faith. People turning to follow the Law need to ask themselves: “Can I live out the Law as perfectly as Jesus?” No one can equal Jesus, no one is commanded by Jesus to live out the law.
JESUS THE JEWISH REDEEMER
Next we see Jesus is the Jewish Redeemer. Verse 4 into verse 5, “God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, TO REDEEM those under the law….” Notice the cause and effect: the reason Jesus came under the Law was in order to redeem those who were under the law.
Remember from 3:14 that redeem means to pay a price in order to set someone free from slavery. Jesus paid the price the law demanded for our sins, in order to set us free from our slavery to the law, and to sin. You must see Jesus as your redeemer. To see him as your redeemer means you see him as the one who paid for you to be set free. Chapter 3:14 informed us of the wonderful consequence of being redeemed by Jesus, “Christ redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus…” All God promised to Abraham is given not just to believing Jews, but believing Gentiles as well. To be sure, some things are for Jews exclusively such as the land. But there are blessings for Israel that are also extended out to all nations – as promised to Abraham. Those include eternal life, the Spirit, justification, redemption, righteousness, being a child of God, being an heir of the whole world, a resurrection and much more.
The point here is very simple: Jesus came into the world under the law in order to liberate all those under the law. The law held as condemned all those who were under it. Nobody who had the Law was ever justified by it. So the Law bound everyone, held them captive, condemned them to punishment. But Jesus came, under the Law, and as the only One the Law never condemned He took all the condemnation the Law had for sinners it held in its grip on Himself and satisfied the just penalty demanded by the Law for their sins. And in paying that price He has set those sinners free, liberating them from judgment and condemnation, and freeing them from their obligation to the Law. The reason they are free from obligation to the Law is because now that they believe in Christ they are “IN CHRIST” and therefore by their union with Christ they are considered to also have perfectly fulfilled it.
APPLICATION: Do not enslave yourself to the very thing Jesus set you free from. Do not yoke yourself to the Law of Moses when Jesus died to put an end to the Law of Moses. Verse 21 says, “Tell me you who want to be under the law…” – understand that he is rebuking people who want to be under the law. After a long historical explanation of the law in chapter 4 Paul then opens up chapter 5 with famous words that are often misconstrued, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” He’s saying stand firm in your freedom and do not become enslaved to the Law after you have been set free from it.
CONCLUSION:
I began today with a question: Was Jesus Jewish? I end with that question, but personalize it for you: Is Your Jesus Jewish? Are you redeemed by the Jewish Jesus? Turn to the Jewish Redeemer and be saved. He is the only One who can free anyone from their sins, from the Law, and from God’s judgment. The whole world’s salvation – your salvation – depends on Jesus the Jewish Redeemer.
Lets turn to Communion now…