If you want to know the position of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Jewish people, then you need only turn to the scriptures for the answer. There was never any ambiguity in his speech, and you will find that same clarity in the following passages. In the passage below the Lord is talking to the Jewish religious leaders of his time:
If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. (John 5:31-34)
Jesus was talking to them about a man named John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way for him. John the Baptist was the “voice in the wilderness” whom Isaiah the prophet, prophesied would prepare the way of the Lord (YHWH). (Isaiah 40:3) That should have been enough for the true seekers of God, because the prophets had testified about the coming Messiah, and Jesus Christ was the very fulfillment of that. Jesus went on to say that he did not need the testimony of man (and he really didn’t), and he was talking to them so that they might be SAVED! This whole Gospel is all about salvation in Jesus Christ, and there is no difference in the sight of God between Jew and Gentile, although there are many false ministers who declare otherwise!
He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. (John 5:35-38)
The Lord told the people that the Father was the one who bore witness to all that he did. The incredible works that Jesus did, should have been enough to get their attention but that was not the case. Listen to what the Lord told them next. Jesus told them that they did not have his Father’s word abiding in them, because they did not believe in the one whom he sent! Who did the Father send? It was Jesus of course. It all comes down to the scriptures, and what they say about Christ! Does a person believe what the scriptures testify about Jesus Christ or do they not?
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:39-40)
The Lord held nothing back here in telling the Jewish people that their own scriptures testified about him. He told them that they falsely assumed that they already possessed eternal life, because their very own scriptures (God’s Word) testified about him. The prophets, the psalms and the writings of Moses all testified and prophesied about Jesus Christ! The sad thing is that they refused to come to him, that they might have the true eternal life which he offered to them! The message that Jesus Christ preached to the Jewish people of his day is the EXACT same message which should be preached to them in our day. If a man stands in the pulpit and proclaims a different way of salvation for the Jewish people, or a different covenant for the Jewish people, then they are not true ministers of the Gospel which Jesus preached. They fit into the category of being a BOGUS minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They will find themselves fighting against the Lord himself, because it is his word against theirs! The scriptures clearly proclaim that eternal life is found ONLY in Jesus, the Son of God, and to suppress that truth from the Jewish people is nothing less than wicked!
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11-12)
And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20)
