The debate rolls on about whether people of Jewish faith and background who come to trust that Jesus is in fact the Messiah foretold by Moses and the Prophets are still Jewish or are now Christian. Whatever. The fact is that whether people contend that Jews for Jesus is a contradiction in terms, Jesus for Jews is a dead cert. The Gospel, according to Paul in Romans 1:16 is to the Jew first…and is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. Ergo: if Jews believe the gospel they will be saved. It is our responsibility then to make sure the offer of this glorious gospel is made.
This is not a theoretical truth, but one evidenced in practice, both in the record of Scripture and in our day. Take Paul again, after he was ‘saved’, (believed in Jesus), he still called himself a Hebrew, a Jew, even if others may have felt he was no longer worthy of that name. I have just returned from Israel where I met with Jewish Pastors, preached in a primarily Jewish congregation and saw Jewish evangelists at work – so encouraging. It’s happening here too in the UK and around the World. So, there are Jews for Jesus because Jesus was first for Jews and thank God for it.
We are holding a mini-conference here at NBBC to encourage people to pray for and support the work of CWI as they reach out with the gospel and support Jewish people in the faith around the World. I hope you will consider coming along.
On a practical note, if you are coming, drop me a line as it would be good to know numbers for the lunch!
