Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Abraham wasn't saved by keeping the law. Abraham was saved because of God's favor on his life. All of us are guilty. None of us are deserving of God's grace. That's why it's called grace. It's a free gift.

What does the Hebrew Bible teach us about the plan of salvation? You see, because of anti-Semitism, the early church fathers tried to disconnect people that believed in Jesus from the Jewish religion and from the Jewish roots of their faith. Because at the time of Constantine, who made Christianity the state religion, the Jewish people were really not a people that were favorably received by him in the Roman Empire. You see, the Jewish people wouldn't assimilate. They had their own laws. They had their own holidays, and they had their own God.

And so, to Constantine, this was a thorn in the flesh. And so, when Constantine had a revelation that Jesus was the Messiah, because of the anti-Semitism that was in him, he sought to distance the two religions from each other. And we've been suffering from that as a church ever since. Christians have been disconnected from the Hebrew roots of their faith. But you see, Jesus said in John 4:22, salvation is from the Jews.

Romans chapter 11 says it's the Jewish people, it's the Jewish Torah, it's the Jewish prophets, it's the covenants that God made with Israel that support our faith in Jesus today, because Jesus came according to the flesh as a Jew. So what we're doing is we're putting it all back together and showing you how it all connects.

And so, we're talking about the plan of salvation. You see, some of you have been taught that in the Hebrew Bible, in the Old Testament, the Jews were saved by keeping the law. But the Israelites were never saved by keeping the law. The Israelites and the Jewish people were saved by grace through faith through a blood sacrifice, just like you and I are today.

Abraham has become the father of us all. The Bible says that God made a covenant with Abraham. And in the covenant, the Lord said this, "Through your seed, Abraham, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." And so, the walk that you and I have with the Lord today really is a fulfillment of the promise that God made to Abraham.

You see how it all fits together? And when we think about this and think about really Abraham as the father of faith, we ask ourselves the question, did Abraham come into a saving relationship with God by keeping the law? Absolutely not. There was no law during the time of Abraham. Abraham wasn't saved by keeping the law. Abraham was saved because of God's favor on his life.

God appeared to Abraham in the scripture in the book of Bereshit, and he revealed himself to Abraham and showed Abraham who he was. And he said, "Abraham, I want you to leave the idol worshipers. I want you to leave your own family, and I want you to follow me, and I'm going to bless you and make your name great, and in you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed."

And so, when we look at the plan of salvation as revealed in the Hebrew Bible, we see that it resulted not of man keeping the law, but as a result of God's initiative. And Abraham didn't deserve God's grace. The Bible says all of us have sinned. All of us are guilty. None of us are deserving of God's grace. That's why it's called grace. It's a free gift.

And what did God do? He produced within Abraham faith. God appears to Abraham, and let me tell you that when God appears to you, you will, as a result of that, have faith. When the power of God comes upon a person's life, faith springs forth. The Bible says that man is made willing in the day of God's power.

So, the plan of salvation revealed in the Hebrew Bible begins by the grace of God. God comes to Abraham in his grace because of his favor on Abraham, and then God produces within Abraham faith. And it's this faith that's produced in Abraham that brings Abraham to God, so that God can now say to Abraham, "Abraham, leave your mom and dad, leave everything you have, and follow me." The grace of God came, it produced faith in Abraham, and now Abraham is able to walk with God and be in relationship with God and follow God because of faith that had been produced.

The same thing is true for you and I today. The Bible says in Galatians 3:1, the blessing of Abraham has come upon you. How are you saved? The same way Abraham was. Ephesians chapter 2, listen, by grace you've been saved through faith. How? By grace. The grace of God comes, God reveals himself to you, he puts faith in you. By grace you've been saved through faith, the same way Abraham did.

Now, as we continue to look at this as it's revealed in the Hebrew Bible, we find that in order for man to be forgiven, there had to be a sacrifice, substitutional sacrificial atonement. In other words, in order for a guilty person to be able to be in union with God, in order for a guilty person to have harmony and peace with God, that guilty one's sin had to be punished. And the way that God dealt with it was by having an innocent one die in the guilty one's place so that the guilty one could be made righteous.

This is first illustrated in the Hebrew Bible, the children of Israel in the book of Shemot, Exodus. They took a lamb, an unblemished lamb. They had to put that lamb to death. They had to eat the lamb. It symbolizes of putting Yeshua to death and then having to eat his flesh and drink his blood. And then the Israelites were commanded to put his blood over their doorposts.

And on the night of Pesach, on the night of Passover, when the Angel of Death moved through the land of Egypt, every home that was under the blood on the doorposts, the Angel of Death passed over, they were not judged. And so, it is today when we stand before the Lord at the White Throne Judgment, what's going to happen? Everyone's name who's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Whose book of life? The Lamb's Book of Life, going back to the Passover.

And so, we see that it started all the way back with Passover, and then it continued with the law. Do you know that when the children of Israel were given the law, when they accepted the law, Moses came down from the mountain, he had the tablets of stone, he had the covenants of God, and he had the law. And do you know indeed, when the children of Israel said, "We will receive God's law and we will be his people," do you know what? Moses, the scripture says, he sprinkled them at that time with blood.

Once again showing that blood is the symbol of an innocent one dying in the place of the guilty. The Torah teaches us in Leviticus 17:11 that the life of the flesh, the Lord said, is in the blood, and I've given it to you on the altar to make an atonement for your soul.

So God is bringing his people into a relationship with him now once again by faith. They're coming to him. They say, "We will receive you." And now God is giving them instruction as to what is right and what is wrong. He's separating them unto himself through the law. But still, in order for them to maintain fellowship with him, there had to be an innocent one dying in the place of the guilty, which is symbolized by the blood being shed.

That's why when Yeshua was on the cross, they took the spear and they pierced his side and the blood ran out, because the symbol of a life given is the blood poured out. And so, the Lord was saying to Israel, "I am separating you unto myself with this law, but the way that you're saved is not by keeping the law, it's through the innocent one dying in the place of the guilty."

That's why we celebrate as the highest holiday of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And what happened in the book of Leviticus, chapter 16, 17, and 23? We have instructions there as to how Yom Kippur was celebrated. The High Priest would take a bull and two goats. First, they would put the bull to death.

The High Priest would take the blood of that bull, he would carry it into the tabernacle, into the holy place through the veil, into the Holy of Holies, where only he could go once a year for the purpose of bringing in the blood on the Day of Atonement. The High Priest would then take that blood, he would pour it on the altar over the Ark of the Covenant, sometimes referred to as the Mercy Seat. And when the Lord saw the blood poured upon the altar over the Ark of the Covenant, the Lord would forgive the sins of the High Priest.

Now the High Priest would go outside once again. They would cast lots. There were two goats waiting outside. The High Priest would cast lots. One of the lots would fall to the goat named Azazel or scapegoat. Then the other goat was taken. It also was sacrificed. Its blood was taken into the holy place, then into the Holy of Holies. The priest would once again pour that blood on the altar. And then the Lord said he'd forgiven the sins of Israel for the year.

On what basis? On the basis of that innocent goat and bull dying in the place of his people Israel. You see, the scripture tells us in the book of Hebrews that the blood of the bulls and the goats could never really take away sin. But that God accepted them as symbolic payment because they symbolized that Yeshua was coming.

It's kind of like a credit card. You see, a credit card has no intrinsic value. But when you go to the store in the next couple days, if you pull out your credit card and give it to the merchant, the merchant's going to accept that credit card even though that credit card's just a piece of plastic and it has no real value in itself. But the merchant accepts the credit card because the merchant knows that real payment is coming.

And that's the same way it was with the sacrifice of these bulls and the goats in the Hebrew Bible. The Lord accepted them as a means to forgive his people, to cover up their sin through an innocent one dying in the place of the guilty, symbolized by the shedding of the blood. The life of the flesh is in the blood, and the Lord said, "I've given it to you on the altar, Leviticus 17:11, for the atonement of your souls."

So once again, what do we see in the Hebrew Bible? It's by grace God comes to Abraham. He produces faith that allows Abraham to follow. The Lord continues to show us that it's only through an innocent one dying in the place of the guilty that he can keep his people maintained in fellowship with him, because sin has to be dealt with and the soul that sins, the scripture says, it shall die.

See the consistency? What's our walk like in Yeshua? What is the plan of salvation as revealed in the Hebrew Bible? It is grace. God's grace in our life produces faith. We respond to him. We begin to submit to him because of faith. We begin to believe the words of Yeshua and his truth because of faith.

But we still, even though we're following the Lord now and even though we're attempting to live for him as successfully as possible, even as Israel was seeking to live by the law as successfully as possible, still though, we sin. And so what has to happen? We have Jesus, we have Yeshua, we have the death of Yeshua, the death of the innocent one dying in the place of the guilty so that our walk with God and our relationship with him can be maintained.

Because he died for us even as that blood of the bull and the goat kept the children of Israel in relationship with God. It's always been by grace, it's always been through faith, it's always been by the blood.

Dustin Roberts: This is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, and Rabbi Schneider will be back in a moment. Did you know that you can receive direct communication from Rabbi? Sign up for text messages today. He won't bombard you with messages, but he'll send encouraging words and updates for special live shows as the Lord leads him. It's easy to join, just text the keyword RABBI to the number 88777. That's RABBI to the number 88777.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: As we continue today looking at the plan of salvation, I want to talk about the role of the Jewish people. Sometimes Christians are shy about sharing their faith with Jewish people because they say, "But the Jews are God's chosen people." And you know, indeed, they are God's chosen people. The Lord said to the children of Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, the book of Devarim, he said to them, "You alone have I chosen to be a people for myself out of all the peoples on the face of the earth."

So, we say, "Well, the Jews are God's chosen people, so what right do I have," you might ask yourself as a Christian, "to share my Jesus because these are God's chosen people. So if they're the chosen people, why should I push my Jesus on them?" But you have to understand what God is meaning when he says that the Jewish people, that the Israelites are his chosen people.

It doesn't mean that every single Jew is walking in relationship and with favor with God. Elijah said, "All of Israel is unfaithful to you, and I'm the only Israelite," Elijah said to the Lord, "on the face of the earth that's faithful to you." But what did the Lord say? The Lord said, "No, Elijah, I've got 7,000 others."

The point is, 7,000 out of a whole nation is not that many. There's always been a remnant of people that are walking with God. And that's the way it is with Israel. Just because a person is born a Jew, it doesn't mean that they're walking in favor with God. Everybody needs Jesus, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile.

So don't shrink back from sharing your faith with a Jewish person because you say they're God's chosen people. They're chosen in the sense that it's through them that the revelation of Yahweh has come to the world. And God has a special affection and a love for his first covenant people. But Jesus said to the Jewish people, "Unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."

So, you understand that when the Lord speaks of the Jewish people as his chosen people, he's referring to the fact that it's through them that the scriptures have come to the world. The Torah has come to the world through the Jewish people, and Messiah himself came in the flesh as a Jew.

God has a special love for Jewish people, but you need to understand that whether you're a Jew or Gentile, there's only one way to heaven and there's only one path to salvation, and that is Jesus. Jesus said, "I am the way." You see, in ancient Israel, the Lord told the children of Israel to build him a Mishkan or a tabernacle.

When we study the tabernacle, which is the prophetic type of how to walk with God, we find that there was only one entrance into that tabernacle. The tabernacle was a dwelling place of God. The glory of God was in the tabernacle. But you couldn't just get in any way. You could only go in through the one door. And Jesus said, "I am the door. I am the gate. He that enters through me shall be saved."

So I'm helping you to understand that God's plan of salvation has always been the same, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile. It's by grace through faith. It's always demanded that an innocent one die in the place of a guilty. This was foreshadowed in the Hebrew Bible by the animal sacrifices, but was fulfilled in Jesus.

And now the scripture said that it's no longer necessary to offer up the types of sacrifices that were offered in the Hebrew Bible, because Jesus has fulfilled it once and for all. The innocent one, Yeshua HaMashiach, has died in the place of the guilty. He's the only way in once again, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile.

Now, God still has a special plan and destiny for the Jewish people. In fact, Yeshua said in the book of Matthew chapter 23, verse 39, that he will not return until the Jewish people are crying out, until there is a mass of Jewish people that are crying out to him saying, "Baruch Haba B'Shem Adonai," which translated in English means, "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

So Jesus says, "I'm not going to return until there's a mass of Jewish people," Matthew 23:39, "calling out to me saying, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord." The Bible tells us at the end of the book of Revelation, "Let the spirit and the bride say, come." According to Romans chapter 9 through 11, God is right now commissioning a massive army of Gentile believers to share their faith with Jewish people.

Romans chapter 11, verse 11, Paul says to the Gentiles, "For this purpose you've been saved, that you might provoke the Jew to jealousy." In other words, God is saying to every single one of you Gentiles, there's a call on your life to do something to bring the gospel of Yeshua HaMashiach to Jewish people.

That's why it's important to support this broadcast and others like it. Through supporting this broadcast, you're allowing me to teach and train Gentiles how to share their faith with Jewish people, and I'm broadcasting additionally into Israel right now. Now, God is right now training up a massive army of Gentile believers to share their faith with Jewish people.

That's why Paul said that he's happy about his call to the Gentiles, because Paul said it's through the Gentiles that the Jewish people are going to be reached. And Paul said as Jewish people are being reached by Gentile believers, this is all in Romans 11, it's going to be like life from the dead for the entire church.

God is saying to you as a Gentile believer, if you were blessed when the Jewish people rejected the gospel, how were you as a Gentile blessed when the Jewish people rejected the gospel? You were blessed because the gospel came to you. Paul started out going to Jewish people. God said, "No, they're not going to receive your testimony here. I'm sending you far away to the Gentiles."

So, as a result of the Jewish people rejecting the gospel, the gospel came to you. Paul said if you were blessed when they rejected the gospel, how much more will you be blessed when they receive the gospel? It's going to be like life from the dead for you. Paul concludes Romans chapter 11, verse 25 through 27 by saying this.

Right now there's a temporary blindness on Israel. But through the witness of Gentile believers, through you doing something to reach Jewish people with the gospel, there's going to be a critical mass over time of Jewish people that will come to faith. This critical mass will begin to call upon the name of Yeshua HaMashiach to return, and then the Bible says there, and then he will come forth from Zion and reveal himself to the world.

In 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 24, we read about David wanting to offer up to Father God an extravagant offering showing his love. When he got to the place that he wanted to offer his offering from, he went there to purchase the threshing floor as the altar for him. When the owner of the threshing floor saw David and heard what David wanted to do, he offered to give the threshing floor to David that David could offer up his sacrifice from.

David said, "Far be it from me to make an offering to Father God that cost me nothing." David insisted on purchasing the threshing floor, even though someone had offered to give it to him. David then proceeded to pay for it, and he offered to Father God an extravagant offering showing his love. The next part of the text says this, it says, "The Lord's heart was moved." When you and I present our offerings to the Lord out of love, it moves God's heart. I want to encourage you, let's love him today by presenting to him an offering that will move his heart because it comes from a pure place.

Dustin Roberts: Amen. And as the Lord leads you to support Discovering The Jewish Jesus, would you give online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com? And you can also send your generous donations in the mail. Our address is Discovering The Jewish Jesus, P.O. Box 777, Blissfield, Michigan 49228.

And you know, there's something powerful about the journey from Passover to Pentecost that a lot of believers miss. But what if I told you that those 50 days, they aren't just for Jewish people, they're for the whole church and they're a roadmap to experiencing a fresh outpouring of God's Spirit in your own life? Well, Rabbi's wife, Miss Cynthia, she's written an incredible book called From Passover to Pentecost, and that unpacks how those first believers waited, prepared their hearts, and then received the promise of the Holy Spirit.

So make sure to purchase your copy right now by connecting with our team. Call us at 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. Or you can find From Passover to Pentecost online at discoveringthejewishjesus.com. And now here's Rabbi to speak God's sacred blessing over our lives.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The words from the Aaronic blessing in the book of Numbers chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive his blessing into your life, and then go bless somebody else in Jesus' name today. Yevarekhekha Yahweh veyishmerekha. Yaer Yahweh panav elekha veyikhuneka. Yissa Yahweh panav elekha veyasem lekha shalom.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with his countenance, and the Lord give you his peace. God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering The Jewish Jesus. Join us again next time when Rabbi Schneider continues to reveal how the Old and New Testaments connect. That's tomorrow on Discovering The Jewish Jesus.