Is Christianity Jewish? I can see why some might be tempted to see it this way. Jesus was a Judean, his disciples were Jews. Paul, the greatest Apostle was a Benjamite, a tribe associated with Judah back in ancient times (1 Kings 12:20-24). The main text of the earliest church was the Old Testament, also known by many as the Jewish Scriptures. Ergo, Christianity is Jewish to the core, right?
Wrong.
Christianity is not simply the fulfilment of the Old Testament itself, more specifically it is a fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham. Abraham was not a Jew or an Israelite. He is the father of many nations. One of those nations was the vehicle through which the promise was fulfilled so that all could be saved, that nation is Israel. The law was a temporary set-up, meant to guide humanity to the Messiah:
“To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. 17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. 18 For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”
Gal. 3:15-24
Why does Paul come back to Abraham so much in his writings? Because he is seeking to demonstrate the multinational character of the Church. He is seeking to prove that Gentiles do not need to become Jewish to be a part of the people of God.
The goal of God’s plan was always to fulfil the promise to the Gentile, Abraham, to save people from all nations. Therefore, the vehicle to bring Christianity into the world was Israel, and the Jews, but the Church is not and was never meant to be Jewish.
Even the most senior Apostle began to live like a Gentile once this became clear. This is seen in Paul’s rebuke to Peter, “14 But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Gal. 2:14).
Before certain men came from James, Peter was happy to eat with Gentiles (Gal. 2:12), but he became a hypocrite when he was put under social pressure. Christianity came through people from the tribe of Judah, but it was never meant to have the character of Jewishness. That’s a complete misunderstanding of the New Testament.
The Church is neither Jewish nor Gentile, it is a new race, the third race. This was a nickname that early Christians gave to the Church, because of how the gospel transformed the people of God. To say Christianity is intrinsically Jewish is to miss the message of the New Testament, that Jesus would be a light for all peoples, as we read in Isaiah 49:6:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
Isaiah 49:6
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
We see this fulfilled in the New Testament:
“Now when he heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. 13 And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
Matt. 4:12-17
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
To say Christianity is Jewish to its core is to misunderstand the role the Jews played. They were not the end goal, but simply a vehicle through which the Messiah and salvation came. As soon as the Apostles understood this properly, they quickly started to remove the distinctly Jewish characteristics of the law from the obligations of faithfulness for those who followed Jesus because Christianity is the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham, a Gentile who was made the father of many nations—an Amorite of the Aramean branch, a man from Ur of the Chaldees. God took a man of the nations to create a way to bless all nations.
Jesus doesn’t make us Jews when we believe, he makes us a new creation, Christians. The Church is its own race. It is intrinsically of Christ, hence we are called Christians.
