Why Judaism Is Important to Me as a Christian

Why Judaism Is Important to Me as a Christian

Lately, ancestry has gained importance. There are quite a few businesses that will research a person’s ancestry using DNA. Knowing our family ancestry and history is important. To an extent our ancestry can tell us why we have the appearance we have, why we act as we do and other attributes. The same is true when we accept Christ. We have a spiritual DNA that tells us our ancestry and history.

My physical ancestry is Lithuanian, Polish and Welsh. It has an influence on how I look, what I like to eat, my likes, dislikes and other personality traits. More important to me is my Spiritual ancestry. I was born again as a Christian in 1968. When I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior I was born into the family of God and that gave me a Spiritual ancestry that supersedes my physical ancestry.

I must be clear that my salvation is faith in, and acceptance of, Jesus as Savior and not through the law or works. Faith and the state of one’s heart is more important to God than physical circumcision, ancestry or nationality.

Jesus was Jewish, He lived as a Jew, died as a Jew and resurrected as a Jew. Matthew’s gospel gives Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham. As a child of God through Christ, my Spiritual ancestry also goes back to Abraham. Although not born a Jew I am a child of Abraham through faith (John 1:12-13; Romans 4:11-13; Galatians 3:29) Since I am a child of Abraham my spiritual traits will resemble his. The things God promised to Abraham’s children now apply to me as a child of God. The covenant God made with Abraham applies to me. I am circumcised in my heart (Romans 2:29)

Christ was very clear that He lived by and supported the Hebrew Scriptures. Christ did not come to do away with the law of God or the prophets (Matthew 5:17-18). He did do away with the man-made laws that were added to God’s law, what was known as the Oral Torah (Matthew 15:3). Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Christ often quoted the Hebrew Scriptures to show the hypocrisy of the Jewish leadership and people. Christ also quoted the Hebrew Scriptures when He wanted to teach a lesson on belief in God and how to live. I cannot dismiss the Jews or Hebrew Scriptures as irrelevant to Christians.

If I want to understand the New Testament I must also know the Old Testament. The New Testament Scriptures witness to the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the One in whom and through whom all the promises of God find their fulfillment. These promises are known from the Hebrew Scriptures. All Scripture, Old and New Testaments, are important to me. (John 10:35; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

I am Christian saved by faith in Christ but I must not forget my Jewish spiritual ancestry. It greatly influences who I am as a person and Christian, a child of God.