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>No Christian can be anti-Semitic toward the Jews. Christ was a Jew, and that by divine intent. In a conversation with a Samaritan woman, Jesus declared: “alvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). The focus, of course, was upon his personal identity as the Messiah (vv. 25-26). All people are indebted to the Hebrew nation for the Savior.
>Christians are to love all people, but that does not mean that they are permitted to ignore history. The Jews have both a positive and negative history concerning Christ. What did Jesus mean by his statement: “alvation is from the Jews”?
>There are two important preliminary points. First:
>The affirmation, “It is from the Jews that salvation proceeds,” stands as an effective answer to the charge of anti-Jewish bias frequently laid against the Evangelist [John] nowadays (Bruce 1983, 110).
>Jesus acknowledged his Jewish heritage, and Christians should rejoice in this fact as well.
>Second, the term “salvation” is preceded by the article in the Greek Testament, “thesalvation,” signifying thathissalvation is theonlyplan of deliverance made available to humanity. Hence none who rejects it will be saved. Christ’s is theexclusiveway (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12); men do not have the option of designing their own plan! This is an uncompromising truth in a day when many contend that no religious system can claim to be the only way. Religious pluralism is heresy.
>Christians are to love all people, but that does not mean that they are permitted to ignore history. The Jews have both a positive and negative history concerning Christ. What did Jesus mean by his statement: “alvation is from the Jews”?
>There are two important preliminary points. First:
>The affirmation, “It is from the Jews that salvation proceeds,” stands as an effective answer to the charge of anti-Jewish bias frequently laid against the Evangelist [John] nowadays (Bruce 1983, 110).
>Jesus acknowledged his Jewish heritage, and Christians should rejoice in this fact as well.
>Second, the term “salvation” is preceded by the article in the Greek Testament, “thesalvation,” signifying thathissalvation is theonlyplan of deliverance made available to humanity. Hence none who rejects it will be saved. Christ’s is theexclusiveway (cf. John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12); men do not have the option of designing their own plan! This is an uncompromising truth in a day when many contend that no religious system can claim to be the only way. Religious pluralism is heresy.
