Biblical Ideas about Jewish People

The Jewish people are descendants of the ethnic nation of Israel. Today, Christians have different views about the Jewish people. Yet, there are some biblical ideas about Jewish people that all Christians should agree on:

Jewish people are not automatically saved. At the Final Judgement, God will not treat Jewish people more favourably on the basis of their ethnicity, just because they are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Rather, Jewish people will be judged in the same manner as any other person of any other ethnicity (Rom. 2:9–11).

Jewish people do not have a special way of salvation. Jewish people cannot be saved by keeping God’s laws (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:11). After all, Jewish people are sinners who need salvation in Jesus Christ—just like all other people (Rom. 3:22–24)! Rather, Jewish people can only be saved in exactly the same way as non-Jewish people: by believing in Jesus Christ.

Jewish people can only enjoy God’s promises in Jesus Christ. Jewish people who do not believe in Jesus are like branches that have been broken off from an olive tree (Rom. 11:20). Yet, if a Jewish person believes in Jesus, then he will be grafted back into the olive tree, and he will enjoy the promises that God made to Israel—together with all other people who believe in Jesus (vv. 23–24)!

Jewish people will largely reject Jesus Christ. For now, there is a “partial hardening” on the Jewish people (Rom. 11:25). As a result, most Jewish people today do not believe in Jesus. They are mostly resistant when the Gospel is shared with them.

God has not rejected the Jewish people. As evidence for this, the Apostle Paul pointed out that he himself was an ethnic Israelite who was saved by believing in Jesus (Rom. 11:1–2). Indeed, God has arranged that there will always be at least some Jewish people who believe in Jesus (v. 5).

God has a future plan for the Jewish people. The “partial hardening” will not remain on the Jewish people forever. Rather, God has arranged that when the full number of Gentiles have been saved, then the partial hardening will be removed. Then, the Jewish people will largely come to believe in Jesus for salvation (Rom. 11:26–27).