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.

Romans 2:9–11 says,

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, ₁₀ but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. ₁₁ For God shows no partiality.

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.

Jewish People Do Not Have a Special Way of Salvation.

Romans 3:22–24 says,

For there is no distinction: ₂₃ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ₂₄ and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Jewish people cannot be saved by keeping God’s laws (v. 20; Gal. 3:11). After all, Jewish people are sinners who need salvation in Jesus Christ—just like everyone else! Rather, Jewish people can only be saved in exactly the same way as non-Jewish people: by believing in Jesus Christ alone.

For Now, Jewish People will Largely Reject Jesus Christ.

Romans 11:25 says,

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

For now, there is a “partial hardening” on the Jewish people. As a result, most Jewish people today do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah. They are mostly resistant when the Gospel is shared with them. This “partial hardening” will remain on the Jewish people until the full number of Gentiles have been saved.

God has Not Rejected the Jewish People.

Romans 11:1–2 says,

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ₂ God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.

God has not rejected the Jewish people as if they are no longer relevant. As evidence for this, the Apostle Paul pointed out that he himself was an ethnic Israelite who was saved in Jesus Christ. Indeed, God has arranged that there will always be at least a small number of Jewish people who believe in Jesus Christ (v. 5).

God Has a Plan for the Jewish People.

Romans 11:23–24 says,

And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. ₂₄ For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

Jewish people who do not believe in Jesus are like branches that have been broken off from an olive tree (v. 20). They will not enjoy the promises that God made to Israel. Yet, if any Jewish person believes in Jesus, then he will be grafted back into the olive tree, and he will enjoy God’s promises to Israel!