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There is No Such Thing As A ‘Messianic Jew’
For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. – Ephesians 2:14-16
There is simply no such thing as a “Messianic Jew”. There is no argument for it without being absolutely contrary to Scripture.
The Bible makes it plain that the only identity of anyone who is in Christ is that of being a Christian, a member of the one new man, as opposed to a special identity of ‘Messianic Jew’, as if such a label is that of a special, privileged people.
To label oneself as such is the height of absurdity. Indeed, it smacks of pride as one who has a special status, or, at the very least, seeks one.
In short, all who are in Christ are one body, one man, just one, not two. Praise God for His election of those whom He chose to save before the foundation of the world! One day, we will sing His praises together, in unity and joy, together, forever!
5 Pt. Salt 
The term Messianic Jew has always bothered me, the term would make sense for a Jew prior to the life death and resurrection of Christ, but makes no sense afterward.
Even the term Jewish Christian is misleading, unless you are speaking only on terms of ethnicity. Even then putting an ‘ethnic’ modifier on ‘Christian’ tends to diminish the Gospel.
True, and well said.
Jews who convert to Christianity are not required to keep observing the Jewish traditions: that would be legalism. However, Paul’s own conduct in acts makes it clear that Jews have the option of observing the traditions if they choose to. Those who choose the Messianic route must be very careful, however, not to descend into legalism. They, like the rest of us, are only saved through the blood of Christ. The Messianic Jewish lifestyle is a very difficult one to do properly.
Yes and no. Clearly Paul neither forbids nor condones retaining ‘Jewish Traditions’, however he does render it an utterly moot point. The idea of celebrating your ‘messianic Jewishness’ is contrary to the Gospel. Look no further than Peter’s dream in acts, or the general flow of all of Paul letters. Paul ‘allows’ the participation in Jewish tradition, but he certainly does not elevate it, in fact it appears that he allows it for those who lack the strength to come out from it, or simply observes it only for the sake of the Gospel so as to not distract his Jewish audience. One of the overwhelming themes of his epistles, especially that of Galatians, is that elevating these traditions is to put yourself into back into bondage.
Paul was making allusion to the absurdity of it, and the destruction of the temple in 70AD should have sealed the deal for Messianic Jews everywhere, but maybe that is a different topic altogether.
I tend to think with the rise in popularity in dispensationalism the ethnic Jew has been raised to a place of extreme importance in the psyche of American Christians, almost to the point where they have become a people group to be worshiped. Naturally then, the ethnic Jew who happens to be a Christian is tempted to elevate their Jewishness because of the simple status it brings in the minds of many evangelicals. They choose to be more distinguished by their ethnicity than by the Gospel itself. It appears to me that the Messianic Jew is doing precisely what Paul warned against.
Admittedly I’ve only talked at length with one Jew who is in Christian ministry to the Jewish community, and while he was very versed in Jewish Tradition, and would even celebrate passover with non-believing Jews, he was very Pauline in his approach, only observing it for the sake of the Gospel which says there is no need to observe it, and not celebrating his Jewishness as though at afforded special status, privilege or responsibility. Of course this Jew was not a ‘Messianic Jew’, just a simple Christian who happened to be of Jewish descent.
Happy New Year Pastor Taylor.
After reading this post I was reminded of my African- American history professor during my undergrad. She would relentlessly tell us (international students) from the Caribbean in her class how we just didn’t know who we were as a people until we started calling ourselves “Afro” Bahamian, Jamaican, Bajan etc.
My response to her, ‘If you are the majority there’s no need for labels because that’s whom define the culture, but if you are a minority you are struggling to define yourself and the definition may be too linear.’
It seems to me that there are too hegemonic police, not only in our society, in the church just waiting to critique and control others; wanting others to conform to our thinking instead of Christ.
Thank you and amen!
I will write a post in connection to this subject as I am Jewish and believe in Jesus as my Savior and am well aware that we are all one in Gods eyes and call myself Christian now. Having said that I still feel a traitor to my parents etc.
The Church is so confused and divided into denominations who all think they have the truth, for instance some think gays getting married is fine, or we should confess our sins to man and just where is Christmas and Easter in the Bible. I could go on and on.
Maybe I will call myself Christish and go start another Church
I’ve read these words before, in the original paper version that circulated in the mid-1980’s. Is it possible to locate a modern electronic version of this document?
Thanks!