Don Stewart :: Can a Person Reach the True God through Judaism?

Can a Person Reach the True God through Judaism?

When the God of the Bible Is Rejected – Question 6

Is it possible for a person today to reach the true God through Judaism? Since the God of the Jews is the same God of the Christians, shouldn’t a person be able to reach Him through either Judaism or Christianity? Aren’t there really two ways in which people can reach the same God? Does the Bible have anything to say on this subject?

There are a number of important points which we need to make about this all-important topic:

1. God Established the True Religion That Is Revealed in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, God divinely revealed Himself to the nation Israel. The New Testament says that they were given the oracles, or truths, of God. Paul wrote to the Romans stating this truth:

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews are entrusted with the oracles of God. (Romans 3:1-2 ESV).

The Old Testament system was divinely given. The Scripture makes this clear.

2. He Sent His Prophets to Speak of the Coming of the Messiah

God put in place a system of worship that looked forward to a time when it would be fulfilled in a Person known as the Messiah, or the Christ. The Scripture spoke of His coming in the following way:

A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3 NET)

The major theme of the Old Testament is that the kingdom of God is coming to the earth in the Person of the Messiah.

3. The Prophecies about the Messiah Were Fulfilled by Jesus

From the New Testament, we learn the following about the prophecies of the coming Messiah and its relationship to the old system.

The coming of Jesus Christ to the earth fulfilled the predictions of the Old Testament. We read in John’s gospel,

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” (John 1:45 NRSV)

When Jesus died upon the cross, He declared His work finished. The Gospel of John records His last words on the cross.

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30 NASB)

What was finished was the work God the Father gave God the Son to do. Jesus completed the work that He was sent to do.

4. Jesus Brought in a New Age

With Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension, and the sending of the Holy Spirit to live inside each believer, God instituted a new age. The former was the age of Law. This age has been superseded. Today we are living in the age of grace. The Bible says,

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came about through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17 NET)

The age of grace was established by Jesus Christ.

5. The Old System That God Established Was Abolished

Today God is not working through this old system because the coming of Jesus Christ has abolished it. The sacrifices that God instituted have been fulfilled in the death of Christ. The writer to the Hebrews stated the following:

The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:3 NET)

Jesus sat down because His work was finished. Indeed, He accomplished what He set out to do. The writer to the Hebrews also stated,

For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship... By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Hebrews 10:1, 10 NET)

The Law was only a shadow while Jesus Christ is the reality. Consequently the Old Testament Law, with all its ceremonies and commandments, has been abolished with the coming of Christ. Believers are now under the law of Christ in this age of grace.

Conclusion: A Person Cannot Have the Father without the Son

The Bible is clear that a person cannot have a relationship with God the Father without a relationship with God the Son. Those who are presently rejecting Jesus have also rejected God the Father. John wrote,

Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father either. But anyone who confesses the Son has the Father also. (1 John 2:23 NLT)

Therefore, while in the previous age God could be approached by those exercising faith through the Old Testament system that system is no longer in effect.

Today a person must believe in Jesus Christ in order to be saved. There is no other way in which a person can reach God.

Summary – Question 6
Can a Person Reach the True God through Judaism?

The Old Testament represents God’s revelation to humanity concerning His person and plan. In that divine plan He predicted that a Messiah or Christ would come and deliver His people from sin and from their enemies. God set up an elaborate system of law, sacrifice, and behavior that looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. Indeed, the entire Old Testament system looked forward to the coming of the Christ.

The promises of the Old Testament have been fulfilled. The Bible says that the Christ has now come in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. With the coming of Jesus those laws, ceremonies and rules have had their fulfillment. They were only a shadow of what was to come. The old system has been abolished and a new one put in its place. Judaism attempts to live under the old system. Consequently, it does not represent what God is doing on earth today.

Therefore, Judaism rejects the complete revelation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. In this present age, only Christianity provides the truth concerning how a person can know the one, true God.

Although the God of the Old Testament is the same God as portrayed in the New Testament, today God has made only one way to reach Him. This is through Jesus Christ alone. According to the New Testament, Jesus is the only way in which the living God can be known. This is the unified claim of the New Testament writers. There is one way to reach the one God and this is through the Person of Jesus Christ. Judaism has been superseded by Christianity.