Tag: salvation from the Jews

The Greatest Crime in History Was the Greatest Gift in History  — and We Owe the Jews Our Lives

How Israel’s Rejection Became the Salvation of the World 
and Why Every Christian Must Fall on His Face in Gratitude

This is going to shock the world, but the Bible says it in plain letters:

The crucifixion could only happen because Israel, officially and representatively, said “No” to her Messiah.

If the nation had recognised Him in AD 30 and crowned Him King in Jerusalem, there would have been no cross, no blood on the mercy seat, no atonement, no salvation for Israel, and no salvation for the Gentiles.

The Lamb of God had to be examined, declared innocent, and deliberately slaughtered by the very people who were waiting for Him.

Caiaphas spoke better than he knew: “It is better that one man die for the people so the whole nation not perish,” and John 11:51–52 declares that the high priest prophesied by the Holy Spirit.

That means the greatest crime in history was, in the unfathomable wisdom of God, the greatest act of service in history.

Without that rejection there is no gospel for any of us.

God therefore ordained a temporary, judicial, partial blindness (Romans 11:25) so the Lamb could actually be slain “with wicked hands” yet exactly according to “to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).

That is why the apostles could call the crucifiers “betrayers and murderers,” “serpents, brood of vipers,” “children of the devil” (Acts 7:52; Matt 23:33; John 8:44), yet in the same breath cry, “Repent — the promise is still to you and to your children!” (Acts 2:38–39).

The fierce words were covenant lawsuit language against one generation, not a racial curse against a people forever.

Because the same Paul who spoke the harshest also wrote:

“To them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever” (Romans 9:4–5).

Their fall became riches for the world.

Their scattering became the sowing.

God drove the broken loaf of Israel to the four corners of the earth, and wherever those Jewish seeds fell (Spain, Poland, Russia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Cochin in South India), the gospel followed the exact same trails.

The synagogue appeared first; the church sprang up beside it.

That is why a boy in South India whose family still carries the name Thomas can stand today confessing Christ: because the Apostle Thomas followed the ancient Jewish colonies to Kerala in AD 52, preached in their synagogues, was martyred, and left his bones and his name in my soil.

The scattering that looked like the worst curse was the greatest missionary movement in history.

And there is only one place on earth where the Lord has sworn to put His name forever: Jerusalem.

Every empire that has touched that city has rotted into dust.

The final tug-of-war over that land is not about politics; it is about the finished work of redemption that began when His own people lifted Him on a cross so the whole world could be saved.

The Deliverer has already come out of Zion. The moment He cried “It is finished!” on the cross, He banished ungodliness from Jacob once for all (Romans 11:26–27).

The veil was torn, thousands of Jewish priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7), the church was born 100 % Jewish on the day of Pentecost, and the foundation stones of the New Covenant were laid by Jewish apostles and Jewish prophets.

On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell, and three thousand Jews — “devout men from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5–11): Parthians, Medians, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Cappadocians, Pontians, Asians, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyptians, Libyans, Cyrenians, Romans, Cretans, and Arabians — the classic list of the scattered twelve-tribe Diaspora — were added in one day.

These were the very people James addressed only years later as “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (James 1:1) and Peter called “the elect exiles of the Dispersion” in the exact same regions (1 Peter 1:1).

The church was born 100 % Jewish, led by twelve Jewish apostles appointed to judge the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). The apostles themselves understood this first-generation ingathering of the remnant from every tribe scattered among the nations as the literal, visible, once-for-all fulfilment of the promise:

“All Israel has been saved.” “‘All Israel’ does not mean every physical Jew who ever lived, but the remnant according to grace from every tribe who say Yes to Israel’s own Messiah —  then and now (Romans 9:6–8; 11:5–7).”

No symbolism.

No future event required.

It happened in Jerusalem, in the generation that saw Him crucified and risen, exactly as the prophets and apostles declared. The first-generation ingathering of the remnant from every tribe fulfilled the promise: “All Israel has been saved.”

Only because ungodliness was removed from Jacob that day could the Gentiles ever be grafted in and receive the inheritance we now enjoy.  Without that Jewish salvation first, there is no world salvation at all.

Ever since Pentecost the remnant according to grace has never stopped growing.

Today Messianic congregations are multiplying again across the land of Israel, and when the last one of the 144,000 from the twelve tribes receives the seal of the living God, the circle will be complete and God’s promise will stand sealed forever.

The prophets also said the word of the Lord would go forth from the mountain top of Jerusalem to all nations (Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2).

It did — on the day of Pentecost, from the upper room in Jerusalem, the gospel exploded to the ends of the earth and has never stopped going.

Both promises are fulfilled.

The root has borne its fruit.

Therefore every Christian who loves Jesus must fall on his face and say:

“Lord, I thank You that You used Israel’s ‘No’ to purchase my forgiveness.

I thank You that You turned their scattering into seed so the gospel reached even me.

I thank You that the Root, the Word, and the returning King are forever Jewish.

Therefore I will bless the descendants of Jacob, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, stand with the people through whom You gave me everything, and I will never boast against the natural branches that still bear me.

All glory belongs to You alone, O God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and deep, trembling gratitude to the tribes You chose to be the channel of my salvation.

Salvation is from the Jews — and the word has already gone out from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

Hallelujah.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed.

Maranatha — the Lord has come, and He is coming again in glory to be admired in all His saints, Jew and Gentile together, forever.

Amen.