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On January 28, 2014 in Holidays by Robert Kelley

(I have posted my blog today to enjoy some extra days off celebrating Christmas. The Lord saying the same, I will post my next blog on Sunday, December 29, 2013. Merry Christmas to you and yours!)

Though the use of His name, Yeshua (or Yehoshua), in the Hebrew tongue was long ago supplanted among the Gentiles with the English, Jesus, the Man to whom the name belongs has always been and remains Jewish in ethnicity and heritage even now as a glorified immortal (Deuteronomy 17:14-15; Isaiah 22:20-23; Revelation 3:7, 5:1-7)! While the translation of His name into the many languages of the peoples is quite understandable, professing Western European Christians with their predominant manmade Christianity the religion have taken the extraordinary step of effectively erasing not only the Jewish ethnicity of Jesus, but His masculinity by artistically reinventing Him in art as an effeminate looking blond, long haired, blue eyed Anglo-European. Those that stumble over the Lord Jesus as a Jewish Man for whatever reasons, unavoidably end up failing to fully appreciate the prophetic significance of the New Testament narrative presenting His birth celebrated at Christmas and God’s subsequent multi-layered work of salvation through Him on behalf of the Jews and all mankind.

For centuries prior to the birth of Jesus in the city of king David’s nativity, God spoke through men He used as seers; prophets through whom He revealed His foreordained plans to raise up a mighty King of the Jewish people (Genesis 49:8-12; Numbers 24:15-19; 1 Chronicles 17:1-15; Psalm 89:19-37; Jeremiah 23:5-6; Micah 5:2-4; Matthew 2:1-12). The Son of God from eternity was incarnated; conceived in the womb of a Jewish virgin named Mary (Miriam) engaged to a Jewish man, Joseph, both of whom were descendants of David fulfilling the words of the prophet and angelic messenger (Isaiah 7:10-14; Luke 1:26-38). With the help of God, Mary and her relative, Elizabeth, understood the prophetic significance to their people of the royal Child Mary carried; the Jewish Savior and King she birthed that we worship at Christmas (Luke 1:39-56, 2:1-14)! Jesus is called in English, Christ or Messiah meaning Anointed One because He is expressly chosen by God to serve His purposes to deliver and rule over Israel as of first importance, then all the peoples of the earth (Isaiah 11:1-10, 42:1-7, 49:5-6, 61:1-11; Matthew 12:15-21; Luke 4:16-21).

The rest of the Christmas narrative in Luke continues unfolding in the context of heightened messianic expectations stirred by God as well as Jewish sacred ritual He mandated in His covenant with Abraham (which required the circumcision of Jesus as a Jewish male) and the Law (Genesis 17:9-14; Luke 2:15-38). Later, bound up in His name announced by the angel and with an introduction from His relative, John the Baptist, Jesus the Jewish Messiah displayed the superior power He had to deliver the people of His heritage from the afflicting powers of darkness as well as sin and death (Matthew 3:1-17, 4:12-25; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 7:11-17). He later fully accomplished an eternal atonement for them through His sacrifice on Calvary after their rejection (Isaiah 52:13-15; Matthew 16:13-23, 27:1-56). The many rejected Him not understanding that deliverance from personal sin was their greatest need (Isaiah 53). While not completely explained by the prophets because they did not understand all that they were saying and writing about God’s future salvation (1 Peter 1:10-12), it was revealed by the Lord’s apostles that God’s blessing of the Gentiles through Israel’s Savior and King was their inclusion with them through repentance and faith in the grace of His salvation during this temporary season of grace about to close (Ephesians 2:11-3:13)!

Having broken the Old Covenant God made with them at Sinai, the Lord Jesus came to usher in the promise of God’s New Covenant with Israel through His blood offered not in the Jewish copy of the heavenly sanctuary (in all of history no other people on earth has been given designs and instructions to build things that copy the originals in Heaven), but the very sanctuary of Heaven itself (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Luke 22:19-20; Hebrews 7:11-8:13, 9:11-28). While the blessings of God’s New Covenant with Israel has been graciously expanded by Him to include Gentiles that believe on Jesus, it is of a first priority the fulfillment of His promise to the Jews as the apostle Paul laments in the face of his people’s stubborn unbelief (Romans 1:16, 9:1-5). God’s New Covenant with Israel is the only one in the Bible that speaks directly to Jews and Gentiles as believers in Jesus, “the way” in its terms and conditions (John 14:1-6; Acts 9:1-2; Hebrews 10:11-39, NKJV). The structure and terms of God’s covenants with Abraham and David apply only to them but find ultimate fulfillment exclusively in Jesus who causes the promised blessings to flow to Israel and us through Himself by faith (Galatians 3:15-18, 26-29).

Knowing everything about the past and future as though they were before Him in the present (Isaiah 41:21-23, 42:8-9), the omniscient God led the apostle Paul to write to the Christians at Rome in his epistle we call Romans. In it, the Jewish apostle to us Gentiles not only perfectly reviews and presents the major thrust of God’s great salvation, but right in the middle as it were, he warns the Gentiles at Rome (which three centuries later would become the corrupt seat of Christianity the religion of men) and the world over who would be the major stewards of the faith for as it has turned out nearly nineteen hundred years, not to get the big head concerning God’s remedial judgment of the Jewish people. He has not abandoned His chosen people! Jesus their Messiah will return to fulfill all of the salvation tied promises made to them as a people by way of an elect remnant including the blessings of the New Covenant and secure dwelling back in the land He promised to their fathers (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:1-21; Jeremiah 30-33; Ezekiel 36-37; Malachi 3:16-18; Luke 13:34-35, 21:20-24; Romans 11:1-29; Revelation 7:1-8).

Tagged With: Jesus The Jewish Messiah

Strong Man Of God Blog

Robert Kelley's weekly instruction, observations and reflections inspired by the Lord posted each Sunday night.

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