Was Jesus a Jew?

It is very clear that the Spirit of God in Luke's Gospel traces the Lord's genealogy up to Adam; that is to say, He shows the Lord to be a true, real Man. It is, then, Christ's connection with the human family which is set forth here. A single sentence in one of the epistles (Galatians 4:4) gives both this and His Jewish connection "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." This presents His connection with the human family. It is saying that He was truly and really a Man. "Made under the law;" that is to say, He was truly and really a Jew. He was pleased not only to become a Man, but also, as is said elsewhere, to take "on Him the seed of Abraham;" i.e., the Blessed One took the position and circumstances, but not the state. How blessed to meditate on the grace of such words as "The Word became flesh, and dwelt [tabernacled] among us." John 1:14.

God sent His Son: He came and took the form of a man down here. Born of a woman, under the law, He took His place in the world in two relationships: with man, through the woman; with the Jews, as born under the law; and every one, when converted, puts himself under it, unless, indeed, he be already there in spirit. This is very useful for the soul, as it thus learns its weakness. Redemption places all, that is, all who believe in Christ and in His work, under the benefit of that work, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; they are redeemed before God, who has accepted the work of His Son according to His own righteousness, even as He gave Him in His love, in order that those who were under the law might be delivered from it, and might receive the adoption.

In these opening verses the Apostle thus passes before us, firstly, the incarnation by which Christ comes into communication with all men as "come of a woman," and with the Jew, as born under law; secondly, redemption, by which, through the work of Christ, believers are redeemed from the curse of a broken law; and thirdly, the coming of the Holy Spirit to lead us into the blessedness of our position as sons.

It is well to note how the glory of the Person of Christ, as the Son, is maintained. Again and again, through the ages, the Person of Christ has been attacked, and His eternal Sonship denied, by it being said that He only became the Son at His birth. In the effort to maintain this error it has been argued that the words "sent forth," in this passage, only refer to Christ as being sent forth after He had been born into the world. It is therefore well to notice that an exactly similar expression is used in this passage of the Holy Spirit. No one would dare to argue that, when we read "God sent forth the Spirit of His Son," it means that the Holy Spirit was not sent forth from heaven, and that the words only apply after He had come to earth. Is it not plain, to any one subject to the word, that the Holy Spirit "sent forth" from heaven was the Spirit before He came? In like manner does not this passage prove that the Son was sent forth from heaven, and was the Son before He became Man?

The great divide between the old dispensation and the new was when Christ appeared. Then was the "fulness of time" and the Lord Jesus came "made of a woman," i.e., really and truly Man; "made under the law," i.e. come of the chosen stock of Israel, who were by Divine appointment under law's dominion. He came under the law, not that He might keep it for us, and atone for our failure to keep it by so doing, but that He might redeem those that were under it. How He thus redeemed has been told us in verse 13 of the previous chapter. It was by "being made a curse for us," that is, by bearing the penalty which the law inflicted. This is redemption by death or by blood, after the type of Abel's offering. The idea that disobedient sinners can be redeemed by another producing the fair fruit of obedience on their behalf is more after the type of Cain's bloodless offering.

Now let us cast our eyes upon this passage of very special interest in the fourth chapter without in any way attempting to go back over the story. The woman introduced the question of worship. It seems to me extremely unlikely that to a woman still in spirit dead and far from Him, such immense disclosures and basic teaching about the true worship would have been made. There must have been, it seems to me, in those seconds perhaps, the reception of that water that Jesus could give springing up into everlasting life. She said: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain." The king of Assyria had deported the whole population of the northern kingdom of Israel and the Samaritans were the direct descendants of those who took their place. They had thought it wise to placate the god of that country, and so they began to imitate the worship of the Jews. They had the five books of Moses in a version which is still called the Samaritan Pentateuch. This was the Samaritan worship and it was a spurious worship of the God of Israel. Now the Lord Jesus Christ says here, considering Himself for the moment as a Jew, He says, "we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." There was a contrast between what was all the time an entirely spurious worship and something which was instituted by God to be the worship of the real God who made all things and had revealed Himself to His people as the God of Israel. But of course at a stroke the Lord Jesus Christ puts clean out of court these two kinds of worship that belonged to a place. He substituted the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth and said, "the Father seeketh such to worship Him."

We have referred to the transition from Judaism to Christianity, as having gradually taken place. Of this fact, the New Testament itself affords abundant evidence. Were this evidence to be carefully examined, other facts would be educed — facts overlooked by Mr. W. and by those generally with whom he symbolizes, but which have a most direct and important bearing on the questions at issue. In the introduction to his Epistle to the Romans, Paul speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ under two distinct aspects: as "made of the seed of David according to the flesh;" and "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." (Rom. 1:3-4.) As "made of the seed of David according to the flesh" he had special links of connexion with Israel. Where the apostle is enumerating Israel's distinctive privileges, such as the adoption, the glory, etc., that by which he crowns the catalogue is, "and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." (Rom. 9:5.) It is from the same apostle's pen that we have the words, "Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." (Rom. 15:8.) "Made of a woman, made under the law." (Gal. 4:4.) Let any one read the gospels in the light of these apostolic statements, and how evident it must be to him, that innumerable links with Israel and Judaism, having no place in Christianity as existing in Paul's day, were maintained by our blessed Lord during his sojourn on earth. Circumcised the eighth day, and duly presented by his mother according to the law, he afterwards accompanied her and Joseph to the annual feasts in the city of solemnities. It was in the synagogue that he commenced his ministry at Nazareth, and often is it noticed afterwards that he taught in their synagogues. How frequently were those whom he healed or cleansed directed by him to go and show themselves to the priests; and how did he charge the twelve not to go into the way of the Gentiles, or enter any city of the Samaritans, but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. "The Scribes and the Pharisees," said he, "sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsover they bid you observe, that observe and do." (Matt. 23:2-3.) It was on the night of the passover, and after he had faithfully observed it with his disciples, that he was betrayed into the hands of men.

Our Lord, according to the flesh, through His mother, traced His descent from David. Though born of a virgin, begotten of the Holy Ghost by Divine power, He was Joseph’s legal heir by virtue of the marriage of His mother to Joseph, the lawful heir to David’s throne. His miraculous birth marked Him out as the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy seven hundred years before.

Verse 4. He owns their full national privileges. “Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.”

What privileges! The adopted nation, with whom God had dwelt in the tabernacle. These privileges were never given to any other nation. The eternal God had become incarnate, taking flesh from that nation. All this is fully allowed. He who is over all, God blessed for ever, as to the flesh, the body, He was born of Mary, of the seed royal of that nation.

That salvation is "of the Jews," is the Saviour's positive confirmation of prophetic testimony (John 4:22), and that Christ as concerning the flesh is "of Israel," is a fundamental doctrine of the gospel (Rom. 9:5; conf. Isa. 9:6). But the knowledge of Emmanuel, which the Holy Ghost now gives to the partakers of the heavenly calling, is paramount to that which in its appointed season will flood the earth with gladness, when its manifested God assumes His throne. In the Church there is no Jew, and proper Messianic anticipation is willingly, as well as permanently, subordinated to that "better thing" which sovereign mercy has prepared for the confessors of God's crucified and world-rejected Son. The word "now" contains the point of the apostle's teaching in this verse. As the Lord in person used a like form of speech, when witnessing His good confession before Pontius Pilate, to indicate the postponement of His temporal kingdom to the intermediate calling of the Church (John 18:36), so here His chosen vessel, who could justly boast his knowledge of the mystery of God (Eph. 3:3-4), excludes in this pointed manner, from the present contemplation of his faith, the yet unrepented promise to the fathers. Christ will again drink with His disciples of the fruit of the vine, in the kingdom of His father,* but that kingdom is not now.

As we have said, He was a MAN. Two thousand years of man's history had run its course before there was a Jew or a Hebrew nation. His coming in relation to the race was made known both in type and promise in that age. The seed of the woman could not be limited to anything short of the whole race. Israel's rejection of Him opened the door for all and as it were, put Him in relation to the whole race. "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob … I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." (Isa. 49:6). This distinction runs through all Scripture. The Gospel of Matthew shows Him Son of David and Abraham but with Luke it is the Son of Man. The temptation also brings out both, but with a further distinction between the Man in His full moral beauty and the Son of Man in official splendour. The full question there goes back to Eden and Adam in thought but the kingdoms of the world speak of the rights and glory of the Son of Man. There is far more said of this distinction than we are accustomed to think for the glories of the Son of Man in official capacity awaited death and resurrection and go out to the whole creation but the beauty, simplicity, subjection and obedience of the Man, Christ Jesus, in the varied detail of life and the complications of man's sinful condition morally, socially and nationally, becomes a feast to the devout heart. It is here we see His power for moral estimates. In the human race, every man is what he is, as a result of certain conditions. Heritage and environment are the leading factors. We all inherit both virtues and vices and are all, more or less, affected by our surroundings. Here is One Who is outside of all this. Why? Because He is the Second Man out of heaven.