What do Jews believe about salvation?

Unlike the Church, the remnant does not possess the knowledge of salvation as an existing enjoyment. Salvation, as understood by a Jew, is not simply the salvation of the soul as now known to us, but the restoration to him and to his people of God's manifested favour and protection. This the remnant cannot enjoy while the mass of the nation are ungodly, and either in league with their ungodly Gentile rulers, or by them trodden. under foot. Accordingly, those who compose the remnant are represented in prophecy as using language indicative, indeed, of penitence — concern for God's glory — confidence in God's promises to their fathers, and in His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — as well as expressive of ardent desires for pardoning mercy and the hope of its being bestowed; but for that very reason their language is incompatible with any present assurance of salvation. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God." "In whom we have redemption through his blood." "Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet, who has delivered us, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Such is the language of the Church. With the remnant "have" and "has" are changed into "shall" and "will." "He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19-20.) Our Lord says, speaking of those who received Him on His first appearance, "I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." "Who is among you," says the prophet, "that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of his servant, that walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God." (Isaiah 50:10.) Such is the prophetic description of the remnant. Even at a very advanced stage of their experience, when they confess, "If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" and yet can add, "But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared" — even then, it is the hope of forgiveness, not its actual enjoyment, which they thus express. They speak of waiting for the Lord "more than they that watch for the morning;" and the answer by which they are encouraged in this posture of expectancy is, "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption: and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities." (Psalm 130.)

To a Jew's mind, and very properly, the salvation of Israel is as a rule bound up with the judgment of the Gentiles when the chosen people shall rise to their allotted and good eminence, at length fitted for it after humiliation, and the Gentiles willingly subject (though there may be, especially and growingly at the end but feigned obedience) spite of their long-continued resistance in pride. With the Christian salvation has another sense, and implies our calling out of the world to heaven. The world is left undisturbed: the individual soul is called by faith out of it to the Lord, and so it will be up to His coming for us and our change into conformity with His glory. But when salvation comes to the Jews it will be by the putting down of the enemies that strive round about and against them. That is, it is power that comes down to earth, and deals with the world, leaving the Jews for blessing, by the destruction of their enemies under the hand of God. We, on the contrary, are entitled to enjoy the salvation of God in Christ by His cross whilst the evil of mankind remains unjudged; and we, being thus delivered and knowing it in the power of the Spirit, are therefore called out to be separate to the Lord in grace, yet with full sense of personal victory through His death and resurrection.

Now first of salvation. This for Israel as a nation under the law was future, being connected in the prophetic Word with their final deliverance. Till that is brought about, the nation cannot enjoy salvation. Hence, while there will be the desire for it, till that event comes about, it must remain a desire unsatisfied. So the fourteenth Psalm speaks: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord brings back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." Salvation is always connected with the knowledge of forgiveness of sins. That for the nation is future, and will not be known till they see the Lord, and learn that He bore their sins on the cross (Isa. 53). Now the Lord in our Gospel refers here to present salvation, even that of the soul, teaching with which Peter has made us Christians familiar, being linked, as we have said salvation is, with the knowledge of forgiveness of sins. This latter now preached, salvation of the soul can be known, whilst we await the final deliverance of our bodies. Of salvation in both these senses Peter wrote (1 Peter 1:5, 9), speaking in the former of these passages of that which is future, and in the latter of that which is present, in which sense it is here mentioned by the Lord, as is manifest, since salvation is the first blessing that He enumerates, and which is to be enjoyed by entering in through Him, the door.

So we learn from Gen. 49:18. "Salvation" was identified with the coming and work of the Messiah. The believers little if at all understood how it was to be; but they had no doubt of the saving grace which would then be manifested. They recognised signal acts of deliverance meanwhile, as in the days of Moses the miraculous passage of the Red Sea; as in the work which Jehovah wrought by Jonathan; and as later still in Jehoshaphat's day, when the sons of Ammon and Moab and those of mount Seir destroyed each other to the relief of Judah whom they had menaced with ruin. But they looked on to the latter day as the goal of their hopes, when Messiah should establish the salvation fully and for ever. How clearly it is "grace," not of works whereof flesh might glory.

Hence in the Psalms we hear as in the last verse of 14, "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When Jehovah bringeth back the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob rejoice, Israel shall be glad." In the second book Ps. 53. similarly concludes, "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God bringeth back the captivity of his people, then shall Jacob rejoice, Israel shall be glad." The times were dark, and growingly darker; but if the godly remnant fall back on what God, Elohim, is when covenant privileges were no longer enjoyed, they anticipate in faith God's scattering the ruined foe, and long for final salvation to come out of Zion as His centre, when His people as a whole should return with everlasting joy. It is certain too from Ps. 67 that the Spirit of prophecy, if the written word had been but heeded, regards God's mercy to Israel as His way to extend His "saving health among all nations." Sovereign grace is not more sure and definite than rich and free. "Let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all the peoples praise thee. Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy! for thou shalt judge the peoples with equity and govern the nations upon earth." Nothing can be in more marked contrast with Jewish narrowness. Salvation is neither of prescriptive right, nor of personal merit, but of "grace." And so will sing in a day yet to come, both the nations, and all Israel that shall be saved.

The advent of a glorious Messiah to the earth was characteristically a Jewish hope. I speak not of traditional fables, but of the truths which the Jews saw and held fast in their scriptures. To such believing Jews Messiah was the centre and security of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He was the accomplisher of all righteousness, blessing, and peace in their land — Immanuel's land. By Him they expected to be saved from their enemies and from the hand of all that hated them; that so they might serve Jehovah without fear all the days of their life {Luke 1:68-79}. He was to cut off all the horns of the wicked, and to exalt the righteous; to save Zion, and build the cities of Judah, that they might dwell there, and have it in possession, and thus the seed of His servants should inherit it, and they that love His name dwell therein.

This, as is plain in the Psalms, is the character of the deliverance pleaded by the Jewish remnant — not a rapture out of the earth, but a destruction of their enemies in it; a divine vengeance upon their enemies here below, not a gathering to the Lord in heaven. They looked, and will look, for Jehovah to go forth and fight against the nations He will gather at the latter end against Jerusalem; they will look for His feet to stand upon tho Mount of Olives, and Jehovah shall be King over all the earth. There, with David their king over Israel, restored, as it were, from the grave, and Ephraim and Judah united perfectly and for ever under the rule of the true Beloved, they expect to dwell in their land, and the heathen shall know that God Jehovah sanctifies Israel when His sanctuary shall be in their midst for evermore. They might read of a Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, but their hope was the presence and reign of the Messiah here below, in special connection with the Jewish nation and land. The following texts will still more plainly show the truth we have been stating:

The advent of a glorious Messiah to the earth was characteristically a Jewish hope. I speak not of traditional fables, but of the truths which the Jews saw and held fast in their scriptures. To such believing Jews, Messiah was the center and security of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He was the accomplisher of all righteousness, blessing and peace in their land, Immanuel's land. By Him they expected to be saved from their enemies and from the hand of all those that hated them, that so they might serve the Lord without fear all the days of their life. He was to cut off all the horns of the wicked, and to exalt the righteous; to save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they might dwell there and have it in possession, and thus the seed of His servants should inherit it, and they that love His name dwell therein.

This is plain in the Psalms as the character of deliverance pleaded by the Jewish remnant — not a rapture out of the earth, but a destruction of their enemies in it; a divine vengeance upon their enemies on earth, not a gathering to Jehovah for heaven. They looked, and will look, for Jehovah to go forth and fight against the nations He will gather at the latter end against Jerusalem; they will look for His feet to stand upon the Mount of Olives, and Jehovah shall be King over all the earth. Then, with David their king over Israel, restored as it were, from the grave and Ephraim and Judah united perfectly and for ever under the rule of the true Beloved, they expect to dwell in their land, and the heathen shall know that God Jehovah sanctifies Israel when His sanctuary shall be in their midst for evermore. They might read of a Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, but their hope was the presence and reign of the Messiah here below, in special connection with the Jewish nation and land. The following texts will still more plainly show the truth we have been stating.

As to redemptive significance of the Death of Christ, see recent works of the Scottish professors Stalker and Denney; also articles in Hastings' one vol. Bible Dictionary on Atonement, Mediation, Redemption, and Salvation, all by Prof. Orr. The late Dr. N. M. Adler, British Chief Rabbi, stated that "For the modern Jew there is no Atonement. … He believes that he obtains forgiveness simply by repentance"; and he went on to quote Ex. 32:30, maintaining that Jehovah's answer there shows that He did not accept the idea of Atonement.

Sinful man understands duty to obey with a commensurate reward annexed to success; and he is ever slow to conceive his own failure and inability to meet the just requirements of God. The last thing he likes to do is to take all the blame of his evil on himself, unless it be to accredit the God he has wronged with real and perfect goodness toward himself in spite of his wrong against Him. But of all men the Jews were the least disposed to it and the most obstinate in their own thoughts. For why, reasoned they, should we have the law of God if it be not to attain acceptance with God by our faithful observance of its precepts? Where else is its value and its use? Error fatal to the ancient people, how much more in Christendom, where the gospel tells the wreck of Israel on this very rock of offence, that men who hear and bear the name of the Lord should not repeat it to their own yet surer destruction!

"But Jehovah's loving-kindness is from everlasting to everlasting upon those that fear Him; and His righteousness unto children's children: to those that keep His covenant, and to those that remember His precepts to do them." This should not sound legal: it is a principle that grace does not set aside, — which it would not be grace, in fact, to set aside. Grace affirms and fulfills it; for "sin shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under law but under grace." And thus the "covenant" here cannot be either the covenant of law which only "worketh wrath," but must be that which as Abraham's covenant makes them true children of Abraham; and which was given four hundred and thirty years before the law came in. Faith links men with this covenant, whether Jew or Gentile, and those who keep it are the circumcised in heart.

This leads on to the third appearing. The Jews expected that the Christ should come, and the Samaritans shared that hope with them (John 4:25). Still do they expect Messiah to come. Christians, however, could say, and can still say, they expect the Christ to return. It is the same Person that both speak of. But how far back in intelligence is the Jew! He looks for Messiah, as never having been here. We look for the Christ to return, who lived here, who walked here, who worked here, and who died here. He will return, and return for the salvation of His people. Now salvation, we must here understand, is of the whole person, of which Peter speaks (1 Peter 1:5), and Paul also, and especially in Philippians. Once here to die, offering Himself as the sacrifice, Christ will return, apart from any question of sin, for He has settled that by His atoning death. And by-and-by the earthly people, the godly remnant, will understand and confess this, as Isa. 53 has foretold. The Hebrews knew it then. And whilst owning that it is the common lot of men as sinners to die (though all will not), and to have the prospect of judgment awaiting them after death, they were to know that the prospect before them, whether they died first or not, was salvation in its fullest and final sense when the Lord shall reappear (Heb. 9:27-28).