What is the difference between Christianity and Judaism?
Christianity grew out of the same Scriptures Judaism holds, yet the writers in this collection insist the two are not one system at two stages of growth. The question is whether the coming of Christ improved the older religion or replaced it with something of an entirely different order.
Not an Improvement of the Older System
The most common mistake, according to these writers, is to treat the newer faith as the older one refined. One commentator, closing his study of the last book of the Old Testament, sets that idea aside:
William KellyWe must remember that Christianity is no prolongation or improvement of Judaism. It is a thing of its own kind. If it follows, and could not but follow Judaism, it is none the less completely a thing of another climate and character, like the sheet that was let down from heaven and went up again in the vision seen by the Roman centurion.
Others agree that the two share much in outward furniture while differing at the root. One writer, working through Hebrews, notes changes in priesthood, in sanctuary, and in the way believers worship, and concludes that "Christianity is not just a development of Judaism" (C E Stuart).
God Hidden, God Revealed
The sharpest single difference offered is about access to God. In the old sanctuary a curtain shut the innermost room off from everyone but the high priest, once a year.
Frederick W GrantThe characteristic of Judaism was an unrent veil: man at a distance from God, who dwelt in the thick darkness, unapproachable, unknown. Christianity declares the veil torn in love and righteousness — torn by the cross of Christ, and so a way of access to God, revealed in Him.
That hiddenness had a practical result: there was no message to carry outward. The same writer draws the line between a closed sanctuary and an open mission:
Frederick William GrantThere was no going out to the world in this way, no provision, no command, to preach the law at all. What, in fact, could they say? That God was in the thick darkness? That no one could see Him and live? It is surely evident there was no "good news" there. Judaism had no true gospel... No sooner had the death of Christ torn the veil, and opened a way into the presence of God, than at once there was a gospel.
Law and Grace
A second difference is the principle on which God deals with people. Two names stand for the two principles:
W. W. Fereday"The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17). Two principles are stated in this passage, as different from one another as possible; and two men are named who represent them... In every city there are those who insist on doing works as the means of blessing. It is also true, thank God, that throughout the world Christ is preached as men's only Saviour, quite apart from works of every kind.
Earth and Heaven
The older system promised a land, a temple, long life and full barns. The newer one promises a place the eye cannot see. One writer puts the exchange in a single sentence:
Hamilton SmithThe Jewish system is thus the exact opposite of Christianity. Judaism gave a man a great place on earth, but no place in heaven: Christianity gives the believer a great place in heaven, but no place on earth, except one of reproach.
A Person Rather Than a System
If the old order was made of visible things, what replaces them is not a better set of visible things.
The Christian's FriendChristianity is not outward forms, and ceremonies, and ordinances; but the knowledge of the Son of God — a living Man at the right hand of God — and faith addressing itself to this living One, Christ Jesus the Lord, and finding its all for time and for eternity in Him through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Out of this comes a change in how believers know God. Under the older order, the writers say, no one cried "Abba, Father" — that relationship of adoption was not yet known, and God's children were still mixed in with the world (Frederick W Grant).
The Wall Between Nations
The old system was built around one nation kept separate from all others. That separation was not softened; it was demolished.
J. N. DarbyNow the duty and essence of Judaism was keeping the wall up; Christianity as a system on earth is founded on its being broken down. Were the Gentiles in the church brought into the Jewish state, as some claim? No; He makes of the two one new man, and reconciles both, and came and preached peace to those far off and those near, for neither had it.
Others add that this was not the non-Jewish nations being raised to Jewish privileges: "there is now 'one new man,' in whom is neither Jew nor Gentile" (William Kelly).
Summary
- Veil — the old order kept God at a distance behind an unrent curtain; the cross tore it, and that one act is the hinge on which every other difference turns.
- Gospel — because God stayed hidden, there was no good news to announce and no command to go; once the way in was open, a message went out to the whole world.
- Grace — Moses represents blessing earned by doing; Christ represents blessing given apart from works of every kind.
- Heaven — the old system gave a great place on earth and none in heaven; the new gives a great place in heaven and, on earth, only reproach.
- One new man — the wall that fenced one nation off was not repaired but broken down, and neither Jew nor Gentile survives in what replaced it.