What is the difference between Christianity and Judaism?

Judaism left, therefore, the children of God confounded with the world — necessarily, as giving no full assurance to any. "I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first-born," God was saying. No cry of "Abba, Father," therefore, was known — no spirit of adoption. Christianity separates its justified ones from the world, to which they no more belong, and separates them to God, to whom they belong.

Finally, Judaism had its separate order of priests, who alone had to do with sacred things. Priest and people were distinct; and while none could draw really nigh, the former had an outward, official nearness which the latter had not. In Christianity, people and priests are one; there is real, not merely relative nearness; and as a consequence, an overflowing of joyful testimony to those outside, for whom also, without restriction, the way is opened by grace into the presence of God.

Thus it is the assembly, or gathering, of those who are Christ's members, called out by grace out of the world., and this is what the word used means. "Ecclesia" is the assembly of those called out; while "synagogue" means merely a "gathering together," no matter of whom. The latter, of course, was the Jewish word, as the former the Christian; and they exactly express the difference between the respective gatherings. Christ died, "not for the nation of Israel only, but also that He might gather together in one the children of God which were scattered abroad." Outside of the Jewish fold He had sheep to bring in, and inside of it not all were His sheep. Judaism did not unite the children of God as such, as is plain, and its separation was not of believers from the world, but of Israel from the Gentiles. So, consequently, the children of God were not given their place with God, and had no Spirit of adoption - did not cry, "Abba, Father." God was saying, "I am a father to Israel " - and this which comes nearest to Christian knowledge shows in fact the contrast. Relationship was by birth, not new birth, and did not mean justification and eternal life, as it means now. Those who belonged to the family of God might perish forever, and those outside His family might be saved eternally. Judaism decided the eternal state of none. As a dispensation of law, it could give no assurance, it could preach no justification. For if the law says on the one hand "the man that doeth these things shall live in them," it says also "there is none righteous - no, not one." And that was not merely the effect, but the designed effect: "We know that whatsoever the law saith it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God." It was thus ordained for the probation of man, a probation necessary before grace could be proclaimed; but on this account it could but as a means of salvation bear witness to its own incompetency. The announcement of that new covenant under which Israel 's sins and iniquities would be no more remembered was such a witness. Thus, as the law could not justify, it could not bring to God. The unrent vail is the characteristic of Judaism as the rent vail is of Christianity. "Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live" is the contrasted utterance to His who says, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father;" as is "who can by no means clear the guilty" the opposite declaration to that of the , gospel, that we "believe on Him who justifieth the ungodly." The darkness is passed from the face , of God, and the true light - for God is light - shineth. We walk, therefore, in the light, as God is in the light, and have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from all sin. The judaizing of the Church means therefore, first of all, the putting God back (if that were possible; possible for our hearts it is) into the darkness from which He has come forth; replacing the peace which was made for us upon the cross with the old legal conditions and the old uncertainty. Darker than the old darkness this, inasmuch as the Christ for whom they only looked is come, and come but to put His seal upon it all: come, and gone back, and declared little more, at any rate, than was said before, and only definitively shut out hope of any further revelation Thus in the Judaizing gospel confidence is pre­sumption "No man knoweth whether he is worthy of favour or hatred" is quoted as if from Paul instead of Solomon. In fact, is not Ecclesiastes scripture as well as Romans? and will you make scripture to contradict scripture? Did not Christ say, also, "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill"? and ought we not to follow Him? Peace is of course lost, and in the dread uncertainty that everywhere prevails, who can distinguish any longer between God's children and the world? Yet Judaism had its family of God, its ordinances which separated them from those around, its absolutions by the way which encouraged hope, while yet, as continually needed, they sanctioned no presumptuous assurance. The Christian family could still exist, baptism and the supper of the Lord take the place of the old Jewish ordinances, the Christian ministry conform to the Levitical priesthood, and the Church become more venerable by her identification with that of the saints from the beginning, and richer for the inheritance of all the promises from Abraham down. This is assuredly the transformation that has taken place, and that began so early that we have but few traces of the manner of its accomplishment, or its agents either. We open the page of uninspired history, and the terrible transformation has been already achieved. In fact, so fully, that it presents the only difficulty in the application of the address before us to the period of heathen persecution.

I was trying to show you last time what the characteristics of Judaism are. It was a probationary system, a system of trial, in which it was to be seen if man could produce a righteousness for God. We know the end of the trial, and that God pronounced "none righteous; no, not one." And only then it was that God could manifest His grace. As long as He was putting man under trial He could not possibly open the way to His own presence and justify the sinner there. He had, as long as this trial went on, to shut him out. For on that ground nobody could see God and live. Now, the very essence of Christianity is that all are welcomed in. There is an open door and ready access, where the blood of Christ entitles every one, however much a sinner, to draw near to God, and to find at His hand justification as ungodly. To see God in Christ is not to die, but live. And what further is the consequence of this? Those who have come thus to Him — those who have found the way of access through the peace-speaking blood into His presence, learned what He is in Christ, and been justified before God — are able to take, and taught to take, a place distinct from all others, as now His — children of the Father, members of Christ, His body. That is the Church, a body called out, separate from the world. Judaism, on the other hand, necessarily mixed all together. Nobody there can take such a place with God. Nobody can cry "Abba, Father," really; therefore there could not be any separation. This had been once a necessity, and of God, no doubt. But now, Judaism being set up again, after God had abolished it, it is no use to urge that it was once of Him; its setting up again was the too successful work of the enemy against this gospel and against this Church. He brands these Judaizers as the "synagogue of Satan."

Clericalism, then, we firmly believe sprang from Judaism. From the days of the apostles until now the root of the whole fabric and dominion of clericalism is there. Philosophy and heterodoxy, no doubt, did much to corrupt the church and lead her to join hands with the world: but the order of the clergy and all that belongs to it must be founded on the Jews' religion. It is more than probable, however, that many may have been persuaded then, as many have been since, that Christianity is a continuation of Judaism, in place of being its perfect contrast. The Judaizing teachers boldly affirmed that Christianity was merely a graft on Judaism. But throughout the epistles we everywhere learn that the one was earthly and the other heavenly; that the one belonged to the old, and the other to the new creation; that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

In the cross, God also removed the enmity of the believing Jew and the believing Gentile towards Himself. The great love told out in all its fulness in the death of God's Son has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and this has driven every bit of enmity towards God away from us; it has slain the enmity. With the enmity gone, we have been brought into right relations with God in one body. A divine unity that never existed on earth before has been formed; it is composed of those who are by nature Jews and Gentiles, but who are now before God in this living, organic unity; and as separated from all the natural and religious distinctions that formerly marked them as men in the flesh. It is in this one body that we are seen in reconciliation with God. Christianity is not the continuation of Judaism or of any of its features. Men might desire to have, what they consider, the best features of the different religions on earth, but God has even set aside what He once set up on earth for man in the flesh. None of the varied features of the old man will do for God; men can never be in right relations with God so long as they hold on to anything of the old man; all belonging to this man, whether seen in Jew or Gentile, has gone in the cross, and only those who belong to the one body, that has been formed in the wisdom and the power of God, are right with God.

I bless God for every word of His that is revealed, from Genesis to Malachi, to speak now of nothing more; but I affirm that not one distinctive good in Christianity is derived from or is to be found in Judaism. Do not the holy and the inspired writers you own, and the tradition of Judaism reject a suffering Saviour, God and man in one person? Not faith but unbelief denies that the infinite sacrifice of the true atonement-day is already offered and accepted of God and efficacious for ever for those who believe on Him and rest on it. We have a great high-priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God: is this no good, or is it found in Judaism? We have an altar, which is so far from being derived from Judaism that contrariwise they have no right to eat of it who serve the tabernacle. So too by the Holy Spirit we were sealed after we believed the gospel, and in no way did Judaism give it us. Our relationships, with God as our Father, with Christ as our Head, what have they to do with Judaism? They are founded entirely on the Messiah, whom Judaism refused and crucified, as now raised up by God and glorified in heaven, which is our characteristic place of blessing as truly as Canaan was and will be for Israel.

Again, being all of grace, on a foundation of the counsels of God, it takes the character of an everlasting covenant; Hebrews 13. Under the old covenant God was testing man, and that word "old" signifies it was ready to vanish away; then we read of a new covenant - new, because another was before it; and it is everlasting because, without testing, it was settled in the counsels of God Himself. David says clearly enough, "Who hath made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things and sure," because it was all of grace. In Hebrews we read, "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle." Nazarenes had no right to come to the altar of the Jews, when the Jews had an altar; and now we have an altar whereof Jews have no right to eat. It is the simple but thorough contrast between Judaism and Christianity, the old thing and the new.

Judaism was a testimony to the unity of the Godhead. The distinctness of the persons in the Trinity was rather implicitly than explicitly contained in the Old Testament scriptures. Hence the Son, as such, could not be an object of faith, for He had not been revealed. Sonship was doctrinally linked with Messiahship, — with descent from Abraham and David, — "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Psalm 2:7; Luke 1:35), and was a matter of hope and expectation, not a present object to faith. When He came the Trinity was revealed, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and in Him all the fulness was pleased to dwell. As regards then the condition of souls, — the souls of the saints in different ages or dispensations, it is most important to keep to scripture and to the order of its teaching, for it needs scarcely to be said, that in it, there is no such thing as "a distinction without a difference." In reference to it, mere human reasonings, — logical processes, — are altogether out of place, and only make havoc of God's word. Only when subject to the Spirit shall we be able "rightly to divide the word of truth."

That there is but one God, and that worship may be offered to God alone, was taught among the Jews as concerning Jehovah. But to them the glory of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was not known. The Lord Jesus claimed to be God (John 5 and John 8:53-58; John 10:36), and as such never repudiated worship when offered to Him in the days of His humiliation (Matt. 8:2; Matt. 9:18; Matt. 18:26; Matt. 28:17; John 9:38, etc.) See in contrast with this Peter, Acts 10:26; the angel, Rev. 22:9, etc.