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Recently th ere was some concern that our denomination would be
adopting a position that was antagonistic toward Jewish people as
regards the relationship between Israel and Palestine. Without
boring you with the details, the report in question was changed and
this did not happen. But what has not changed is that Christians and
Jews have long had a destructive relationship, and by this I mean
Christians have had a long history of destroying Jews. This is
curious to me since the Apostle Paul, in Romans, seems to go out of
his way to demonstrate the position of Jews in God's saving plan.
According to Paul, Jews are saved. Period. Full stop. Jews are going
to heaven. "How can this be," you ask, " I thought you had to
believe or be baptized or something to do with Jesus to get into
heaven." Well, not if you are Jewish, at least, not according to the
Bible. He is fairly clear here, "all Israel (read Jews) will be
saved." This is because God made a covenant with them and God does
not break covenants. They may be strained, they may be challenged,
but they do not break. Paul elaborates upon his point and you can
find his further thoughts in Romans, just beyond the passage
printed.
So, I bring this up first to make clear Paul's position on this, but
also to say, regarding salvation, we don't know who gets in and who
gets left out. It is not our job. As I like to say, that is above my
pay grade. It would be great if the Bible were clear on this point,
but it is not. In John, Jesus is quoted as saying that all who
believe in him (Jesus) would not die, but live. "So there," you say,
"it is about belief." Well, in Matthew Jesus says "as you do the
least of these my brothers and sisters, you do to me." Here it is
not what you believe, but what you do. Later on Paul says, on the
day of judgment, every knee shall bend and every tongue confess that
Jesus is Lord. I could go on, but I won't. In short, it is not clear
how salvation works, except that Jesus is a big part, and it is not
clear how one actually goes about being saved. What is clear is
this, it is not our job to pass eternal judgment on anyone, that job
belongs only to the Triune God. So today, give thanks that we
worship a God of grace and mercy and trust that salvation, however
it will be decided, will be done by the creator, redeemer and
sustainer of all that is. I think that's a pretty good place to
start.
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Prayer: Holy God, thank you for loving me and sending
Christ into this world that I might know you and be saved through
him. Help me to leave judgment to you and to see all people as your
children. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
[text from file received by Phil Blackburn, First Presbyterian
Church]
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