Gregg La Croix

You cannot separate Christ from His Jewish heritage. Jesus was a Jew. Mary was a Jew. The apostles were Jews. Jesus worshiped in synagogues as was His custom (Luke 4:16). He celebrated the Jewish feasts and Passover (Luke 22:7–15). He was descended from David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3). He was born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth (Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4–7). He walked on the Sea of Galilee in the land of Israel (Matthew 14:22–33). Jesus Himself said, “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22). And Jesus Christ explains who He is through the Hebrew Scriptures. After His resurrection, Jesus begins with Moses and all the Prophets and explains everything in the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:27). He tells His disciples that everything written about Him “in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” must be fulfilled (Luke 24:44). Earlier, after reading Isaiah in the synagogue, He declares that the Hebrew prophecy has been fulfilled in Him (Luke 4:16–21). He is the Jewish Messiah, the Son of David (Matthew 1:1), the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David (Revelation 5:5). He came to confirm the promises God made to Israel’s patriarchs (Romans 15:8). Christianity does not replace that history, it arises from it. And Paul explicitly warns Gentile Christians not to become arrogant toward the Jewish people: “It is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you” (Romans 11:18). Israel remains beloved because of the patriarchs, because “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:28–29). You worship the Jewish Messiah. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob entered human history through Israel, revealed the Messiah through Israel’s Scriptures, and through Israel’s Messiah extended salvation to the nations. Gentile Christians are told not to despise the tree we were grafted into. (Romans 11:17–18).