Sunday, 8 March 2015

Jewish Messianic Contribution to the Church Part One

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Question: Can you please summarize the most important contributions the Jewish Messianic community has made toward the direction and shape of today's church?

I think we would be speaking beyond our success if we were to think that the Messianic Jewish community has made such a contribution to the whole church. We've made a contribution to a segment of the Church that has been influenced by it, and we believe there will be much more.

I think one of the biggest contributions that we've made is for the Church to take the whole Bible seriously, and to read the texts of the Bible in its original context and to say that is the primary meaning so that the Church builds up its theology on the basis of a Jewish understanding. By Jewish understanding I'm not talking about culture, I'm talking about the original context for the texts.

Once the Church has the original context approach to understanding the scriptures, all sorts of other things fall in place. For example, the Church understands that the new covenant is not for the purpose of doing away with the Law, but writing the law upon our hearts and that faith ala Romans 3:31; do we nullify the law, or the contrary we establish the law. So that the purpose of the gospel is to bring about what Isaiah said: the Torah shall go forth from Zion and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Or, as Paul said, The righteous requirement of the Torah is fulfilled in us who walk by the Spirit.