Will All Jews Eventually Be Saved?

Will all Jews eventually be saved? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and of course you can always email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Mary. My question is, I can't stop myself from committing sin every day, and I want to know how to do that. Dear Mary, as someone who is in the fight against sin as well, I understand your pain, and I think that many Christians listening right now also feel for you.

And so why don't we begin by praying and asking the Lord to help us? And I want to pray that the Lord helps you and strengthens you, sister, in your relationship with him, and specifically in the fight against sin. Father, we come before you today and we thank you, Lord, for the grace and the mercy that you've shown us in your son Jesus. We thank you, Lord God, for the full redemption that he accomplished.

God not just justifying us, but even the hope of glorification and the grace of your spirit sanctifying us each day, Lord. And yet, Lord, we grieve, knowing that so often, Lord, we're not where we want to be, and so we pray, and I pray for my sister Mary, Lord, that you would strengthen her, and by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, that you would cleanse her and sanctify her and put to death, as Paul said in Romans chapter 8, those sinful deeds of the body that she struggles with still, that she wants to be done with. Lord, would you help her? Would you be with her? Would you encourage her in the gospel of your son, that she would see herself as one who is alive from the dead through Jesus, and that she would walk as a child of God, united to Jesus by faith? Encourage her, encourage our sister, encourage all those, Lord God now, who are in that fight, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.

So I want to say two things. The first is, if you're in some trap of sin, what I mean by trap of sin is, I mean, you find yourself falling into the same sin over and over again. There is an element of wisdom, I think, where we have to ask ourselves, okay, am I putting myself in a situation or in situations that make it easy for me to compromise? And I think that's what Jesus was getting at, in part, when he said in Matthew chapter 5, verse 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell, and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.

It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. And so I think, as those in the fight, we need to ask ourselves, where am I seeing sin or a pattern of sin get a foothold in my life, and what does it look like for me to repent, to exercise wisdom, and cut out those avenues of sin that are getting me, that are getting the better of me? And so I think that that's being proactive, that's getting accountability, that's not just sitting back but saying, okay, God, what do I need to do in pursuing that godliness, that faith, that righteousness? Paul talks about that in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 22, fleeing youthful passions and pursuing God and godliness, and so there's that proactive element. But the other thing I want to say is that, as sincere followers of Jesus Christ, we are going to struggle with sin every day. You're not going to be sinless, Mary. I mean, we sin in thought and word and in deed every single day.

That doesn't make it okay. That's not an excuse for not fighting with all of our might and pursuing the things we should pursue and exercising wisdom. It's just to say that if you find yourself still struggling, or, man, why am I entertaining these thoughts, or I can't believe I got angry and I spoke that way, and it just feels like you're in this battle and you don't understand even your own actions, I just want to say you're not alone in that. And another passage for you to think about is what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 7, verse 15.

He says, I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. There's that battle between the flesh and the spirit. Paul talks about it elsewhere in Galatians chapter 5, verses 17 and following. And so my encouragement to you is, I guess, threefold. One, know that if you've trusted in Christ, you are forgiven, and you are alive from the dead, and now God calls you to present yourself to Him, not as someone enslaved to sin. You know, Jesus has freed you. You're dead to sin in Christ, through Christ. But to live as one who has been brought into newness of life, and as that has happened, because that has happened, do everything that you can to exercise wisdom and to pursue holiness in your life.

And if you see something that is causing you to sin, a place that you go, it could be any number of things, right? Exercising wisdom and saying, okay, I need to cut that out. This is not good for me. This is not healthy for me.

This is not helpful to me. And then also, again, recognizing that we're going to battle, you're going to battle, but God is with you, and the Spirit of God is at work in your life. I think even the fact that you long to be free of sin fully, of the corruption of sin that we still feel, is a sign of the Spirit's work in your life. And so may God bless you as you seek to walk with Jesus and to honor Him, and may He sanctify you day by day as He's promised to in His Word. God bless you.

Some great words. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life.

You can always leave us a voicemail. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Chuck who's calling in from Indiana. Chuck, what's your question for Adriel?

Yes, sir. I've been a Christian for a little while, but we've come to another church, and in the church I've always thought that Israel is still God's chosen country, and I understand that not all the Jews are Jews, and that there will be a grafting in of the Gentiles, but and I love these guys, but I think they call it replacement theology, and it just really strikes me. You know, maybe I've been taught wrong or there's a misunderstanding, but I still recognize the Jews as God's people, and that if I'm saved, I'm actually grafted into that tree. Which one is true? Am I wrong that the Jews are out of the picture and the Jews are out of the Gentiles or the new church? I'm confused on this one. Okay, Chuck, thanks for that question, and hopefully I can help clear this up a little bit for you.

So a couple of things. One, there aren't two peoples of God. It's not like you have the Gentiles and the Jews and God has these separate plans of salvation for them or these separate tracts of spirituality for them.

No, there's only one organic people of God throughout the history of redemption. You had Israel as this church, if you will, the people of God under the Old Testament, together with, you know, all the things that God gave them. It was, you know, it was interesting because the church there, you also had their civil government.

You also had the ceremonial laws that were given to them, the temple and so forth. Many of these things foreshadowing or picturing the redemptive work of Jesus that was to come. And of course when Jesus came, many of those Jews rejected him. And this is what causes Paul to lament in Romans chapter 9. You remember in Romans chapter 9 he says, I am not lying, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. Which, by the way, let me just stop there and say, so he's about to say, the reason I have this great sorrow and unceasing anguish is because of my countrymen, you know, the Jews who rejected Messiah. He's saying, I wish, man, I wish that I were even cut off from Christ for their sake, that they might be saved. So you have here just the heart of Paul for those who don't have a relationship with Jesus.

And I think that's a beautiful example for us. Lord, give us that same heart where we say, where our heart breaks, where our heart breaks, where we have that unceasing anguish for those who don't know Jesus. And that's what Paul has here for the Jews, because many of them, like John says, Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him.

Many of them rejected him. But it's not that God's plan failed or was thwarted, it's that God was working in and through all of these circumstances grafting the nations of the world, the Gentiles, into his holy people. And that's what you get in Romans chapter 11. So there's only one people of God, and that one people of God exists on the basis of faith. And so if a person is an ethnic Jew, right, but they're an atheist, they reject the gospel, they reject Jesus, they're not a part of the people of God, not in the most important sense, the sense that I think we're called to be by faith. And again, that's part of the argument that Paul is making in Romans 11, the centrality of faith and how some were broken off of this tree. Branches, natural branches, were broken off.

Why? Because they didn't believe. And so there's one people of God, you know, that exists on the basis of faith, and it's only as people turn to Jesus and have faith that they're made a part of that organic people of God that we hear about in the Bible. Now, Paul does say, after he says this in Romans 11, he says in verse 25, lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved as it is written. The deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

And so there Paul seems to indicate that this is, you know, people have, just like, you know, so much of, you know, these controversial texts, people have interpreted these different ways, but one of the ways, and I think this is a good way of understanding what's happening in Romans 11, is to say that no, it seems that Paul is talking about a revival among the Jewish people. They're going to turn to Messiah, and that's a part of what God is working here. But again, it's only by faith in Messiah, in Jesus, that they experience the life that is found in God. We can't have a relationship with God or be saved, quote unquote, if we're severed from Christ, if we're separated from him. And so pray for your neighbors, pray for your Jewish neighbors, and that God would bring them to church and open their eyes to understand who Jesus is and what Christ has done for their redemption.

All right, thank you for that question, Chuck, and appreciate you calling in. And you know, as you mentioned, Adriel, there's a lot of ethnic Jews, a lot of Jews in this country, who would consider themselves atheists. I mean, they're Jewish by heritage, but they have no belief in God whatsoever. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of an interesting thing, because many of them go to, you know, Torah school, and they study, you know, they study the Old Testament, they can say Hebrew prayers, but it's that personal relationship with Christ that's missing. You know, Jesus told the religious leaders in the Gospel of John, you search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, but these are the very scriptures that testify of me.

And so would, again, that that veil be lifted, and that people would see that Christ is the very focal point of the entire Bible, including the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures, that they're pointing us forward to the redemptive work of Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus Christ. Amen. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, you can always email us.

Our email address is questions at corechristianity.com, or you can call us and leave a voicemail at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Brian calling in from Missouri. Brian, thanks for holding on. What's your question for Adriel?

Thank you for taking my call, Adriel Sanchez. My question is this. During the rapture, it says that the dead will be raised, and we will, and the ones that are still alive, will be caught up in the air with Christ. My question is pretty simple, and I haven't found this yet anywhere in scripture, but my question was, it doesn't mention anywhere that I have found about cremation. Thank you.

Okay, Brian. So, look, one, if the concern is, and, you know, throughout the history of the church, there was some concern that Christians had about cremation, more specifically with regard to how we treat the body and the goodness of creation, but what I would say is, you know, whether an individual is cremated or buried in a grave or lost at sea, that's not going to keep them from being resurrected on the last day if they had faith in Jesus. Again, the resurrection power is the work of God, it's the work of the Holy Spirit, and so the key question, I've said this to callers before, the key question is not how were you buried, but who did you trust in? Did you know Christ?

Do you have a relationship with him? You know, it's sort of funny, you think of, like, other religions, and I think of, you know, the ancient Egyptians, for example, and how much stock they put in, you know, the ornate burial practices, even, you know, being buried with treasures that they hoped to take with them in the afterlife, and, you know, there was so much focus placed on that, on the ritual associated with that, but we don't really have that same kind of a thing as Christians, because we recognize, right, naked I came into this world, and naked I'm gonna go, and the focus is not so much on how you're buried as, you know, what determines the state of your afterlife, but again, who you know, do you trust in Jesus, do you have a relationship with Christ, and also with that text that you're referring to in First Thessalonians chapter four, I think more specifically what Paul is referring to there is the day of the Lord, the second coming of the Lord, and that happens at the same time, it's sort of contemporaneous with the resurrection, the final resurrection, the final judgment, this is something that we see throughout the New Testament, and so that's, you know, when that happens, whether you were buried or lost at sea or cremated, you know, if you're in Christ, if you're part of the dead in Christ, you will be raised to new life by the resurrection power of the Lord. Thanks for your question. Man, I hope I don't get lost at sea, I mean. Yeah, I know, I don't know why I used that example, I mean, they're all kind of grim, right, but yeah, me either, and yeah, no cruises for you, Bill. I actually, I used to work on a sailboat in San Diego harbor, and there was always that chance that when we were out doing well watching, you know, I could have gone overboard and, well. A real Jonah experience, Bill. Wasn't there an article recently where a guy like actually got swallowed by a whale and spit out and lived to tell the story? That could have been you, Bill.

It could have been me, yes. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. I want to take a moment out to say thank you to some very special people.

We call them our inner core. These are people that really believe in this ministry wholeheartedly, so much so that they make a monthly gift to help keep us on the air. Yeah, if you've been encouraged by the work that we do here at Core Christianity, a couple of things. One, please be praying for us. Pray, I'll give you a prayer quest right now if you listen to the broadcast, you know, frequently. Pray that the Lord would use this to draw people to himself, that they would grow in their relationship with Christ, and that even those who don't know the Lord but stumble upon the work that we're doing, that they would hear about Jesus and be convicted of their sins and trust in him. So pray for us, but if you want to support us further, we'd love for you to join the inner core.

As Bill said, it's a monthly gift of $25 or more, and so encouraging to be able to partner together. That's how we view it, is we're partnering together to get the good news of the gospel and sound doctrine out into the world, and so thank you for supporting us to that end, and may God continue to bless us with his grace and draw many to himself. If you'd like to join the inner core, you can find out more by going to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core, and if you'd just like to make a one-time gift, you can do that anytime by going to corechristianity.com and look for that donate link.

That would make a huge difference to our ministry and to keep us doing what we're doing. Here's our phone number again. If you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life doctrine, or theology, you can leave us a voicemail anytime at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also email us your question at questions at corechristianity.com. Adriel, here's an email from one of our listeners named Lou. He says, Hi, Pastor Adriel. I listened to your program during my commute to work, and I find your counsel is well grounded in the word. In Psalm 119, has anyone teased out how the words — precepts, testimonies, judgments, law, commandments, statutes, word, and ways — are used seemingly interchangeably? Psalm 19 is a part of my daily devotions as the Holy Spirit leads me through the Bible. It's a wonderful way to meditate on God's word. And then he adds this, Keep on keeping on, Pastor Adriel.

You and others have influenced me to attend church in person rather than online, which I was comfortable during during the pandemic. Thank you. Ooh, can we get the little clap thing going on, you know? Yeah, I love it. I love it. Thank you very much.

We got to have that button just ready to go. I am so encouraged, Lou, to hear that, to hear that you're digging into the word and that you're worshiping with the saints. Praise God.

And you're totally right, man. There's a number of words, I think there's like seven, that are all synonyms for God's precepts or laws that are used throughout Psalm 119. And of course that's one of the great, you know, focuses of the 119th Psalm is the word of God to strengthen us, to guard us from sin, meditation upon the word of God. And so the fact that you have all of these synonyms for God's law, for his precepts, for his judgments and so forth, that at least, you know, it sounds like you've done the digging, that you realize, okay, this is the focus here. Oftentimes, you know, when we think of that word law, our minds go to the Ten Commandments. It's really kind of interesting because the Torah, the law, referred to the first five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And there's evidence that the Psalter sort of mirrors Torah, the law, the first five books of the Old Testament. I'll tell you how. The Psalter is broken up into how many books? Does anybody know? Five books.

I should have let you answer, Bill. But five books, just like there are, you know, the first five books of the Old Testament. You know, what's interesting is that third book, the third book of the Psalter, is really focused on the priestly ministry.

You have a lot of psalms that are written by or associated with worship in the tabernacle or in the temple with the priests and the sons of Korah and Asaph and so forth. Well, what's interesting about that is, well, what's the third book of Torah? It's Leviticus, the priestly book, we might say. And so it's interesting because this idea of God's judgments, his word, his law, his Torah being so central to the book of Psalms and central to, you know, the first five books of the Old Testament as well is key.

And it's right there. And I think, again, that's one of the things that's highlighted there in Psalm 119. And of course, early in the Psalter, you know, in the first two chapters, you have kind of an introduction to the entire Psalter and the call to meditate upon God's word. Blessed is the man, right, who doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, but delights in the law of the Lord. And so one of the things that the Psalms call us to do is to delight in God's Torah, in his word, to meditate upon it, to be nourished by it. And so we're not just thinking about, like, the Ten Commandments, but we're thinking about God's redemptive revelation, the story of redemption that you have, even in those first five books of the Old Testament. And at the center of that, I mean, you think of the book of Leviticus being the third book in Torah.

What do you get? You get pictures of the redemptive work of Jesus. You think of the Day of Atonement, for example, that's described in the book of Leviticus, and all of those prophecies that point us forward to Jesus. Way back even in Genesis, in Genesis chapter 3, the promise that the seed of the woman was going to crush the head of the serpent. So amazing, so beautiful how the whole Bible is leading us to Jesus.

That's why God gave it to us. This revelation is given to exalt Jesus so that we might know him, and so that, as John said in his Gospel in John chapter 20, so that believing in him we might have, you might have, life in his name. I hope that you have that life, friend, trusting in Jesus, and may the Lord bless you and encourage you as you meditate upon the law of the Lord. God bless. God's word together.