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After centuries of discussion, a church council at Nicaea in 325 A.D. rightly conclud- ed that there is one God in three persons, that Jesus was very God (of one substance with the Father and with the Holy Spirit), and that the person of the Word of God had become incar- nate, lived, suffered, died, resurrected, and ascended. This teaching focused on the deity of Christ was the foundation of orthodox theol- ogy. A later council at Chalcedon in 451 A.D. also correctly concluded that Jesus was both very God and very man, not part God and part man, but all God and all man at the same time. This teaching of the two natures of Christ was the foundation of orthodox Christology. Both of these orthodox teachings con- firmed what had already been made clear in the Apostolic Scriptures: Yeshua is more than just a man; he is God (John 1:1-4, 14; Colos- sians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16). At the same time, in his incarnation, Yeshua was very much a man, less than God in the sense that he had limited his deity to his humanity by emptying himself of his equality with the Father (Philip- pians 2:6-8). He became human in order to complete God’s plan of salvation by overcom- ing sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3), providing through the offering of his perfected body on the cross (Hebrews 2:10, 14) an efficacious atonement for the sins of all humanity (Hebrews 9:26), and by resurrecting on the third day as evidence of God’s approval upon his sacrifice (Acts 2:23-36).


With such clear and irrefutable teachings


in place for over fifteen centuries, how is it remotely possible that the church could have virtually denied the historical Jesus in favor of the cosmic Christ? How can anyone who pro- fesses to be a Christian not know that Jesus was and is a Jew? How could he be portrayed as a European with blonde hair and blue eyes or as an African with black skin and hair like wool, or as being from any number of other ethnicities? Even more ridiculously, how could Jesus


be portrayed as a first-rate medium by the con- sciousness philosophers, as an avatar, one of the many incarnations of God, by Eastern Monism, as just another prophet leading up to the prophet Mohammed by Islam, as merely a teacher by many Jewish communities, or even as nothing more than a great moral example by nominal Christianity? Every religion and philosophy wants to claim Jesus, but it wants to create a Jesus in its own image. The truth is that if anyone is to understand the true Jesus, the only testimony that can be accepted is the record of Holy Scripture, which places him and his sayings in the historical and cultural milieu in which he was lived.


www.JewishVoiceToday.org


YESHUA WAS A JEW! The record of Scripture is clear: Yeshua


was born a Jew, he lived Jew, he died a Jew, he resurrected a Jew, he ascended a Jew, he is seat- ed in heaven a Jew, and he will return to earth a Jew.


When Yeshua became incarnate on earth,


it was “evident that our Lord came from Judah,” the tribe whose name was contracted to form the word Jew (Hebrews 7:14). He was born in Bethlehem of Judea, the “son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). When the sages from Babylon came to Jerusa- lem, their question was, “Where is he that is born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). Yeshua lived a normal life as a Jewish


man among his Jewish family and communi- ty. There was no nimbus around his head, nor was there any other distinguishing mark that would have demonstrated his divine origin. He was fully human: he thirsted, he was hun- gry, he ate, he slept, he wept, and he died. As a child Yeshua was precocious in his


knowledge of the Torah, so much so that at the age of twelve he astounded the Jerusalem rabbis (Luke 2:42ff). In everything, he was a proper, Torah-observant Jew. The woman at the well of Samaria recognized him as a Jew because of his dress and grooming (John 4:9). The woman with the issue of blood was healed when she touched the tzitziyot (tassels) of his garment (Matthew 9:20), an important mark in the clothing of every observant Jewish man in that day. When Yeshua died, he was still a Jew. This superscription appeared above his head on the cross, “This is Jesus the King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37), was Pilate’s sarcastic but legal recognition of his Jewishness and his kingship. When he arose from the grave in the resurrection, Yeshua was still a Jew confirmed by Peter who preached in Acts 2:22-36 that the bodily resurrection occurred specifically so that God’s oath to David could be fulfilled: “That of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ.” Yeshua did not die a Jew and resurrect the cosmic Christ. He was the cosmic Christ from eternity past, but he became incarnate as a Jew, died as a Jew, and resurrected as a Jew so that God’s oath to


David could be fulfilled “according to the flesh.” Yeshua ascended to heaven as a Jew.


Hebrews 7:14-15 confirms that in order for him to become the High Priest, the priesthood was changed, reverting to the order of Melchizedek, for “it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.” Jesus, then, is still of the tribe of Judah, a Jew—in glorified flesh, to be sure—but still a Jew. And, it is demonstrably true that the only way that any- one can come to God the Father is through a Jew: Yeshua Ha-Mashiach! When the Messiah returns, he will still be


a Jew, as the angels declared at his ascension, “...this same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). The same Jewish Messiah who resurrected in the flesh will return to the earth in that same glori- fied Jewish flesh in which he ascended. Indeed, the same Yeshua will return to the same place from which he departed–the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12; Zechariah 14:4)–and in the same manner in which he ascended–with clouds (Acts 1:9; Revelation 1:7). While he was, is, and ever will be the cos- mic Christ (the divine Logos-Memra), Yeshua was, is, and will be a Jew according to the flesh until that time when he will deliver everything up to the Father so that the Godhead may again be supreme (1 Corinthians 15:27-28).


JEWISH JESUS OR COSMIC CHRIST? It was not until late in his ministry that


both Peter and Martha recognized by divine revelation that Yeshua was the Messiah, the Son of God (Matthew 16:16; John 11:27). This confession still remains the foundation of faith for every believer who becomes a disciple of Jesus. Is he the Jewish Jesus or Cosmic Christ?


He was and is both–both God and man, both Creator and Redeemer, both the Author and the Perfecter of our faith: the God of creation who became a Jew in order to redeem both his people Israel and all of humanity. This article is based on Our Lost Legacy:


Christianity’s Hebrew Heritage, by John D. Garr, © Golden Key Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 2006. (See page 6 for order information.)


DR. JOHN D. GARR is founder and president of Hebraic Christian Global Community, an educational, publishing, and fellowship resource to the international Christian community (www.HebraicCommunity.org). He is also president and CEO of Hebraic Heritage Christian College, an Internet-based Christian Bible college (www.HebraicCenter. org). For more than forty years, Dr. Garr has been a leading biblical scholar and author whose teaching focuses on restoring the Jewish roots of the Christian faith to all Believers.


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