Salvation does not come from the Jews!I’ve seen pagans and even Christians claiming that Salvation comes from the Jews (also claiming that this affirms Jesus’ “Jewish” lineage) and they love to cite John 4:22 that records Jesus saying to a Samaritan woman:
“
You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews."
Cherrypicking John 4:22 is unjust! Salvation comes from God alone, specifically through the grace of God the Father and the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that salvation is a gift from God, not earned by human works only, but received through faith in Christ too (
Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus is described as the only mediator between God and humanity (
1 Timothy 2:5),
and salvation is found in no one else (
Acts 4:12). The Holy Spirit also plays a role by drawing people to faith and enabling them to be born again (
John 3:5-8).
“Now, in order to strengthen our faith, we want to deal with a few crass follies of the Jews in their belief and their exegesis of the Scriptures,
since they so maliciously revile our faith. If this should move any Jew to reform and repent, so much the better.
We are now not talking with the Jews but about the Jews and their dealings, so that our Germans, too, might be informed.There is one thing about which they boast and pride them selves beyond measure, and that is their descent from the foremost people on earth, from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and from the twelve patriarchs, and thus from the holy people of Israel. St. Paul himself admits this when he says in Romans 9:5: *Quorum patres*, that is, "To
them belong the patriarchs, and of their race is the Christ," etc. And Christ himself declares in John 4:22, "
Salvation is from the Jews."
Therefore they boast of being the noblest, yes, the only noble people on earth.
In comparison with them and in their eyes we Gentiles (Goyim) are not human; in fact we hardly deserve to be considered poor worms by them. For we are not of that high and noble blood, lineage, birth, and descent. This is their argument, and indeed I think it is the greatest and strongest reason for their pride and boasting.
Therefore, God has to endure that in their synagogues, their prayers, songs, doctrines, and their whole life, they come and stand before him and plague him grievously (if I may speak of God in such a human fashion).
Thus he must listen to their boasts and their praises to him for setting them apart from the Gentiles, for letting them be descended from the holy patriarchs, and for selecting them to be his holy and peculiar people, etc. And there is no limit and no end to this boasting about their descent and their physical birth from the fathers.” -
Martin LutherSee also: “Christ was NOT a Jew for as we know today [1] [2]
And: “Judaism is NOT the religion of the Bible” [1] [2]
Happy Resurrection Day to all my brothers and sisters! ❤️