To the Jew First

Scott opened a new series called Foundations the way you start a game of pickleball, by going back and rehearsing the basics. The basic this week came from a question a woman once shouted at him from the back of a Baptist church: why the Jews? He decided long ago it was a fair question, and Romans 1:16 is where he answered it. Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. Most teaching stops at “everyone who believes.” Scott would not let us stop there. If the gospel was once the power of God but is no longer to the Jew first, then it is no longer the power of God at all, which is unthinkable. So the phrase still stands. To the Jew first in every generation.

The point that holds the message together is that this is strategic, not preferential. God does not love the Jewish people more; the reason they exist at all is that he loves the world. From Genesis on, the promise was that through Israel all the families of the earth would be blessed, and what’s been taught here before is that this is a blessing of nothing less than what was lost in the garden. Scott put it plainly with a picture of himself and his first computer: he goes to the computer first every morning, not because he treasures the machine, but because it is the tool through which he reaches everyone else. Israel is that kind of instrument. There is no room to boast in being chosen, since the choosing was always for the sake of others, and previous drashes here have noted that Israel was picked as the people least likely to succeed precisely so the glory would be God’s. This is also why he warned against the quiet error of replacement theology, the idea that the church has inherited Israel’s blessings while Israel keeps the curses. If God’s unfulfilled promises to Israel can simply expire, then the trustworthiness of every promise, including the ones made to us, starts to erode.

What the message asked of us was modest and concrete. Educate people about the Jewish roots of the faith, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and when we share the good news, do not forget the Jewish people. Scott was gentle about how to carry a conviction this strong, commending the words “please consider” over any urge to become militant about a cherished doctrine. When you design your own life of witness this week, who is on the list, and who has been quietly left off it?