"Tell Us Plainly"
In a former article under this title I set forth a few of the evidences of the Messiah-ship of Jesus; some of the reasons the Jews of His day should have believed that He is the Christ. Just as our Lord by these evidences told them plainly that He is the promised Redeemer, so these same evidences should be equally convincing today. Yet, just as the Jews then rejected Christ, so they still refuse to accept Him in spite of the abundance of proof.
Present day Judaism is divided into Orthodoxy, Neo-Orthodoxy, and Liberalism. Most of the ancient religion has been swallowed up in the Liberal contingent. A "rabbi" acquaintance of mine, a Liberal Jew, has recently been kind enough to "tell us plainly what he believes, and to give me in conversation his representative views concerning Christ.
While the Jew does not believe in the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament, he does recognize in it a certain element of messianic prophecy. He believes that the prophets expected and predicted the coming of a Saviour, but that they were in some instances wrong in what they said about Him. In any case, the Jew believes that the Messiah is not a particular person, but rather a "messianic age" yet in the future. This messianic age is to be a period of happiness and brotherhood upon the earth. My "rabbi" - friend informed me that most Jews are not still looking for a personal messiah. In fact they believe that in so far as any one man could be the fulfillment of the prophecies, Jesus of Nazareth was that man. But of course they do not believe that any man was or ever shall be the Christ. Since Jesus failed to bring about an earthly condition which they believe is the messianic age, it follows that He cannot possibly be the fulfillment of Israel's hope.
In reply to my question, "What do you think of Jesus?" the "rabbi" replied that the Jews regard Him as a "great teacher" and as an "exceptionally good man." I think it has been pointed out numberless times that since Jesus claimed to be the Christ, if He is not, then He lied about the matter; a liar cannot be an "exceptionally good man" by any decent standard. On the other hand, if Jesus thought Himself to be the Christ, and is not, then He was too deluded to be a "great teacher."
So far as the sinless life of Jesus is concerned, the Jew concedes that no fault can be found in Him, and regards this as the strongest evidence of his divinity. Yet this is set aside as being inconclusive.
My friend expressed the view that even if a personal Messiah should appear, it would not be His design to change the Jewish religion in any sense. Thus it is obvious that the reason the Jews of Christ's day did not receive Him harmonizes with the thinking of the modern Jews; that is, He is rejected because He set aside their cherished traditions and changed their law. Therefore they could not and cannot accept Him. However, it is highly ironic that even though they rejected Christ because of His efforts to change their ancient religion, they have allowed their own "humanism" and worldly wisdom to so alter their religion as to make it totally unrecognizable as the religion of the Old Testament. For the Liberal Jew today does not keep the law of Moses, does not observe the old traditions concerning food and drink, and does not even worship the same kind of God as did their forefathers.
Thus we clearly see the folly of rejecting Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.