There is a peculiar and bewitching spell on much of the Church today when it comes to Israel. Many believers have been taken captive by deceitful myths to believe that Israel is mysteriously more favoured, more special and more loved by God than other nations, and also that Gentiles who observe Jewish customs will mysteriously gain access to God’s favour and special blessings. This is a serious error in the Church, and the reason why it troubles me so much is because it undermines the finished work of Jesus and replaces faith with superstition.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not against Israel in anyway and I don’t subscribe to “replacement theology”. I love Israel, I am for Israel and I honour their heritage and I believe God has an end time plan for them and will preserve them as a nation. I would never want to discourage anyone from loving Israel, visiting Israel, or from supporting and defending Israel. There are many amazing churches in Israel and Jewish people who love Jesus, and who celebrate their history and cultural traditions in a healthy way that honours Christ as the substance and fulfilment of the Law. I don’t have a problem with anyone celebrating Jewish history and culture.

The problem I do have though, is when we believe Israel is more special to God than any other nation, or when we believe that all Israel will be saved in the end regardless of faith, or when we believe that Gentiles, who observe Jewish customs, will access special blessings and favour from God. I have a problem with these three ways of thinking because they undermine the finished work of Jesus – where all of God’s riches and blessings are available to all nations and all people by the grace of God through faith in Christ.

The Gentile Church should not be:

  • Trying to observe the Jewish calendar and “holy” dates and feasts believing that certain days are more holy than others, or that certain places are more holy than others.  
  • Observing Jewish food and eating customs believing that God will withdraw favour from them or bless them if they only eat certain foods.
  • Observing circumcision customs believing that their children will be set apart to God and more blessed.
  • Praying and worshipping with certain Jewish emblems or practises believing this will attract God’s blessings and favour.

I have a problem with all of this because it undermines the Gospel and turns faith into superstition.


In this Bible study I want to present three myth busting truths:

1. Israel is not more special, more loved or more favoured by God than any other nation.

Romans 10:12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.

2. All Israel will not mysteriously be saved in the end, except that they have faith in Christ.

Romans 3:28-30 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

3. There are no special blessings for Jews or Gentiles who observe Jewish customs.

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you (make you feel bad for not observing these things) in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Paul the apostle was always very concerned that the Church did not go back to Judaism (observing Jewish laws and customs to be saved or blessed by God). He was so strong on this because this deception can destroy a whole church. The most compelling arguments he makes against a church going into Judaism is in his letter to the Galatians. Their churches were founded by Paul and made up of a mixture of Jewish and Gentile believers. Paul longed for them to be deeply established in New Covenant faith and grace but there was always a constant outside pressure on them to go back to trusting in Jewish customs for blessings and salvation.

In this Bible study I want to look at some key scriptures from Galatians 1-6 to see how Paul goes about breaking these three bewitching myths off the church:

Galatians 1:

There is only one Gospel and Judaism is not part of it.

  • Verses 6-8 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.
  • Verses 13-16 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles…”

Judaism was Paul’s former life, but once Christ was revealed to him, he came out of it and fully into New Covenant grace and faith and fought hard to keep Judaism out of the Church. Paul considered it a “distorted” and “different gospel”. The “some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” were Jews who were putting pressure on the Galatians to go back to Judaism and Paul certainly didn’t consider it innocent. He opposes it!

Galatians 2:

Gentiles should not observe Jewish customs.

  • Verses 1-5 Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery— to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.

Paul explains how he once previously went up to Jerusalem (see Acts 15 for this event) to deal with this same issue of “should Gentiles be required to observe Jewish customs?”  There had been “false brothers” – Pharisees who had slipped into the church, saying that Gentiles are required to be circumcised and observe the customs of Moses in order to be saved.

Here was the heart of the issue in Acts 15:6-11

  • Now the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.”

The conclusion is that Gentiles should not be required to do any of the customs, that not even the Jews could fulfil, but rather both Jews and Gentiles should rely on the grace of Jesus Christ.

It’s amazing that Peter made this statement yet a short while later he was coming back under a pressure to observe Jewish customs.

Paul confronted Peter about this publicly and mentions it here in Galatians.

  • Verses 11-14 But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

If Peter the apostle could be seduced to come under the pressure of Judaism, don’t you think the Church today could also be seduced? There is a blinding spiritual pressure on the Church today to observe Jewish customs in order to gain some special blessing and favour from God.

The Galatian churches were coming under this same bewitching pressure but listen how Paul, with some tough love, helps them to see what’s happening:

Galatians 3:

Abrahamic blessings come through faith not Judaism.

  • Verse 1-6 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?

Salvation, miracles, maturity and the Holy Spirit don’t come upon the Gentiles by observing Jewish customs but simply by faith in Christ. To think it comes from Judaism is a bewitchment!

  • Verse 7-9 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

All the promises of God to Abraham in Genesis 12 are available to anyone who has faith in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile. Being Jewish, and observing Jewish customs is not what brings the Abrahamic blessing into your life. It’s faith in Jesus that causes anyone to be blessed along with Abraham.

  • Verse 13-14 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
  • Verses 26 -29 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

There is only one Gospel and that is that through faith in Christ all nations have got equal access to salvation, to the Abrahamic blessing and to the favour and love of God. There is no favoritism between Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free, but all are blessed through faith in Christ and never by observing Jewish customs.

Galatians 4:

Observing Judaism is slavery not freedom.

  • Verse 1-7 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
  • Verse 8-11 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Going back under the law to observe Jewish customs doesn’t give you an inheritance. The inheritance of God comes through Christ. In Christ we become first born children of God with the full inheritance and blessing. Observing Jewish customs cannot add anything to that. It will actually fight against it and try rob you of it!

Galatians 5:

Stand in your freedom in Christ and don’t go back to the slavery of trusting in Jewish customs.

  • Verses 1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
  • Verse 2-4 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
  • Verse 5-6 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
  • Verses 7-10 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.

Galatians 6:

Walk by the rule of a new creation, not Jewish customs.

  • Verse 14-16 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

All those who trust in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are born from above and become part of the spiritual Israel of God and heirs of the Abrahamic blessing.

This doesn’t mean God is finished with natural Israel. No God loves natural Israel, is preserving them and they will play a part in the fulfilment of end time prophecy.

Final thought:

Christ is the fulfilment and substance of all Jewish customs, festivals, days and dates. All those customs were merely shadows pointing towards the true substance which is Christ. Once the substance has come all those customs are merely empty shadows! They cannot add anything to you spiritually now. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t honour Israel for their part in God’s salvation plan, or that Jews shouldn’t celebrate their cultural history, especially if it recognizes Christ as the substance. But it means we should not look to Jewish customs for salvation or blessings, because those are only found in Christ through faith.

In Christ all the fulness and riches and treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge are found. And we have been given fullness in Christ and access to all of God’s riches and blessings. To look towards Jewish customs to gain some extra blessing or favour from God is to empty the finished work of Jesus of its power! This beautiful scripture confirms all this:

  • Colossians 2:1-10 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
  • Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

By Ryan Rufus.

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