People often ask me whether I am bothered by the hatred of the Jewish people around the world.
Let me remind you that neither Israel nor the church was ever designed to be loved by the world. Israel was chosen to reveal the one true God to the nations, and the church was sent to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Both stand as a testimony that confronts a world in rebellion against God.
Jesus Himself warned His followers:
“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you… If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”
— John 15:18, 20 (NKJV)
He also said:
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
— Luke 6:26 (NKJV)
If the world loves us because we have compromised the truth, something is wrong. But if the world hates us because we faithfully represent Christ, we are simply sharing in what He Himself experienced.
Everything God did in Israel and through Israel had one ultimate purpose. As the prophet Ezekiel repeatedly declared:
“Then they shall know that I am the Lord.”
When Israel rejected the Messiah, the responsibility of taking the gospel to the nations was entrusted to the church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles. Yet God’s story with the nation He calls His inheritance did not end there.
As a believer, I am committed to proclaiming the good news of the Hope of Israel. That is exactly how Paul referred to the Messiah when he declared:
“For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”
— Acts 28:20 (NKJV)
As a Jew, I am equally committed to proclaiming the good news that the Lord is not finished with His people. Just as He promised, His plans for Israel are to give them “a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11), until the day when “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).
The Gentile nations lived in disobedience before the coming of the Messiah. Israel, as a nation, stumbled by rejecting Him when He came. Yet God has sovereignly used both to accomplish His redemptive plan, showing mercy first to the Gentiles through Israel’s stumbling, and one day showing mercy to Israel as well.
That is exactly what Paul wrote:
“For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”
— Romans 11:30-33 (NKJV)
Before anyone misunderstands what I am saying, let me make one thing absolutely clear.
If you’re wondering whether I am suggesting that being Jewish is enough to be saved, the answer is no.
I will take you back to the words of Jesus Himself, spoken to one of the most respected leaders of the Jewish people, Nicodemus:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3 (NKJV)
If a leader of Israel needed to be born again, then so does every Jew. And if a religious Jew needed the Messiah for salvation, then so does every Gentile.
Salvation has always been, and will always be, by grace through faith in the Messiah. There is only one Savior, one gospel, and one way to the Father.
The distinction between Israel and the church is not about two different ways of salvation. It is about two distinct callings within God’s redemptive plan. The same Messiah who saves all who believe today is the One who will one day fulfill every promise He made to Israel.
The hatred of the world does not concern me. What concerns me is whether we remain faithful to God’s calling. Israel must remain Israel. The church must remain the church. And together, both continue to testify to the faithfulness of the God of Israel until the King returns.