How did Jesus reconcile his teachings with Judaism?

Question

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was a Jew. Yet Jesus revealed that he was the Son of God.

It seems to me that Jesus' contemporaries must have been forced to decide if his teachings were either:

• Extensions of or updates to Judaism.
• Or things that were so transformative/disruptive that they were suggestive of a new religion and a new interpretation (perhaps to the point of being heretical).

My Question: - Did Jesus bother to reconcile his teachings with Judaism? And if so, how?

Answer 1

Clearly Jesus described himself as being within Judaism and not opposing or superceding it. Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill."

Perhaps the easy answer to your question is to turn it around: What did Jesus ever do or say that contradicted the Hebrew scriptures? What did he say that needed to be reconciled? He never said that he was abolishing Judaism. He never said anything that contradicted anything in the Hebrew scriptures. He routinely quoted scripture to back up his statements, and as I quoted above, he affirmed the scriptures.

Yes, he claimed to be the Messiah and God made flesh, and if that was not true , he was the worst of blasphemers. But if it was true, then he was fulfilling the scriptures.

Answer 2

Actually, without Jesus, Judaism is incomplete. The Old Testament, even as far back as Genesis 3, speaks of a Deliverer, a Messiah, a Savior. This Deliverer would come through the line of Abraham and be the blessing to all people that God promised Abraham.

I want to point out that I am distinguishing Biblical Judaism from rabbinical Judaism. I'm defining Biblical Judaism as acknowledging Jesus as the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecies. Messianic Jews fit this definition of Biblical Judaism. Rabbinical Judaism denies Jesus, of course, but still has no Messiah that has yet come. Still culture and traditions are followed.

The Scriptures foretold when and where the Messiah would be born, that He would be called "God with us", that He would die and rise again, that He would be rejected by His people, and on and on. So, without Jesus, Judaism is incomplete, with God being silent and ignoring the Jewish people for 2500 years. Furthermore, within a generation of the Jewish leaders rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, the Jewish nation was conquered and the Temple destroyed. This lasted for nearly 1900 years. (This dispersion and regathering was also prophesied.)

The apostles never saw themselves as anything other than Jewish. Indeed, the most Jewish thing a Jewish person can do is recognize the Jewish Messiah. Jesus fulfilled the promise to be a Deliverer not only for the people of Israel, but for the whole world. (Isaiah 49:6 and others)

Without Jesus, Judaism is without a Messiah. Without Jesus, Judaism has not been a blessing to all people. Without Jesus, the Jewish prophecies remain unfulfilled and must be considered false.

So, Jesus' teachings fit completely within Judaism, and true Judaism recognizes Jesus as the Jewish Messiah prophesied in the Jewish Scriptures.

Answer 3

It's important to remember that Judaism was a religion instituted by God, intended for God's purposes, but had been co-opted by man who began adding and removing laws as they saw fit.

So enter Jesus: He says he "fulfills" the law. What does he mean by this? Many people seem to think this meant that he added to, and finished creating all of the rules associated with the law, but I don't believe this to be the case. As Paul said in Romans 3:19-20:

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

So if the law's purpose wasn't to primarily justify us, but to show us our sin, then why would Jesus simply come and add laws? (Indeed, he does do this at times, but I believe his point is to push people closer to the edge of despair when it comes to their own self-reliance, and push them to a point where they cry out to have mercy on them.) The answer is, he doesn't. He, being God, clarifies the law by showing the true expectation of the law, that our hearts would be turned towards God.

Now, as for fulfilling the law, he fulfills it by himself following the law. He finishes the expectations of the law by living under the law, and thus, he is the only one who manages, on his own merits, to escape the judgement of God. Now here's where it gets crazy, and why we believe in Christ in the first place: he then goes on to die the death of a sinner anyways, and in doing so, he becomes the sacrifice for the sins of those who have failed to obey the law, and thus he frees us from the law (though not himself).

Now, the temporal consequences of our sin will still remain with us. If I kill someone, then I am more than likely going to suffer temporal consequences for doing so, but the death of Christ is sufficient to pay the penalties for this on an eternal level, and my failure to match up to the requirements of the law are forgiven not solely on the basis that God forgives, but on the basis that Christ has already paid the penalty.

So Jesus reconciled himself to Judaism by following all that Judaism required of him.

As for his contemporaries trying to decide if he did or not, keep in mind that they had already co-opted the law and the prophets for their own gain. They added and removed laws to suit their fancy, and viewed Jesus as a glutton and a drunkard because he didn't follow their twisted version of the law. Nevertheless, the law was given by God, and the law, as given by God (not as twisted by the Pharisees and Sadducees) was fulfilled (obeyed) by Christ.