Questions and Responses
 
 
 

            2. Of what importance is it to us as Christians that Jesus was an observant Jew?

                The God whom Jesus called "Father" and whom he taught us also to call "Father" is the
            God of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob, Rachel and Leah. The
            one God of Israel is the only God there is. The relationship the one God has with the People
            Israel is the covenant relationship into which Jesus was born and within which he was
            nourished. His teachings were about that relationship, and for it he died and was resurrected.
            Apart from that covenantal relationship nothing we know about Jesus would make any sense
            and nothing we teach about ourselves as the Church would have any foundation.

                Following the lead of St. Paul (Romans 9 - 11), we Christians believe our covenant with
            God through Jesus to be inseparably related to the covenant God has with the Jewish people.
            Furthermore, ours has enduring substance only if theirs does also. Otherwise God would have
            to be thought capricious, which God is not. Because God's love and promises are steadfast and
            sure, we believe God's covenant with the Jewish people to be of enduring substance.
            Therefore, we boldly believe the same about God's covenant with us.

                Jews and Christians worship, love, and serve one and the same God, the only God there
            is, though we do it in quite distinctive ways.

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