Are The Jews Christ-Killers?

“Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." John 10:17-18 For centuries the Jews have been called "Christ killers," and a tremendous amount of anti-Semitism has been levied upon them because of it. Anyone maintaining this deception does not know the Scriptures. Jesus himself proclaimed the reason for his coming. He came to die. THAT WAS HIS PURPOSE for coming into the world, that he might bear OUR sins and take the judgment of them upon himself in our place. Most people aren't sufficiently aware of the ramifications of the sin of Adam. When Satan caused Adam to sin, through Adam's rebellion Satan gained Adam's authority over the entire earth. He became the "god of this world" (2nd Corinthians 4:4). This was a calculated plan of the devil himself to steal from mankind the authority that God had bestowed upon him, and to render them powerless over sin, condemning them to an eternal hell. God had told Adam from the beginning that he was not to eat of a particular tree and that if he did, he would "surely die" (Genesis 2:17). An important question to ask here is "did Adam die that day?" We know he lived on for many years afterwards and brought forth children. So - was God mistaken? Not only was God not mistaken, he was revealing to us something very important. "Death" means separation. At physical death, the body is separated from the soul and without the soul, the body cannot live. But there's a greater death, a death we all were born with. Adam's SPIRIT died in the day he sinned against God. He was no longer united to God. His life was cut off from God when his spirit died. And every descendant of Adam is born in this state of spiritual death. That is why Jesus SO strongly stressed, "You MUST be born again" (John 3:7). Unless one is born again he remains in that state of spiritual death. This is where the most famous Scripture in the Bible comes into play: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16 God saw the enormity of what Satan had accomplished in his hatred of God's creation, and God himself provided the only remedy possible to correct the situation. Mankind was condemned, was "dead in trespasses and sins," (Ephesians 2:1) and was hopeless. No human being could enter heaven because every human being carried the sin principle and its guilt. Sin and guilt cannot enter heaven. So God sent his Son into the world to bear for mankind the judgment due on their sin. When Jesus Christ hung on that Cross, he was bearing the judgment on all your sin, and on all my sin. Our guilt has been judged. Our sin has been judged. His was a vicarious death, the innocent for the condemned. Therefore in Christ, we are made clean, all who believe in him, all who receive him as their Savior and surrender their lives to him as their Lord. THIS is why Jesus died. No one took his life from him but he laid it down willingly, for this is the very reason he came. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He could have sent lightening upon the men who nailed him to that Cross. Didn't he do many mighty miracles? No, no one had power over him. He had the power to lay his life down, and he had the power to take it up again. Three days after the Crucifixion, he was raised from the dead, guaranteeing the eternal fate of all who put their trust in him. So to blame the Jews for crucifying Jesus is a great lack of understanding of the Gospel. In all actuality, the men who nailed Jesus to the Cross were Roman soldiers. They were Gentiles, not Jews. Only Satan could come up with the idea of causing anti-Semitism upon a world that does not know or understand the Gospel. The Jews didn't kill Christ. You did. I did. Brothers and sisters, WE nailed Jesus to the Cross. There he bore the judgment on OUR sins, whether Jews or Gentiles, black or white, male or female, slave or free. Once you understand this, ask Jesus to become your Savior, to forgive your sins, and ask him to become the Lord of your life. He will then begin a new work in you, to bring you out of the death your were born in, into the new life that is found only in him. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new." 2nd Corinthians 5:17 And don't forget that Jesus Christ is a Jew. His mother was Jewish. His apostles were all Jews. And he will return as a Jew, and will reign over the entire world - from Jerusalem. MORE: What it means to be "born again"