Jesus was a Jew. His Hebrew name is Yeshua, which means “salvation.” The Scripture plainly tells us that salvation is by Yeshua alone and there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. An ancient rabbinic “word play” assigned to Him was Yeshu, meaning, “may his name and memory be blotted out.” This is what the modern, unbelieving world wants too – namely to forget Him. What is it about Yeshua that causes so many to bristle at His mere mention? You can discuss any of a long list of “religious luminaries” all the daylong and you might get a few yawns. If you want a passionate reaction, talk about Yeshua.

T’oma, one of Yeshua’s talmidim asked Him, “Master, how can we know the way?” Yeshua replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.” This direct statement made by Jesus is repugnant to those who create a god in their own imagination and desire to believe that there are many ways. After all the logic goes it’s not the way that is important but primarily that you are a “good” person. You’ve heard the arguments before: “Aren’t we all children of God…” or “Certainly a loving God would not...”

The truth is that we are not all the children of God. The Architect of the universe culminated His work by creating the first man Adam and his wife Chavvah, who is the mother of all living. Adam was created in God’s own image and we are born into the human family, direct lineal genetic descendants of him. Adam walked with his Creator and had intimate fellowship with Him. But then Adam made the choice (in disobedience to God’s loving warning) to explore the full ramifications of good and evil. Sin entered the world and along with it entered sorrows, sickness, disease and death.

It seems unfair that we find humanity in this predicament all because of one man. “If I was there – surely I would not have made that choice!” As difficult to grasp as it may be – we were there, each and every one of us made that choice because Adam is the father of the human race. Our current state is spiritually, intellectually, biologically, and in every way greatly diminished from his original glory. If he made that choice, individually we would have made exactly the same choice, and did in him. By default we are the children of Adam.

And this brings us to why the world bristles at the mention of Yeshua’s name. The why is sin. The problem we need to be saved from is sin. The world works overtime to ignore it or deny the existence of it, but it is for real. Each us of knows this instinctively, because there remains a vestige of light in our souls called a conscience (Romans 2:15). When Yeshua is discussed, we are brought face to face with the ugly fact of sin.

Time stands still for none of us and we all have an appointment with our creator. What is our life? It is a vapor that appears for a brief moment and then vanishes away. The Scripture says that the wages of sin is death. Jesus asked, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

Human nature does not like the idea that it needs to be “saved” from anything. That’s what man-made religion is all about. Man reaches up by his own design and oft convoluted concoctions to pull God down from heaven. But this is an impossible and a futile endeavor. The Bible goes on to state that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. He is a Holy God and all His ways are perfect. Anything less than His transcendent perfection is woefully inadequate. Even our so-called “good” is in comparison as filthy rags. Isaiah the prophet speaks of this and while God absolutely desires us to do good and be good – self-righteousness will never secure salvation.

The gospel or good news is that He loves His creation. He loves us individually and equally. He loved us so much that He gave Himself in the person of His son to solve the problem once and for all. Yeshua is that son and according to the writer of the Book of Hebrews, He is the express image of God the Father. Jesus came to give us abundant eternal life and it is a free gift we can choose to receive. At the appointed time and as prophesied, Yeshua was conceived by the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit) and born of the virgin Miriam (Mary). He was the son of man and the Son of God, both wholly God and wholly man.

When the children of Israel journeyed in the wilderness, at one point they suffered a plague of poisonous snakes, which bit and killed many because of their unbelief and rebellion against God. The Lord had Moshe fashion a replica of a snake in brass and lift it up high upon a standard for all to see. Whoever of the children of Israel that looked upon the brazen serpent were healed and lived. That brazen serpent, all those years ago was a picture – a revelation of the atonement that would come through Yeshua. Atonement refers to the concept of spiritual reconciliation – making it possible for man and God to once again have that original intimate fellowship.

The Torah says that he who hangs on a tree is cursed. Yeshua came to fulfill every mitzvoth of the Torah and He did so perfectly. He lived a sinless life, but in the end became sin for us and took the curse upon Himself, in order to set us free from it. Divine punishment was upon Him, and God’s justice was forever satisfied when His son was lifted up on the tree to be crucified.

This is the simple gospel: As opposed to Adam’s disobedience, Yeshua in obedience to the Father, willingly gave His life on the cross. He died and was buried in a tomb. But on the third day, as foretold, God raised Him from the dead.

What must I do to be saved? Fearing for his life, the Philippian jailer asked this question of Rav Sha’ul (Rabbi Paul) and Sila (Silas) who had been thrown into prison for preaching the gospel. About midnight as they prayed and worshipped God, a great earthquake shook the place, the prison doors opened, and they were miraculously loosed from their shackles. Thinking the prisoners had escaped, the jailer was about kill himself with his sword when Paul cried out to do himself no harm as they were still in their cell praising God.

It was then that the jailer asked this all-important question. Paul’s simple answer was “Believe in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

This is the wisdom of God. Grab on to this now. We were created in His image and He desires us to come before Him in sincere humility with a repentant heart. When the simple gospel is preached the natural reaction is to dismiss it and discount it as silliness, foolishness, or supply your own adjective.

But what is not understood is the supernatural characteristic of the gospel, because it is the power of God. The word translated as “power” in English is the Greek word dunamis from which we derive words such as dynamite and dynamic. Dunamis has an amazing definition; it describes inherent strength, ability and power – a power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature!

The implication is that contained within the gospel message is the power of God to redeem us from the ravages of sin and save us to the uttermost. The Scripture says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. When we hear the Word preached, hear it being taught, or read it for ourselves – a miraculous thing will happen. The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin and prompt us to make a decision to choose everlasting life and return to the loving arms of God.

A loving relationship is a two way street however. God loves His creation unilaterally and unconditionally but it is incumbent upon us to choose to love Him in return. He will not force us to love Him and He will never violate the free will He has given the creature made in His own image. We are not robots or automatons and God is not the celestial puppetmaster pulling our strings. What more could He do than He has already done?

Rabbi Nicodemus (a member of the Sanhedrin which is the religious high court of the Jews) came to Yeshua early on in His ministry and said:

“…Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God! That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:2-4

Now this concept of being born anew was not totally foreign to Rabbi Nicodemus because Pharisaic Judaism viewed pivotal life stages in this way. For example when a young man experienced his bar mitzvah, he was considered to be born anew. Or when an older man became the head of a rabbinical school (as was Nicodemus), he was considered to be born anew.

Nicodemus seemed to be puzzled by Yeshua’s statement because at his advanced age he had already gone through all the “born anew” stages. Yeshua was teaching him the profound truth of salvation – that our spirit must be born anew in order to have a right relationship with God. That which is born of flesh is flesh – in Jewish thinking being born of water refers to natural child birth – and Yeshua was reminding Nicodemus of what he should have already known, that the natural man is a child of Adam in need of the savior. The Pharisees believed that being a Jew was sufficient in and of itself for entry into the Kingdom of God. But what Yeshua was saying to Nicodemus is that you must believe in me to have eternal life and when you do so, your spirit will be born anew and only then will you enter my Kingdom.

Yeshua was on a journey from Yehudah to the Galil, and about midday stopped at Ya’akov’s well near Shekhem. A woman came to the well to draw water. Yeshua asked her for a drink. She was surprised and replied “how is it that you ask of me? – For Jews do not normally talk with Samaritans.”

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water? Are you greater than our father, Ya`akov, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, as did his sons, and his cattle?” Yeshua answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:10-14

Rabbis refer to it as Zeman Simhatenu, “The Season of our Joy.” Sukkoth is the Biblical name and this festival recalls the wandering of the children of Israel for forty years, when they dwelt in temporary shelters and when God miraculously provided food and water in the midst of a barren wilderness. It was about midweek during Sukkoth, that Yeshua went up into the temple and taught. The Yehudim marveled at His teaching and wondered how it was possible for Him to have such knowledge.

One aspect of the festival was an elaborate ceremony known as Simchat Beit Hashoevah, the “Rejoicing of the House of the Drawing of Water.” This water-libation celebration involved retrieval of mayim hayim (living water) in a special golden vessel from the pool of Shiloah. The climatic moment came when the Kohen HaGadol poured out the mayim hayim upon the altar. Prayers were made for God to send abundant rain while all the people sang out Isaiah 12:3 – “Therefore with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of yeshu`ah.”

Now on Hoshana Rabbah, the seventh and greatest day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, from within him will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37,38

Jesus spoke of the Ruach HaKodesh that would be sent after His resurrection to all that believed in Him. In the wilderness, God dwelt with the children of Israel and led them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Because of Yeshua’s sacrificial love, it is now possible for God to dwell with us in our Sukkoth – these temporal bodies of dust. “Don't you know that you are a temple of God, and that God's Spirit lives in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16

Just as rain brings life to each agricultural season, so does the Holy Spirit work in every believer who is born anew. God’s Spirit teaches us, guides us, intercedes for us, gives us spiritual gifts and assures us of our salvation. Messiah will give living water to anyone who is thirsty and to whoever comes to drink. Why not come now and drink freely of the eternal mayim hayim?

Follow these simple steps in prayer: “…if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Yeshua, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9,10

If you have given your heart to the Lord today, why not write us and share the joyous life changing decision you have made. We would like to send you some complimentary Bible Study materials to help you in your walk with our wonderful Messiah.

We encourage you to stand on the Word of God and believe what Isaiah the prophet said:

“For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn't return there, but waters the eretz, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10,11

Even as a seed contains within itself the power to germinate and spring into life under the proper conditions, so has the power of the Word of God renewed your spirit – you are born anew – you are now a child of God. By choosing to believe you provided the fertile soil and it greatly pleases God to save you and His Word will prosper you because He has sent it to you.

Salvation by Yeshua. He is the author of your faith, He will perfect it in you.

Messiah Richly Bless You,

Ariel Ministries