As a rabbi I had learned to give the bereaved some hope on which to lean but how could I give that which I did not possess myself! I gave sympathy, but in times of heart aching grief and tragedy, sympathy is of little comfort. To the heart broken how satisfying and glorious are the words of our Messiah Jesus Christ,’…I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die…’ John 11:25,26.

These words became fact when Jesus Christ died for your sins. He became your substitute and took the punishment for your sins upon Himself that you can be free of sin and have eternal life. This precept of substitution of one dying for another is a basic teaching in our Jewish Bible and in Jewish Tradition.

Consider our holiday of Yom Kippur and read the story of Abraham and Isaac in chapter 22 of Genesis in our Jewish Bible. Here we see this principle explained when God Himself provided a substitute in the place of Isaac. Jesus, our Messiah, is your God given substitute. He died so that you, through faith in Him should live.

There is but one source of eternal life and that is Jesus Christ, God’s son, the Messiah of Israel. The great comforting message that I, a Jewish orthodox rabbi Max Wertheimer, am bringing to you today is that you, by faith, should accept Jesus Christ as your Messiah and have new and eternal life. This is what it means to be saved.

Tags: Bible study, Forgiveness of sins, Isaiah 53, Orthodox, Rabbi

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