It is pretty typical, when sharing the truths of the Holy Spirit with christians, that an assertion will be made that is based on a lack of understanding of the word “Jew.” What the christian is usually trying to achieve, although out of spiritual ignorance, is to make an accusation that someone is trying to place people under the law of Moses (it is a conflation of a Judaizer and a Jew).
So brainwashed are many by false christian teachings that span back to christianity’s invention (which was accomplished by removing the true foundations of the faith and replacing them with paganism and false traditions), that they attempt to level a spiritual attack by using a term that scripture actually identifies as those who have been given the covenant.
Because christianity was created primarily out of hatred of the physical Jews, christians even today regard the term “Jew” to be something physical, when scripture plainly teaches that its real meaning is spiritual, not physical. It is an inward condition, not an outward one.
So, when a christian makes a statement like, “That only applied to the Jews,” they most often conflate many different things that they don’t even begin to understand, simply because their religion (christianity) threw away everything that even sounded Jewey, without regard for what any of it actually means. They are the spiritually unlearned who do not understand what is physical, what is spiritual, and how the two correlate (2 Peter 3:15-16).
They consider the Old Testament and the New Testament to be two separate volumes, which makes the Almighty a schizophrenic. “That was old testament” is an assertion of ignorance that assumes nothing in the Old Testament could possibly still apply—that the Creator came to a point where He changed His mind about everything, and invented a new religion.
Yes, there was a new religion invented, but the Holy Spirit had no part in its creation. That was all on man (at the behest of the father of lies), and that new religion (christianity) wasn’t invented until after all the New Testament writers had died—and it wasn’t codified until the 4th century.
Yes, the Father gave His Sabbaths to His children, the Jews, who make up Y’isra-el. But, who are they? What we see in the Old Testament are physical foreshadows of them. What is spiritual is mirrored in the physical, and those foreshadows serve to instruct our understanding—so, as humans, we can see the spiritual by examining the details of the physical. But, the physical is not the real substance; the spiritual is.
So, the real substance of the word “Jew” is explained in Romans 2:29—it is any people whose hearts have been circumcised (meaning, it is those who have received the covenant—the seal of the Holy Spirit). And, in Galatians 3:28-29, Paul explains that there is no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile (he is speaking of the physical, or outward), but that the real substance of Abraham’s descendants are those who have the Holy Spirit.
Now, understanding that, it should become clear why Paul observed and taught the Father’s traditions to the Gentile converts (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15). Those traditions (Greek: paradosis) include the Sabbaths, the wedding traditions, and the temple ordinances and practices—all physical foreshadows that reveal details of spiritual real substances.
The reason Paul told the Gentile converts to “stand fast and keep” those traditions is because they promote doctrinal purity, and they reveal the Father’s prophetic calendar. Those who understand the traditions are less likely to fall for false teachings, especially those of christianity, the counterfeit of the true faith.
There are those who claim things about different groups of physical Jews, like the Ashkenazi Jews, or those racist idiots who call themselves “black hebrew israelites,” saying that this group of physical Jews are the real Jews, and that group of physical Jews are fake Jews. But, the real substance of the term is spiritual, not physical, so none of those people who identify as Jews because of physical traits or bloodline are true Jews.
No, the true Jews are those who have received the spiritual covenant, which is the seal of the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:9 tells us, those who do not have the Holy Spirit do not belong to Messiah. And, they are those to whom He will say, “Depart, I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23).
What religion did Messiah practice on earth? It wasn’t christianity, for that wouldn’t be invented until a couple centuries later. Messiah is a Jew. Those who are His are Jews, for they have received the covenant of marriage to Him, and He can only marry another Jew. They have been made true Jews through adoption by the Father.
As those who are genuinely born again are the true Jews (they have received the direct confirmation of the Holy Spirit that they were made children of Yah), then those things that the Father gives to His children as family identification are wholly relevant to the practical application of their faith. The true Jews, who make up the true Y’isra-el (Messiah’s bride) identify with the Father by honoring those things He gave them as a family sign—His Sabbaths.
For more information: Circumcision and Spiritual Reproduction