I advocate postmissionary Messianic Judaism. As I read Scripture and consider the destiny of the Jewish people and Messianic Judaism, I reach conclusions different from standard missionary practice. One area where I differ is in my understanding of what it means for Jews, including Messianic Jews, to repent.
Wesleyan theologian R. Kendall Soulen highlights something the mission culture misses:
According to the biblical witness, God’s work as Consummator takes enduring shape in the history that unfolds between the Lord, Israel, and the nations. Accordingly, human sin is never merely the sin of the creature against the Creator-Consummator. Human sin is also always the sin of Jew and Gentile, of Israel and the nations.1
God sees us not as generic individual human beings, but always as Israel and the nations, which Soulen terms part of the “theological grammar of the Bible.”2 Jews and Gentiles have distinct covenant responsibilities and pathways of obedience. For example, Paul enjoined his Gentile converts not to submit to ritual circumcision, yet he circumcised his protégé Timothy.3 Timothy had a Jewish mother, and being circumcised was an appropriate path of obedience for him, but not for Gentiles. For this reason, Paul steadfastly refused to circumcise Titus, a Gentile.4