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Torah! Torah!
Torah!
By Brian Hennessy
Part
2
Here are eight popular arguments the Torah promoters might use to
torpedo your freedom in Messiah.
1. Jesus Plus Torah
A Torah attack usually begins with just enough truth to disarm you.
They will start by agreeing that faith in Jesus is all that’s needed
to get saved. But after we are saved it takes Torah-keeping to stay
saved so we can enter the kingdom of heaven. Listen to the
teachings of two Torah salesmen (whose identities I’ll withhold).
One man in his book, writes, “Total faith in Yahshua [Jesus] is the
only road to salvation. Only after we enter that road through
repentance and belief in Yahshua for forgiveness of sins, can our
works of law be accounted as righteousness.”
For him we are never saved, but always on the road to earning it. And
even though he says, “...faith in Yahshua is the only road to
salvation,” he immediately puts us on another road – one paved with
good intentions. And we know where that road leads.
Or consider these words from a booklet that begins by parodying the
typical reaction of a Christian being asked to, say, keep the Sabbath:
“You are trying to put me under Law!” His response is:
“Therefore, let us just put this charge to rest by pointing out that
we obtain acceptance by Yahveh through faith in Yeshua, and not by
observance of the Law. Salvation is by grace, which means we do
absolutely nothing to merit or receive salvation. It is the free gift
of Yahveh.”
So far so good. Then comes this:
“It is only when we accept this gift, and experience the second birth
into Yahveh’s family, that we can begin to do something about our
own destiny.”
In other words, this man believes that after we have accepted our free
gift of salvation we can then take matters into our own hands by
practicing works of the Law. This not only helps to assure our
salvation, but as he goes on to explain, prepares us for the Kingdom
Age. “There will be a day when the Kingdom of Yahveh will be
established on earth. And His Kingdom will have a single, successful,
set of standards [namely the Law].”
Now it so happens I know this man. He is a very nice, non-Jewish,
former military man (as I recall), who with his wife teach the
revelation that believing Gentiles are actually scattered descendants
of Abraham. (Not “Jews” from the tribe of Judah necessarily, but from
all the other tribes.)
The story of how they came to this revelation is quite interesting.
They had helped finance and build the Messianic Jewish Movement in the
1970’s into an organization designed to nurture and provide linkage
for all the Jewish fellowships coming into existence at that time.
Like other Christians back then, they had awakened to the startling
truth that the string of Israeli victories beginning in 1948, and
culminating with the 1967 Six-Day War, signaled God was again on the
side of the Jews. Not that He had ever abandoned them or rejected them
(even if most Christian’s theology taught that, and most Jews felt
that way following the Holocaust). But after so many centuries of
silence, this obvious display of divine favor could not be denied. And
that fact had enormous theological implications.
It meant first of all that Christians were clearly not the only people
on the planet whom God considered His people. And it also meant we
must be entering those days all the prophets foretold concerning the
restoration of the Kingdom of Israel under Messiah. And this couple,
realizing it was a new day, jumped in with both feet.
Now the rejection they experienced from the Messianic Jews was not
overt. But more a growing sense they were considered as second-class
citizens in the Israel of God because of their Gentile status. This in
spite of all the sacrifices they had made to demonstrate their
oneness. And they didn’t like the feeling. It caused them to cry out
to God –“Lord, who is Israel?’ And it wasn’t long before the
Scriptures opened up to them concerning the identity of Israel,
prompting them to write several books explaining their revelation.
When I read their books I became as excited as they at the discovery
of our true familial relationship to Abraham and the Jews, and I
contacted them immediately. They invited me to join with them and
contribute articles for their newsletter and speak at their
conferences.
However, it wasn’t long before I noticed a disturbing theme in their
writings. Woven into their teaching on Israel, which was coming to be
called the “Two-House Movement,” was a growing emphasis on practicing
the Law, including circumcision. This in the face of Paul’s clear
command: “Was any man called already circumcised? Let him not become
uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? Let him
not be circumcised.” (1 Cor. 7:18).
Their love affair with the Law had been there all along, but in my
excitement over the Israel revelation I had not noticed it. In
re-reading their books I saw they always believed that the coming
together of Judah and Israel (the Jews and Gentile believers) would
bring the Law and Messiah together as a fulfillment of God’s plan of
salvation. That is, they believed that God had let the Jews preserve
the Law as their necessary contribution to the reunion (not true since
no one could practice the Law after the destruction of the temple),
while the Gentile Christians would bring Jesus to the party. And
wouldn’t we all have a Happy Hanukah!
The Law was so embedded in their teaching, that at one point I was
almost swept away into accepting “Torah” into my own life. When Paul
calls it a “bewitching,” I have first-hand experience that is the
truth. A spell seems to come over you that makes you want to follow
the Law like the Pied Piper.
When I finally came to my senses, I confronted them on the issue. But
I could not get them to see they were headed down the wrong road. So
we parted company. I still pray that one day the Lord will give them
both the grace to see that their embrace of the Law actually cancels
out their faith in Jesus. “For you have been severed from Messiah, you
who are seeking to be justified by Law; you have fallen from grace”
(Gal. 5:6).
As for their insistence that faith can save you but you’ll need Torah
to get you home, this is clearly not the gospel taught in the
Scriptures. Jesus plus Torah (plus anything) is a formula for
self-righteousness. So when they say that after accepting Jesus “we
can begin to do something about our own destiny,” it is no longer a
“free gift.” It now depends on us, and no matter how much fun and
enrichment we are told Law-keeping will bring us, it’s still just one
more self-help program.
Like most of traditional Christianity, Torah advocates have lost the
central message of the gospel that “the righteous man shall live
by faith” (Rom 1:17), the truth Martin Luther rediscovered that
ignited the Protestant Reformation. That Scripture means we are “to
keep on living by faith.” We are not to just use our faith as a key to
get into the kingdom and then hang it on a hook while we turn back to
a gospel of works. Faith is a lifestyle, not a religion.
Paul told the Romans that “the righteousness of God is revealed
from faith to faith. “ It was to be an ongoing walk of faith.
If we then turn back to works for our sanctification it will
eventually negate our original faith commitment. When the Galatians
were being deceived into trying to cement their salvation with works,
Paul warned them: “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are
you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3).
The same is true with Torah-keeping. And although their opening attack
is to get us to believe that we need to add the works of the Law to
our faith, Torah folks are not shy to follow this up with a barrage of
other arguments unsupported by Scripture. So let’s look at how to
defend against these.
2. Jesus Kept the Law
This argument is one of their favorites. They point out that Jesus
kept the Law His whole life. And if we are followers of Jesus, we
should, too.
And I couldn’t agree more!
The only question is how? Because nobody in the world has ever been
able to keep the Law perfectly except Jesus Himself! It was that
impossible. Remember the Law required we keep all 613 commands
perfectly our whole life (see Deut 28:58). One little slip-up and we
will be condemned to death. “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet
stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10).
However, what the Torah folks don’t tell you, or don’t know, is that
there are two ways to keep the Law: literally and spiritually. Jesus
of course kept it both ways. That is He kept the literal letter of the
law right down to the last jot and title. And at the same time kept
the spirit of the Law. Can we keep the Law like Jesus did? Of course
not. And Jesus doesn’t ask us to. He just asks us to keep it
spiritually. And the way to do that is just love, love, love!
When the Pharisaic lawyer wanted to know what was the greatest
commandment of the Law, Jesus answered him: “’You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second
is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two
commandments depend the whole Law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:36-40).
So all we have to do is love God, love our neighbor – and even love
ourselves, and we keep the whole Law. Because again, “Love is the
fulfillment of the Law” (Rom. 13:10).
But the Torah folks aren’t into love. They want us to keep the literal
letter of the Law just as Jesus did in His day. But they forget that
when Jesus lived the Mosaic Law was the covenant of the land. And
since it had already been smashed by the people as surely as Moses had
smashed the tablets when he came back and found them worshipping the
golden calf, Jesus now had to die on the cross to atone for the debt
the nation had incurred. That was the only way He could transition the
nation out of the Old Covenant into “a better covenant” (Heb. 8:6),
namely the New Covenant. But that covenant wasn’t inaugurated until
the night before He died. So Jesus never actually got to live under
the New Covenant as we can. But He didn’t mind. His job was to live
under the Law and keep it perfectly. That way He could fulfill all its
types and shadows, and be able to offer Himself up as a sinless
sacrifice and deliver us from that death covenant.
That’s right, the Law was a killer covenant. It condemned everyone to
death who tried to live by its rules because no one could ever do it.
That’s why Paul called it “the ministry of death” (2 Cor. 3 7), and
“the ministry of condemnation” (2 Cor. 3:9). It actually put you under
a curse. “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a
curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by
all things written in the Book of the Law, to perform them’” (Gal.
3:10). Since no one but Jesus was ever able to “abide by all things
written in the Book of the Law,” all who try fall under the curse.
So by all means, let us keep the Law. But let us now do it the way
Jesus wants us to – through love. He went through an awful lot of
suffering to bring us the New Covenant. Let’s not make His sacrifice
meaningless by going back to square one.
3. Jesus Didn’t Abolish the Law
If you tell a Torah person that the Old Covenant has been relegated to
the dustbin of history so far as having any authority over a follower
of Jesus, they will immediately point you to Matthew 5. They’ll show
you where Jesus plainly says He did not come to abolish the Law. How
should you respond?
Well, let’s look at the text.
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did
not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until
heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall
pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls
one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall
be called least in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless
your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you
shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:17-20)
First, we need to see that the ministry of Jesus was definitely going
to majorly impact the Law - somehow. He clearly implies it wouldn’t be
the same when His work was finished. And although He wasn’t going to
abolish it, He said He would fulfill it. What did He mean? Did you
ever go to the pharmacy to have a prescription fulfilled? When you
left the store, did you throw away the pills the pharmacist gave you
and swallow the prescription? Of course not. The prescription had done
its job in getting you the medication you needed and it could now be
discarded. All you wanted was the medicine. The same with the Law. All
the things it foreshadowed were fulfilled by the life and death of
Jesus (some things, although completed, are yet to be manifested). It
had done its job. “For Messiah is the end [goal] of the Law for
righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom 10:5). Once Messiah had
come, it could be retired as Israel’s abiding covenant. For all those,
who by the grace of God allowed the Law to lead them to Messiah, it
was fulfilled. By faith in Him we were now righteous. “Therefore the
Law has become our tutor to lead us to Messiah, that we may be
justified by faith. And now that faith has come we are no longer under
a tutor” (Gal. 3:24,25).
But for those who would reject Him as Messiah, and choose instead to
live before God by their own righteous standard, the Law would remain
a sentinel of the true measure of God’s requirement. That’s why He
brought up the scribes and Pharisees as an example.
The Pharisees had the annoying habit of parading themselves around
Israel as models of righteousness while looking down on everyone else
as sinners. And because the general populace was not as scrupulous
about some nuances of the Law as they, the people grudgingly accorded
them a certain respect. But Jesus said, “Unless your righteousness
exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the
kingdom of heaven.” Whoa! We have to do more than the Pharisees? Yes,
way more. As Jesus later explained (vs. 21-28), we can also break the
Law with our thought life. We didn’t have to have an affair, or take
the money. Just thinking about doing it condemned us.
So for those who promote keeping the letter of the Law as a way of
keeping the Law, don’t be fooled. The Law will always represent the
highest possible standards to keep, because it was designed for the
expressed purpose of causing us to fail so we’d come running to
Messiah. And anyone who tells you that you can do away with certain
commands today because they are out of date, and still keep the Law
before God, “shall be called least in the kingdom of God.”
If you are ever told you need to be Torah-compliant, ask the person
where they perform all the animal sacrifices as the “Torah” instructs.
4. The Law is Good
This is another favorite of the Judaizers. They will quote Romans
7:12, which says, “So then the Law is holy, and the commandment is
holy, righteous, and good.” Ignoring the rest of Paul’s teaching in
Romans Seven that reveals how and why the Law was useless in combating
the impulses of sin, they will ask, “Why would God ever dispense with
something that is ‘holy and righteous and good?’”
Well, as we just learned, God didn’t dispense with the Law as a
measure of righteousness. It can still convict those who would claim
to be righteous based on their own good works. But it most certainly
is dispensed in the case of believers who are new creations in
Messiah.
This is clearly explained in Paul’s letter to Timothy. “But we know
that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the
fact that law is not made for a righteous man, but for those
who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, etc.”
So when the Judaizers say Christians need to be Torah-compliant, they
are using the Law unlawfully. Because the “law is not made for a
righteous man.” All true born-again believers are righteous by their
faith in Jesus, “who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness
and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).
5. Paul’s Teachings Too Difficult
Because Paul’s teachings on the Law cause Judaizers so much trouble,
as well they should, there is a concerted effort made to marginalize
his influence. You will be told you have to know the historical
background of his letters, especially Galatians and Romans, to truly
understand the finer points of his teaching. They will quote Peter
saying some of the things he teaches are “hard to understand” (2 Peter
3:16). Or they’ll say his teachings are not universal teachings, but
responses to specific situations in specific churches. You will be
encouraged to leave the understanding of his epistles to the experts,
and just take their word for it that he is definitely not against
keeping a Torah-observant life.
That of course was what the rabbis and priests of old said when they
told us to just trust their teaching, rather than do your own
Spirit-led homework. And we know where listening to the rabbis got the
Jews before Messiah, and where listening to the priests got the
Christians after Messiah. If there is anything we don’t ever want to
do again is leave it to the “scribes and Pharisees.”
And we don’t have to. We have the Bible and we have the Holy Spirit
abiding within each of us to teach us all things. “The anointing you
received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for any one to
teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is
true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you may abide in
Him” (1 John 2:27).
But that won’t stop the Judaizers. They will say that Paul was warning
us against anything and everything but practicing a Torah lifestyle.
For example, they will quote his words to the Galatians, “You have
been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law;
you have fallen from grace” (Gal 5:4). Then they’ll tell you he was
merely confronting the rabbis’ false teaching that a man could be
saved by the works of the Law without faith in Jesus. Rather than what
he was really saying, namely warning the Galatians that incorporating
the Mosaic Law into their walk after they were saved would
cause them to fall from grace. You can’t be “severed from Christ”
unless you are already in Christ.
Or listen to the spin this Torah author puts on Paul’s clear warning
to the Galatians to stay away from the Law. He begins by quoting Paul:
“But now that you have come to know God...how is that you turn back to
the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be
enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and
years. I fear for you” (Gal 4:9-11).
He then explains that if the Galatians were “turning back,” obviously
they had to be “turning back to their pagan ways and observing the
pagan practices they had come out of.” However, Scripture is quite
clear that it was not their former pagan friends who were “bewitching”
them, but the Judaizers of that day. By warning them not to “turn
back,” Paul was not referring to the religion they had left, but to
religion in general. He didn’t want them to trade one bondage
for another.
But it seems this writer wasn’t even able to convince himself. Because
several chapters later he suggests a totally different reason for the
issue Paul was confronting. He writes, “The Jews of (Paul’s) day had
made thousands of extra laws never mentioned in the Holy Scriptures.
They had created their own righteousness apart from the law. This is
what Paul was contending with.” They’ll toss it all up, hoping
something sticks.
Then there was this beaut I found in a pro-Torah booklet. The author
argues that since Paul’s writings only represent five percent of the
Bible, we shouldn’t let his words “interpret the other ninety-five
percent.” In effect, don’t let the tail wag the dog. Better to pay
attention to the many books in the Old Testament that tell us how
wonderful and beneficial the Law is to our lives, than pay too much
heed to Paul.
But think about what he is saying. He is actually suggesting that a
portion of Scripture should be ignored because it doesn’t jive with
the theology he is presenting. Especially when the Scriptures he wants
us to ignore represent the latest revelation of truth in God’s
unfolding plan of redemption. The NT should always interpret the OT,
not the other way around.
Plus, to say that Paul’s teaching was Scripture-light is astounding.
Because of all the writers of the New Testament, Paul was the one man
ordained by God to understand and explain the ramifications of the New
Covenant to the ecclesia. Just the way Moses was called to write down
and explain the conditions of the Old Covenant.
No, Paul’s anointed writings should be the final say in understanding
how God was transitioning Israel from Law to grace. And the Holy
Spirit can reveal Paul’s deepest insights even to a child if
necessary.
For those who want to go back to the good old days, Paul gives this
warning: “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself
a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might
live to God” (Gal. 3:18).
But the most unsavory attempt by the Judaizers to undermine Paul is
this next argument.
6. Paul Kept the Law
Judaizers will insist until they are blue in the face that Paul was an
ardent keeper of the Law as an apostle. Although we know Paul did keep
the Law on occasion (as we read in Acts 21), he clearly says he was no
longer a Torah-keeper, and explains why.
"Though I am free from all man, I have made myself a slave to all, so
that I might win more. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the
Jews. To those under the Law I became like one under the Law -
though not being myself under the Law – that I might win those who
are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law,
though not being without the law of God, but under the law of Christ,
that I might win those who are without law [...] I have become all
things to all men so that by all means I might save some." (1 Cor. 9:
19-22)
For Paul, the Law was obviously an evangelistic tool he could use or
not use, depending on whether he was trying to win Jews or Greeks to
Messiah. And although he was not under the Law himself, it didn't mean
he was without any law. He confesses that he very definitely
was constrained by the New Covenant law of love, which he terms
"Messiah's law." He understood that the extreme choices facing every
believer are legality and license - but that Spirit-controlled liberty
is the correct path to follow.
Given the volume of writing that Paul devoted to combating the idea
that the followers of Messiah had to keep the Law (especially the
Gentiles), there is just no way that Paul was a closet keeper of the
Mosaic Law. If so, I should think he'd be guilty of the same type of
gross hypocrisy he accused Peter and Barnabas of at Galatia. (By the
way, Paul's confrontation with Peter at Antioch reveals that Peter
wasn't a Law-keeper either: "You are a Jew, yet you live like a
Gentile and not as a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to
follow Jewish customs?" Gal. 2:14)
It would seem that Paul had no problem with his fellow believing Jews
maintaining their customs (i.e. traditions that may have been part of
the Law) - as long as they did not see them as required by God. Or
consider them in any way as enhancing their justification or
sanctification before God. But as one Bible commentary said, he
probably wouldn't have tried to stop them if they chose to abandon
them, either.
Paul’s last word concerning his personal detachment from Law was made
to the Philippians. After listing his credentials as a Jew, a
practitioner, and a defender of the Law (which included having
believers killed), he gives us this powerful summation:
“Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss
for the sake of Messiah. More than that, I count all things to be loss
in view of the surpassing value of knowing Messiah Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but
rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not
having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which
is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which comes from God on
the basis of faith” (Phil 3:7-9).
And finally it must be pointed out, as Paul himself pointed out, that
if he kept the Law, "why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling
block of the cross has been abolished" (Gal 5:11).
7. Jesus Nailed Debt to Cross, Not the Law
The first time I saw this argument, I couldn’t believe the guy was
serious. I just assumed it was an isolated case of one man going to
ridiculous lengths to push Torah. But then I saw it on the web site
of a respected teacher. That’s when I figured I’d better add it to the
list.
The Scripture this argument twists into a pretzel is from Paul’s
letter to the Colossians:
“He has cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against us, which was hostile to us, and He has taken it out of the
way, having nailed it to the cross” (Col. 2:14).
As you can clearly read, what Jesus nailed to the cross was “the
certificate of debt consisting of decrees.” Yes, he
satisfied the debt, but in so doing He also eliminated the claim
against us. What was the claim? What else, but the decrees of the
Mosaic Law?
If you think of the Law as a mortgage it becomes clear.
When we take out a mortgage to buy a house, the mortgage is a
blessing. It represents the money that allows us to buy and enjoy the
house. But it comes with a big condition attached that we agree to
accept. The money must be paid back. The moment we stop sending in our
payments, suddenly the demands of the mortgage are now against us. If
we miss enough payments we will end up in foreclosure and lose the
house. And that is exactly what happened to Israel, both individually
and corporately, when they failed to keep their promise to obey the
Mosaic Law.
Like a mortgage, the Mosaic Law was a conditional covenant. The
condition was if Israel kept the whole Law, God would bless
them. But if they failed they would lose not only their house, but
their lives and their country. They would be cursed and there would be
no hope for them. And that’s what happened. But then God in His mercy
sent Jesus to redeem Israel from the curse of the Law. By dying on the
cross He paid off our “mortgage” and wiped out all its claims against
us.
And what do we do with a mortgage when it is paid off? We “burn” it.
Well, Jesus “nailed it to the cross,” declaring it, “paid in full!”
What these Judaizers really want us to do is take out a second
mortgage and put ourselves right back into debt again, with no hope of
redemption! “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove
myself to be a transgressor” (Gal. 2:18).
8. Need the Law to Know Sin
I will end with this last sneaky maneuver by the Judaizers. It goes
like this.
Judaizer: “Don’t you agree that stealing is sinful?”
You: “Yes, I do”
Judaizer: “What about murder? Is that wrong?
You: “Of course it’s wrong.”
Judaizer: “Well, how about ogling your neighbor’s wife. Is
that
wrong?”
You: “Yes. What’s your point?”
Judaizer: “Simply this. If you agree all those things are
wrong, then you agree then that the
Ten Commandments, which condemns all those things as sinful, is still
valid.
So how can you say the Law has been set aside for believers?
And that might cause your brain to spin around enough to agree they
have a point. And if they can introduce one doubt into your thinking,
they can get you to ignore all your other reasons for rejecting their
case. Like Johnny Cochran’s defense of O.J. Simpson, “if the glove
doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” So why doesn’t this glove fit?
Because it is one thing to know that those things are wrong, and quite
another for you to promise God you will never, ever break those
commands again in the slightest way under penalty of death. Because
that is what you would be agreeing to if you signed on to the Law. It
was a conditional covenant. Obey all the commands of God’s Law and get
the blessings. Fail and you get the curses (see Deut. 28). Law, any
law, is always attached to an appropriate punishment if you break it.
If there is no punishment, the law is toothless and useless.
The Judaizer might then try to argue that the Law was in effect from
the creation of the world, and always will be. Like the sun the moon
and the stars that God appointed to govern the night and the day, the
instructions of Torah were given to govern the world’s behavior,
including the command to honor the Sabbath Day (when God Himself
rested on the seventh day). If the world were practicing Torah today,
they’ll argue, there wouldn’t be such lawlessness in our societies and
peace would reign.
But that is not what Scripture teaches. Paul affirms that sin was in
the world from the start, but the Law itself was not. “For until
the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is
no Law” (Rom 5:13). So before the Law came in there was no punishment
for sin. Sin existed, and it brought forth death, but it couldn’t be
prosecuted. So those who lived from Adam to Moses couldn’t be
indicted. But all that changed when Moses came back down the mountain
with the two tablets. And all that changed again when Jesus died and
we accepted His death as our free “Get-Out-Of Jail” card. Sin is still
in the world, and thanks to the Law we know what sinful behavior is,
but if we belong to Jesus we can’t be indicted. “For where there is no
law, there is no violation” (Rom. 4:15). We may be convicted by
the Holy Spirit, meaning He will make us aware of some wrong attitude
or action so we can repent, but we cannot be condemned. “For
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Jesus.”
(Rom. 8:1).
What the Torahists still don’t seem to understand is that the Law
actually increased the chaos in the world. As Paul explains: “The Law
came in that the transgression might increase” (Rom 5:20). Why? “In
order that sin might be shown to be sin by causing my death through
that which is good” (Rom 7:13). God wanted us to see that sin was
present in us. So He gave us a set of “good” rules to keep that would
inflame our problem so much that we’d see that sin was stronger than
even our will to do good.
So if you want to be indicted and condemned again for your sins, just
choose to become a Torah-observant Christian and you will be right
back in the soup.
In Messiah we are new creations, and don’t need the threat of legal
punishment to keep us from sinning. Something the Law failed to do
anyway. The Spirit of Jesus lives in us now so we can walk in “love,
joy, peace, patience kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self control; against such things there is no Law.” (Gal. 5:22,23).
Let Freedom Ring
There are many more half-baked arguments the Judaizers use to get
believers to surrender our faith and our freedom in Messiah. But
hopefully this article has put you on guard so you will be alert to
any Torah attack. And able to quickly fend off any attempts to
shipwreck your faith and take you prisoner . As Paul told us, “It was
for freedom that Messiah set us free, so DO NOT be subject again to a
yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
In setting us free from the letter of the Law to follow Him, He set
us free from all religious law. The “law road,” whether it is
Christian or Jewish, will lead us right off the cliff. It is time for
all the followers of Messiah Jesus (or Yeshua) to realize that
biblical truth and put away our childhood religions. As Paul told us,
“When I was a child, I used to speak as a child, think as a child,
reason as a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish
things.” ( Cor. 13:11). It’s time to grow up into a mature man.
“Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into
Him, who is the head of the body” (Eph 4:15).
I have endeavored to speak the truth in love here about the Law. I do
not condemn those who promote the false gospel of Torah. That is
between them and God. But I do stand against their teachings based on
God’s written instructions in the New Testament. For those who say
that the practice of Torah will take the spots and wrinkles out of our
wedding garment mentioned in Ephesians 5:27, I thought this recent
comment tucked into a daily e-mail by David Wilkerson was right on the
money.
“Think about what it means to be without spot or wrinkle. We know a
spot is a stain. But what about a wrinkle? Have you ever heard the
phrase, “a new wrinkle?” It means adding a new idea to an existing
concept. A wrinkle, in that sense, applies to those who try to improve
on the gospel. It suggests an easy way to attain heaven, without full
surrender to Christ” David Wilkerson, (2/24/10).
By adding the works of Torah to our life we would actually be
adding wrinkles to our wedding garment, not removing them!
And what exactly is our “wedding garment?” I refer you to Revelation
19:7,8.
“Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of
the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was
given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean;
for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
So we see that our bridle gown is the visible manifestation of
righteousness we receive from God as our reward for trusting His
words, and walking with Him by faith our whole life. We know this gown
is not woven from the works of the Law, because “the Law is not of
faith” (Gal. 3: 11).
There is going to be a great wedding feast one day, and all who have
been chosen and gathered from the byways and highways of the ages will
be invited to attend. It will be the grandest wedding ever, the
marriage of God’s Son, and we are not only invited but Jesus has
chosen us to be His beloved corporate bride. But as Jesus warned the
Law-focused Pharisees, if the Father comes in and spots someone in
attendance who does not have on a faith garment, but a self-righteous
Torah t-shirt that says on it, “I kept the Law,” He will order His
servants to “Bind him hand and foot and casts him into the outer
darkness; and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth” (Matt. 22:1-13). It would be like the couple who crashed the
White House party recently. Except this heave-ho will have eternal
consequences.
As for our corporate identity, that mystery is now solved. If we are
in Jesus, we are all sons and daughters of Abraham. “If you belong to
Messiah, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise”
(Gal. 3:29). Paul graciously welcomed all non-Jewish believers into
the chosen wing of the family when he declared, “And you brethren,
like Isaac, are children of promise” (Gal 4:28). And if we are in the
chosen wing of the family it means we had to be a descendant of
Isaac’s from the beginning. We just didn’t know it. There’s no other
explanation, for the promise to Abraham was not an inclusive promise,
but an exclusive one. “Through Isaac your descendants shall be named”
(Rom 9:7). In saying that, God was excluding all those who were not
physically descended from Isaac, even if they, like Ishmael, actually
came from Abraham. He narrowed it even further to show that being
physically descended from Isaac, as was Esau, was no guarantee,
either. You not only had to come from Isaac, you had to be chosen by
God, “in order that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand,
not because of works, but because of Him whom calls” (Rom. 9:11). And
faith in Jesus is what reveals whether we are the ones who are called
or not. It declares us to be His ecclesia (the “called-out”
ones). Therefore, if we are walking with Jesus in faith we are
mishpochah in every sense of the word.
For centuries we have been blinded from seeing that the biblical story
was one continuous story that began with the calling of Abraham. To
Him was given the covenant promise that through his seed would come
forth redemption for our whole fallen planet. And because he believed
God, his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” This faith
righteousness, which came from God, was shown to be the only thing
that would please God. It then was established as the operating
principle for Israel for all generations. Even later, when the Law
came in, it did not override that faith covenant made with Abraham.
For as Paul revealed, “The Law, which came four hundred and thirty
years later, did not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God,
so as to nullify the promise” (Gal. 3:17).
This epic story then continued into the New Testament when God sent
His Son to find the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:6).
Through faith in Him, God was able to transition all His chosen
descendants who had come through the loins of Abraham, both Jew and
non-Jew, from the condemnation of failing to keep the Law into the
covenant of grace. That’s why, all those who are desperately trying to
reattach to our lost roots need to realize those roots will not be
found in the Law. We have to go back further than Moses. Our true
roots are found in the faith of Abraham. That is the true “religion”
of Israel!
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord: Look
to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you
were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to
you in pain; when he was one I called him, then I blessed him and
multiplied him.” (Isa. 51:1-3)
“For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be
heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the
righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs,
faith is made void and the promise is nullified” (Rom. 4:13,14).
Although “we all like sheep had gone astray, each to his own way” (Isa.
53:6), Jesus has redeemed us and restored us to the Israel of God.
Contrary to what we have thought for centuries, He did not bring us
into a religion called “Christianity.” We are not members of some
local Christian organization, but of the body of Messiah, who is the
King of Israel. The ecclesia, which is the word translated as
“church,” has been the chosen “congregation” of God ever since the
beginning. And Jesus has always been the head of this body of
believers. He just finally became manifest on our planet in order to
find and restore all the scattered descendants of Abraham together in
Himself. In Him we will one day be manifest as the “one new man.”
Therefore, there is only one body, one ecclesia, one Israel, one
chosen people, one people of God. And we are all patiently waiting for
the rest of our brethren to be awakened, both living and dead, and for
our king to return and set up His kingdom here on earth as all the
prophets foretold. This is the hope of the gospel.
“For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creation. And those who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon
them, and upon the Israel of God.” (Gal. 6:15, 16)
www.reunionministries.net
March, 2010
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