Sadly, for millennia Christians who, I believe, truly want to serve and worship God, have been told they don’t have to follow the Torah.
They’ve been taught that Yeshua did away with the law, or that they only need to be faithful to be saved, or as Gentiles they only have to follow the 4 requirements in Acts 15, or they only have to follow the moral laws, not the ceremonial ones, or that they don’t have to do anything more than just “call on the name of the Lord” to be saved.
“Hey, I just Whatsapp’d God- am I saved now?”
Truth be told, none of those things are correct.
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I am Jewish, born and raised from Jewish parents, taught in a reform Jewish synagogue, and when I was in my mid-40’s, I accepted that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah God promised to send, but I did not convert to anything or become a Christian (which my Jewish brothers and sisters would claim I am if I “believe in Jesus”).
What happened was that I did not become a Born-Again Christian, but rather, a Born-Anew Jew! Which is just what happened to the tens of thousands of Jews who were living during the ministry of Yeshua and who accepted him as the Messiah.
So, as a Jew, it is hard for me to understand why Christianity insists that it’s followers should live and act as Yeshua did, but- in the same breath- tells them to reject everything that he did, which was to obey every instruction for worship and treating each other that his father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, told us all to do in the Torah.
Don’t get ahead of me! I am not going to defend the Torah today, and this lesson is not to be an apologetic for the Torah. All I am going to do is ask why anyone who believes that God exists would not want to obey the Torah.
What is the Torah? It is God’s User Manual for righteous living.
And despite the way James stated it, it is not an all or nothing thing: it is a guide, as Shaul said, a guardian, and as such we do our best to do what it says to do.
But, since no human being is capable of living righteously- at least, not all the time- God gave us the sacrificial system in the Torah so we could be forgiven when we screw-up, which he knew we would do. That’s why he gave us the sacrificial system! DUH! Then he sent Yeshua to act as a permanent sacrifice for sin, replacing the need to bring an animal to be sacrificed at the temple in Jerusalem, which was the Torah command for any sacrifice to be accepted.
So, you can see how Yeshua’s sacrifice came in REALLY handy, especially after the temple was destroyed! Yeshua did not do away with the sacrificial system; all he did was to replace the need to sacrifice an animal at the temple, so now through Yeshua we can receive forgiveness anytime, anywhere.
The truth is, most Christians don’t have any idea what the Torah is, and that includes most Jews, as well! You think it is a bunch of laws, such as what is kosher and the 10 Commandments, and you are right- those laws are in there, but there is so much more to it.
Did you know that the Torah is a historical narrative, one that is being validated more and more by archaeological discoveries?
Did you know that the Torah defines a set of proper business ethics (Deut. 25)?
Did you know it has a form of a health code (Lev. 11; 14; 15)?
Did you know the Torah defines acceptable interpersonal relationships, i.e., which are proper and which are sinful? (Lev.18)?
Did you know the Torah has a penal code that stipulates the type and degree of punishment for any number of crimes, from capital crimes like murder, to torts, to misdemeanors such as loss or destruction of someone else’s property in your possession? (Lev. 24)
Did you know that the Torah is a Ketuba (marriage certificate) between a people and God, through the covenants God made with us?
BTW… the covenants God made have always been inclusive of the previous covenants: no covenant ever did away with any previous covenant.
And here’s a good reason why anyone and everyone should obey…did you know that in Deuteronomy 28, God promises to totally bless anyone who obeys his Torah?
We can’t ever earn salvation, but we can earn blessings, and who can bless better than God? Really! Why wouldn’t anyone who believes in God, who believes God is trustworthy to do as he says, not want to receive blessings?
So, again, I ask: What’s so terrible about obeying the Torah?
Christianity makes it sound like if you obey the Torah, you are disqualified from salvation. How stupid is that? Why would God punish anyone for doing what he said he wants us to do?
Can you tell me why Christianity has this thing for the Torah? Why does it insist that if you obey the Torah you can’t really be saved? All I ever hear is that doing all that “Jewish” stuff means you aren’t really saved because you are “under the law”?
Fools! False teachers! Without the law, there can be no salvation because the lawless are to be punished. Being “under the law” doesn’t mean being obedient to the Torah, it means being legalistic, which is a performance-based system for salvation.
Performing activities in order to earn salvation will not work, and demonstrates faith in works and not faith in God.
Here’s a really hard word to accept, but is undeniable: anyone who can be 100% obedient to 100% of the Torah, 100% of the time, will be saved! How can I say that?
I can say that because Yeshua was risen from the grave! He was a sinless lamb, which means he was 100% obedient to the Torah, and being sinless he was saved from death, and now sits at the right hand of God. He wasn’t resurrected because he was the Messiah, it is because he was the Messiah that he was able to be sinless, which is why he was resurrected.
So, let’s review: the Torah is a history book, it tells us what perversities we are to avoid in our relationship with others, it defines fair business practices, it has a penal code, it has a health code, it acts as a constitution for a nation, it tells us how God wants us to worship him, and more than anything else it defines what sin is, and how to be forgiven when we sin.
Once again, the Torah is not just a bunch of laws, it is God’s GPS, directing us how to live a righteous life.
Don’t you agree that true faith in, and love for God will generate in us a real desire to please him? And doesn’t it make sense that if we do what God said he wants us to do, that he will be pleased?
Being obedient to the Torah is not disqualification from salvation, it is simply living as God said to live, and as Yeshua lived, and when you do you get blessed out the ying-yang!
So, nu? If it demonstrates the truth of your faith and gets you tons of blessings, to boot!…what’s so terrible about obeying the Torah?
Thank you for being here, and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even those non-believers. After all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.
That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!
