What to do with the law

Ephesians 4:4-7
4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling;
5one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

The question about the “law” and how it relates to us today has been permeating my thought-life as of lately. The rate at which my mind is thinking about things I have heard about the law and what I understand about the law in light of a Messianic train of thought is crippling. When I say “Messianic” I mean a train of thought rooted in a Whole Bible understanding of God’s redemptive plan. There is some background necessary if we are to journey together and end up at the same place.

The question for those of us who are New Covenant brethren is: How do we relate to Israel and what does that mean for our theology and our view of the law? The answers of the day to this question, I feel, have left us with more questions than answers. They leave us with a half-baked theology rooted in a bad foundation and grasping for a real understanding of God’s word on the subject. So when we hear someone talk about Israel, how should we necessarily think in terms of the conversation? Are they talking about a subject that I am included in? How do I approach the Hebrew Scriptures (O.T.) as a New Covenant believer? What place does the law have in my walk? Scripture is the only safe place to start when talking issues like this so that is where we go first.

Exodus 12:48-50
48"But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.
49"The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you."
50Then all the sons of Israel did so; they did just as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.

From the beginning, God intended one law for His people called the, His chosen people. His commandments were given from the beginning in the Torah given to Moses. The way we look at and understand Torah will forever effect our whole understanding of God’s word. Case in point, not widely known by those outside of the Messianic movement is the fact that many non-Hebrews grafted themselves into Hebrew families during the first Passover and left Egypt a part of Israel during the Exodus.

Exodus 12:37-39
37Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.
38A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.
39They baked the dough which they had brought out of Egypt into cakes of unleavened bread. For it had not become leavened, since they were driven out of Egypt and could not delay, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.

One would have no clue about this unless you studied Torah or had been taught by wide men about it. The One True God gave us Torah so that we would have patterns to study the New Testament and know about future events in the life of the people of God.

Our title Scripture passage from Ephesians above says that there is one God and Father of all. The Shema, from Deuteronomy Chapter six, proclaims that the LORD our God is One. Paul says in Romans Chapter four verse eleven that Abraham received the seal of the “righteousness of faith” prior to being circumcised so that he could be the father of all who believe. Our God is One, our father of faith is one. And if Abraham is our father than we all are children of Abraham and thus are common denominator becomes faith in Yeshua. That is why Paul says in Romans 9, “…For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;”

Romans 9:6-8
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;
7nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED."
8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.

We need to explore this passage more for I fear leaving it will not clear up current misgivings about what Paul is saying. Paul nowhere indicates that New Covenant brethren have replaced Israel because we are spiritual Israel which is commonly purported. No such thing as Spiritual Israel exists in Scripture. This is an explanation birthed out of a misunderstanding of God’s intent in redemptive history. When men of knowing find a place they do not understand, a Greek mind (that of our church fathers) will assert an answer where there need not necessarily be one yet. The Bible is a Hebrew book with a Hebrew Messiah and Jewish disciples. Hebrews do not think like Greeks. So what is Paul saying? Paul is merely pointing out the sovereignty of God in choosing whom He will to show compassion and mercy on. “Children of the Promise” points to descendants of Isaac, not some new path God is taking in redemptive history. The idea of a spiritual Israel is a tentacle of Replacement theology and is not biblical theology. If Abraham is our father, then how could the New Covenant congregation only be non-Jews or more accurately, non-Hebrews? The “church” does not replace Israel. Besides “church” is not a fair translation of “ekklesia” in my opinion. The idea of a congregation of God’s people is not a new thing first seen in the New Testament. In Hebrew it was called a “Kahal” and it meant congregation or company of peoples. So why did the translators invent the word “church” to use for “ekklesia”. What does ekklesia mean? Here is what the Greek means:

1) a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly
a) an assembly of the people convened at the public place of the council for the purpose of deliberating
b) the assembly of the Israelites
c) any gathering or throng of men assembled by chance, tumultuously
d) in a Christian sense
1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
2) a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake
3) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
4) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
5) the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven

I am not saying it is wrong to use the word “church” as long as it means the same as the Greek “ekklesia” But I believe it to be misleading and a catalyst for separating the people of God in the Old Testament from the people of God in the New Testament. You be the judge of that.

So how do we relate as New Covenant believers to Israel? In the ancient days, there were two parts to the Kingdom of Israel, the Northern and the Southern. The Northern Kingdom was known as Ephraim and later Israel. The Southern Kingdom was known as Judah. The Northern Kingdom or Israel was eventually carried off by the Assyrians and the peoples assimilated into Assyrian life. They lost there identity as Hebrews because they mingled among foreigners and took their women as wives. Judah remained until the time of Yeshua and this was the line of King David and where Jews today trace their lineage from. Those Hebrews from Israel or Ephraim intermarried and they had children and they had children and they had children and so on. Thus we have a Hebrew people who passes a Hebrew bloodline to the nations and then were scattered among the nations.

The fact of the matter is that genetic ties to Ephraim or even Judah would be impossible to determine 100% today because of the distance of time. So it is not out of line to propose that some of the New Covenant believers today are physical descendants from the House of Ephraim along aside from being children of the promise in Yeshua. We cannot know for sure either way. Thus our ties, as New Covenant brethren, to Israel may be deeper than we know. The fact remains that Abraham was our Father and that because of our faith in Messiah, we are children of God and sons and daughters of Israel.

It is necessary to get our identity right if we are to approach the law from a right perspective and not in ignorance. The prophet Hosea says that God’s people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and we would do well to be wise when approaching this subject. So now for some more questions:

1. If Abraham is our father, then what about the commandments given the people of Israel through Moses?
2. Did Yeshua come and change what He gave on Mount Sinai to the people of Israel?
3. When Yeshua says, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished”, did he mean something other than “heaven and earth passing away”?
4. If keeping Sabbath is a perpetual statute given by Elohim, as it is, why do New Covenant brethren treat it so flippantly?

I don’t blame you my brothers and sisters; I blame your teachers and the teachers that came before them. We have all been a victim of reformational thinking, logic, and knee-jerk reaction to legalism. In an attempt to give separation form the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformers rejected anything that had to do with the law as bad, Jewish, and something Messiah took care of for us. Not all untrue, but not the truth by any stretch of the imagination. Isn’t it human nature to swing the pendulum the complete opposite direction and miss the middle where God is? Let me not make a claim without giving proof. With Easter approaching, I will give some truth concerning this misunderstood day and celebration. Let’s start by looking up the only passage that uses the word Easter (which is a pagan celebration of a fertility goddess.) Ever wondered why they have egg hunts and chocolate bunnies? You guessed it: fertility.

Acts 12:3-5
3And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)
4And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
5Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

It must be noted that subsequent translations, to include the New King James, do not translate the Greek word to Easter. Instead, the New King James, uses the correct translation of “pascha” as Passover. Could you see the value of celebrating Passover today as opposed to Easter or Resurrection Sunday? The one obvious reason would be that God commanded us to celebrate “Passover” (Exodus 12:42-51), but He did not command us to celebrate His resurrection. Yeshua did tell us to remember His broken body and shed blood during communion. On a more historical note, when you do the chronology of the time from when Yeshua died to three days later when He rose from the dead, accounting that Hebrews counted days from evening to the following evening, the Friday to Sunday model does not work. Yeshua more than likely rose on Monday. This is not meant to go legalistic on you, just stating some biblical facts and leaving you to wrestle with the Holy Spirit about it.

So now, with that out of the way, how then should we view the law? We must first see that there are two parts of the law given in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). God desires us to be Torah observant whether believing Jew or non-Jew. He has given commandments, ordained feasts, and appointed days that we are to know about today and observe and obey. You are not a legalist if you obey the word of God which is what Torah is. You are a legalist when you form a system of following the law and then force that onto other people instead of calling their hearts back to the true, Living Torah, Yeshua. You see, Yeshua was not angry at the Pharisees and Scribes for keeping Torah; He was angry at them for elevating the system of the Rabbis above the actual word of God in the Torah.

In fact it was Yeshua’s habit to teach Torah in the synagogues:

Luke 4:15-17
15And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
16And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read.

What was He reading? Was it not the weekly Torah reading? We must be careful not to let our past learning fool us into believing that God the Father and Yehsua had different agendas while He was on earth. He did as His Father was doing:

John 5:18-19
18For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.
19Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

The same Yeshua that came in the flesh is the same God who gave Israel the commandments through Moses. They are One; remember the Shema, The LORD our God is One. Interestingly, the Hebrew word for God used in the Shema, Adonai, is a plural form. In Genesis, it says that Us made man in Their likeness and image. I would argue that anywhere we see a physical representation of God, we see Yeshua. He is the word of God manifest among the people. He is the Living Torah. God creates by speaking and Yeshua is the power of that spoken Word. I don’t have it all figured out in my head and may never grasp it fully, but it is beautiful to dwell on. I do understand that God speaks something into nothing when He regenerates a soul. We had not faith in Yeshua and then God speaks and we are not unbelieving.

The law has two components to it, to finish my earlier thought. The first part of the law was the ceremonial aspect which included the sacrifices and was a foreshadowing to the coming Messiah who would fulfill those requirements because animal sacrifice is still sacrifice with borrowed blood and life. Yehsua possessed divine life that was eternal existent and free. He laid down His life; they did not take it from Him:

John 10:17-18
17"For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again.
18"No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again This commandment I received from My Father."

Check this out:

Leviticus 17:14
14"For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, 'You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.'

God says that all flesh has its life in the blood. Why could animal sacrifices or the sacrifice of a man not suffice to wash away our sins? We all have the blood of Adam; we have tainted blood. Yeshua came born of a virgin, thus not inheriting the blood of Joseph. That would have made His sacrifice null and void. He has pure life, pure blood, and hads authority to lay it down willingly. So Yeshua fulfilled the requirements of the law for salvation. So what about the other component of law? What does it deal with?

Quite simply it deals with blessing. Keeping Torah has nothing to do with salvation, which is by grace through faith; the same way all have been saved from the garden until now. Keeping God’s commandments after salvation has to do with loving the Father and gaining His blessings through obedience to His commands. What child odes not want to please His father? Books are written about this subject and tragedies are blamed on bad relationships with fathers. Obedient children seek to do the will of their Father. Not only this, but when you are a citizen, you obey the laws of the camp. We are citizens of the commonwealth of Israel if we be in Messiah:

Ephesians 2:11-20
11Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands--
12remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world…

…19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,
20having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,…

Okay, so take what I said earlier about Yeshua being the same God that gave the commandments of Sinai and with that lens look at this passage:

Matthew 28:16-20
16But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated.
17When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful.
18And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

We know this passage well up until verse 20 and then we drop the ball as the ekklesia of Christ. We are to teach these disciples all that Yeshua commanded. So what has He commanded? I believe He includes Torah along with the clarifications of the Torah that He has taught them over the last three years. Why? Notice that they meet on a mountain. God first gave them Torah on Mount Sinai. Now He is clarifying and reiterating His command to obey with the exception of giving us the Holy Spirit to help. Also He was talking to Torah-schooled Jewish men. That is a whole other paper. The disciples were Torah-school dropouts and hence they were doing their father’s trade, fishing. Only boys, like Paul, who excelled in the Scriptures were discipled by the prominent Rabbis. Yeshua turned their system on it s head. Back to His Torah teaching, there is also an account of Yehsua opening up all the Scriptures from the beginning to some men walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-28). Why did He do this? The Scriptures He would have explained would have been the Torah; they did not have the New Testament.

So in summary, we see that Yeshua did not contradict the redemptive plan of the Father, all who believe in Yeshua, whether Jew or non-Jew are children of the promise and sons and daughters of Israel, and Torah is for everyone and profitable for blessing. Salvation is by grace through faith in Yeshua who willing laid down His life-blood. We must test what we are taught by the Scriptures and the w e will see what is the good and acceptable will of God through the renewing of our mind to the truth of God.

My hope and prayer is that you will explore some of the things I have proposed. See for yourself; ask God if it is true. God is not a God of confusion and we must not rely wholly on those that have gone before us; we must seek God through His word and stand on it alone. God is gathering a people unto Himself and they all have one Messiah, Yeshua HaMashiach. They are made up of a Melo HaGoyim (a noisy, tumultuous group of gentiles) grafted in a Hebrew olive tree, heirs to the promises of Abraham. This was God’s promise to Abraham as he gazed upon the stars. God has affected this plan through the House of Judah (believing Jews), primary carriers of the law and the House of Ephraim (believing non-Jews), primary carries of grace. He has given commands or statutes, which I believe we will be keeping for all eternity. How do we know that these two witnesses exist to demonstrate the truthfulness of God’s word? Because that is how He designed it:

Deuteronomy 19:15
15"A single witness shall not rise up against a man on account of any iniquity or any sin which he has committed; on the evidence of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed.

Matthew 18:15-17
15"If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.
16"But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED.
17"If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

John 8:16-18
16"But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.
17"Even in your law it has been written that the testimony of two men is true.
18"I am He who testifies about Myself, and the Father who sent Me testifies about Me."

2 Corinthians 13:1-3
1This is the third time I am coming to you EVERY FACT IS TO BE CONFIRMED BY THE TESTIMONY OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES.

1 Timothy 5:19
19Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.

Revelation 11:2-4
2"Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.
3"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."
4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.