Rom. 6:16-17: Paul, teaching righteousness, teaching Torah

Romans 6:16-18 ¹⁶ Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.




Here we see, the apostle Paul, a Pharisee (Acts 23:6), teaching about the new life, and believers living lives of obedience to righteousness.  We see that in v. 16 he teaches us that you are a slave of what or whom you obey, giving us two options: 1) either of sin, resulting in death, which Paul had taught earlier in his letter to the Romans (Rom. 6:23), or 2) of obedience, resulting in righteousness. 




But now we have a dilemma.  The modern "Church," teaches that Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled the Law so that we don't have to keep it.  In fact, I have had pastors tell me that trying to keep the Law is bondage, and will send you to hell (speaking of me, personally)!  So is the apostle Paul telling believers that Yeshua died to set them free from something that they are now obligated to live by, or that they are free from?




He is instructing believers that they are to live for righteousness, to live in obedience to it.  But living in obedience implies something, a standard, a rule or Law that must be obeyed!  If we are to live in obedience, the Law then is not dead.  It remains true and in effect today just as it was two thousand years ago.  The apostle is instructing believers under the New Covenant through Yeshua's death and resurrection (on Passover and the feast of First Fruits), to live in obedience to the Instruction (Torah) Yhwh commanded his people keep forever (1 Chr. 16:15; Ps. 105:8).




This teaching found in the depths of the New Covenant itself, in a book championed by the Reformers for teaching the doctrine of salvation by grace, actually hearkens back to the teachings in the Torah.  In Deutoronomy 28, the Yhwh speaks through Moses, his servant, and he speaks of the blessing that will be received for living lives in obedience to the Instruction of Yhwh (Deut. 28:1f)  It also speaks of the curses, sickness and destruction to follow after those who live lives of disobedience to the word of Yhwh (Deut. 28:15f).




In the New Testament (B'rit Chadasha) the apostle tells us that the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23).So we see that the New Covenant is not in juxtaposition to the Old Testament, in fact, Paul is confirming the Biblical teaching of the Torah, for the New Covenant believers to follow and live their lives after.


¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.


When the apostle Paul teaches that believers have become obedient from the heart, he is repeating the teaching of the prophet Jeremiah who first defined what the New Covenant (B'rit Chadashah) would be.
Jeremiah 31:33 ³³ "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.


In one of the first teachings/promises for a new Covenant, Jeremiah is prophesying that the Yah's Torah would be written on the hearts of His people.  This is one reason why in the churches today, there are so many "cultural Christians," people who claim the name of Messiah, and defile Elohim's name among the nations, because with the teaching that "we are free from the Torah," they live lives of lawlessness, looking no different from the rest of the world, while receiving the comfort and assurance of Yhwh's blessing on their lives. 




The Hebrew Apostles knew the Tanakh, and they knew the Psalms.  They understood the teaching that Torah IS righteousness, it is Truth (Ps. 145:142)!  The apostle John tells us that everyone who lives in (active, continual) sin, lives in lawlessness (1 Jn. 3:4)!  And so Paul, writing in chapter three of his great systematic exposition on salvation by grace, tells us in verse thirty-three, "What then, shall we nullify the Law (Torah) through grace?  May it never be!  Rather, we establish the Torah!"


In our churches in America, the West, for so long, it has been taught that the Law and Grace are opposed to each other, and has given support to doctrines (ie, teachings of men) such as "dispensations."  But it seems the apostle is not teaching that the Torah and grace are in opposition, but rather, that the Torah, and grace, go hand and hand! 




Psalm 119:32 ³² I shall run the way of Your commandments, For You will enlarge my heart.


Psalm 119:96-104 ⁹⁶ I have seen a limit to all perfection; Your commandment is exceedingly broad. Mem. ⁹⁷ O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. ⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. ⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. ¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts. ¹⁰¹ I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. ¹⁰² I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. ¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! ¹⁰⁴ From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.


Understanding more about the Hebrew mindset of the authors of the Bible, we can see that the theology of the Bible is seamless.  There are no two separate parts.  Scripture is one united, complete whole!  It's theme from beginning to end is the restoration of Eden, and Yhwh fulfilling His promises to Avraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their descendants.

Whose Identity is More Important, the Man, or His Lawlessness?

In recent months, something has become more and more apparent to me, as countless people through the pas decades and centuries have been named or considered as candidates of the Antichrist, that there are any number of people who could be that person... but to what avail is identifying him before hand?  In that day it will be evident enough!


What is more important, I think, is being able to identify the Lawlessness to which he is ascribed (2 Thess. 2:3).  This seems to be a topic that is largely untouched by the mainstream church, and much to its own detriment!  Biblically speaking, this is not a hard topic to figure out.  But I think because of its blinders towards the Law of Yahweh, the modern church cannot see it, and again, much to its peril!


For the student of scripture, they know that Law, as translated in most English bibles, is the translation of the word "Torah" in Hebrew, which more accurately means, "Instruction" rather than "Law".  Through certainly the past century, there has been a gradual drifting away from the Law within the church as binding upon believers lives.  Gradually people began less and less to see the world upheld and governed by the Laws of God, and more and more of a Gentile understanding that Jesus came to set us free from the Law, because it is a "ministry of death, written on tablets of stone" (2 Cor. 3:7).


This is an example of a Gentile (non-Hebraic) misunderstanding of scriptures.  Of course the Law (Torah) is a ministry of death to people, because of our sinful nature and attitudes.  We would much rather follow the law of Crawley, "Do as thou wilt..." rather than keep the Law of Yahweh, whose very words are life:


Deuteronomy 30:15-20 ¹⁵ "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ "But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."


So we see from the Torah, in Dt. 30, that Yahweh commands his covenant people, the Israelites, and the sojourners among them, that His word is life!  To obey Yahweh's word is life and prosperity, and to deny it, to disobey it, is death and adversity.  And so we see the proclaimed Church in the world, proclaiming that we have been set free from the Law by the very one who claimed to be the Word of Elohim in the flesh, the Messiah, Son of David.


But what did Yeshua teach?  He taught:


Matthew 5:17-19 ¹⁷ "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ "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. ¹⁹ "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


Yeshua said that He did not come to abolish the Torah, but to fulfill it.  And he did fulfill some of it, known as the Spring feasts (mo'edim).  But he is still to fulfill the Fall feasts!  That is, "until heaven and earth pass away, not the [least part] shall pass from the Torah, till all is accomplished!


Did anyone see if heaven and earth passed away yet?  Oh wait, ok, we're all sitting here, the heavens and earth are still all around us.  Ok, it didn't pass away.  Whew!  I'm so relieved!  Aren't you?  So why then do we think the Torah passed away?  Can anyone say Gentile Dummies?  Yes, that is what we are, and have been for the past two thousand years! Because in our anti-Semitic bias, we have refused to see it, and we have spurned, and kicked against the word of God, all the while proclaiming a love for God and his people (except the Jews, His people).


For two thousand years, we have had Gentile leaders of a Semitic religion.  The Gentiles really did hi-jack Christianity, and morphed it into our anti-Semitic, Greek/Roman/Babylonian form!  And so that brings me back around to the theme of the blog, whose identity is more important, the man, or his lawlessness?


I think as a follower of Messiah Yeshua, my brother and king from Judah (yes, he was a Jew, not a Palestinian), that identifying the Lawlessness is far more important, especially when God's word, and obedience to it are life!  Didn't Peter say to his rabbi, "To whom shall we go?  You have the words of life!"  For the orthodox Jew, this has the ring of Torah (Deuternomy 30) to it, and again, a Messianic confession!


The apostle John, the beloved of Yeshua, warned his readers about the spirit of lawlessness in his day:


1 John 2:18-19 ¹⁸ Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. ¹⁹ They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
1 John 2:22 ²² Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.


In my Gentile understanding, brought in a Southern Baptist church, I used to think that this meant those who had left the Church, that is, the Protestant Church.  Now, understanding that "the secret of Yhwh is for those who fear Him, and to them He makes known His Covenant (Ps. 25:14)," I see that the Jewish apostle was writing of those who were "leaving the Church" of his day, those who were turning away from the sound doctrines of scripture, that is, Torah/Tanak.  John tells us that they had/have a spirit of antichrist!  He tells us in 3:4 that sin is lawlessness (torah-lessness)! 


So today, what do we have in most churches across America?  We have the spirit of antichrist, the spirit of lawlessness, where the pastors proclaim confidently and unashamedly to turn people away from the Law of the Most High, through which He will reign again upon His return (cf. Ezek. 40-48).


The Great Deceiver in our midst has already proclaimed that the Cross is to no avail, and it "did not work!"  And he is gathering all his children to him already! 


So how about you?  Are you in a church where they proclaim Jesus set us free from following the Law (Torah)?  You should flee from there, get yourself into a congregation of believers who want to keep the instruction of Yahweh, who want to keep His word, His Sabbath, and His Mo'edim, as He proclaims in His word!  Are you a pastor preparing people to accept the anti-Messiah, and his doctrine of lawlessness?  Even most of America's big-name, celebrity preachers are doing so, leading people astray, they are wolves in sheeps clothing, ravening the sheep.

The Goal (End) of the Faith - Part Two

In Part One, we looked at a letter from a Rabbi to his son in the Faith.  Rabbi Shaul, known to most as the Apsotle Paul.  In this excerpt of his letter to Timothy, I translated the term "law" which is being carried over from the Hebrew concept, as "Torah" or, "instruction." When hermeneutics are applied consistently, we can see more clearly.

In this first part, we see that Rabbi Shaul tells Timothy: "1 Timothy 1:5  the goal of our torah is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith."  Some of you who read this may think we are heading in a direction of legalism, or something akin to that of the Judaizers.  On the contrary, the Rabbi precedes this verse in the letter to Timothy with the aspiration:

1 Timothy 1:4  4" nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith"  Note, the Apostle puts torah, and faith together in the same sentence, whereas modern churches teach they are opposite and antithetical!

But where does Rabbi Shaul get this expectation, or this doctrine, that this instruction (torah) has as its goal a "good (ie, clean/pure) conscience and a sincere faith?"  It is the teaching and testimony of the First Covenant, and Yhwh's redemptive promises to Israel, the sons of Jacob.

One place we see this clearly is by the prophet Zechariah.  Yeshua taught, "I did not come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets...."  In chapters 12-14, Zechariah prophesied on the coming battle of Armageddon, and the salvation of all (yes, twelve tribes) of Israel.  In chapter 14, we see Yeshua Messiah's victory:

Zechariah 14:9  9 And the LORD (Yahweh) will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD (Yahweh) will be the only one, and His name the only one.

And then a few verses down, we see the state of affairs in the Messianic kingdom, also know as the kingdom of God.

Zechariah 14:16  16 Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Sukkot).

Most churches teach in their theology that Yeshua, or Jesus came to set us free from the Law.  Never mind that John tells us that "everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness.  Sin is law-lessness (1 Jn. 3:4)."  Protestant believers have been separated from the worldview of the Hebrew authors of the Bible, almost from the second century.

The fact is, the Bible clearly defines the righteousness of Yahweh with his commands (Ps. 119:150), His Torah (instruction - Ps. 119:142).  During His life Yeshua lived a life of perfect righteousness, keeping Yahweh's Torah perfectly.

Does it then make sense that once Yahweh delivers sinners from the punishment and verdict of their sin, that he will allow and encourage them to live in law-lessness (unrighteousness)?  Yet this is the approach that many who claim to follow Messiah take.  But scripture tells us that "he who claims to live in him (Messiah Yeshua) must walk as he walked" (1 Jn. 2:6).  The apostle Paul asks, " What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:1,2).

Clearly, we see that the Messiah Yeshua reigns from His temple in the Millenial Kingdom, over the restored Israel, and the surving remnant of mankind, who will then repopulate the earth during this 1,000 year period.  As Yahweh Elohim told us, "He is the same yesterday, today and forever."  His standard of righteousness never changed.  In fact His Son, Yeshua, His Word/Torah made flesh will reign over His people, till He hands over all things to Yahweh Abba, the Father.

ISIS ATTACKS ISRAELI BORDER.

Being Green and Polluting the Earth

The Pope pronounced that it is a sin to pollute on the earth ,here. What does the Bible really say?


Certainly, in the beginning (Genesis), man was created as caretaker and steward of the earth, to spread Elohim's glory throughout the earth. But about pollution, it says:

"The earth is polluted by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, aqnd very few are left." Is. 24:5,6



So the earthis polluted, the Bible says, as people worship "mother earth" and the whole green movement to "protect the earth, is actually causing in more pollution and curses upon the earth thaqn if every inhabitant on earth threw down their gum wrappers! So the next time you see something with the Green movement, even in Church, know that it is idolatrous pollution [i.e. defilement] bringing curses on the earth.