2005-03-18
Good Morning Treasured Readers,
In the last group of messages, the Holy Spirit led me to discuss Christ’s teachings on anger, adultery, divorce, the taking of vows, revenge and bearing false witness, and His desire that we should love our enemies. Today, I’m led to write about what the Lord has to say about the real relationship between the Law and His grace. True believing Christians and Messianic Jews thirst for a life of righteousness, because we know that this is the only way to eternal life. This desire is from within us, because of our willingness to open our spirits to the Holy Spirit, Who seeks to join with our human ones. We can’t forget RO 8: 16, “God’s Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children.” Our desire for righteousness comes from without by virtue of the Holy Spirit giving us the desire to surround ourselves with other believers who act to help strengthen our faith. This doesn’t mean we should never have anything to do with non-believers, because if we took that attitude, the life-giving message of the Gospel would never be spread to them.
Christ tells us in MT 5: 17-19 the real relationship between Law and grace in a nutshell. “Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teaching of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true. Remember that as long as heaven and earth last, not the least point nor the smallest detail of the Law will be done away with-not until the end of all things. So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.” To do away with the Law [meaning the Ten Commandments] and the teaching of the prophets is throwing away the baby with the bathwater! This is the kind of thing that anti-Nomians, who believed in grace without license, argued was acceptable in Paul’s time. I will offer an opinion that is not intended to insult my traditionally Jewish family and friends. What they accept as the “Oral Torah” [essentially the rabbinic commentaries on the Law that are found in the Talmud] is a large part of what keeps them from seeing that Jesus Christ is their Messiah (and ours). As a result, they hang tenaciously to the Covenant of the Law and keep themselves from enjoying the blessings of being under the Covenant of Grace. I pray every day that somehow this part of the veil that is blinding them from seeing the truth will disappear from their belief system. There is no need ever for mankind to place themselves between a believer and God as an intermediary. Any denomination which does this is keeping their members from entering God’s eternal Kingdom.
Paul gives us a closer look at what is meant by Christ making the Law and the teaching of the prophets come true in RO 10: 4-5. “For Christ is the fulfillment of the Law, so that everyone who believes is put right with God. Moses wrote about being put right with God by obeying the Law: ‘whoever obeys the commands of the Law will live.’” Paul didn’t just pull this notion out of the sky. He based what he wrote on LV 18: 5 and DT 30: 12-14, which I hope you will read from those parts of the Torah. I find it compelling that the ancient Jews actually had what they needed to be saved, even though they didn’t recognize that. I just have to give LV 18: 5, “Follow the practices and laws that I give you; you will save your life by doing so. I am the Lord.” Sadly, today’s traditional Jews don’t read directly from the OT except for a few often-repeated verses from the Torah, Psalms, and Isaiah. Instead, they study from the Talmud, whose rabbinical sages totally missed the boat!
As a Messianic Jew and a devout believer in Jesus Christ, I have to tell you that the stubbornness of my traditionally Jewish family and friends breaks my heart. I love them and want them to enjoy the blessings that come to those who truly believe in our Lord and Savior, Yeshua Ha-Messiah Adonai, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Messiah. When I think of the sacrifice that the Father made for us of the Son on the cross, of His giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit, and all the other amazing blessings, I want them for those who don’t believe now too! So, I beseech each of you to pray for those who are not believers, pray that their hearts will be softened and transformed inwardly by the renewal of their minds. The Holy Spirit is eager to act to bring as many people as will listen to the saving grace of faith in Jesus Christ. That is why: 1) We need to allow God to reveal Himself to us by daily study of His word; 2) We must have an active prayer life where we always listen first to Him and then pray; 3) We need to take every opportunity before us to mature in our faith by serving Him and being His friend; 4) We need to reach out to the community of unbelievers who will listen, to bring the message of the Gospel to their hearts. Taking the last step involves getting to know well the culture of the unbeliever involved and meeting that person in a way he/she can accept this vital message, i.e. being sensitive to the receiver’s needs.
PRAYER: O Lord, today’s prayer must be a prayer of thanksgiving. You have given us as believers so very much! Your word helps us to understand that there is a living relationship between the Law, the teaching of the prophets, and Your most excellent grace. You help us to understand that relationship and to know that even the ancient Jews were given the key to salvation. It has never changed; it has always been faithful obedience to You. While not named in the OT, Your Son, Jesus, had a powerful presence in it anyway. Sadly, Your chosen people, except for a few prophets, didn’t understand the great opportunity that You gave them. Moses interceded in a plea for You to give Your people who were disobeying You in the golden calf incident a second chance to receive the Ten Commandments [EX 32-34]. You responded by promising to remain with the people and allowed the Covenant of the Law to be renewed. Even after Achan’s sin [JS 7], You forgave the people and allowed the Jews to take the Promised Land from the Canaanites. You gave Ruth, a Moabitess, the heart of a true believer and rewarded her by allowing her to be in the royal line of David from which Your Son came [RU 1-4]. When Hannah pled with You to give her a son [1 SAM 1-2], You gave her a great one, Samuel, who spent His whole life serving You with distinction. You gave Queen Esther the courage to reveal herself as a Jew and to convince the king of Persia, her husband, that the Jews in that country should be saved from extermination by the evil Hamen [ES]. You led Isaiah and Jeremiah to courageously spread an unpopular message to Your disobedient people to stop practicing idolatry. Although the Jews refused, You showed them compassion and didn’t bring them to total destruction in the punishment You dealt them [IS; JER]. Instead when the time of the captivity was up, You gave Ezra, Nehemiah, and others the faith, wisdom, and courage to lead the Jews to restore Israel and rebuild Your temple [EZRA; NE; HAG; ZECH; MAL]. Then, Dear Father, You gave us Your Son, so that those who have faith in Him would be saved. Saying thank You hardly seems enough. We offer You our eternal praise and thanks, our dedication to being obediently faithful, and our heartfelt love. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I’m led to write about how Jesus Christ came to show the true intent of the Law. The relationships that exist between the historical events and teaching [didactics] in the OT and the NT are fascinating and vitally important to us. Out of this emerges the understanding that God is entirely consistent. His Law and other teaching through the prophets of the OT and writers of the NT do not have to be unnecessarily complicated by the interference of human intermediaries, false teachers, and pseudo-intellectuals. The message is simple and easy to understand. I love the way Les Feldick states it. “FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION. Believing in God is taking Him at His word.” This is an active, dynamic process-having faith-something that leads us to obey LV 11: 44-45, LV 19: 2, and 1 PET 1: 16, which all say, “Be holy because I am holy.” Christ is our Paradigm, a model toward which we can make the effort to make changes in our lives to follow. God gives us the Holy Spirit to allow us to know which changes we need to make to be more Christ-like. Prayer and study of His word gives us a direct pipeline to the Father. His love is all over the life He wants us to live. Praise be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn