After sharing a picture on Facebook which stated, "The
Messiah wore Tzit-Tzit, ate kosher, celebrated Passover, kept the Sabbath, and
obeyed Torah.... Which Messiah are you following again?", I received a
comment from a woman whom I personally know to be genuine in her faith and in
pursuit of Christ. (The post can be seen
on our Facebook page, but cannot be reposted on this blog.)
Her response to this post was genuine and honest, and thoroughly in line
with the modern understanding of Christ's gospel.
However, I believe this needs and deserves an honest
response, which is much too long for a Facebook post, so I am responding here. Again, this comes from someone whom I
personally know and have worshiped with, and my intent is not to attack in any
way. This is not the case of a luke-warm
believer trying to pick a fight; these women are truly seeking God. The comment was as follows:
We
Support Jesus Christ He
fulfilled all them, my Messiah is the Messiah who came that I might live and be
apart of the new covenant that He established with His Death, Burial and
Resurrection. He began the Church age when He said on the Rock (meaning Himself
it would be established) It began on the day of Pentecost and continues today,
He removed the traditions and requirements of the law according to the book of
Hebrews, and the book of Galatians, I live under the new covenant and my desire
is to walk according to Him, He has written His law in my heart. What Messiah
do you think you are trying to impress with your constant proclaiming of the
law, the Sabbath, etc. ?
Many of these topics have been covered elsewhere in this
blog - particularly the topic of the law having been done away with. For this reason, I will not spend much time
on details here, but I will lay out some considerations I believe to be very
important. We must remember that no
church or denomination will get us to YHVH (God), Christ has told us we can
only come to the Father through Him. (John 14:6) In the end, we must all seek Christ (Yeshua)
the Messiah for ourselves! It is His
Truth we must understand, not the teachings of man!!!
Consideration #1: We
must stop dividing the Word of God into 2 parts. The "old" testament and the
"new" testament. This is a
misunderstanding of the covenants!!!
What we consider to be the "new" covenant is not a complete
do-over, but a re-confirming of the covenant we've had with YHVH all
along. Consider how many times Jesus is
quoted as saying something to the effect of "I and my Father are
one." (John 10:30) How can they be perfectly unified if they each have
their own 1/2 of scripture and the teachings/requirements are contradictory to
each other??? Doesn't scripture tell us
that Jesus is "the same yesterday, today, and forever", that God
never changes and "does not
lie"? (Heb 13:8, Num 23:19, 1 Sam 15:29)
How then could His Word change 1/2 way through? How could He completely
change what He expects from His people, expecting one kind of faith from
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, Joseph, etc., but another less obedient kind
from us??? I believe that we have
completely misunderstood the true nature of Christ's gospel! He is our Savior, Redeemer, Messiah, and we
are saved by grace through faith in Him alone.
But His teachings have been hijacked over the course of centuries and
turned into something they never were.
If we are to follow Him, we must understand Him, and we can only do that
by knowing Him and His Words ourselves, not what has been passed down through
others.
Consideration #2: God
is not the God of confusion! (1 Cor 14:33).
Why would Jesus say things like, "not one jot or tittle shall by
any means pass from the law"(Matt 5:17-18), "If you love me, keep my
commandments,"(John 14:15) and
"it is easier for heaven and earth to fail that one tittle of the
law" (Luke 16:17) if He came to do away with it? Why would He keep it to the very letter, and
then ask us to seek to be like Him, if we weren't to keep the law? Why would He not explain to us the change or
the difference between 'His law' and 'God's law' if one existed? Why would He claim to be One with His Father,
if He were not??? We must remember,
Israel was God's covenant people, and many were divorced from Him because of
idolatry and disobedience. The promised
Messiah came through the covenant people to restore the covenant for all! If He was trying to break this
"old" covenant, He would have broken it in some way, instead of
fulfilling it in every way! We are
invited to return to our original covenant with our creator through Christ, not
to create a new one!
Finally, how logical are these statements?:
1. "The law is
written on my heart, so I don't have to keep the law."
2. "The law is
done away with, it is written on my heart."
These statements don't even make sense. The only part of these statements supported
by scripture is that the YHVH will write His law on the heart of His people.
(Jer. 31:33) The rest, I believe is a
misunderstanding of the gospel. Why
would God write a done-away-with law on your heart? Scripture exhorts us to obedience and wisdom
(Proverbs is a great example), we cannot accept illogical and inconsistent
beliefs such as these, and we cannot live and do as we please and think we are
serving Him.
The points made here are only to be a starting point. Please see my other posts about the Law
(Messianic Misconceptions), Cancelling Christmas, A Line in the Sand, and the video I shared, "Identity
Crisis" for full information and explanation. I'm begging every believer who ever reads my
words to stop and take an account of your faith before YHVH using ONLY the
standard of His Word. There are
thousands of denominations of Christianity teaching thousands of varying
"truths", but the only true Truth is God's Word. You HAVE TO know it for yourself and FOLLOW
Jesus in OBEYING YHVH, not in man's traditions!
May YHVH bless you all as you continue to seek Him in Truth!
Photo courtesy of: www.freedigitalphotos.net
