Legalism is hypocrisy; that is, insisting that another strictly abide by laws, rules, regulations, when they them self fail to obey those same rules. In theology, legalism is the enemy of the Gospel as legalism insists one must obey laws and edicts and rules and traditions in order to establish a relationship with Elohim when Elohim has clearly told human kind that relationship with Him is established by faith, not works; that is, faith in Jesus as one’s Messiah (John 14:6)…we trust in the “work” of Jesus for us at the Cross and not in our own efforts or “goodness” to earn favor with Elohim.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
Are you a Christian? What are two “signs” of a true Christian and disciple of Jesus?
If you’re truly “born again” (John 3:3), the Holy Spirit that indwells you and is your Guarantor of New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 1:13-14) will daily guide you in sanctification (a setting apart) from the World system of demonic rebellion (Galatians 5:16). This is but one sign that you are truly “born again” and belong to Jesus…YOU WILL produce divine fruit that glorifies the Father and confirms your eternal status as Jesus’ disciple; therefore, if you hold yourself out to be a Christian but this divine fruit is not present (Galatians 5:16-23), you have every right and obligation to reconsider the veracity of your relationship with the Father…no fruit, no desire for fruit? You’re not in divine relationship.
Remember, we don’t “work” or produce divine fruit to be saved or earn our salvation BUT we produce divine fruit because we are saved by grace through faith and the Spirit produces fruit through us via daily sanctification (Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9).
The second sign of true New Covenant relationship is your response to this question: Is Jesus God/Elohim/Eternally who became flesh to provide you blood atonement for your sin? If your answer is yes, the Holy Spirit indwells you; if your answer is NO, you belong to the Devil and you are Satan’s servant, NOT the servant of Jesus and you’re absent the Holy Spirit (John 8:24).
How is the Gentile “grafted” into Israel and what is the relevance of this “grafting?” (Romans 11)
The Christian’s “grafting” concerning Israel is relevant initially and primarily due to the promises Elohim made to Israel through Abraham (a Gentile); that is, through Abraham would come One who would be a blessing to every family of the Earth (Genesis 12:3); both Jew (Israelite) and Gentile.
The blessings promised Israel through Moses’ inspired writings (Torah) were, in large part, contingent upon National obedience (Deuteronomy 28); unfortunately, Israel failed Elohim; Israel conspired to murder their Messiah upon a tree and rejected the New Covenant, the Gospel, the Great Commission thus blaspheming the Holy Spirit and insulting the Father; therefore, Israel has fallen under divine judgment (Romans 11:25); consequently, only a mere “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape destruction in Hell due their rejection of Messiah (then and now) and their ancestors insistence that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27; Matthew 27:27).
The promises and covenants relevant to Israel and the “grafting” of the Gentile into those promises and covenants are ALL fulfilled in Jesus and their divine fulfillment is realized in the life of a Christian ONLY by faith in Jesus as Messiah and the daily work of sanctification via the indwelling Holy Spirit as promised in the New Covenant spoken of by both Jeremiah and Ezekiel; therefore, the only true “grafting” has manifest through the Messiah and the promises made to Israel have been realized through faith via the Gospel; this, having little to do with one’s identification with Israel but ONLY through the Messiah who emanated through Israel’s child, Judah. I am NOT saved from Hell by Israel or his children, I am saved and grafted into the promises of Elohim through faith in Messiah Jesus who chose to enter Time through Israel’s offspring…this is my “grafting” as a Christian.
What is the “true” grafting?
The true, divine, grafting is the imputation-gifting of Jesus’ divine perfection over my life by faith in Jesus as LORD by which I am declared “not guilty” by my Heavenly Father and consequently welcomed into the family of Elohim as His child (2 Corinthians 5:21).
It is a valid statement that you did not ask anyone to die for your sins. Neither did you ask anyone to be placed within the constraints of Time and physics in a body of flesh subject to decay and death but here you are!
There is much that you have absolutely no control over but what you do have authority over is your eternal destiny and that two-fold destiny, eternal life or eternal death, was made possible by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus our Messiah. You might not fully understand why Jesus died for you, why Jesus created you, your divine purpose within the temporary Realm of Time, but you do understand this one most relevant truism, Jesus is recorded in the Scriptures as paying the price for the sin of humanity via His shed blood (Matthew 26:28) and by trusting-believing in Jesus as your Messiah who died for you, you are able to escape the eternal penalty for sin, disobedience, against our Heavenly Father’s divine will (John 3:16). You possess the free will, volition, to choose Jesus and live eternally with Jesus in the New Jerusalem or reject Jesus and die in Hell in your sin (Revelation 20-22).
How does one “break the Sabbath” in the New Covenant?
The Genesis Sabbath (Genesis 2:3) and the Sabbaths given Israel’s children beginning in Exodus 16 all foreshadowed the divine “rest” that would be made available through the Messiah, Jesus our Lord and God/Elohim (Genesis 1; John 1; Hebrews 1; Hebrews 4; Colossians 1); therefore, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Sabbaths foreshadowed (Colossians 2:16; Hebrews 4); therefore, in the New Covenant, one breaks the Sabbath by denying Jesus as Messiah, a denial of Jesus’ sacrifice for their sin, a sin-burden that weights man soul to the depths of Hell…a denial of divine rest from the condemnation of sin, a divine rest from self-righteousness/legalism, a sin that cannot be forgiven if one dies in body having rejected Jesus as Messiah by faith (John 3; John 8:24).
Concerning the Legalistic interpretation of Matthew 7:21-23,
Your theological summation of Matthew 7:21-23 is incorrect. None of the works performed by those rejected were “lawless” or sinful on their face…Matthew 7:21-23 is NOT about law keeping or works or human effort or quality of work done but Jesus is teaching the necessity of establishing divine, personal, intimate, RELATIONSHIP with the Father through faith in the Son…first.
First of all, what is the “will of the Father?” – the will of the Father “is to believe in the One He has sent into the World” (John 6:29).
Matthew 7:21-23 is about works done in the flesh, self-righteousness, void the Holy Spirit and these works are defined by the Father as a “filthy garment”…literally, in the Hebrew…”a bloody menstrual cloth” (Isaiah 64:6).
In Matthew 7, in context, Jesus is continuing His teaching on “fruit”…divine fruit…works-faithfulness-efforts of obedience that are done through the indwelling Holy Spirit given to all who trust in Jesus as Messiah (Galatians 5:16-23; Ephesians 1:13-14).
Jesus is teaching you that if you desire to please the Father through works of righteousness, FIRST establish New Covenant relationship with Him through faith in His Son, receive His Holy Spirit and walk by the Spirit, daily (Galatians 5:16), thereby producing fruits of righteousness that honor the Father as His child and thereby prove yourself to be an honorable disciple of Jesus (John 15:8) as you are a member of Elohim’s family through faith; this, lest your works of righteousness be in vain and you ultimately hear those tragic words, “Away from Me you workers of lawlessness, I NEVER KNEW YOU!”
What is the divine “IMPUTATION” that saves man’s soul from death in Hell?
Humanity IS certainly imperfect but the One who entered Time from Eternity and walked among us for 33.5-years was and IS perfect in His divinity and He gave Himself as blood atonement for your benefit in order that the mandates of forgiveness for sin could be made manifest in accordance with Leviticus 17:11 (1 Peter 1:18-19); this sacrifice provided you by Jesus initiates the IMPUTATION-gifting of the perfection of Jesus over your life and though YOU are not perfect in the flesh, our Heavenly Father declares you “perfect” – adjudicates you “not guilty” by New Covenant promise (Hebrews 8:12); this, not because of your own self-righteousness or behavior or work or efforts, but on account of Jesus’ faithfulness and HIS perfection…this is why Jesus is our “propitiation” for sin…Jesus is our “substitute” in that Jesus took upon HIMSELF what was due us for our sin i.e., death; therefore, in response to the faithfulness of Jesus, the Father’s New Covenant promise is to remember your sins no more (Hebrews 8:12) and from the moment you acknowledge-believe-confess Jesus as your Messiah who died for you (John 3:16), when the Father sees YOU, He only sees His dear Son IN YOU…not your sin but His Son’s perfection (perfection in flesh and in divinity), forever. Jesus, who knew no sin, became the object of sin for our benefit that we might become the righteousness-perfection of God through Jesus…this a divine gift-promise of the Father that cannot be earned by humanity – a Gift that can only be acknowledged-received by faith-trust in Jesus as one’s Messiah (John 3).
Perfection is required for salvation from death in Hell…How can we be “perfect?”
Our Heavenly Father requires absolute perfection in word, thought, deed, in order to enter His Kingdom; problem is, we’ve all failed (Romans 3:23) as we’re all sinners patterned after our first father, Adam (Romans 5:12)…but…the “good news (the Gospel) is…Jesus entered the Realm of Time and walked in perfection before the Father via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit and Jesus gave Himself as blood atonement for our sin and the Father has entered into a New Covenant agreement with all of human kind that anyone who trusts-believes in what Jesus did for us on a Roman Cross by dying for our sin in our place, the Father forgives them of all sin…past-present-future…and the Father declares them not guilty (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12) and the Father endows them with the indwelling Holy Spirit as Guarantor and Seal of New Covenant relationship with Him (Ephesians 1:13-14); this is made possible through the promise of the “imputation” or gifting of Jesus’ perfection/righteousness over the life of the one who believes Jesus is our Messiah; that is, the Father agrees to only see the perfection of His dear Son in the one who believes Jesus is Messiah; therefore, we can be made “positionally right” with our Heavenly Father through faith in the Son, Jesus our Messiah, believing in what Jesus has done for us and not we can do for ourselves…this is the KEY, the right-to-passage into God’s presence, offered each of us who exists in a body of flesh within the temporary Realm of Time (John 3:16).
Therefore…
If you desire this forgiveness, anointing, and eternal life, sincerely “believe in your heart” and “confess with your mouth” (Romans 10:9-10) that Jesus is Messiah who died for you…carefully read the “Gospel of John” and begin an eternal relationship with our Heavenly Father and daily walk by the indwelling Holy Spirit and enjoy a life of peace, assurance, contentment, purpose, love. Jesus IS our “perfection”…trust in Jesus as your Messiah and honor-receive-enjoy the Father’s promises of eternal life, eternal peace, eternal assurance, eternal completion and contentment.
Hell was NOT created for mankind but Hell was created specifically for Satan, the fallen-rebellious angels; therefore, mankind will enter Hell and perish in the “second death” (Revelation 20:11-15) by a free will choice to reject our Creator’s pardon from Hell and sin through faith in Jesus our Messiah who shed His innocent blood at Golgotha for payment of sin and redemption honoring eternal life for all who believe (John 3; 1 Peter 1:18-19).
Our Creator finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked in Time or in Hell (Ezekiel 33:11), but your unrepentant sin will NOT be permitted to enter the Kingdom (Revelation 21:27); for all intents and purposes, your sin nature (Romans 5:12) that is not redeemed by faith in Jesus creating a “new creation” in Jesus as Messiah (2 Corinthians 5:17) has no place in the Eternal Kingdom; therefore, you will be extinguished, nullified, in your nihilism and irrelevancy. This is what you have freely “chosen” though a wonderful life, and peace, and joy, and eternity, exists in Jesus by faith (John 3).
Why would our Creator, having endured the ramifications of your sin-nature for 6000-years, allow same into His Kingdom, a Kingdom that was ravaged by that sin-nature which initiated the creation of Time, the Earth, your genome? Why would a loving Creator allow for a scenario of repeated rebellion and suffering and disaster when He has given Himself to redeem humanity from the sin-nature of Satan and given the Holy Spirit to prepare the faithful for honorable service in His Kingdom, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 20-22)?
Soon, an unholy alliance consisting of the axis of evil, Russia-China-Islam/Iran, will come against Jerusalem, Israel and initiate a limited nuclear war as the Apostle John received this vision-prophecy from Jesus our Messiah on the Island of Patmos in 90AD (The Revelation of Jesus Christ)…the “Great Tribulation Era.” (Zechariah 14:12) The United States via Democrat-Progressive ungodly policies will have been relegated to a third-world status politically, militarily, monetarily thereby being impotent to intercede in the violent antisemitism to come against Jerusalem and Israel’s children.
Many mistakenly believe this to be “the end” but this is simply “the beginning” of Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom where Elohim’s eschatological objectives will take a very interesting turn; this, for the sake of the faithful angelic creation and Elohim’s intimate relationship with them; this, as Satan is bound for 1000-years and peace reigns paramount in Satan’s absence (Revelation 20-22).
It is not until the conclusion of Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom, the release of Satan and the final great deception, the Great White Throne Judgment, that “the end,” as fallen humanity knows it, will manifest as this Earth and the Heavens will be consumed by heat and fire (2 Peter 3:10), this Earth will be remolded and reshaped and restructured, purified, and made ready for the “New Jerusalem” (Revelation 21-22). This is “the end” of Time as we know it.
2 Peter 3: The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up… the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 