Jesus endured the Cross primarily “to destroy the works of Satan” e.g., death, Hell, the grave; this, for eschatological concerns (1 John 3:8b). Humanity is a recipient of Jesus’ victory at Golgotha by grace through faith in Jesus as Messiah (John 3:16).
Jesus’ war with Satan is first prophesied in Genesis 3:15 and the Gospel, the shedding of innocent blood for redemption via an imputed robe of righteousness, is first prophesied in Genesis 3:21 (2 Corinthians 5:21). The death of Jesus and His Gospel message were foreordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-9; Revelation 13:8).
Jesus’ ministry: a methodical transition from Torah Law to Holy Spirit obedience…
Though Jesus was born under the Law Covenant and Jesus fulfilled that Law in perfection for our redemption, Jesus incrementally moved His ministry from one of Law/Torah to one of the production of divine “fruit” via the Holy Spirit by which all law is fulfilled; this is something that Torah could not accomplish.
Jesus condensed the 613 Mosaic laws down to two-greatest commandments (Matthew 22:37-40) and Jesus’ ministry methodically progressed toward the initiation of the New Covenant established in His blood (Luke 22:20); Messiah strategically moved from “keep my Commandments” (John 14:15) to “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:8)
Finally, Jesus taught how one should discern authentic teachers of the word from false teachers and in doing so, Jesus provided the impetus or sign by which honorable teachers would be identified contrasted with false teachers: “So then, you will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:20) Again, another reference by Jesus to divine fruit and its applicability in the New Covenant.
We see that Messiah’s ministry, having begun under the Law Covenant, slowly and methodically transitioned into a ministry that emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling within Him and the strategic method of producing obedience in His disciples, then and now, through the production of divine fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) via the anointing of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14) who is a promised Guarantor of redemption in the New Covenant established in the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:13-14; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:27; Hebrews 8:10).
The subtle dangers of Torah worship in the New Covenant,
Law will never be “abolished” as law is present to define the behavior of evil men (1 Timothy 1:9) and law; both codified and spiritual, provide a context for divine and secular responses to same which mandates due process for order and peace. Law will be relevant in the “New Jerusalem” as free will there is extant by necessity.
Where you err, Ben, is your inordinate obsession’s with Torah and Hebrew Roots fanaticism not understanding that grace and faith have replaced Torah’s letters in the New Covenant.
You cling to the old hoping to receive the benefits of the NEW and my concern is that you’re trusting in Law + Faith to redeem you from sin and ingratiate yourself with Elohim in righteousness. Problem is, Ben, if you’re depending on Torah to supplement faith in Jesus, you ultimately lose both in heresy and your religion is foul and defined as a cult. Please be careful.
If you’re celebrating law in Torah because you are a traditionalist and love the order and pomp of Torah, the days, feasts, celebrations, celebrated in the Law Covenant, that’s OK…just understand that eternal life is not something that is earned through your work and obedience to Torah, but that life with Jesus is manifest solely by trusting, believing, in Jesus as your Messiah acknowledging that Jesus has done the work for you and you’re receiving the gift of forgiveness and eternal life solely by grace (unmerited favor). You have told me prior that you understand grace and faith as priority but your obsessive posts concerning Torah, the Old Covenant, keeping laws and commandments, belays your testimony of trust, belief, in Yeshua as essential.
Is evil more of a problem for Theists or Atheists?
Evil, for those redeemed by faith in Messiah and the conscience arbitrated by the indwelling Holy Spirit, is not a problem as the Spirit’s discernment and wisdom allows the redeemed to readily identify evil, even in its most subtle forms, and take precautions to stymie said evil’s effects in their life. Another very relevant bulwark to compromise with evil in the life of the redeemed in Jesus is the Holy Spirit’s gifts of joy, contentment, peace, assurance; these divine promises permit the Christian to see beyond temporary trials and tribulations knowing that our Creator has our back and irrespective of the World’s demonic agenda, the Christian is secure, eternally.
The atheist is likened to a sheep led to the slaughter, their discernment and wisdom is stymied by the sin-nature that has no dependable barriers other than fear or shame and these bulwarks are limited and made impotent by unnatural desires, pride, arrogance, narcissism…ultimately a life of turmoil, stress, often addiction, due diminishing returns resulting from inordinate desires that can never be satiated.
Hebrew Roots; A passion for Torah Observance in the New Covenant? A concern, a warning, a better way…
Torah Law is of no relevance concerning obedience in the New Covenant. Torah could not provide righteousness or obedience for Jacob’s children nor could same provide guidance and obedience for the Apostles as they discussed the inclusion of the Gentile in the New Covenant as per Acts 15. Though Moses was read in the Synagogues, the law was discussed with pure intent yet subjectivity, relevance, situational relevance, were always at the forefront because the human conscience not only abhors authority but the conscience void the Spirit inevitably seeks obfuscation and rationalization. Letters don’t work in Judeo-Christian ethics, these letters don’t work in secular jurisprudence…the conscience absent the Spirit as an Arbiter is the obstacle.
A better way to approach Biblical obedience…. The New Covenant…
Torah, Letters, could never adequately tame the sin-nature but Elohim enacted a New and LIVING WAY for His redeemed to walk in righteousness; this, through His indwelling Spirit that arbitrates the conscience of the “new creation” the “new man” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the focus of the New Covenant is on the Spirit and on divine fruit……it is this fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) that fulfills the obedient intent of every statute in Torah, every commandment of Jesus in the Decalogue and the two-greatest Commandments (John 15:8).
Hebrew Roots? A concern, a warning…
I suppose you are affiliated with the “Hebrew Roots” movement? Yes? Ben, if you desire to honor Torah and days, diets, clothing restrictions, feasts, you are perfectly welcomed to do so in the New Covenant…that can be an honorable thing, honoring Torah and traditions, there is NOTHING wrong or sinful with same UNLESS YOU ARE HONORING TORAH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE. If you are honoring Torah in order to ingratiate yourself with Jesus and supplement His sufficiency to save you by faith, you are NOT redeemed, you remain in your sin, you are seeking death in Hell. Do you understand that?
What if our omnipotent Holy Spirit, the Logistical overseer of the creation narrative (Genesis 1:2), actually ordained and inspired every word of the Canon of Scripture before us today? What if we simply humbled ourselves and believed the Scriptures with a heart that was dedicated to an omnipotent Creator who created the Universe, this Earth, our complex genome, and we simply believed by faith that He is able to provide us with the words He desires we have so that we can know Him personally; love Him intimately; live with Him eternally? Would such faith in our omnipotent Creator and His abilities nullify the relevance of councils of men, religions, denominations, sects, cults?
Israel, the Great Commission, failure, redemption?
Though it is theologically accurate to claim that Israel was to be the recipient of New Covenant promise; though it is true that Messiah came ONLY to the children of Jacob to proselytize them with the Gospel; though it is true that Jacob’s children were foreordained to be a blessing to all the Earth as they were commissioned to take the Gospel to every Nation, every Tongue, and thereby bless the Earth with Elohim’s offer of Grace through Messiah, Israel FAILED as they rejected Messiah; Israel failed as they rejected the Gospel by clinging to Torah/Law/Self-righteousness; therefore, the Gospel and the New Covenant were taken from Israel and given to the Gentile until such time the “fullness of the Gentiles have come in” (Romans 11:25); that is, the New Covenant will remain in the custody of the Gentile Nations until such time the number of Gentiles to be redeemed by the Gospel has reached fruition; then, an anointed 144,000 Jewish Witnesses (Revelation 7) will proselytize a “remnant” of Israel’s children during the war that prefaces Messiah’s 2nd-Advent, this Jewish remnant will be witness to the 2nd-Advent of Messiah as He returns to Mount Olivette and they will believe and receive their Messiah, they will enter the Millennial Kingdom and serve Yeshua there for 1000-years. ONLY A MERE REMNANT OF ISRAEL’S CHILDREN WILL BE PRESENT IN ETERNITY IN THE NEW JERUSALEM; THIS, DUE UNBELIEF IN SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS (Romans 9:27-29; Isaiah 10:20-23).
It is the Spiritual Realm interacting with the Physical Realm…these things will increase in frequency as that Day approaches. Jesus’ Kingdom is NOT of the Realm of the Physical/Time/Space/Matter…what our scientists are amazed by have existed before the World was created.
Also, in Hebrews 11:3, the Holy Spirit teaches that matter, Time, space, the Physical reality of our Universe, was “made” out of that which is NOT visible; in other words, what we see and interact with finds its origin in a Realm that is not visible to those encapsulated within a body of matter, flesh, allowing same to interact physically and intimately with the Physical Realm.
“By faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God so that what is seen has not been made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3 (NASB)
The Sinai Commandments (9 of the 10 Decalogue) are mere fragments of the spiritual law written upon the heart of human kind on Day-6; Commandment #4 is a civil edict given the children of Israel, exclusively. These nine moral laws were given Israel’s children by Elohim via Moses as guiding directives concerning their relationship with Elohim and their interpersonal relationships between the Tribes as they were embarking on a journey to the Promised Land that would entail encountering pagan tribes, pagan gods i.e., Baal, Molech, the deception of the demonic.
Sinai and Moses’ civil/ceremonial edicts were given to a specific group of chosen people, Jacob’s children, as these edicts were bulwarks against compromise with paganism, a compromise that would have thwarted Elohim’s objective of bringing forth His Messiah through Judah as prophesied.
Gentiles have never been obligated to observe a Sabbath regulation nor is there one example of a Gentile honoring a Sabbath; this, from Adam forward lest same was seeking inclusion in Israel’s theocracy subsequent Exodus 16 when Elohim commanded Sabbath observance via Moses, a directive given Jacob’s children, exclusively.
It is also interesting to note that Elohim was required to provide Moses exacting details as to how the Sabbath would be honored, why? Elohim provided Moses extensive details as to the Sabbath’s prohibitions due the truism that NO PRIOR PRECEDENT CONCERNING A SABBATH OBSERVANCE EXISTED.
Skeptic-Legalist asked: “No one keeps the Commandments but Jesus?”
No one, no one born of Adam’s seed (Romans 5:12) keeps the Commandments (Romans 3:23), if that were possible, Jesus died in vain (Galatians 2:21).
Righteousness, a right standing with Elohim, mandates “perfection” in word, thought, deed, in order to appease Elohim’s wrath for sin; this, the very reason Messiah entered Time apart from Adam’s seed (the seed of the woman), walked in sinless perfection before the Father and humanity, gave Himself as blood atonement for sin (to destroy the works of Satan, 1 John 3:8b) and the Father interceded via New Covenant promise and agreed to impute, gift, the sinless perfection of Jesus over the life of anyone who trusts in Messiah as their propitiation for the Adamic initiated sin-debt (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12).
Through this New Covenant promise, those who trust in Jesus are made “positionally” right with the Father; that is, the Father agrees to only see the perfection, righteousness, of His dear Son in the redeemed in Jesus, not their sin; this New Covenant promise pacifies the Father’s wrath and permits entrance into the Kingdom, a divine Kingdom where “nothing impure is permitted to exist” (Rev 21:27).
Commandment keeping is not an element of salvation nor do the Commandments, Moses, Days, Diets, have relevance in daily Christian sanctification as it is the Holy Spirit that conforms the human conscience of the redeemed to pursue the production of divine fruit (Galatians 5:16-23) and it is the “fruit” that fulfills the intent of all moral law; it is divine fruit that actually pleases the Father and proves one to be a disciple of Jesus (John 15:8).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 