Written Upon the Heart
Part 5 of 7
I have written very emphatically in favor of keeping the commandments of YHVH as given through Moses. Therefore, I feel a distinct need to begin this section with a little clarification regarding the reason for keeping His Torah. Simply put, we keep His Torah because we love Him—saved for service.
However, there are those among us—commonly called Judaizers—that would say our salvation is dependent upon keeping His Torah. It is recorded in Acts 15: 1 regarding these that would pervert the purity of His Word. “And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
In no way, shape, or form have I or will I ever stand in solidarity with these Judaizers. In the Spirit of Paul to the Ephesians in 2: 10, we are His blessed work of His hands. YHVH has created within us through Yeshua our Messiah a new man fully and properly equipped with a gratitude that seeks to keep His commandments a little better each day.
Regardless of our national heritage, we all have equal standing in faith with our Messiah. Peter says in 15: 11 of Acts, “But we believe that through the grace of Yeshua our Messiah we shall be saved, even as they”. For the child of Abraham, whether natural or grafted in, the requirements are the same.
Peter says of these in vv. 20-21 of the same chapter, “But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time has in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day”.
Each of these stipulations in v. 20 are a part of the Torah. Then, he concludes in v. 21 with support of the study of the Torah of Moses. We are truly redeemed from the single “law of sin and death”, but not extended the right to disregard the remainder of His Torah. With that said, let us move on into the “heart” of His Torah.
YHVH didn't create us as mindless beings that would always respond in robotic form. From the very beginning, YHVH gave us a choice. He created man for a fellowship that was mutual. He wanted us to commune with Him freely of our own volition, not because it was forced upon us.
Jeremiah writes in 31: 31-32, “Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was an husband unto them, says the LORD”.
The beneficiaries of this covenant—“the house of Israel and the house of Judah”—are the subject of another discussion. However, suffice it to say here the “Church” is NOWHERE mentioned within the list of beneficiaries—in these verses or anywhere else in Scripture. What is important here is to note such covenant was the very Mosaic covenant which their fathers broke—desecrated is more like it.
Referring to this same covenant, the prophet says in v. 33, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people”.
The clear message here is the concept of free choice. We won't disregard the Torah of YHVH in favor of the false concept of “under grace and not the law”. We won't even attempt to keep the letter of His Torah out of fear as a necessity for salvation. But, rather, we will keep His Torah as best as humanly possible with the help of His Spirit because of love and deep gratitude for Messiah's blessed salvation.
His Torah has by NO means been abolished. YHVH has merely taken what was proved “ineffective”, as Paul put it, and “perfected” it through the sacrifice of Yeshua. That perfection is clearly seen in Jeremiah's words in v. 34. “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, says the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Yes, my friends, we have truly been delivered from the “law of sin and death”. We have become as Paul wrote in 7: 6 to the Romans, “But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”.
With this in mind, we would be wise to adhere to the admonition of Paul in 2: 12 of Philippians. “Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” With Paul's words leading into this statement, and in the Spirit of this writing, we are exhorted to confess the supreme dominion of Messiah with our adherence to His ways as expressed in Torah.
Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 30:6, “And the LORD your Elohim will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live”. This is the very heart of the first of the “two great commandments” spoken of by Yeshua in quoting Moses in Deuteronomy 6: 4—without which we will never be able to fulfill the second.
The “heart” of the matter in this section, and in our lives, is expressed by Paul in his comments in 3: 3 of his second epistle to the Corinthians. “Forasmuch as you are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Messiah ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living Elohim; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart...”
The challenge of this section is to look at, study, and adhere to His Torah—not by the letter, but as is written deep within our inner parts. It is as Paul went on to say in v. 6. “Who also has made us able ministers of the new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” We are His ministers, lights in this dark world. Grasp Torah with all your heart, for it is Living, even Life itself.
Click Here To Continue In The 19th Psalm
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