I have found nothing can divide a room of Christians more than mentioning "the Law". Wait isn't true, it doesn't truly divide the room - it causes everyone to be in agreement about one key thing - we are not, under any circumstances, never, never ever, did I mention never - to obey "the Law". When I inquire as to why exactly I get the "we are not under the Law, we are under Grace" comment. So, Christians are "lawless"? I am told we are not really lawless, we are just not "under the law". What exactly does that mean? We either have to follow the Law or we don't have to follow the Law. Am I to believe that a God who was very clear in the "Old Testament" somehow became a bit muddled in His ideas in the "New Testament". Do we follow the Law or do we not?
I know, Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law - but what does that mean? Many Christians interpret this to mean that He finished it, since He obeyed it we are exempt from obeying it. Okay. This comment makes sense only if we chose not to define exactly what this Law is.
The Law is often referred to as the Torah. Many Christians fail to realize there are two different "Laws" mentioned in the New Testament. The first is God's Law, that is the Torah. The second, commonly referred to as the Oral Torah was man's law. In an effort to keep people from disobeying the Torah, rabbis' and priests over the years chose to put a "fence" around the Torah. These were rules that were more strict than the Torah to keep people far enough away from the Torah that they would never transgress it.
This introduced a couple of problems. The first is that one command in the Torah is to not add or take away from it. So, in adding the "fence" around the Torah those Hebrew leaders were in fact - breaking the Torah! The second is Moses was already clear that the Torah wasn't too hard for people to obey. They didn't need any help in obeying it, it wasn't too high, too hard, or too much. The third is that God never puts a "fence" around sin. When God put Adam and Eve into the garden He didn't put a fence around the tree of knowledge of good and evil. His Word should be fence enough. If you love Him you obey. Finally, many rules added to "fence" the Torah would automatically require people to break the Torah to obey them and they even made the Torah too hard to obey!
When I first started my journey to understand the foundations of my faith, I didn't know much about the Torah. Yes, I can admit I didn't even know the "Laws" I could now freely break or not break or kind of break or break but be forgiven - well, I didn't know the Torah! I thought the Torah was just about sacrificing birds and bulls on an alter so that my sins could be "forgiven" and of course Jesus did that! Well, that actually isn't what the Torah is about. Yes, there are sacrifices - but those don't "forgive" your sins - was was just an atonement until Jesus came. Also, you couldn't sacrifice just anywhere, you could only sacrifice in the temple. So, today there is not temple and hasn't been for almost 2000 years. So, no burning birds on the alter.
However, the other rules for living according to the Torah are, for lack of a better word, brilliant! They discuss how to conduct business, how to treat your employees, how to treat your neighbor, how to treat your spouse. They discuss keeping God's appointed times (those things we refer to as Jewish holidays - when they were created before there was a people called "Jews").
So, if Jesus came to "fill all the requirements" of the Torah, does that mean one no longer has to pay their employees on time? Does that mean one no longer has to lend to the poor? Does that mean it is now good and acceptable to touch dead bodies? See, when you become familiar with the Torah you begin to see the absurdity of thinking it was done away with. The Torah doesn't even mean "Law", that was a Greek to English translation error. Torah refers to the first five books of the Bible and there were 613 Torah commands within those five books.
As a note - Jesus never broke one Torah command in his life. Some might say - no, the Bible says he healed on the Sabbath and that was against the Torah. No, it wasn't. There is no command in the written Torah, the Torah given by God that one cannot heal on the Sabbath! Now, the oral law created by the Pharisees, did have such commands. Jesus often did things that were against the Pharisee additions to the Torah (the Oral Torah) just to show that one needs not obey man, but one must obey God. Jesus was our example, our guide, and our example.
Another point before I go from this blog posting - the Torah never saved! To say that we no longer need to obey the Torah because we have Jesus is crazy. Jesus said He alone was the Way, the Truth, and the Light and NO MAN can go to the Father except through Him. Period. Even if Abraham and Moses kept EVERY statute of the Torah, they still could not ascend to the Father until after Jesus died and rose and took dominion over death and hell. Abraham, Issac, and Jacob all needed the Messiah just as you and I. Jesus stepped out of time and redeemed all the people of God - those who died before He came and those who died after He came. Obedience is not salvation. Obedience is our outward manifestation of our hope of and belief in our salvation. How can we get more clear than the words of Jesus Himself: If you love Me, keep my commandments. John 14:15. Interestingly - when Jesus spoke of the greatest two commandments "Loving God with all your heart and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself" - He was speaking of two specific commands in the Torah. And yes, that does sum up all the Torah. The rest of the Torah (including the Ten Commandments) go on to tell us HOW to do those two things.
For those wondering - I do not at this time obey the entire Torah. The reason is because I am still learning the Torah. I belong to a religion that has neglected not only the following of, but the teaching of the Torah for over 1500. The more I learn, the more I try to do. I honestly don't even know if I am doing it "right", I am hard pressed to find Christian resources on following the Torah, even our of choice and not obligation.
Again, let me be clear that obeying the Torah will NOT get me into Heaven. The ONLY way to the Father is through Jesus and there is nothing I can do to earn that. However, like any child - I still have to obey my Father. He saved my life, now He gets to tell me how to live that life, which belongs to Him. I don't have to wonder how God wants me to live - He was clear about that thousands of years ago. I don't assume perfection even when I learn it - the children of Israel disobeyed shortly after being delivered miraculously from Egypt. I don't have to be perfect, but I do need to try. I only need to work to stay within the guidelines of the written Torah, not the additional man made commands clearly demonstrated by Jesus to be outside the Torah. And again, even if I were to be perfect in each and every one - they would NOT make me "saved" and it wouldn't make me any more "saved" than a person not following any of the Torah. The Torah is not about salvation, it is about how God expects His people to live on the earth. It is Creator detailing how He expects His creation to interact with Him and with their fellow man. Yes, someone can follow the Torah and not be saved because Jesus said He was the Way and no one gets to the Father except through Him. Yet He also clearly indicated in John 14 that a sign of our love for Him was following the Torah. The Torah is a bit like an engagement ring. It simply identifies to others that you belong to someone. It is a sign of your love, not your love itself. Once can be engaged without a ring - but it makes people suspect about that love. One can also wear a ring and be unfaithful and even have no intention in truly going through with the wedding. The ring isn't magic just as the Torah isn't magic. The ring can change the heart and God looks at the heart. However, it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks and when we loudly declare we are not subject to the commands of God - well, I will leave that to the reader to decide.
