Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Jesus, Moses, and Paul: Christians and the Torah

It is the opinion of some scholars that Christianity would not be what it is without Paul.  I have even read that, in the opinion of some of them, Paul changed what Jesus taught.  Dr. Bart Ehrman, for example, teaches that Paul's teaching on circumcision in Galatians 5:2 was in response to Jewish men going to the Gym (where Greek men exercised in the nude) and feeling socially ostracized because they looked different.  So, according to Dr. Ehrman, Paul undoes the Torah to make the Jewish men feel more accepted in Greek society.

But what does the Scripture say?
Acts 24:14-15 (ESV)
14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.

Acts 25:7-8 (ESV)
7 When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. 8 Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.”

And finally,

Acts 26:30-32 (ESV)
30 Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. 31 And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” 

Now obviously there's significantly more here than is relevant to this topic, but I do want to point out that Paul is accused by the Jewish leaders of violating Jewish law and tried in a court which is so friendly to the Jewish leadership that.... "desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison..." for two years. (Acts 24:27)  This court, which stole two years of the man's life because it wanted to be friendly to the Jewish leadership, was unable to find Paul guilty of violating Jewish teaching.

Think about that a moment.

The court was hostile to Paul and looking to appease the Jewish leadership, and when presented with the evidence, could only say “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.

What does that teach us?

PAUL TAUGHT TORAH.

Yeah, I know.  That stings a bit, doesn't it?

"But, A.J.," you say, "Didn't Paul teach not to obey the sabbath?  Didn't Paul teach not to circumcise?  Didn't Paul teach...."

What happens when you go back and look at those passages from the other perspective... the one I've just given you?  You'll find, I think, that we do not live in a binary universe.  That these things are complex and nuanced issues which simply cannot be understood in a single soundbyte.

"But A.J.," you say, "Didn't Jesus do away with the Torah?  Wasn't the law nailed to the Cross?"

Matthew 5:17-19 (ESV) says
 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, Christians... when does Heaven and Earth pass away?

Revelation 21:1 (ESV)
 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

So how are we to respond to the Law?  We see that Jesus taught the Law.  We see that Paul taught the Law.

Let's put this another way:

Which of the Laws would you like to break?  I recently heard a very well known prosperity gospel preacher tell an audience of hundreds of thousands that they were not bound by the Law, no, not even by "the big ten."

The Big Ten?  Since I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about football, I'm going to assume he meant the Ten Commandments.

Things like 


"You shall have no other gods before Me,"
or
"You shall not steal,"
or
"You shall not commit adultery."

Which of these would you like to violate?

You instinctively know that none of THESE laws are passed away.  None of THESE laws were "nailed to the Cross."  You are not "free," oh Christian, to sleep with your brother's wife. 


The argument is often made "We're only beholden to those laws which are repeated in the New Testament. This is why we don't have to keep the Sabbath."

Exodus 31:16 (ESV)
Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.

"But I'm not Israel," you may say.  

Are you not grafted in?

No, you don't replace Israel, but you are Abraham's children, right?

This is not a call to legalism.  And by no means am I saying our salvation comes through our ability to follow the Law... but nobody was ever saved by following the Law... not even Moses.

It's not a salvational issue.  It's a matter of realizing who you are, and who God is.  If your employer tells you to take out the garbage, even if that's not the job you were hired for, you take out the garbage.  Why?  Because he's paying you.

How much more should you do for the one who created and redeemed you?

3 comments:

  1. Amen! My family and I came into this understanding about a year ago. It has truly been freeing to follow the Father's Torah more fully. His Torah IS a delight and it IS liberty!

    By the way, I was considering writing about this very thing on my blog, but I think I will just share your post. Thank you!

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  2. Shalom achi! as a 'recovering' pastor, it is always encouraging to run into another who comes to the same conclusions Abba brought me to a few years ago.

    Friend, al McCarn of the Barking Fox blog forwarded this post to me... Guess I'll have to repost on natsab.com .

    May Abba bless and guide you in all wisdom and understanding as you walk in His ways!! Blessings in Yeshua!

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