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Torah Observance Are Christians restored to the Sinai Covenant?
 
Some people, having discovered the joy of the Jewish roots of their faith, want to take it to the “next level” by becoming “Torah observant,” by which they mean obligated to follow the commandments found in the writings of Moses and interpreted by certain Rabbinical authorities as halakhah, or the “way to walk” the Jewish life. This position I would call “neo-Ebionism,” so named after the sect of the Ebionites who, though they apparently accepted Yeshua as the Messiah, rejected the teachings of Paul and insisted that the writings of Moses should be strictly observed for the true follower of Jesus.
 
   
 
 
 
 Today’s neo-Ebionites will say that since Jesus and his first followers were “Torah observant,” we should be likewise. They will point out that the only reference in the Tanakh for the new covenant (brit chadashah) is in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where it is clearly stated that God would write his Torah within our inward parts and write in upon our hearts:
 
     
   
 
 I will put my torah into their inward parts
and I will write it in their hearts...
 
 
 Matthew 5:17-20 is then often cited as a proof-text that Jesus explicitly taught His followers to observe the commandments of Moses (i.e., the Torah):

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (i.e., Torah) or the Prophets (i.e., Nevi’im); 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 (i.e. Yod), not a dot (i.e., tag), 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes (soferim) and Pharisees (perushim), you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (malkhut hashamayim).
 

Immediately after saying these things, Jesus goes on to explain what He meant by saying that our righteousness was to exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees. “You have heard that it was said to those of old... but I say to you...” (Matt 5:21-48). But note that in each case Jesus takes the p’shat (outward meaning) of the commandment and moves it inward, to the “inward parts,” by “writing it upon our hearts”:
 
 
 Old (written upon tablets)
 New (written upon the heart)
 
No Murder (Ex. 20:13; Deut 5:17)
 No Anger / resentment (Matt 5:21-4)
 
No Adultery (Ex. 20:14; Deut 5:18)
 No Lust (Matt 5:22-32)
 
No False Witness (Ex. 20:16; Deut 5:20)
 Simple Honesty (Matt 5:33-7)
 
Eye for Eye Justice (Ex. 21:24)
 Forgiveness (Matt 5:38-42)
 
Love friends; hate enemies (Lev 19:18)
 Love all people (Matt 5:43-48)
 
Outer Righteousness
 Inner Righteousness (Matt 6:1-4)
 
Formulaic prayer
 Secret Prayer (Matt 6:5-6)
 
Ostentatious Religiosity
 Secret Fasting (Matt 6:16-18)
 
Outwardness
 Inwardness (Matt 7:12)
 
 
         
 The Inner is not the Outer
 
 
 It should be evident that Jesus’ midrash regarding these commandments is intended to move the focus away from an outward appearance of righteousness (as was affected by certain Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day) toward the inward motivation of the heart. In this sense is our righteousness to exceed the scrupulous forms of observance as practiced by the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus is putting the Torah into the inward parts and writing it upon the heart.

Indeed, Jesus had some fierce words for those Jews who hold to the “traditions of the elders” but who “make void the word of God” for the sake of Jewish traditions:

Then Pharisees (perushim) and scribes (soferim) came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat." He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' But you say, 'If anyone tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father.' So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' (Matt 15:1-9)
 

Matthew 23:2-3 is another supposed proof-text that neo-Ebionites will cite to support the view that followers of Jesus should observe the teachings of the rabbinics:

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you - but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

Prima facie it seems that Jesus is saying that His followers are to practice and observe the Jewish traditions as expounded by the scribes and Pharisees. However, when we closely read the context of this passage we note that these words undoubtedly indicate irony and scorn for outward their shows of righteousness (Matt 23:13-36). If Jesus had seriously meant for His followers to practice and observe what the scribes and Pharisees had taught, why would He go on to berate them as hypocrites who “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men,” making a “pretense” of their prayers and going out of their way to make one convert who is “twice the child of hell” than themselves?  Would Jesus have you and I practice and observe these sorts of things? On the contrary, the overall context of this passage indicates that the follower of Jesus should not become subject to their authority. This interpretation is further made evident by Jesus’ statement that we are to be subject to Him alone as Teacher and are to call no one “rabbi,” the traditional appellation of the Jewish leaders of the day (Matt 23:8).
 
 
 Covenant and Torah
 
 
 What is Torah about, anyway? As is well known, the word itself derives from a root meaning “direction,” or “aim,” or “instruction.” But are not all these terms relative to something else, something more fundamental as the goal or “end” of such instruction? Indeed, what would it mean to instruct or direct someone without a destination? Would you attend a class if there was no impartation of knowledge as its justification? Would you read a map that had directions that led to nowhere?

So what, then, is the goal of torah? Is it not - in the end - to be reconciled to God, to be in vital relationship with Him, in short, to be in loving communion with Him? But how is that to be effected? Is it through “rule-following” behaviors, or is there something else that needs to be provided in order to accomplish this end?

Is not “torah” essentially man’s response to this “something else,” and is not this more basic thing God’s covenant?

Torah is a function of covenant -- as man’s responsibilty -- and therefore torah has changed in light of God’s different covenants. For example, the earliest of the patriarchs - from Adam to Noah to Abraham - all observed torah in the sense that they related to God through covenant. Consider that Noah, Abraham, and even Moses himself offered blood sacrifices to God before additional torah was given at Sinai (Exodus 5:3).

In light of this distinction, we need to restrict the topic and ask the question as to whether we are bound to keep the terms of the covenant made with Israel at Sinai or whether there is indeed a new covenant that has been effected by means of which we may now draw near to God.  In other words, is the life, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus merely a means to a renewed Sinaitical covenant relationship with God, or does it constitute a genuinely new way of being in relationship with Him?  

How we answer this question will determine what we mean by “torah” and our covenantal responsibilities before the LORD.

Now what did Jesus teach us about the new covenant with God? Did He focus on ritual, obligatary prayer or the traditions of the elders as the means of observing torah? No, He said that torah is observed by our inward response to His sacrificial death and resurrection for us and is demonstrated by loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and by loving our neighbor as ourself. “On these two commandments,” He said, “hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt 22:35-40; see also John 15:12-14).

In other words, the love of God and others is the goal or purpose of torah, and, as Paul wrote in Romans 13:10, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (see also Gal 5:14).
 
 
   
 
 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10)
 
 
 ha’ahava lo ta’aseh ra lare’a al-ken ha’ahavah hi
kiyum ha-Torah
 
 
 The Torah of Jesus (Torat Yeshua) is love. When we truly love God and our neighbor, we ipso facto fulfill the intent of the various rules, ordinances, and statutes as found in the writings of Moses. In this sense, then, and based on the new covenant promises we have in Jesus, we indeed have direction, aim, and instruction for the walk of life. The halakhah of Jesus is the walk of love, and this love entirely transcends the role of rule-following behaviors as our way to truly commune with God and with our fellow man.
 
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Torah_Observance/torah_observance.html
 
 
Hebrew for Christians
Copyright © John J. Parsons
All rights reserved.

 

Are Christians restored to the Sinai Covenant?

No. Praise Jesus!

Gal 3:11  But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal 3:12  And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Gal 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Gal 4:22  For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23  But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24  Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25  For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26  But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27  For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28  Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29  But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Gal 4:30  Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31  So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

By the way the article was good.

Blessings,
asaph

No! They are not under the Old Covenant, in fact they are delivered from it. 2 Cor. 3 teaches that the heart of the Old Covenant (the Ten Commandments) were a ministry of death and condemnation. Who in their right mind would want to be under a covenant that could not give life but only condemn and kill? I am thankful for the New Covenant made in the blood of Jesus, which has the power to give life and a clear conscience before God. Out with the Old, in with the New.

The articles below will be of interest to any true truth seeker on this subject.

http://www.nlbchapel.org/which%20law.htm

http://www.nlbchapel.org/Subverters.htm

http://www.nlbchapel.org/covenant.htm

Pilgrim

Quote from Sulf. Dolpf.’s article:

Matthew 5:17-20 is then often cited as a proof-text that Jesus explicitly taught His followers to observe the commandments of Moses (i.e., the Torah):

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (i.e., Torah) or the Prophets (i.e., Nevi’im); 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 (i.e. Yod), not a dot (i.e., tag), 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. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes (soferim) and Pharisees (perushim), you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (malkhut hashamayim).


Great article

The part of Jesus’ statement where I have underlined above, has always been intriguing to me. I understand the temptation on the part of many Christians to seek a closer connection with our Jewish roots. I have often felt drawn this way myself. What is missing in the article is any mention of The Spirit of Christ indwelling us as the fulfiller and fulfillment of the Law:

Rom 8:2-4
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.(KJV)

That which is too little taught and which demands meticulous attention on our parts as Christians, is the walking after the Spirit. Paul certainly taught a requirement (to walk after the Spirit) and one with a goal (fulfilling the righteousness of the law).
To reject Paul’s writings as teaching against the Law seems rather shallow on the part of these Ebionites. Paul, on the contrary, was adamant that the Law is Holy; he simply insisted that the new covenant is administrated and maintained as per verse 4 above.

Is James to be called least in the kingdom for “relaxing” Torah to the extent that nothing should be put on the gentiles except for the few items he insisted on?



Acts 15:19-20
19. Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God:
20. But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
(KJV)

Jesus came to fulfill the Law and He did. Done! “It is Finished” Then He came again at Pentecost to fill the believers with the Spirit of Himself, the risen, glorified Christ, the One who fulfilled the Law. He now imputes that fulfillment to us who will walk in surrender to this blessed union. If this walk eventually brings us into a life that outwardly reflects the Torah in some way or another…then so be it, but Pharasitical woe be to any who imagine that “practicing” these ways will satisfy God’s heart.

OLD: “for the letter killeth
NEW: but the Spirit giveth life”          2Cor. 3:6b



I heartily recommend a book by Andrew Murray called “The Two covenants” The book can be read online at this link.    http://blueletterbible.org//Comm/andrew_murray/two/index.html (http://blueletterbible.org//Comm/andrew_murray/two/index.html)

Agape

Bairn

Amen Brothers!!

We look to the finished work of JESUS CHRIST on the CROSS, not Moses and the Law.

The letter kills, BUT the SPIRIT gives life. I will walk in the SPIRIT, not the Law. JESUS fulfilled the Law, something that no man could do. The Law of Faith in Jesus Christ has set us free from the curse of sin and death. We rejoice in God's Love, God's Grace, and God's GIFT. Our focus is JESUS and the CROSS.


Love In Christ,
Tom

Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:31-34  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Galatians 5:1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

I Peter 3:18  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

2 Corinthians 5:17-18  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

The lines folks come up with to devalue the Cross of Christ are amazing.

The Torah is a book of works. Observing the Torah is to rely on man not in Christ. What a slap in the face of God who sent His Son to the Cross, as a completion of the blood sacrificial system.  Becarefull playing with evil.

The Jewish religion is antichrist. It has not the Father because it has not the Son.


2 John 7-11

7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.

9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
KJV