The Inner Core of God’s Holy Law
Mark 12:18-34, “Then the Sadducees, who say there
is no resurrection, came to him with a question. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘Moses wrote for us that
if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man
must marry the widow and have children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died without leaving
any children. The second married
the widow, but he also died, leaving no child. It
was the same with the third. In
fact, none of the seven left any children. Last of all, the woman died too. At the resurrection [Some manuscripts have: resurrection,
when men rise from the dead] whose wife will she be, since seven were married to her?’
Jesus
replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures
or the power of God? When the
dead rise [Jesus is obviously talking about the righteous dead here,
to rise in the resurrection to immortality, cf. 1 Corinthians 15:49-54],
they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like
the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read
in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him,
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You
are badly mistaken!’
One of
the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer,
he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’”—Here
is where it gets really important. Jesus
is about to explain and give the inner core of the whole Ten Commandment
Law of God—“The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: ‘Hear,
O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love
the Lord your God will all of your heart and with all of your soul
and with all of your mind and with all your strength.’ The
second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.’
‘Well
said, teacher,’ the man replied, ‘You are right in saying God is one
and there is no other but him. To
love him with all you heart, and with all your understanding and with
all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important
than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.’ When
Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, ‘You are not
far from the kingdom of God.’” This
Scribe was not a coward, he did not care or fear about asking real
questions of Jesus—and he wasn’t trying to entrap Jesus either. He was sincere like Nicodemus. Now lets analyze what we’ve read.
People
take the Bible and try to make it fit their own lifestyles (which is
wrong). Most people have their
own misinformed view of what the Scriptures say (i.e. the Sadducees
and Pharisees). Jesus in Mark 12:18-27 gently shows where the
misinformed beliefs of the religious people of his day (and also today)
are wrong. What we need to do
first is ask for the power and illumination of God through his Holy
Spirit, empowering our understanding as believers. The
first thing we see as we read Mark 12:29-31 is that love is also
an action, it is the active spiritual power that fulfills the law of
God. While we have seen the
exterior “do’s and don’ts” of the law of God in this study about the
Millennial Kingdom of God, we have not adequately focussed on the only
way God’s holy law can be fully kept to the very thought
level by humans. Ancient Israel
couldn’t keep the law under the old covenant, which was an agreement
between the Israelites and God that they would, totally on their own
power, keep the law of God, every word of it. Their
puny human efforts to obey proved woefully inadequate. They failed miserably. If you don’t believe me, God has recorded a
whole history section in the Bible that devotes itself to Israel’s
history, from it’s very beginning as a nation to the very end of when
the House of Judah was a viable nation with a king. But
all you need to do is read the book of Judges to get the idea. The Pharisees in Jesus day thought they had a better
idea. They
tried to legislate a bunch of laws and codes to put around the Old
Testament Law of God, to insure the general populace ended up keeping
the Law of God. But even if
everyone in the general populace stayed within the arbitrary boundary-lines
of these man-made do’s and don’ts, they still all ended up breaking
the very core of the Ten Commandments, every one of them, in one way
or another. And James said to break one law of God was
to break them all. So God proposed a
new covenant, which briefly stated in Jeremiah
31:31-33 that God would supernaturally write his holy laws in
the minds and on the hearts of his people. This is the inner core of conversion, being
born-again from above, which Jesus tried to explain to Nicodemus in
John 3. God is love. The whole law is summed up in love—no matter
which version of the law of God you feel you must adhere to (the Old
Testament Law of God, minus the sacrifices and civil penalty clauses
[cf. Hebrews 10], or the New Testament law of Christ). Faith
is part of that love, faith in God, a supernatural faith that comes
from God himself and is placed within us by his indwelling Holy Spirit. Habakkuk summed up the importance of faith
when he said: “The righteous shall live by faith.” What Jesus was quoting was two laws found in
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18, which defined the inner spiritual
core of the Ten Commandment law of God. Let’s
analyze each of those laws and how they fulfill the Ten Commandment
Law of God.
1.
The first
four of the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, which
states, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all you heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength.” Jesus
was explaining here that we must love God emotionally as well as with
a mental reasoning power that is not of our own selves but is from God. God
puts this into us by giving us his Holy Spirit to dwell in us and in
our minds. Jeremiah 17:9 says that our own minds without
God’s indwelling Holy Spirit are desperately wicked. Romans 8:7-8 states,
“The sinful mind [KJV: carnal mind, i.e. unconverted mind] is
hostile to God. It does not submit
to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those
controlled by the sinful [carnal] nature cannot please God.” How does God write his law in our minds and
on our hearts? Romans 8:9, “You,
however, are controlled not by the sinful [carnal, unconverted] nature
but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And
if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Here is a cautionary note for all believers, Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above
all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” This is the age-old principle of “garbage in,
garbage out.” It is also a computer
phrase, meaning essentially that what you put into your mind (or computer)
is what you are going to get out of it. If
you put sinful thoughts in, allow them room, sinful thoughts will come
out. And eventually they will
transform into sinful actions (read James 1:13-15). The world is filled with people performing sinful
acts. It is full of war, strife,
murders, you name it. The laundry
list is never-ending. The world
in general cannot love God on their own. Their
minds are hostile to him and his law of love. The
love God puts in us for him is a supernatural love. As we saw Paul say in Romans 8:7-8, the average
human being in this world is hostile to God and the things of God. They
cannot on their own love God. Don’t
believe me? Try to tell your co-workers
about Jesus and see how far you get. There
is an invisible wall, a barrier, between you and them. It is a wall of hostility to God and the things
of God. You are on one side of
that wall, and your unbeliever friends are on the other side of that
wall. God supernaturally puts a love for him within
us through his indwelling Holy Spirit. Along
with this love comes a spiritual understanding of God’s Word that unbelievers
just don’t possess either (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:11-12). But we must defend the knowledge and understanding
God has given us and constantly grow in this grace and knowledge of the
Lord, rightly dividing the Word of God. This
takes continual Bible study and an active prayer-life. But all our Scriptural and spiritual knowledge
is supernaturally empowered by God’s Holy Spirit who indwells us, as is our
very love for God.
2.
Jesus
quoted the law that sums up the last six of the Ten Commandments in Leviticus
19:18, which states, “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one
of your people, but
love your neighbor as yourself…” The 2nd major division or category
in the law of God, which six of the Ten Commandments are based on, is
our love for our neighbors. Does
mankind in general love his neighbors? Do
neighboring countries love each other? How
about the nation of Israel and all its surrounding Arab neighbor countries—do they all love each other? Again
we find that mankind (as seen in the history of ancient Israel of the
past) has not been able to, nor cannot now love its neighbors, especially
love them as we love our own selves. The entire history of the world
so far is one long series of brutal wars. Ephesians
5:29 says, “After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and
cares for it, just as Christ does the church…” The
Commandment says we are to love others “as we love ourselves”. That is humanly impossible, but not divinely
impossible. Again, it is only
through the love God imparts into us through his indwelling Holy Spirit
that enables us to love others—our neighbors, other races and countries,
you name it—as ourselves. Let’s
read Galatians 5:22-23 which states, “But the fruit
of the Spirit [i.e. the Holy Spirit] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness [i.e. faith, something we absolutely don’t possess
on our own], gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is
no law.”
God writing
his laws in our minds and on our hearts is what the new covenant is. It
is his empowering Holy Spirit within our hearts and minds, empowering
our obedience. That empowerment is God’s love shed abroad
in our hearts and minds. If
you study the law of Christ, from Matthew 5:17-48 to the end of the
Bible, you will see that it focuses on the spiritual application of
the Ten Commandments. It doesn’t nullify them. But regardless of which system of God’s law
your Christian conscience guides you to follow—the Old Testament Ten
Commandment law of God [minus the animal sacrifices and national application
of civil punishments designed to run a country, and adding to it the
spiritual application of Matthew 5:17-48], or the New Testament law
of Christ—you on your own cannot possibly
fulfill the laws’ requirements without God’s empowerment. This is what the focus of teaching will be
in the churches/synagogues during the Millennial Kingdom of God. And Jesus, Yeshua, will be our head Teacher-Rabbi-Pastor. Under
him, possibly, will be Elijah, then possibly the apostle Paul. Do you understand the central core of God’s
law now? Our job, under Jesus,
will be to attempt to lead mankind to conversion, leading them to desire
to be born-again, leading them to ask to be filled and indwelt by the
Holy Spirit, making them the future sons and daughters of God, just
as we are now, awaiting their change to immortality (just as we are
now). We have seen how the government of God--with
Jesus and us ruling the world--will enforce outward compliance to God’s
Old Testament code of laws. But
this forced outward compliance will in no way bring about the inner
compliance of true conversion from the heart. True
conversion--being born-again from above--will be the only thing that
will bring about inner compliance, and true salvation for all who come
to the “Well of Life and freely drink from it.” It
will be our job to try to inspire mankind to come to that precious Well of Life and drink freely. That
was one of Jesus’ main messages during the Last Great Day of one of
the Feast of Tabernacles he attended. I’m
sure he was talking not only of the immediate future during the Church
Age, but the distant future during the Millennial Kingdom of God. Few real Christians have put all this together
to see this future fulfillment which is yet to come. That is the purpose of this online book. That is part of our reward, to be the very
leaders and teachers that will be responsible for drawing a yet future
huge world population to Jesus Christ and that inner conversion of
the heart and mind brought about by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit—bringing
about the spiritual birth of multiple billions of people. For
all the numbers of friends and neighbors you’ve wanted to see drawn
to Jesus, Yeshua, in their place you will have the real chance to draw
millions to Jesus, Yeshua. You
ever had dreams about being a preacher? Some
of you, most of you, will be preachers over millions, as well as mayors
over multiple cities. Revelation 5:10, NIV “You have made them [that
is talking about us] to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and
they will reign on the earth.” KJV,
“And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign
on the earth.” The ancient Levitical
priests were the pastors God appointed over ancient Israel. We’ll be a kingdom of kings and priests reigning
over the whole earth. That’s
what Revelation 5:10 is saying.
The following quotes are taken from Chapter Two, in section 2 of “The Messianic Movement: A Field Guide for Evangelical Christians”, written by Rich Robinson and Naomi Rothstein for Jews for Jesus. In this chapter, the question of Torah observance and those who hold to it is addressed. As they make some excellent points, I am including these quotes at the end of this section on the “law of the land.” Their chapter is titled: “About “Torah Observance”. Realize one thing. They are talking about Torah observant Messianic congregations, which is a relatively new phenomenon, except for the early Messianic congregations before 325AD. Realize also, that the Sabbatarian Churches of God have a very long history of Torah observancy, which does not come from “a reaction against negative views of the Law found in some Christian circles.” It has merely been their way of interpreting the Word for almost 2,000 years. But these points are valid, and help us understand a bit more about the central core of the law of God, which is the law of Christ.
“LOOKING AT THE LAW…The
Torah-observant groups are in part a reaction against negative views
of the Law found in some Christian circles. It
is the unfortunate case that in much of evangelical Christianity the
Old Testament is hardly taught, rarely preached on and little understood
by the average congregant. Where the Law is mentioned, it is often portrayed
as merely a burden from which Christians are now free.” [“The Messianic Movement: A
Field Guide for Evangelical Christians”,
p.97, par. 2]
“The biblical picture of the Law is quite different. The
Law in the Old Testament is spoken of as a gift from God, a guide to
life, something to be cherished and enjoyed, as well as something to
be obeyed under penalty of disobedience. It is intimately bound up with the covenant
wherein God graciously reiterated His relationship with His people.”
[ibid. p.98, par 1]
“In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul reminds us
that the Law is good. The idea
of obedience is continually highlighted, from the Sermon on the Mount
to Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel and in the Epistles. In
fact, nine of the Ten Commandments are explicitly reinforced in the
New Testament.” [ibid. p.98, par 2, emphasis
mine]. I.e. the authors here
are saying that the law of Christ is in force for believers, a law
in the New Testament which re-iterates 9 of the 10 Commandments, as
well as bringing them to their loftier spiritual intent. But
nowhere in the law of Christ is mentioned Sabbath or Holy Day observance
as a requirement of the law of Christ. As
a matter of fact, in Romans 14 Paul strongly brings out that whether
to observe Sabbath and Holy Days as days of worship, or not to, is
totally optional now during the Church Age. As
we have seen, it will not be optional during the 1,000 reign of Jesus
over humans in the Millennial Kingdom of God. For
a complete review of Romans 14, log onto: http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/romans12-14_2.htm . Robinson
and Rothstein further bring out: “The
Law itself is not bad; it is sin, the misuse of the Law, and the way
human traditions can end up supplanting the Law, that are bad. The
principles of the Law, especially the Ten Commandments, have become
the bedrock of Western civilization and of the Church itself—even those
churches that portray the Law negatively.” [ibid. p.98, par 3]
They go on to explain about the “law of Christ”,
although they don’t label it as such. “Having
said this, the Christian church has universally recognized that the
Law of Moses is not meant to be kept as a body of law by Christians
today [I would have to say, that non-Torah observant Christians have
recognized this. Torah observant
believers do not recognize this]. The
Law of Moses was part of a covenant that God made with Israel at a
particular time and in a particular place. With
the coming of Christ, the New Covenant prophesied by Jeremiah has come
into effect and we are no longer under the Old Covenant.” [ibid.
p.98, par 4] I would have to
disagree with Rich Robinson and Naomi Rose Rothstein here. The Bible definition of the new covenant is that
God would write his law in the minds and on the hearts of his people,
whether his physical people as spelled out in Jeremiah 31:31-33, or his
spiritual people, believers in Jesus, as spelled out by Paul in Hebrews
8:6-13. As modified
and legislated into the New Testament by Paul in Romans 14, verses
5-6 and 22-23, the right of the Christian conscience is paramount,
and the believer has the right of choice to choose which set of laws
he wants God to write in his mind and on his heart, whether the Old
Testament Law of God or the New Testament Law of God, called by many
“the Law of Christ.” To say we’re no longer under the Old Covenant,
when we actually mean we’re no longer under the law of Moses is a misunderstanding
of terms. The Old Covenant was that
the people promised to obey God’s Law, all
on their own. The
new covenant is God’s promise to help his people obey, by and through
the indwelling Holy Spirit who will then write the Law (whichever the
believer’s conscience dictates) in his or her mind and on their hearts. Old Testament
adhering believers in Yeshua, Jesus, whether Messianic Jewish or Sabbatarian
Church of God Christians, are in the new covenant as well, by the strict
Bible definition of it. I know
this for a fact through actual experience, I dwelt and spiritually
grew up in a Sabbatarian Church of God for 25 years, and witnessed
many other Holy Spirit filled individuals growing spiritually. The
trouble we “law of Christ” believers have gotten into by mis-defining
just what the Bible says is the new covenant has allowed us to create
a misperception in our minds about the Torah-observant groups, especially
the Sabbatarian churches, some of which have come down through the
centuries maintaining their adherence to the Old Testament law of God
(minus the sacrifices and civil penalty applications). (Don’t
believe me? See http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/revivals.htm.) These groups have also added to their beliefs
and obedience the spirit of the law called out for by Jesus in Matthew
5:17-48 and the whole New Testament. Torah
observant Messianic believers were in the original congregations. Who do you think Paul was writing to in Romans
14? This is not a new phenomenon,
and mustn’t be treated as one. Rothstein
and Robinson continue with some very good points about trying to be
“torah-observant” in the post-temple period following 70AD.
“The fact is that for the past two thousand years
it has been impossible to observe all the commandments of the Law of
Moses because so many of them depend on the existence of a Temple,
a priesthood, animal sacrifices and living as a theocratic nation within
the land of Israel. Orthodox
Judaism recognizes this, and when the Temple was destroyed in A.D.
70, Judaism was reconstructed as a religion without a Temple or a priesthood,
a religion dependent on the authority and decisions of the rabbis. Reform
Judaism, a recent movement of the past 250 years, views the Law as
often antiquated and outdated but useful as a reminder of our history,
a symbol of our people and as source of ethics.” [ibid. p.98, par.
5, p.99, par. 1] So you see,
the whole Old Testament Law of God, all 613 commands, cannot possibly
be observed by a church, as it was both a religious law and a civil
law designed to govern a nation. In the future Millennial Kingdom of God, it
will be a law governing both religiously and civilly, governing the
people of the world, and the people in their congregations,. They go on to describe those who adhere to
the New Testament law of Christ.
“It is, however, equally important to note that the
recognition that we are not intended to keep the Law of Moses today
does not meant that Christians believe in lawlessness! The
specific commands of the Law of Moses each reflected something of the
nature of God, and behind each commandment is a principle. Those principles, reflecting God Himself, are
still incumbent on all Christians today…” [ibid. p.99, par. 2]
They go on to list some very interesting points about
the “torah observant groups”. By
listing these, do not think I am trying to beat up on them, as I have
the highest respect for them and their right of conscience to believe
as they do. But there is some
accuracy to what Rothstein and Robinson have observed and listed here:
1.
It is
no longer possible to keep all 613 (if we accept the traditional rabbinic
enumeration) laws because we no longer have a Temple, or a priesthood,
or live as a theocracy [all of which will exist during the Millennial
Kingdom of God, hope you see the difference here] in the land of Israel. Because of this, the Torah-observant groups
end up being extremely selective in their “law observance.” For the most part, the emphasis is on holy
days—Sabbaths and festivals—with perhaps some attention given to other
parts of the Law [i.e. dietary laws found in Leviticus 11]. In essence, these are not so much Torah-observant
as festival observant groups. And
since the Temple and priesthood are gone and a majority of Jews live
in the Diaspora (outside the land of Israel), even the festivals, for
instance, must be observed differently
than they were in biblical times. Perhaps
without realizing it, Torah-observant groups must either depend on rabbinic
tradition, which is distinctly post-biblical, or must construct their
own traditions [which the Sabbatarian Churches of God have done]. For instance, members of such groups do not
send their men to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem, as required by
the Law of Moses, nor do they offer sacrifices. So
there can be no question of this being an authentic, first-century observance.”
[ibid. p. 99, par. 4, p. 100, par. 1] They go on to make the observation that the
civil penalties attached to the Law of Moses cannot be enforced without
going counter to our individual national laws.
2.
“One
gets the impression that far more than the emphasize faithfulness to
Christ, the Torah-observant groups emphasize “Torah-observance” as their
distinctive, and in fact imply that they are being more obedient to God,
or have a deeper spirituality, than other believers in Jesus. Perhaps
they would argue that their obedience to the Torah is faithfulness to Christ [and I know from my own Sabbatarian
past that this reasoning is true, and it is not necessarily wrong—as
long as you don’t get judgmental toward the non-Torah observant Christians], but there is a distinct imbalance
to their approach. Inadvertently,
perhaps, they have created a two-tier system of believers: the more spiritual
ones who observe the Law and the less spiritual ones who do not. This
is not only unbiblical, but it also separates these groups from the rest
of the Body of Christ in an unhealthy way.” [ibid.
p. 100, par. 3] And I might add
here, the whole purpose of this website is to bring a spiritual unity
across denominational lines. This
barrier they describe is real, and very powerful. The
Torah observant groups, although, yes they are under the new covenant
in that God is writing his laws in their minds and on their hearts, will
no more mix with non-Torah observant believers than oil mixes with water. I am more aware of this than many of you, because
I can no longer actively fellowship on a spiritual level with hundreds
of close friends who remain in the Sabbatarian Churches of God that formed
during the break-up of the Worldwide Church of God (the actual Worldwide
Church of God still exists, and is a non-Torah observant fellowship which
no longer observes any Holy Days or Sabbath, and may number around 2,000
believers at this point). It is
my heartfelt desire to help bring some kind of unity between these Sabbatarian
Churches of God and the non-Torah observant Evangelical Christian churches
that truly are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. But
this goal may not be realized until the 2nd coming of Jesus
Christ and the 1st Resurrection to immortality, when we’ll
all be rising to meet the Lord in the air. But
rest assured, these groups are still and active (although separate) part
of the Body of Christ.
3.
“Since
much of the Torah-observant movement [and they are talking about Messianic
Jewish, not Sabbatarian Churches of God—who’s history spans back to 325AD
and even prior to that when Paul wrote Romans 14] is a reaction to negative
teaching about the Law, there is likewise a failure on the part of the
movement to recognize that large segments of the Church take a very positive view of the Law [emphasis mine]. This is particularly true of Reformed and Presbyterian
churches, which include a positive emphasis on God’s law within their
confessional statements, and in their preaching and teaching. [And I
might add, Costa Mesa Calvary Chapel affiliates whose congregations span
the globe, also the Church of the Nazarene denomination, and many evangelical
Christian churches, although many who call themselves evangelical have
drifted from the law of Christ to a social gospel and have grown very
weak and dying spiritually. See
the church history section of this site at http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/IntroChurchHistory.htm
] What they mean by God’s law, however, is not
the specific 613 commandments of the Law of Moses—which was a part
of the Mosaic covenant [law] intended for that time in redemptive
history—but the principles that God intends for us and commands
us to live by. For many of these churches, those principles
are embodied in the Ten Commandments [minus the 4th,
of course, unless they are Church of God Sabbatarian], which comprise
the standard for all Christian obedience.” [ibid.
p. 100, par. 4, p. 101, par. 1]
4.
“Actually,
the obedience required under the New Covenant [New Testament Law of Christ,
not New Covenant. Understand,
Messianic believers call the New Testament the New Covenant] is more
radical than that under the Old Covenant [again, he means the Old Testament
Law of Moses, not the Old Covenant, which was an agreement between God
and the people to obey God’s law as given, all on their own, without
the help of the Holy Spirit—that’s the old covenant]. For instance, in Deuteronomy 22:8, it is required
for one to build a parapet around the roof, a safety feature in a time
when the roof functioned as both a living room for entertaining and a
bedroom. I doubt that the Torah-observant
groups require such parapets. But
under the New Covenant [i.e. law of Christ], much more is required. That particular commandment is an example of
how to follow the general rule to love our neighbor and is an outworking
of the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not murder.” In
principle, its application today would range from preserving safety for
our family and guests all the way to the working for national security
or in public policy [as long as public policy parallels God’s laws—when
the Sanhedron commanded Peter and the apostle to stop preaching in the
name of Jesus, Yeshua, they could not comply with that]. The New Covenant [New Testament law of Christ]
broadens and deepens the requirements of the Law of Moses: “For everyone
to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48). To stress obedience to the Law of Moses without
stressing the fuller applications of the principles embodied in those
laws is to miss the point (Galatians 3:24).” [ibid. p. 101, par. 2] I might add here that most if not all of the
Sabbatarian Churches of God actively stress in their teaching, the powerful
spiritual application of the Law, found throughout the New Testament,
and particularly Matthew 5:17-48. I
can’s speak for the Messianic Torah observant congregations, but I would
assume they do as well.
For further
reading on the new covenant log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/newcovenant/whichcovenant.htm. It basically
explains what the new covenant is, in context with the law of Christ,
for non-Torah observant believers.
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