As a first-born, the desire to be accurate is one I have come to understand is a pretty common self-inflicted burden for first-borns. There's this deep longing for certainty I have had within me a nagging constant question that is best summed up as "Am I doing this right?"
Apart from birth and death, I do believe the quest for absolute truth is another experience we all share in our humanity. There is a part of us that knows there is a truth, concrete and indisputable, and deep down we know it is not what we perceive with our eyes.
We live in a deceptive world today, worse yet, we move through it with likewise deceptive hearts. [1] Deception is as old as the earth, and since that day in Eden long ago, it has only grown more so. I have been waking up at a painstakingly slow rate from the slumber of this world, but recently there has been a quickening.
For the last 18 months there has been an unyielding pressing into me that, at times, is so strong and so heavy that if I am not steadfast in the instructions of Jesus, it has the ability to crush me beneath it. This is where the narrowness of the narrow road lies: we are each called to the magnanimous burden of tarrying with the Lord by carrying our cross [2], and yet, if we do not abide in HIS strength, wisdom, and process we cannot bear it. We are called to accept this burden and to yoke ourselves to Jesus [3] so that He is the one perfectly moving this weight alongside of us.
The Lord cracked me wide open in May of 2023 and there has been both an emptying and a refilling inside of that opening ever since. New eyes to see and new ears to hear. Very quickly and rapidly, many of the 'tensions' I have been told we are supposed to hold loosely began to dissolve as I re-read the Bible from the beginning once again.
The God of Distinction
From cover to cover the unifying message regarding distinction becomes clear: God is a God of distinction. He is the very antithesis of amalgamation, universalism, and uniformity. First, He separates darkness from light, then He does away with formlessness and there is a distinction between Heavens and Earth. He then separates the cosmic waters. [4]
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1:3,4)
God made the expanse, and separated the waters that were below the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse; and it was so. (Genesis 1:7)
God both defines and distinguishes over and over and over again throughout history, from cover to cover and that never changes. We see righteousness defined in the garden as trusting obedience, regardless of our understanding. We see Noah distinguished as righteous and preserved through God's wrath upon the earth. The Lord explains through the prophet Ezekiel that Noah, Job, and Daniel were distinguished in their righteousness, which sets them apart from any city or people they dwell among. [5] We also hear the Lord continue to prophesy about this 'remnant' that will come out of Israel when His wrath once again purges and distinguishes the righteous and unrighteous.
"Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could only save themselves,” declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 14:14)
We see a continuation of defining and distinction as the Lord carves out a family for Himself to make for Himself a people. A people distinct from the rest of creation, a people to whom He tethers to Himself by way of a covenant.
I use the word tether because when you look at the synonyms for this word the results you get are: secure, bind, chain, and restraint. Let us meditate on those words and apply them to the way the Lord eternally anchored Himself to the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
•Secure: peace for us that He has not given up on Creation.
•Bind: Himself to those of us who never give up our trust in His Promises.
•Chain: us to the hope of His redemption of all things so that we might not drift away.
•Restrain: Himself from acting in grief and anger towards rebellious and selfish people.
When the promises to Abraham were carved into a covenant, the process of God's distinction continued. First, the Lord desired for us to understand that this covenant with Abraham was irrevocable, one of the ways He did this was by showing us in history that, although Abraham attempted to interpret the mode of delivery for the promise, he never once doubted the promise itself. So we see the Lord continue to deliver on this promise because the promise had no contingencies reliant upon Abraham. We also see the 4,000 years of consequences for disobedience in the form of war, violence, and bloodshed between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael that continues today. This informs us that there are incredible consequences for sins, still, He retains all of the promises that He has made.
Righteousness and Faithful Obedience
Abraham's obedience was credited to him as righteousness by which the covenant was made, yes you heard me correctly. Let's take a hard look at Romans 4 :
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about; but not before God. (Romans 4:1-2)
Let's break this down a bit. What does Paul mean by "works"?
Let me offer a study hack of mine: I always make sure to keep open these words from Peter whenever I am about to tackle a difficult concept from Paul:
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:14-18)
Paul's words were being distorted even while the words of our Bible were being penned, and they continue to be today. Paul was being accused by the Sanhedrin of teaching that Torah obedience was no longer required, this was one of the many false allegations being wielded against him to discredit him. Peter is appealing to his readers that Paul is being misunderstood (I deeply relate to Paul in this). Furthermore, the Epistle of James (written by Jacob, the Lord's brother) is a response to exactly these allegations. Jacob is explaining to the Jewish followers of Jesus that Paul has not abandoned obedience or Torah, and that Faith without Works is dead. [6]
What use is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? In the same way, faith also, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to acknowledge, you foolish person, that faith without works is useless? ( James 2:14-20)
Let's continue in Romans 4.....
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3)
The word believed here in Greek is Pistis (πείθω). By referencing the Septuagint, (The Greek translation of the Hebrew Tanakh) you will find that Pistis is used in place of the Hebrew word Emunah (אמונה), a word that is derived from the same root as craftsman, artist, or practitioner. The word means 'Trustworthy' in its simplest form, and in Semitic languages is a dynamic verb rather than a mental assent or an object to possess as we use the word in the West. "To Walk Firmly with G-d" is how it is often described by Jewish sages. When Paul is writing bout Abraham, he is discussing Abraham's trustworthiness, how does one become trustworthy? By their actions - walking out one's faith is a practice or a craft to be cultivated. Paul also notes here that while works are not credited as favor, they are assumed as what is due.
We can see this even more explicitly spelled out for us in Genesis 26 as the Lord instructs Isaac:
Live for a time in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed Me and fulfilled his duty to Me, and kept My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." (Genesis 26:3-5)
I want to point out that this "credit" is awarded both 1) before the sign of circumcision is completed and 2) before the written Torah is handed to Moses at Sinai. At this point there are more than the commandments as we often think of them, the Lord explicitly refers to Commandments, Statutes, and Laws. So there is an established understanding of a Law as well as the expectation to obey it. It is by this obedience, done in faith, that the Lord bound Himself in a covenant with Abraham.
Let's continue in Romans:
Now to the one who works, the wages are not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,(Romans 4:4-5)
What is Paul saying here? Let's again recover some frustration and head back to Peter and remember that sometimes Paul is hard to understand. Paul is simply referencing a distinction here. He is writing to a mixed congregation in Rome, both Jew and Gentile and he is uncovering some mystery around Abraham that points to two distinct types of descendants and is explaining how Gentiles are to be incorporated into the family of Abraham but still distinct from the natural born descendants of Abraham. "The one who works" refers to the Jewish-born descendant and notes that those 'works' are described as "what is due". In the Mosaic covenant with Israel at Sinai, Torah obedience is required as part of the marriage covenant with God to receive the physical temporal blessings and protection from God during this age. Paul is explaining that Torah obedience is not cancelled, but an obligation for the natural branches. He then distinguishes that this is not making the Jewish believer more favored in the eyes of the Lord, only different. He then explains that "the one who does not work" which is the Gentile believer is justified by faith which means: firm walking in Messiah and that is how he is credited as righteous. Still an act, still a verb, but Paul is ensuring there is a distinction of roles for the two types of family members. He also needs to validate this claim by referencing scriptures and so he does:
Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” (Romans 4:6-8)
Paul is citing Psalm 32 here and using the prophetic words of David to confirm his claim that there has been a plan all along to bring into the family those who are not bound in the same way to the full covenant made at Sinai. He then uses Genesis to draw details from the timing of Abraham's covenant and sign to point to two different distinctions within the family (two brothers if you will). Those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven - he is speaking directly to the lawless, meaning those without the Torah. He is proving that pagan Gentiles are also invited and will be redeemed through the atoning sacrifice of Messiah.
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised. For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the Law are heirs, then faith is made void and the promise is nullified; for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. (Romans 4:9-14)
Paul is sometimes difficult to understand, in this passage, is an understatement. As a modern Gentile, I would say for me Paul is often infuriating.
Let's see if we can move through this one with some clarity. Paul is explaining to his audience, in particular the Jewish among them, that if Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness, then a precedent had been set already for the faith of the now incoming Gentile believers. He explains that this happened prior to his circumcision, that the circumcision itself did not credit him as righteous, but his Firm Trust in the Promise of God. His actions backing up and crediting him as trustworthy reveal the true Emunah in his heart. In this way, Abraham is the 'father' to uncircumcised believers in Jesus. He then also explains that the sign of circumcision which was a seal of his righteousness is also the way he is the father to the circumcised. All Paul is trying to do in this passage, is use a proof-text to back up his message of inclusion of the Gentiles through Emunah in Messiah Yeshua.
The writings of Paul, which address very specific circumstances to specific readers, have continued to be used for all sorts of strange doctrines and theological systems. From the theft of the role of the Jewish people as light to the nations and administers of the oracles, to claiming that Jesus canceled the Torah or fulfilled its requirements and redefined Torah observance. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes "There is nothing new under the sun."[7] This has occurred since the very beginning. The assault on distinction, roles, and obedience has continued through the ages.
Role Assignments, Usurpation & Humble Submission
In the book of Jude (Judah), the Lord's brother warns against role usurpation in the second to last book of the Biblical canon. He writes that even though it was burning in his heart to write about their mutual salvation, instead he is burdened to warn and rebuke these waterless clouds and wandering stars.[8] In the order of Cain, Korah, and Balaam, he writes, that they should be cut off from among the community. He uses the term wandering star as a descriptive. We are told that God created the stars [9], set them into place [10], and even named them [11]. There are numerous references to stars as angelic hosts and there are three recorded heavenly rebellions in the Tanakh. (Genesis 3, Genesis 6, Genesis 11 - confirmed in Psalm 82 & Deuteronomy 32)
These wandering stars did not stay fixed in their designed distinct roles.
Jude also references humans who step out of their assigned roles and pine after another. Cain is referred to in this order of offenses. Note that in Genesis 4 when God rejects Cain's sacrifice that is not the thing that leads to his demise, we see the Lord warn Cain about his response :
“Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.” (Genesis 4:6)
We are not told how much time passed between this warning and the murder of Abel, but there are two things we can take away from these events :
Cain did not heed the warning and allowed the sin to devour and consume him leading to the sin that caused him to be sent into exile, murder.
Cain's refusal to accept the ruling of God's rejection of his sacrifice is a blatant usurpation of authority. Who is Cain to disagree with the creator?
After the Exodus, Korah rebelled by rising up and claiming that all in the community of the Lord are loved the same, he was dissatisfied with the distinction the Lord had set for Moses and Aaron [12].
They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone far enough! For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” When Moses heard this, he fell on his face; and he spoke to Korah and all his group, saying, “Tomorrow morning the Lord will make known who is His, and who is holy, and will bring that one near to Himself; indeed, the one whom He will choose, He will bring near to Himself. (Numbers 16:3-5)
Balaam took it upon himself to set up a stumbling block for the tribes of Israel which consisted of tempting them into disobedience [13]. In both instances, we see an example of someone assuming a role that does not belong to them and the fury of the Lord with regard to obedience. According to Isaiah, the Lord would set up a stumbling block for Israel for His purposes [14]. In Leviticus, it is not permitted to set up a stumbling block for the blind[15]. Paul warns about setting stumbling blocks for another in Romans and Corinthians. The Lord alone is the one who can allow for the testing and stumbling of His image-bearers.
The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:41-42)
What is disobedience truly? It is a usurpation of roles. It is creation turning from the creator, it is rejecting our design, the distinction between us and Him, rejecting the place we have been put in.
What do roles, distinction, and obedience all have in common? The answer is humility.
If we cannot humble ourselves, we will undoubtedly end up entangled in its antonym: pride. This is where all disobedience is born from. We can plant seeds of humility or pride in our gardens and that will determine whether our fruit is obedience or disobedience. That is in its most distilled state what the Bible is saying. It is one consistent message from beginning to end. God elaborates in endless ways and formats so that every mind can find this message regardless of where they find themselves in scripture.
The consistency and continuity of our Creator's message is so simple, so direct so narrow in its scope that once the reader can see it, it can never be unseen again. It is patterned and repeated over and over again as a constant reinforcement that the narrative as you continue to read, has not changed, is not changing, and will never change because, "He never changes, nor casts a shifting shadow." [17]
It is through this understanding that I have arrived what I am certain will be for many a controversial conclusion:
Jesus of Nazareth was not a "Christian"
As provocative as that statement is, I want to urge you to not reject this statement at face value. Instead, allow me to expound upon both the modern-day definition of "Christian" as well as how that differs from what Jesus and the apostles and early church practiced, preached, and died to defend.
What I am about to discuss, is very much what I believe Jesus was preparing hearts for in the 1st century with his Jewish followers. That their devotion to who He is and what He was calling them to would cause them to have to choose between Him and family members. He knew that they would not be accepted in their Jewish communities, He also knew that in a short while, they would also cease to be accepted by the very Gentiles that they had borne the burden of covenant in order to bring the light of Messiah to. He knew that Messianic Jewish believers would never quite be acceptable in any congregation as they are without being asked to deny a part of their assigned distinction.
Today, this is true for both Messianic Jews and Gentiles.
Jesus was very clear about just how narrow this road was going to be and I ask you to take a look down the narrow way with me.
Once again the Creator in the flesh as Jesus the Messiah came to define and divide:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew 10:34-39)
Jesus is referencing Micah 7 here, which His audience knew referenced the time of Jacob's trouble, and the final sifting before the Messianic age. We need to be keenly aware that Jesus was not here preaching and teaching a new message not ever before preached, He was not a revolutionary breaking through mankind in a novel way that turned everyone's understanding upside-down. Jesus was a revivalist, a reformer of the very faith He Himself installed into creation. He is always referencing scripture or oral teachings that His 1st-century Jewish audience was well acquainted with. He is constantly explaining the cost of following Him. It is the same price He paid, the price that His people have always paid, and continue to pay for faithfulness. Jesus' teachings would spark things in people that they didn't even know what to do with. Whenever Jesus would garner a large crowd or following, He was always sure to be direct about the terms for being His disciple and divide the crowd again.
Jesus understood that the restoration of the faith of His people would come at a price. As a Western Gentile I have been told in numerous ways that Jesus came and preached a different message than had been preached and therefore He was rejected by "the Jews" and they didn't realize He had come to do "a new thing".
I am going to try to explain how not only is that not what Jesus did when He walked the earth, but how preaching in that way has continued to cause Jewish people to further reject their own Messiah - and with every good reason to do so.
" In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and apart from Him nothing was made that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." ( John 1:1-4)
Jesus, the man in human form who walked the earth in the 1st century is understood by His disciples to have existed "In The Beginning". He is understood as the component by which creation came to be. In the Tanakh (Christian Old Testament), there is this figure, the "Outstretched Arm of God" His "Right Hand", there is also the "Angel of the Lord" who appears from time to time. God, in the form of a man, ate with Abraham, walked in the pillar of fire in the desert at the Exodus, and dined with Moses at Sinai. There has been an anthropomorphic figure representing God since the beginning.
Understand, that if we believe that "The Son" is this figure, we must also acknowledge:
• The Son sat at the table with Abraham to eat.
• The Son walked through the carved animals and made the everlasting covenant.
• The Son is speaking about His commandments being obeyed by the righteous.
• The Son gave the written Laws, Statutes, and Commandments to Moses at Sinai.
• The Son married Israel at Sinai.
• The Son fought alongside Joshua for geographical acquisition.
•The Son is the covenant maker and keeper throughout the historical record.
So Jesus, pre-incarnate, is the very same personage of God who separated a people for Himself. A people to whom He would reveal Himself to and through. A people whom He would never allow to stray too far from Him and be lost. A people He alone is to chastise in order to bring them back to Him, but a people whom, after they do return to Him, will be a metric by which He will judge the rest of the world.
Jesus gave the Torah, all of it. Both the oral in Eden and written to Moses.
He explained that these are eternal by His chosen Jewish voices in His Spirit.
"The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever." (Psalm 119:160)
Christians highlight how Torah "points us to Jesus" and this is true. But what did Jesus do when He was here in the flesh? He pointed everyone back to Torah.
Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)
What did Jesus mean? What would His audience of 1st-century Torah observant Jews have understood? Jesus is always referencing concepts and uncovering mysteries already established in Hebrew Scripture.
•The Way - Blessed are the perfect in the way, who walk in the Torah of Adonai!
(Psalms 119:1)
• The Truth - Your righteousness is righteousness forever, and Your Torah is truth.
(Psalms 119:142)
• The Life - When Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Put in your hearts all the words that I call as a witness against you today—that you may command your children to keep and do all the words of this Torah. For it is not an empty thing for you, because it is your life! By this word, you will prolong your days on the land, which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:45-47)
Jesus came to reveal Himself to the people He had previously set apart for Himself. The people He entrusted with the "Whole revelation of God" [18]. He came for those He appointed, to rebuke the standing leadership, reform those who had wandered, and redeem the lost tribes. He came to once again Separate within an existing separation, a new set of appointees (The Apostles and Disciples). All of which during Jesus' ministry, were Jewish.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, so that we may follow all the words of this Law. (Deuteronomy 28:29)
He also came to confirm and reveal. Jesus, the seed of the woman [19], the avenger of blood [20], the kinsmen redeemer [21], the promised one [22] came here not to abolish the Torah nor Covenants, but to confirm them. He came to reveal the way by which these things would be made possible: through His perfect atoning sacrifice. To fully understand and appreciate what that meant, requires a deep understanding of Torah.
“Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished! Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)
Let's begin with Jesus' words around Torah, as I am going to assume that most reading this are far more familiar with the B'rit Chadashah, that is, the New Testament than the Tanakh, unfortunately referred to in Christendom as the Old Testament.
You have most likely heard it said that Jesus referred to His crucifixion being the fulfillment of the Torah, thereby doing away with the literal obedience of the Torah. Or perhaps, Jesus atoned once and for all as a method of fulfillment that we no longer were obligated to try to follow the commandments. Or that belief in Jesus became the equal for following the Law. I would like to use the above passage in Matthew 5 to refute the claims that nearly all stem from this passage.
• Why does Jesus go out of His way to state His purpose is not to abolish the Law?
Answer: Jesus spends a decent amount of time ensuring that future distortions of His words and work are refuted plainly and clearly and written as Scripture.
• Why does Jesus say He is fulfilling the Torah?
Answer: Because Jesus was a literal walking Torah. He displayed in His life what it means to walk in obedience in the fullness and the depths of its meanings.
•Have Heaven and Earth passed away?
Answer: No - and they will not until after the Messianic Age to come is over and the New Heavens and New Earth are eternally set into place.
•Did Jesus mean "All is Accomplished" by what He did on the cross?
Answer: No, the cross is one part, and it is also how all of these things are made possible. The inclusion of the Nations, regathering and restoration of Israel, and the Parousia (2nd coming of Jesus) and his reign are yet to be and part of "all accomplishments."
Note that Jesus also goes out of His way to venerate the righteousness of Scribes and Pharisees. How can this be when according to Christian Tradition, those are the bad guys right? Isn't that the subtitle of the Bible: Jesus vs. the Pharisees?
Jesus is once again ensuring that future false narratives and accusations are directly refuted by His own words. It may surprise many to find out it was only a handful of Sadducees who conspired against Jesus or point out how many Pharisees did become disciples, although the vast majority did not accept Him as Messiah. However, it needs to be said plainly:
Jesus was not here to refute, overturn, or alter first-century Biblical Judaism. He was here to confirm it, revive it, and equip His appointed emissaries to teach it to the Nations in the order of their calling.
Why was Jesus always seemingly vicious in His rebukes of the religious leaders?
Let's first look at some definitions. The Bible mentions two distinct sects during Jesus' time, and Jesus eludes to some practices and beliefs that we find in history and the Dead Sea Scrolls of a third: The Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes. These were all 'sects' of Judaism, much like the over 30,000 Christian denominations we currently have in the world today, there were at least, according to the Bible these main three camps of interpretation that were vying for influence in Jesus' day. The Sadducees had become incredibly Hellenistic and blended with the world rejecting the idea of a physical resurrection of the body and adopting many Greek worldviews at the time. The Essenes were a more obscure monastic group who also adopted an apocalyptic mindset, rejected the 2nd Temple, and condemned the priesthood and practices of the day - John the Baptist was of the Essenes so there was clear merit in the movement despite some of its flaws. You also had the Zealots represented in figures who, much like some sects of Judaism, the Medieval Roman Church, and Christian nationalism today, believe that the Lord wants the people of Earth to do the work of establishing peace on earth prior to His return. (It's important to note that is the spirit of antichrist, but that is another blog for another day.)
Jesus is correcting, nearly every time He speaks, the many incorrect applications, interpretations, and teachings of the time. He rejects the worldview of the Sadducees, discredits some of the applications of the Essenes, and yet venerates the righteousness of the Pharisees and their authority. What Jesus does, is carry out His authority by rebuking those Pharisees who were utilizing the law and the Lord's name in vain.
He never once rebuked the Torah or Biblical Judaism. Jesus' teachings are very much aligned with the interpretations and theology of Pharisees in His day.
And yet, He is addressing a few different issues:
• Faulty prioritization of the most important values as prescribed in the Torah.
• Hypocrisy within the hearts of certain Pharisees as they exalted themselves over the people instead of shepherding the flocks properly and not living as they taught.
Jesus was not a theological revolutionary to the Jewish people. He was a revivalist, a reformist even. He came in the same order and pattern as the prophets, calling out the nation and people of Israel for going astray in their worship and administration of Torah and Faith. He did not come to redefine or reveal a new definition of the Commands and Statutes He gave at Sinai. If He had done so, none of us could or should trust Him.
But didn't Jesus violate the Sabbath showing us it was now nullified?
Had Jesus violated Sabbath laws, according to the Word previously given in Scripture, this would disqualify Jesus as the Messiah. The Scriptures give a clear warning regarding false teachers, and by what metric was given to discern? That they do not instruct against anything the Lord has commanded (Deuteronomy 13:1-5). This means any teaching that draws one away from obedience of God's given Commandments, Laws, and Statutes is a false prophet. So Had Jesus come to overturn, or redefine the Torah, the Sabbath, or any other commandments, He would automatically be considered a false teacher.
Can we understand the critical importance of getting this right?
What the overwhelming majority of Christian denominations today and for the majority of the last 1700 years have been saying Jesus did and said, are the very things that disqualify Him as Messiah to the Jewish people, to the people who were given the criteria by which to measure a true prophet of God. Much of the Gospel message being carried across the world and often to the Jewish people are the very narratives that would reinforce a Biblically literate Jewish person to reject Jesus in line with Scripture.
Fortunately, with careful examination of the text, we see that Jesus did no such thing, but first many of us are going to be confronted with the choice to remove the lenses by which we have been told to read the scriptures, in particular the New Testament.
Jesus and The Sabbath
"Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a permanent covenant." (Exodus 31:14-16)
Let's start with the idea that Jesus was overturning Sabbath observance.
Within mainstream Christian thought today there are two main schools of thought regarding what Jesus was doing by healing and performing miracles on the Sabbath :
Jesus was publicly displaying His overturning or canceling of the Sabbath Observance, paving the way for His death and resurrection to become our "New Sabbath".
Jesus was disputing the Rabbinical interpretations and traditions surrounding Sabbath and revealing the true Biblical spirit of the Sabbath.
There are multiple problems with both of these ideas but let us start with the most critical to our faith and assurance of Jesus as Messiah:
God defines sin in His commandments laws and statutes: the Torah. (1 John 3)
To Profane or Break the Sabbath according to the Torah is a sin punishable by death. (Exodus 31)
Doing either of these things would have disqualified Him as Messiah. (Deuteronomy 13:2)
So doing either of these things would have made Jesus a sinner.
Okay, but if Jesus is the Creator as established in John 1, could He not simply override or reveal a different way to observe Torah, could He not simply do what He wanted and revise the expectations of Torah observance?
If this were so, how could we ever be certain of the true Messiah, or a false prophet? God himself established the authority to interpret, judge, and apply Torah within the Jewish leadership. He gave explicit parameters by which a prophet would be valid. These appointed roles are never spoken of within the Christian church today, and certainly not accepted within the majority of modern thought.
The Bible, in both the Tanakh and New Testament, confirms the authority given to the Jewish Sages of Israel.
“Appoint judges and officials for yourselves from each of your tribes in all the towns the Lord your God is giving you. They must judge the people fairly. You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly. Let true justice prevail, so you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you." (Deuteronomy 16:18-20)
"Take such legal cases to the place the Lord your God will choose, and present them to the Levitical priests or the judge on duty at that time. They will hear the case and declare the verdict. You must carry out the verdict they announce and the sentence they prescribe at the place the Lord chooses. You must do exactly what they say. After they have interpreted the law and declared their verdict, the sentence they impose must be fully executed; do not modify it in any way. Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the Lord your God must die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel. Then everyone else will hear about it and be afraid to act so arrogantly."(Deuteronomy 17:9-13)
In case the idea that these things were more of the things Jesus came to overturn should tempt us, Jesus speaks explicitly of this authority to His disciples.
"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 'The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.'" (Matthew 23:1-4)
Jesus venerates the authority of the Sanhedrin and instructs His disciples to obey and practice what they tell them, much of these instructions are found in the Midrash Rabbah and the Talmud among other commentaries. In the same breath, He also condemns the state of the hearts of that leadership and the hypocrisy in their actions. He does not revoke the authority of their interpretations, instructions, or traditions.
So what was Jesus doing in the instances of healing and performing miracles on the Sabbaths? Certainly, He could have done these things on another day of the week.
So what was our Messiah's intention?
To the modern reader, the approach and tone Jesus uses is unfamiliar and often cryptic, but to the 1st Century Jewish audience Jesus was engaging in the same way Rabbinic Sages of their day did. Jesus did not argue from a Sola Scriptura understanding of the Sabbath Commandments, He used typical Rabbinic litigation arguments of His day.
He never once spoke against the Halakhic (Jewish Legal) decrees or interpretations of the Torah by the Torah Lawyers, Judges, or Priests. He intentionally performed specific acts in specific ways to provoke Rabbinic discussions about the nature of the Sabbath, and the weight of the Sabbath prohibitions over the "Weighter Things" commanded in the Torah. Jesus, in these instances, was engaging in typical Rabbinic Litigation when accusations would arise.
"You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!" (Matthew 23:24)
Within Jewish interpretation, this approach is referred to as weighing the "Light to the Heavy" and is a necessary background for understanding the synoptic gospel accounts as well as the New Testament Epistles in the proper context that was lost with the expulsion of Jewish leadership within the body of Messiah in the 2nd century.
If we take the time to deeply examine each Sabbath violation we will see that Jesus was not guilty nor were the people He commanded guilty of those violations according to the Rabbinic interpretations of those laws and statutes. We will see that by doing this, Jesus not only challenges the leaders who are questioning Him and their applications of the Torah laws, He also validates the Rabbinic decrees and interpretations by doing so.
I plan to do a separate post moving through every example of the Sabbath-related interactions, which I will later link in this piece. For now, I want to list a few examples simply to show there is far more going on in each exchange. Let's first look at Messiah's own words regarding how we are to look and judge actions with regards to the Law.
“Did Moses not give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law? Why are you seeking to kill Me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill You?” Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all are astonished. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and even on a Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on a Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry at Me because I made an entire man well on a Sabbath? Do not judge by the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” (John 7:19-24)
When we examine what Jesus did and said while on the earth in human form, it is important that we do not judge with outward appearance, but with righteous judgment. Again, Jesus and His audience understood there is an ordained and appointed order of judges, priests, and administration that God established after the Exodus. He is reminding them of the burden that carries with it, to carefully examine and not judge simply based on what the outward appearance implies.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but have your heart comply with my commandments; For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you. Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and a good reputation in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:1-6)
We must not lean on our own understanding. This wisdom passage from Solomon is referencing wisdom which is of the teaching, the teaching refers to The Torah. If we are to acknowledge Him in all of our ways, we must acknowledge the anointing He gave to the Jewish people and the appointment of leadership and administration of the Scriptures and Oracles of God as referenced above in Leviticus and affirmed by Jesus in Matthew 23. Paul reiterates this in his letter to the Romans.
Then what’s the advantage of being a Jew? Is there any value in the ceremony of circumcision? Yes, there are great benefits! First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the whole revelation of God. (Romans 3:1-2)
In the above account recorded in John 7, Jesus is exhorting a crowd accusing Jesus of "having a demon" because they cannot otherwise explain how Jesus could be performing miracles while violating Torah. The people of Israel were given specific methods of verification used to determine if a prophet is from the Lord or is a false teacher:
The things that they say must come to pass to know if their message was of the Lord. (Jeremiah 28:9)
They must not speak against or contradict the commandments of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 13:1-5)
Note how signs and wonders alone do not make a prophet true or validate his message. The above criteria show that while Israel as a nation killed every prophet sent by the Lord due to their rebellion and refusal to accept the rebukes being given, they also later had to reexamine those judgments, repent, and record the prophet's oracle into Scripture. This painful truth is what galvanized my trust in the veracity of Scripture. The accusation of ancient Rabbis conspiring to create a book that lifts them above the rest of the world is absurd when you read the ghastly accusations they have about themselves chapter after chapter in the Hebrew Bible. This confirms the humility and devotion to God they maintain despite their humanity. It also confirms the inability for corrupt men to thwart the message of God.
Let's together examine just one of the Sabbath instances as an example of the method and intention behind Jesus in His actions.
The Disciples and the Grainfields (Matthew 12 / Mark 2)
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. Now when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath!” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions— how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath, and yet are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means: ‘I desire compassion, rather than sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might bring charges against Him. But He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a person than a sheep?! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. (Matthew 12:1-13)
The Christian interpretation of this passage generally sees this as Jesus exhorting Himself over the Sabbath and overturning Sabbath prohibitions while also cutting into His accusers for not realizing He was something greater than the temple while also taking a few jabs at the practice of sacrifice. Again, had He done these things as interpreted by the majority of Christian teaching, this alone would have been grounds for the Sanhedrin to bring charges against Him and they would have been well within their obligation to do so according to God's Law. Arguing that they should have taken the word of a Rabbi at this point in Jesus' ministry that He was Messiah just because He said so, and then holding them accountable for not recognizing Him on simply that basis, paints a pretty ugly characteristic of Jesus and God. Jesus didn't come cryptically attempting to trap the religious leadership into rejecting Him. That is not the Lord we follow.
Let's look at what Jesus did and did not argue in this instance:
He did not accuse the Pharisees of being "legalistic" in their application of Sabbath keeping nor did He challenge their interpretations. (Exodus 34:21 clearly prohibits harvesting on the Sabbath.)
He did not claim that because He was Jesus the Messiah and they should know who He is, that they were no longer required to observe the Sabbath.
He did admit that they were breaking the Sabbath prohibition, but that they were, in fact, guiltless for doing so and cites two (2) legal precedents as proof.
David and the Bread of Presence (1Samuel 21)
The Priesthood Work on the Sabbath in the Temple (Numbers 28:9)
What can we glean from this exchange within the context of 1st Century Judaism:
Jesus is arguing His case for His disciples based on application of Priority, that is: the weightier matters taking precedent over the lighter things.
Jesus isn't elevating Himself as Greater than the Temple.
Jesus argues that His disciples fit the precedent set to violate a prohibition of Torah due to 'human need or suffering' like David and His men overriding the Temple Service.
Temple Service overrides the prohibition of the Sabbath since the Priests violate the Sabbath and yet are guiltless.
Jewish Law also confirms this was an applied interpretation of the Torah given in the Talmud "Whenever you find a positive commandment and a negative commandment contradicting, if you can fulfill both of them it is preferable, but if not, let the positive command come and supersede the negative command." (Shabbbat 122A)
So Jesus then concludes that Human Need/Suffering is Greater Than the Temple.
The Jewish Talmud also echoes this interpretation when discussing providing life-saving measures on the Sabbath: "If the service in the Temple supersedes the Sabbath, how much more so should the saving of human life supersede the Sabbath laws.” (B Yoma 85b)
So we see in this one example Jesus is arguing the light to the heavy, while also giving validation to the Rabbinic Law & Interpretations as further backing for His innocence in allowing His disciples to harvest on the Sabbath.
Jesus is litigating with Torah lawyers. He is a master litigator, and based on their silence and need to conspire to find another way to ensnare Him, it is apparent He won His case.
Jesus is the Ultimate Rabbi, which is why He reasons and engages like a Rabbi.
My intention is not to argue for Gentile Sabbath Observance, as there are clearly distinctions in who is to Honor the Sabbath and who is under the obligation to Observe the Sabbath. The Jerusalem council shows us that full Sabbath observance was not put on the Gentile believers, along with any other Jewish Identity markers of conversion. Perhaps that is a study for another day.
The Way • The One True Faith •
My intention is to highlight and call attention to the truth that the notion that Jesus practiced, preached or instituted lawlessness, that is, disobedience to the Torah is in error and this error has plagued the body of Messiah for almost 2,000 years now.
If we can recognize these errors in narratives that we have all taken for granted, if we humble ourselves to the appointed order of administration that God himself gave to Israel, and Jesus confirmed and transferred to His Jewish Apostles when He came to earth, there is a chance we can recover what was lost and return (i.e. Repent) as the Kingdom is Near and our Messiah is Coming Soon! This is a message that will not be met with acceptance from the majority. It has never been and Jesus tells us it will not be until That Day when Every Knee will Bow and Every Tongue Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
"Now great crowds were traveling with him. So he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25-27)
Broad is the path to destruction. This includes those who believe they are following Jesus, but a Jesus that resembles nothing of the man Himself. He consistently divided His following and separated wheat from the chaff with difficult truths.
So in all things, do to others what you would want them to do to you—for this is the Torah and the Prophets. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow is the gate and difficult the way that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:12-14)
Our Messiah Yeshua was and is a Biblical Messianic Jew, who practiced, taught and appointed His apostles to carry out Biblical Messianic Judaism. Jew and Gentile alike in the early church followed The Way, which remains a sect of Judaism that acknowledges and accepts Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah. They all went to synagogue, and until the destruction of the Temple which caused the dissolution of the Sanhedrin, they all observed the Temple obligations as permitted. They observed the appointed times and festivals, which Paul did not disparage in his epistles (he was speaking of continued participation in Pagan Roman feasts and festivals in Galatians - and speaking about being judged by Gentiles for their observance of Sabbath and Festivals in Colossians.)
They newly emerging Gentile believers understood they were being adopted into an existing family, and existing faith with existing practices.
The Ecclesia or Assembly of God did not begin in Acts 2. The "Church" or community of God began in Genesis 12 with Abraham in order to restore a remnant of all nations to Himself.
There is only one faith on this earth that God tethered to the DNA of a people.
Judaism and Jewishness are inextricably tied together no matter how many times the attempt is made to tear them from one another. From the time of His life on the earth, the enemy and men under its influence have sought to divorce Jesus of Nazareth from Judaism. This is true of the sinful members of the Sanhedrin and it is true of Paul's proto-gnostic opponents as the New Testament writings were still being written, and it is true of the Christian "Church Fathers" beginning as early as the 2nd century who officially removed Jewish leadership from their councils and it has not ceased today.
Why would God tether a practice of faith to a physical ethnic group so that it could never disappear or be lost in the deceptive age of the enemy? Because it is the True Faith. If God planned to overturn or revoke it, why make it so incredibly difficult to remove from humanity? Because He did not and it has never changed. It has simply been expanded to include the rest of the ethnicities of the earth by way of the atonement for all through Jesus. It also ensures that no matter how many woes the descendants of Abraham face, causing them bitterness and rejection of their role and burden, they can never fully 'put off' this appointment, and can never revoke the blessings promised to them.
This is a sobering reality that should cause us to honor, bless and show gratitude to them. The posture of heart we see modeled of the Gentile to the First Born (Israel) is best depicted in the book of Ruth. Ruth, a Gentile is faced with the decision to leave her Jewish mother-in-law in a time of distress and uncertainty and return to her own people and customs who are able to provide comfort an assurance, or to stand with Naomi and her people who are facing trying times. Below is Ruth's response.
“Do not plead with me to abandon you,
to turn back from following you.
For where you go, I will go,
and where you stay, I will stay.
Your people will be my people,
and your God my God.
Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May Adonai deal with me, and worse,
if anything but death comes between me and you!”
(Ruth 1:16-17)
Live as of The Day
The Prophets Isaiah and Michah reveal and illustrate the beautiful picture of Restoration, when Jesus as King over the Earth will finally establish Peace On Earth through Torah.
In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all— the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between peoples and will settle disputes between strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. Everyone will live in peace and prosperity, enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees, for there will be nothing to fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has made this promise! Though the nations around us follow their idols, we will follow the Lord our God forever and ever. “In that coming day,” says the Lord, “I will gather together those who are lame, those who have been exiles, and those whom I have filled with grief. Those who are weak will survive as a remnant; those who were exiles will become a strong nation. Then I, the Lord, will rule from Jerusalem as their king forever.” As for you, Jerusalem, the citadel of God’s people, your royal might and power will come back to you again. The kingship will be restored to my precious Jerusalem. (Michah 4:1-8)
It will come to pass in the last day that the mountain of Adonai’s House will stand firm as head of the mountains and will be exalted above the hills. So all nations will flow to it. Then many peoples will go and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of Adonai, to the House of the God of Jacob! Then He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For Torah will go forth from Zion and the word of Adonai from Jerusalem. (Isaiah 2:2-3)
Paul Exhorts his readers to Live as of the Day in his epistle to the Thessalonians.
The Day is understood by Paul and 1st Century Jewish followers to mean "The Day of the Lord." It is often shortened as The Day, That Day, or The Last Days referring to the Millenial Kingdom of Jesus which is so beautifully described above. So When Paul is asking to walk as people who are "of the Day." He is pressing for us to live now as though we are in The Kingdom since we are the people of The Kingdom.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; so then, let’s not sleep as others do, but let’s be alert and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk, get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let’s be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.(1Thessalonians 5:4-8)
So my exhortation to you is to examine your faith, examine what it means to have faith and get deeply connected to The Way, The Truth & The Life - which Jesus was a living walking example of. We are called to imitate Him. He was a walking breathing Torah. If you have no familiarity with Torah how can you be certain you know the real Jesus?
I invite you to join a newly forming Torah-Centric Foundational Bible Study: Hayesod with me and under the guidance of Messianic believers in Yeshua, our Lord and Messiah, and understand the connections and the root of the vine that is our mutual faith.
Resources Mentions (outside of the Scriptures cited above) - I would like to thank ministries such as The Daniel Training Network and The Apocalyptic Gospel Podcast, John P. Harrigan and First Fruits of Zion, and Daniel Thomas Lancaster in particular for all of the amazing work they have done and the resources they have put out to the Body of Yeshua.
I could not have seen with such clarity without the incredible insights of the following studies:
Restoration: Returning the Torah of Moses to the Disciples of Jesus
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