The Law Remains
- Torah Not Abolished
- The “Least” of the Commandments
- Torah in the Kingdom
- Was the Law Temporary?
- Where Does the Misconception Come From?
There’s a popular idea that the Law of Moses was replaced, or does not apply to Christians anymore. I wrestled with this for a long time, but I couldn’t get around the fact that Scripture explicitly tells us otherwise:
Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.
Torah Not Abolished
God clearly told us what He expects from us. The Law of Christ is not some vague, nebulous thing that every modern sect of Christianity gets to define differently. The Law of Christ is, in fact, the written Torah magnified:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks 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.
The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness, to magnify Torah and make it glorious.
Not only do the “least” of the commandments remain relevant, but they have been made glorious! These are not my own words or interpretation – this is direct from Scripture.
And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath and do not profane it and hold fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel: I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
There is no support in the prophets for Torah being “replaced”. Rather, there is one Law that foreigners must observe, and one covenant to be under, in order to be grafted in to Israel.
there shall be one law for the native-born and for the alien who resides among you.
You shall have one law for the alien and for the native-born, for I am the Lord your God.
As for the assembly, there shall be for both you and the resident alien a single statute, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; you and the alien shall be alike before the Lord. You and the alien who resides with you shall have the same law and the same ordinance.
This refutes the notion that grafted-in Gentiles are under a different law, or no law at all, a notion which has zero scriptural support.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put Torah within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
You can’t have the new covenant without Torah. Such a notion is totally absent in the prophets.
A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you who behave lawlessly.’
From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and violent people take it by force.
In other words, trying to enter the Kingdom without Torah is trying to enter it violently, by force.
Now by this we know that we have come to know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we know that we are in him: whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk in the same way as he walked.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness [transgression of Torah].
Then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to wage war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.
There are two conditions to be a saint.
for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
Torah is perfect and the law of liberty. This teaches the same thing as Deuteronomy – that obedience leads to blessings:
If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God...
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
Is James teaching lawlessness, or the magnification of the law?
Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your Torah, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’—and the scripture cannot be annulled—
The “Least” of the Commandments
Man has a deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9), and can convince himself that he is obedient even when he is picking and choosing commandments that he likes and ignoring the ones that he doesn’t like.
However, even the “least” of the commandments still apply. Many Christians ignore the Sabbath law (the fourth commandment!) and the food laws – is this a Biblical attitude?
Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.
The Sabbath was still in effect after Yeshua’s death. Why else would he instruct the disciples to pray this way?
And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
This was written after Yeshua’s death, yet there are still unclean animals.
Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human, whoever sacrifices a lamb like one who breaks a dog’s neck, whoever presents a grain offering like one who offers pig’s blood, whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense like one who blesses an idol. Just as these have chosen their own ways and in their abominations they take delight...
Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the center, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the Lord...
Torah in the Kingdom
We’ve read that until heaven and earth pass away, not one stroke from Torah is done away with. We can see Torah being kept in the Kingdom, after Yeshua’s death and return:
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth Torah and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s temple shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
Two things go forth: Torah, and the word of the Lord. This reminds us of the two prerequisites of a saint that we saw above in Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 14:12.
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain. From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord.
Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Festival of Booths. If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain upon them. And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, there will be no rain for them; there will be the plague that the Lord inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the Festival of Booths.
All the nations, not just Israel, were expected to keep the yearly pilgrimage festival to Jerusalem that’s commanded in Torah. Remember, Torah was not just for Israel (Isaiah 56:6-8).
Was the Law Temporary?
The Lord said to Moses, “You yourself are to speak to the Israelites, ‘You shall surely keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; everyone who profanes it shall be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall be cut off from among the people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the Israelites shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’ ”
The Sabbath is to be observed for all generations. This shouldn’t surprise us – it goes all the way back to the creation week!
And when the day, and the power, and the punishment, and the judgement come, which the Lord of Spirits hath prepared for those who worship not the righteous law, and for those who deny the righteous judgement, and for those who take His name in vain-that day is prepared, for the elect a covenant, but for sinners an inquisition.
Woe to them who pervert the words of uprightness, And transgress the eternal law, And transform themselves into what they were not [into sinners]: They shall be trodden under foot upon the earth.
Another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and for those who will come after him, and keep the law in the last days. Ye who have done good shall wait for those days till an end is made of those who work evil; and an end of the might of the transgressors.
Check out my Bible study with evidence that Enoch is scripture!
And after that in the fourth week, at its close, Visions of the holy and righteous shall be seen, And a law for all generations and an enclosure shall be made for them.
This is referring to the Law of Moses; see my study on the Prophecy of Weeks. In week four of this prophecy we clearly see that the Mosaic Law applies to all generations! It’s not a temporary thing (an idea completely absent from scripture).
God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. Throughout your generations every male among you shall be circumcised when he is eight days old, including the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both the slave born in your house and the one bought with your money must be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
Where Does the Misconception Come From?
He said to them, “So, are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
The bolded part is found in Greek manuscripts (though not all of them), but is absent in the Aramaic. See my study on whether the NT was written in Greek.
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
It is tempting to impose our own interpretations on these verses, but we must be careful not to do that. To say that Yeshua did away with the Sabbath here would contradict the bulk of scripture, nor does this even say that.
If we take this at face value, David was in an emergency situation where he had to break the Sabbath or die, and God didn’t hold him guilty. That’s all this says. Similarly to Peter’s vision of the animals, we can’t take a single situation out of context and ignore the rest of Scripture.
By the way, He says here that He is lord of the Sabbath, not of Sunday. The Lord’s Day is Sabbath.
The writings of Paul and Luke may need to be properly addressed in a separate study.