The Law Remains
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 law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances.
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:
Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
It pleased YHWH, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.
Not only do the “least” of the commandments remain relevant, but they have been magnified! These are not my own words or interpretation – this is direct from Scripture.
Also the foreigners who join themselves to YHWH to serve him, and to love YHWH’s name, to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath from profaning it, and holds fast my covenant, I will bring these 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 will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord YHWH, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, “I will yet gather others to him, in addition to his own who are 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.
One law shall be to him who is born at home, and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you.
You shall have one kind of law for the foreigner as well as the native-born; for I am YHWH your God.
For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner, a statute forever throughout your generations. As you are, so the foreigner shall be before YHWH. One law and one ordinance shall be for you and for the stranger who lives as a foreigner with you.
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 YHWH: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
You can’t have the new covenant without the law. Such a notion is totally absent in the prophets.
I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them.
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.’
This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. But God’s love has most certainly been perfected in whoever keeps his word. This is how we know that we are in him: he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked.
Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.
Here is the perseverance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
There are two conditions to be a saint.
for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
Torah is perfect and the law of freedom/joy. This passage teaches the same thing as Deuteronomy – that obedience leads to blessings:
It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to YHWH your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you today, that YHWH your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to YHWH your God’s voice.
Don’t think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, even Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as men who are to be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Is James teaching lawlessness, or the magnification of the law?
Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken) ...
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 will not be in the winter nor on a Sabbath
The Sabbath was still in effect after Yeshua’s death. Why else would he instruct the disciples to pray this way?
He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird!
This was written after Yeshua’s death, yet there are still unclean animals.
He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.
“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says YHWH.
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:
It shall happen in the latter days, that the mountain of YHWH’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many peoples shall go and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law shall go out of Zion, and YHWH’s word from Jerusalem.
But in the latter days, it will happen that the mountain of YHWH’s temple will be established on the top of the mountains, and it will be exalted above the hills; and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will go and say, “Come! Let’s go up to the mountain of YHWH, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and YHWH’s word 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 YHWH, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says YHWH.
It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, YHWH of Armies, and to keep the feast of booths. It will be that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, YHWH of Armies, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which YHWH will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast 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?
YHWH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Most certainly you shall keep my Sabbaths; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHWH who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to YHWH. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days YHWH 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 the prophets).
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 be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every male throughout your generations, he who is born in the house, or bought with money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. He who is born in your house, and he who is bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your flesh for 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 and Hebrew. See my study on whether the NT was written in Greek.
At that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the grain fields. His disciples were hungry and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But the Pharisees, when they saw it, said to him, “Behold, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” But he said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered into God’s house and ate the show bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath day the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you wouldn’t 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.
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.
Other Verses
YHWH says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways, but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”
This is the end of the matter. All has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
But YHWH’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant, to those who remember to obey his precepts.