Many Christians will casually read this Bible statement by Paul and assume that the Torah-law was done away with. Is this really what Paul is saying here and does such an interpretation line up with the rest of Paul’s writings as well as the truth of the entire Bible? Let’s look at this statement logically and in the larger context of Scripture to see what the truth really is.
1 Corinthians 6:12–13, All things are lawful. When Paul said that all things are lawful to him, what do you think he meant? It’s now all right to murder, commit adultery, lie, steal, have sex with animals, practice witchcraft, and we can also add break the Sabbath, eat pork, etc., etc.? Obviously, violating the commands of Elohim wasn’t what he meant here, for doing such is, by biblical definition, sin (1 John 3:4), and those who love Yeshua will not be sinning, but will keeping his commandments (John 14:15). Moreover, it was our sin that put Yeshua on the cross, so why should we mock Yeshua’s death by continuing to practice sin? In fact, prior to 1 Cor 6:12, Paul listed a number of sins that will prevent one from entering the kingdom of heaven including drunkenness, sexual immorality, theft and so on. So obviously, breaking the laws of Elohim was not what he meant in verse 12. If Paul is here permitting the eating of unclean meat that the Bible forbids and calls an abomination, then he is also permitting sexual immorality—a sin which he juxtaposes in verse 13 with the eating of certain foods.
So if Paul wasn’t opposing the biblical dietary laws in verses 12 and 15, what was he really saying? According to David Stern in his Jewish New Testament Commentary, Paul was coming against the sexually libertine attitudes of the saints in Corinth whereby they had permitted the man who was having sexual relations with this stepmother and even allowing the sinner to remain in fellowship with the saints there. Stern goes on to say that the phrase, “All things are lawful to me…Food for the stomach…” is really analogous to the modern phrase, “If it feels good, do it”—a concept which Paul strongly opposes. Beale and Carson concur with Stern on this in their commentary on this verse (Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, p. 713). In verse 15, Paul goes on to make the point that our bodies are the temples of the Set-Apart Spirit of Elohim and that we need to treat them as holy vessels by not engaging in sinful practices (whether sexual immorality or eating unclean meats).
Keener agrees with Stern that Paul was here confronting the ungodly and licentious Greek philosophers who would excuse their libertine carnal appetites by saying “I can get away with anything.” Paul, on the other hand, counters this by saying, “Maybe so, but ‘anything’ is not good for you” (The IVP Bible Background Commentary of the NT, pp. 464–465). Keener goes on to say that “‘Food for the stomach and the stomach for food’ was a typical Greek way of arguing by analogy that the body was for sex and sex for the body….That God would do away with both reflected the typical Greek disdain for the doctrine of the resurrection (chap 15), because Greeks believed that one was done with one’s body at death [which is why they reasoned that it was permissible to do whatever you pleased with your body now]. Paul responds to this Greek position with the Old Testament/Jewish perspective that the body is for God and he will resurrect it” (i.e. in v. 14, ibid.).
Paul then goes on to explain why a philosophy that excuses sinful behavior is not acceptable to Elohim or beneficial to the saint.
This may be what your pastor and church tell you, but it’s not what the Word of Elohim says!
Romans 14:14,Nothing is unclean in itself. In this verse, is the Apostle Paul declaring that there is no longer a distinction between clean and unclean foods, therefore making void the biblical dietary laws? Let’s analyze the contextual and linguistic aspects of this passage to see what Paul is really saying here.
The word unclean (koinos) in this verse can also mean “common,” and in three places in the Apostolic Scriptures the two words “common” and “unclean” are used side by side; q.v. Acts 10: 14, 28 and 11:8, which says, “But I said, Not so, Master: for nothing common [koinos] or unclean [akathartos] has at any time entered into my mouth. “From this example, we see that unclean in Romans 14 can also mean “common” as we find in Acts 11. The word for unclean in Acts 11:8 is an entirely different word; therefore, akathartos is a reference to unclean meat, as proscribed by the Torah. Koinos, on the other hand, cannot mean unclean meat in Romans 14, or else Acts 11:8 would be a superfluous and unexplainably redundant in using two words that mean exactly the same thing. The word koinos is used elsewhere in the Apostolic Scriptures not to mean “unclean,” as in “unclean meat,” but “unclean” as in unwashed hands (Matt. 7:2), or “common,” as in something that is shared commonly among people (Acts 2:44; 4:32; Tit 1:4; Jude 3). Of the seven places this word is used in the Apostolic Scriptures it never means unclean meat.
In David Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary, on Romans 14 he states that Paul is not abrogating the biblical dietary laws. On verse 14, Stern says that Paul is referring to ritual purity, not whether something is unclean (nonkosher) meat or not. What is ritual purity? It is a reference to either how something was slaughtered, and whether it was bled properly, or whether the meat had previously been sacrificed to idols before being sold in the public meat markets—a common practice in that day in pagan cities.
Furthermore, Paul could not have been advocating eating swine, and other unclean meats, without making himself into a total hypocrite and liar, since in several places in the book of Acts he strongly states (toward the end of his life) that he was a Torah-observant Jew and walked orderly and kept the Torah (Acts 21:20), and that he had not broken any of the Torah laws (Acts 25:16), which would have included the dietary laws contained in the Torah.
Let’s also keep an important point in mind when speaking of YHVH’s biblical dietary commands: When someone gets born again or regenerated spiritually neither does their digestive system change nor Elohim’s standards of holiness and righteous living. Eating unclean or biblically unkosher meat is, from a purely medical standpoint, deleterious to one’s health regardless whether one is a believer in Yeshua or not, and Scripture still refers to eating unclean meat as an unholy, sinful act and an abomination, and the Word of Elohim does not change yesterday, today or forever!
Romans 8:2,The law of sin and death. In Romans 7:23, Paul talks about “another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” This other law is what the Jewish sages refer to as the evil inclination or ha-yetzer rah with which every human is born. This is because due to the fall of man each person is born spiritually cut off from Elohim and is thus subject to the powerful influences of the world, flesh and the devil.
Yielding to our innate yetzer rah or carnal, rebellious, sinful nature brings a person under the death penalty that automatically comes on each human for violating Elohim’s Torah. It’s a simple matter of the “law” of cause and effect: one reaps what one sows or for every action there is a reaction. To wit, Paul states that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Ezekiel states that the soul that sins will die (Ezek 18:4). John goes on to say that “sin is the violation of Torah-law” (1 John 3:4). Therefore, the law of sin and death is yielding to our carnal nature that is prone to sin the results of which brings the consequences of sinful actions as prescribed by the Torah the end result of which is death or extinguishment of life and eternal separation from Elohim.
Just because the Torah prescribes the death penalty for sin doesn’t make the Torah evil any more than violating the law of gravity by jumping off a cliff makes that law evil, or violating a speeding law makes that law evil. Righteous laws exist for our good—to protect us from harm, and are thus not evil. Both the Torah-law, the law of gravity and other laws (e.g. traffic laws) are for our protection. But if we violate them, we not only jeopardize our well-being and safety, but there may be a penalty to pay for breaking them as well.
In Genesis 2:17 Elohim laid down a law: do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He pronounced upon man the curse of death if he violated this law. Man broke the law and ate from the forbidden tree. To go against the law of Elohim is sin (1 John 3:4). As previously noted, the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), and the soul that sins shall die (Ezek 18:4). This is the law of sin and death that Paul talks about in Romans 8:2. When man obeys the Torah-laws Elohim, he will neither be sinning nor will he bring upon himself the wages of that sin which is death.
Romans 8:7, The carnal mind. (See notes at Luke 2:24.) Notice that it is the carnal mind that is not subject to the law of Elohim. Therefore, any theology or philosophy of man that in any way nullifies, does away with, abrogates, invalidates the laws of Elohim by saying such things as “it was done away with,” “it was fulfilled by Jesus so that we don’t have to do it,” “it was nailed to the cross,” or “it was for the Jews, but not for the Gentiles” is a function to the carnal mind of man, and is not of the Spirit or mind of Elohim.
Subject to. This is the Greek word hupotasso meaning “to subordinate, to obey, to be under obedience, put under, subdue unto, (be, make) subject (to, unto), be (put) in subjection (to, under), submit self unto.” Therefore, anyone who says that they are no longer “under the law” and takes it to mean that they no longer have to obey it is confessing that they’re under the influence of their carnal mind and not the Spirit of Elohim as the first part of this verse states.
Romans 8:7, The carnal mind. Notice that it is the carnal mind that is not subject to the law of Elohim. Therefore, any theology or philosophy of man that in any way nullifies, does away with, abrogates, invalidates the laws of Elohim by saying such things as “it was done away with,” “it was fulfilled by Jesus so that we don’t have to do it,” “it was nailed to the cross,” or “it was for the Jews, but not for the Gentiles” is a function to the carnal mind of man, and is not of the Spirit or mind of Elohim.
Subject to. This is the Greek word hupotasso meaning “to subordinate, to obey, to be under obedience, put under, subdue unto, (be, make) subject (to, unto), be (put) in subjection (to, under), submit self unto.” Therefore, anyone who says that they are no longer “under the law” and takes it to mean that they no longer have to obey it is confessing that they’re under the influence of their carnal mind and not the Spirit of Elohim as the first part of this verse states.
To many Christins, the concept of grace is a nebulous one that somehow means that YHVH’s Torah-law is now irrelevant. This idea comes from a twisted view of the writings of Paul the apostle.
Are the concepts of law and grace opposed to each other or, rather, are they two sides of the same coin? What does the phrase “under the law” really mean?
Paul uses this phrase in a particular sense the meaning of which is only clear when understood contextually with what he is saying before and afterwards. Often, sadly, naive and uninformed people cherry picks this phrase out of the larger context of Paul’s writings and then hurl it accusatively at anyone who adheres to YHVH’s Torah commands. When Paul uses the phrase “not under the law” is actually declaring that the saint is no longer “under the law”? Let’s see…
Romans 6:14–15, Not under the law…under grace.
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.…What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? Elohim forbid!
Here Paul is saying that sin (i.e. Torahlessness) shall not have dominion over those who have faith in Yeshua and who have died to their old sinful nature as pictured by the baptism ritual (Rom 6:1–10). The Bible is clear: the wages or sting of sin is death (Rom 6:23; 1 Cor 15:56), for sin is the violation of the Torah (1 John 3:4), and those who are spiritually alive to Elohim through Yeshua (Rom 6:11) not only have had their sins forgiven, but they’re not continuing in habitual sin (1 John 3:4–9). They are walking under YHVH’s merciful grace, so that if they sin (i.e. violate the Torah), they can repent and receive his grace (1 John 1:9) instead of death. This is why Paul can say that the redeemed believer is no longer under the (penalty of) the Torah, but is under grace (Rom 6:14).
Because we are under grace and we have been spared by Elohim’s mercy from the penalty for sinning (i.e. violating the Torah), which is death, does this mean that we can continue in sin (i.e. continue violating the Torah, Rom 6:15)? Certainly not! Paul strongly affirms this in verse fifteen. Elohim’s grace doesn’t give us a license to sin (i.e. to violate the Torah, 1 John 3:4). If a saint sins, he must repent of his sin and not continue in his sin (1 John 1:9), so that the mercy and grace of Elohim will cover his transgression.
Paul then goes to say (in Rom 6:16–23) that since we are no longer slaves to sin because of our relationship with Elohim through Yeshua, we now have become slaves to righteousness (i.e. Torah obedience, see Ps 119:172 where righteousness is defined as Torah-obedience). The Torah not only defines what sin is, but also shows us how not to sin. It is the grace of Elohim that not only gives us grace or unmerited pardon for violating the Torah (i.e. sin), but the same grace divinely enables us to live in obedience to the Torah, so that we will not come under the (penalty of) the Torah through sinfulness. This is why Paul can go on to declare that the Torah is holy, and the commandment holy, just and good (Rom 7:12). It reveals to us the path of righteousness and how not to sin by showing us how to love Elohim and our neighbor.
Romans 5:9, Being justified by his blood.Through Yeshua the Seed of Abraham through whom all nations would be blessed, believers are saved from their sins and blessed. Through Yeshua, the imputation of righteousness by faith and the justification (or right standing before Elohim) that it brings—a spiritual principle revealed in the life Abraham—is combined with the concept of being justified by his blood that is revealed in the Levitical sacrificial system.
Prophetic inferences to the sinner being atoned by the blood of an innocent and blemish-free lamb are to be found in Genesis 3:21 where YHVH covered the fallen Adam and Eve in garments of animal skins (very possibly, the skins of a lamb or some other kosher animal), and at the akeidah (the binding of Isaac) event on Mount Moriah in the substitutionary sacrifice of the lamb. This concept is further developed with YHVH’s command to the Israelites in Egypt to smear lamb’s blood on their door posts to protect them from the judgment of the death angel, and is more fully developed in the subsequent elaborate Levitical sacrificial system.
Broadly speaking, the Abrahamic Covenant and events in the life of Abraham surrounding its implementation reveal to man how to receive right-standing before Elohim, while the Mosaic Covenant and events surrounding its implementation reveal in more detail just how a man’s sins are atoned for, and then howman is to walk in righteousness once he attains right-standing with Elohim. This idea might be also stated in this way: Abraham’s being justified by his faith was a precondition to YHVH’s formulating the Abrahamic Covenant with him; Israel’s coming under the blood of the lamb, leaving Egypt and being “baptized” in the Red Sea were preconditions for YHVH formulating the Mosaic or Sinaitic Covenant with them. For the Renewed Covenant believer, Paul shows us that we must have faith in the Word (Logos) and promises of Elohim as Abraham did, and then come under the blood of the lamb, leave Egypt, be baptized and then follow Torah as the Children of Israel did to obtain and to maintain right-standing with Elohim, to be saved from the wrath to come and to have an eternal inheritance in YHVH’s kingdom.
It might be said, in a certain sense, that aspects of both the Abrahamic and Mosaic or Sinaitic covenants synergize together to construct the whole redemption or salvation “package.” In Romans, Paul weaves elements of both covenants together to form a systematic theology or a complete “package” showing the Renewed or New Covenant believer how to “get saved” and once “saved” how to stay “saved.”
A spiritual relationship with Elohim based on trusting faith after the pattern of Abraham’s relationship with him is available to all men including those who are born and raised within a framework of Torah (e.g. the Jews), and non-Jews who were born and raised outside of a Torah framework. After all, it must be remembered that when Abraham came to faith in YHVH it is quite possible that he had no little or no background in or understanding of Torah. The same could be said of the Israelite slaves in Egypt when YHVH redeemed them because they had faith in the lambs’ blood on their door posts.
Romans 3:30 says that Israel received righteousness by the Torah (which, through the sacrificial system, pointed to Yeshua, the Redeemer and Living Torah), and the Gentiles receive righteousness through their faith in Yeshua (the Living Torah, which leads one to the righteousness of the Written Torah). In either case, both routes lead to the same conclusion—namely, a people who keep the Torah-commandments of YHVH and have faith in Yeshua, the Messiah. John lists these two criteria in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 as the notable determiners of who the end-time saints will be. They are those who both keep the commandments of Elohim and who have the faith or testimony of Yeshua. This is an important fact that cannot be quickly passed over. Whether the end-time saints are Jews who came to faith in Yeshua through an understanding of and obedience to the Torah, or Christians who came into Torah-obedience through faith in Yeshua, the two groups end up in the same place arm-in-arm worshiping the same Elohim, trusting in Yeshua the Redeemer, and following his instructions in righteousness (the Torah).
The promises to Abraham were based on trusting faithfulness, and not just a legalistic obedience to the Torah-law, so that all his seed (both Jews and Gentile who would be grafted into Israel, see notes on Rom 11) might be included in his promises which would eventually not only encompass the geographical area of Israel, but the entire world as noted in verse 13. This in no way implies that Torah-obedience is incumbent only upon the Israelites and not upon Gentiles. Paul again and again makes it clear that the gospel message he is preaching in no way annuls Torah.
Father of us all.Paul says in a number of places that those who come to Yeshua are no longer Gentiles but are the children or seed (literally “sperm,” which is the meaning of the Greek word) of Abraham (Eph 2:11–19; Rom 4:16; 9:8–11; Gal 3:7, 9, 14, 28–29). The word gentiles as used in Scripture simply means “ethnic groups or nations.” There are many places in Scripture where Jews and Israelites are referred to as “Gentiles.” There is no class of people called “gentiles” in the spiritual body of Yeshua. As proof of this, Scripture uses the following terms for the redeemed of YHVH: the saints, the called out ones, or the one new man or the Israel of Elohim (Gal 6:16), which is another way of saying redeemed Israel or spiritual Israel. Any attempt by anyone to keep the Jew—Gentile division alive within the body of Yeshua is in effect keeping up the middle wall of partition that the Paul spent his life attempting to tear down (see Eph 2:11–19). This mission eventually cost him his physical life.
Furthermore, we must also keep in mind that there are only twelve gates through which one may enter the New Jerusalem, and these gates are named after the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev 21:12). There is no Gentile gate! The only way that one will be able to enter the New Jerusalem will be through spiritually identifying with the tribes of Israel. So which tribe are you?
Finally, YHVH, the God of the Bible, never made any covenants with non-Israelite nations—only with nation of Israel. To be in covenantal relationship with YHVH one has to accept the Jewish Messiah, and be grafted into the Israelite olive tree through the Messiah and become an Israelite—PERIOD! For example, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews clearly states that the New Covenant is made with the two houses of Israel—not the Gentile nations (see Heb 8:8 and Jer 31:31, 33). This may come as a shock to some people reading this, but this is the truth of Scripture.
Scripture reveals that there are only two classifications of people in Scripture: Israelites and non-Israelites or Gentiles (i.e. people of the nations). The former has eternal life because of their relationship with the Elohim of Israel through the Messiah of Israel. The latter group, unless they repent of their sin (i.e. lawlessness or Torahlessness, see 1 John 3:4), will burn in the Lake of Fire.
Whenever Paul uses the term gentile, he is either referring to ethnicity, and not using the term as a spiritual designation, or he is using the term gentile to mean “worldly.” In this case, it is a moniker referring to those who are carnal in that they act like gentiles (heathens) who are “without God and without hope” (Eph 2:12). The term gentile is not a spiritual designation for a redeemed believer, for they have been called out of the world and have become a member of a special group called “the called out ones” or “church” (the Greek word ecclesia meaning “church, assembly of people”). Scripture also calls redeemed believers “saints” (A Greek word meaning “set-apart”), who are set apart from the gentile world that is without Elohim and without hope. Scripture teaches that those who are redeemed or who are “in Messiah” are no longer Gentiles, for they have been grafted into and become part of the nation of Israel (Rom 11:13–24 and Eph 2:11–19). They have become the one new man about which Paul speaks in Ephesians 2:15.
Now that we know that we are really part of a people group called “Redeemed Israel” or “the Israel of Elohim” (Gal 6:16), what does one do with this information? That is up to you. Pray and ask your Father in heaven to help you to live out your new identity as an Israelite.
Many people upon finding out that Scripture actually defines them as Israelites and not Gentiles, begin to sense a need to begin acting more like Israelites in their lifestyle and beliefs. They become interested in the feasts and Sabbaths of Israel and their life takes on a more Hebraic or Jewish flavor as they see themselves more in light of the book of Acts believers instead of the paradigm of typical Christianity. This is a path that you will need to begin to explore. As you go down this spiritual straight and narrow path, please keep in mind the words of Yeshua in Matthew 5:17–19; John 15:15 and the words of the apostles in 1 Corinthians 11:1 and 1 John 2:3–6 along with Romans 7:12, 14 and 3:31.
Here are some more Scriptures that confirm that the saints are Israelites and NOT Gentiles.
In Romans 4:16, Speaking to both Jewish and non-Jewish believers in the church of Rome, Paul states that Abraham is “the father of us all.”
Paul in Galatians 3:7–9 speaking to the believers in Greece says that those who have faith in YHVH are the children of Abraham, and this includes the heathen to whom the gospel is preached in all nations (see verse 8).
Paul says in Galatians 3:14 that as children of Abraham, the believing Gentiles are entitled to all the blessings YHVH promised to Abraham’s descendants.
In Galatians 3:28–29, Paul states that in YHVH’s view with regard to his plan of salvation, there is neither Jew nor Greek, but all are one in Yeshua the Messiah. If one is a redeemed believer in Yeshua, then one is the seed (or literally, sperm) or offspring of Abraham and heirs to all of the promises YHVH made to him and his descendants.
Paul clearly states in Ephesians 2:11–19 that the saints were in the past a part of the people-group the Bible calls the peoples of the nations (or Gentiles) and as such were at that time without Elohim (God) and (spiritual) hope. As such, they were not a part of the nation of Israel, and were outside of the covenants of promises YHVH had made to Israel, but now, thanks to the redemptive work of Yeshua the Messiah, these people of the nations are no longer considered to be Gentiles, but are actual Israelites through their faith in Yeshua, and have become one people along with spiritually redeemed Jews. This people group is now called “the one new man.”
Believers in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah, are the seed of Abraham, or what we might call “redeemed Israel” regardless of their specific ethnic origin. Period. Our understanding of Paul’s passages in this light is confirmed by what John writes concerning the New Jerusalem. Again, it is a fact that in the New Jerusalem there are only twelve gates named after—you guessed it—the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev 22:12)! It may come as a shock to some, but there is no “Gentile Gate”! Gentiles are not permitted into the New Jerusalem—only Israelites. So if you call yourself a redeemed believer in Yeshua, the Jewish Messiah of Israel, again we ask you the following question: Through which gate will enter the New Jerusalem, or stated another way, to which tribe of Israel do you belong?
