he little, obscure Book of Ruth contains a treasure trove of information that points prophetically to Yeshua the Messiah and to the gospel message of the Gentiles being grafted into the nation of Israel by the grace of Elohim. This video explains this and much more.
Man-Made Torah Packages
The Torah comes in a lot of man-made packages that tend to obscure the true essence of Torah as presented in the Scriptures. This is what I call toxic Torah. Here are a few examples of toxic Torah-packages being promoted today in the Messianic or Hebrew Roots Movement:
Torah Legalism (modern day Pharisees) — The modern day Torah police, like the Pharisees of old, are heresy hunter, nit-picking legalists who place more emphasis on the letter of the law and the dos and don’ts of the Torah then on the spirit of the law and the gospel message as presented by the Torah-obedient apostolic writers. They judge everyone else on the basis of their interpretation of the Torah and demand that everyone else come up to their level of righteousness.
Torah Terrorists — Every other word out of these folks’ mouth is “Torah.” They want everyone to come into perfect Torah obedience immediately. Torah is the answer to everything. The gospel message of Yeshua, who is the Living Torah of Elohim incarnate, and by who’s help we’re able to do the Torah, is often kicked “to the back of the bus” or is almost non-existent.
Humanistic Torah — In this case, traditions and doctrines of men are exalted over the word of Elohim. Sometimes Jewish or rabbinic traditions are more important than obedience to the actual Torah-word of Elohim.
Torah Lite — This is a window dressing Torah-obedience where the light duty stuff of Torah such as observing some of the fun biblical holidays, dancing around the Torah scroll while doing some Jewish liturgy mixed with some other Jewish traditions along with a love for the Jewish people and the land of Israel is done in place of actually living a Torah-submissive lifestyle.
The Torah idol of intellectualism — There are many who learn about Torah through worshipping at the idol of intellectualism. These folks place a greater emphasis on studying the jots and tittles of the Torah (e.g., Paleo-Hebrew, gematria, the mystical and esoteric aspects of Torah, rabbinic head knowledge, and the minutia of Torah’s details) then they do the weightier matters of the Torah, which involve love, the gospel message and righteous living.
Greasy Grace Torah-Obedience — This is a Torah that often suits Christians who are new to the Torah. They see Torah’s validity and relevance to the born again believer, but they take the punch out of YHVH’s word and view Torah as more of an option, suggestion or blessing to do rather than a command from Elohim that is incumbent upon all believers. This view promotes the underlying idea that YHVH’s grace will cover my inability or lack of willingness to fully obey his commandments thus giving me a pass to be disobedient. This is the Torah box we want to discuss below.
The above listed points are just a few examples of the permutations of Torah being promoted in the present day nascent Hebrew Roots Movement. Other examples could be give as well. What I have described above are like neat little boxes. Few people fit exactly into these boxes. People who promote a skewed version of Torah will have a view that’s an admixture of points from several of these broad categories.
Greasy-Grace Torah
All too often a Christianized version of Torah is being peddled by Messianic or Hebrew Roots teachers. Though they promote Torah obedience, it’s a censored message to fit the appetites of Christians who are accustomed to hearing the traditional hyper-grace message of the mainstream church. These Torah teachers will proffer such concepts as these: Continue reading
Below is a quick overview of the book of Galatians. My explanatory comments are in brackets.
The main theme of the book of Galatians is that one is saved by the grace of Elohim through faith in Yeshua the Messiah, not by the works of the Torah-law. Here, it’s not Paul’s point to discuss the validity of the Torah in a believer’s life. This he does, for example, in the book of Romans. Rather, in Galatians, he discusses how one is saved: Is it by works (i.e., obedience to the Torah and men’s non-biblical religious doctrines), or by the grace of Elohim?
In chapter one, Paul warns against accepting a “different gospel” and shares his personal testimony.
Chapter two describes Paul’s confrontation with Peter about not having to adhere to Jewish (non-Torah) traditions. He then begins to define what the gospel is by asserting that men are justified (made righteous) before Elohim not by the works of the law, but by faith in Yeshua. [This is because a man can never keep the laws of Elohim well enough to measure up to his high standard of righteousness or perfection. This in no way gives man a pass to violate the laws of Elohim — only that man can’t be saved by the good works of Torah-obedience.] Once a man is saved, Yeshua now lives his righteousness through the man [through the help of the Holy Spirit].
In chapter three, Paul further explains the concept of justification by faith stating that this method of salvation goes back to Abraham who trusted Elohim, and because of that faith YHVH accounted him as righteous. At the same time, if one attempts to be justified by the works of the law, because he can’t keep the whole law perfectly, he will fall under the curse or penalty of the law [which is death. Elsewhere we learn the that sin is the violation of the law (1 John 3:4) and the wages or penalty of sin is death (Gal 3:22; Rom 6:23).] Paul goes on to explain that all believers in Yeshua [both Jews and non-Jews] are children of Abraham (v. 28, 29), and so the same salvation model applies to them that YHVH established at the time of Abraham. What then is the purpose of the Torah, Paul asks? It is to bring sinners to the cross of Yeshua [who died in our place to take on himself the penalty for our sins]. [This isn’t the only purpose of the Torah, as Paul teaches us elsewhere. This is the only purpose he mentions in Galatians for the sake of this discussion. The Torah’s other purpose — once we are brought to Messiah because of our sin, which the violation of the Torah — is that it shows us how to walk without sinning; namely how to love Elohim and our fellow man.] Paul concludes this chapter by saying that once the Torah has brought us to Yeshua, we’re no longer under penalty phase of the Torah, and this applies to all people, not just the Jews.
Next in chapter four, Paul explains in more detail the glorious gospel message of salvation by grace. Messiah came to redeem us (set us free) from slavery to sin and the world and to give us a spiritual inheritance as sons of Elohim. He then asks a question. After having received the glorious message of salvation by grace, how can one turn to a works-based salvation and to other non-biblical religious doctrines of men? He then answers the question by using an illustration to make his point. He compares the old or former covenant that YHVH made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai with the new covenant through Yeshua. This was prefigured in Abraham’s two sons: Ishmael and Isaac. The first son (Ishmael) was a result of human effort and brought bondage, while the second son (Isaac) was a result of YHVH’s grace and brought freedom. [Similarly, if one seeks to do Elohim’s will through one’s own effort, it will result in spiritual bondage. On the other hand, if one seeks to do Elohim’s will through his grace and the divine empowerment of the Holy Spirit, it will bring freedom from sin (i.e., Torahlessness) and it’s death penalty.]
In chapter five, Paul exposes the false teachers who were bringing “another gospel.” They were teaching that one can’t be saved, born again, justified or redeemed unless one is physically circumcised. [Although this doctrine is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures, it had become a belief in first-century Judaism. This was hindering the spread of the gospel message among uncircumcised non-Jewish peoples to whom Paul had been commissioned.] Again, Paul restates the idea that salvation is by grace through faith in Yeshua, and that if one seeks to be saved by one’s good works including circumcision, then one must keep the entire law [perfectly without sinning, which is an impossibility]. Evidently, this false teaching was causing much division and strife within the church at Galatia, and Paul urges the believers there to fulfill the Torah-law by loving one another. [Yeshua sums up the entire Torah as loving YHVH with everything and one’s neighbor as oneself (Mark 12:29–31).] Paul admonishes believers to walk according to the Spirit of Elohim that is living in them, which will lead them away from sin (Torahlessness) and towards righteousness (Torah-obedience). Walking in accordance to the leading of the Holy Spirit leads us away from Torahlessness (the works of the flesh including murder, lying, stealing, fornication, uncleanness, witchcraft, idolatry, worldliness and other fleshly passions and desires) and towards righteousness (the fruit of the Spirit).
Paul concludes this letter in chapter six by giving further instructions about living as a follower of Yeshua.
Philippians 1:11, The fruits of righteousness which are by Yeshua the Messiah. It is impossible for a man to keep the Torah on his own strength as Yeshua’s encounter with the rich young ruler proves (Matt 19:16–22). When the young man asked Yeshua what he must do to have eternal life, Yeshua seems to set the man up for a fall when he declares, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” Yeshua is not being disingenuous here. Were one to keep the Torah perfectly without sinning, hypothetically, one would not fall under the death penalty for violating the laws of Elohim (i.e., sin). Presumably one could earn eternal life by one’s own good works. But no man has ever accomplished this superhuman feat except the superhuman Yeshua! Continuing, when the young ruler proudly declares his perfect Torah obedience, Yeshua shows him that he was, in fact, violating the Torah in at least one area—covetousness and greed. Yeshua shows him how to come into Torah compliance, and then admonishes him to come and to follow him. What Yeshua is teaching here is that it’s impossible to keep the Torah perfectly without factoring Yeshua, the Living Torah, into the equation. The point that we can’t keep the Torah without Yeshua directly intervening in our lives, I hope to conclusively demonstrate below.
One way that Yeshua helps his followers obey the Torah is by sending us his Spirit as an internal spiritual force into our hearts to nudge and lead us into Torah-obedience.
What’s more, Yeshua also gives us the divine gift of his grace to accomplish the same thing. His grace removes the guilt, stain and penalties for our past sins, and with a clear conscience and a clean spiritual slate before YHVH, minus the past baggage of sin weighing us down, we are able to go forward under the power of YHVH’s Spirit to walk in accordance with his Torah. Praise Yeshua! An illustration of this would be a runner who trains wearing a backpack filled with rocks. Once the weight is removed from his back, when he runs, he feels as if he were flying through the air.
Our faith in, love for and continual abiding in Yeshua is the key to receiving his systemic spiritual empowerment to walk a life that mirrors Yeshua. Paul invites us Continue reading
Exodus 33:12–13, Grace. (Heb. chen meaning “favor, grace, charm, acceptance”). The Hebrew word chen (found 69 times in the Tanakh), which is translated as grace, in this verse is equivalent to the Greek word charis, which is found 156 times in the Testimony of Yeshua and is translated as grace 130 times in the KJV.
The equivalency of these two words is confirmed by the translators of the Septuagint (the Greek Tanakh) who used charis in place of chen when translating the Hebrew Tanakh into Greek beginning in the third century B.C. According to The Theological Workbook of the OT, in the vast majority of occurrences of chen in the Tanakh, the focus of attention is not on the giver, but on the recipient. The emphasis is on the relationship of the superior to an inferior (e.g., a king to his subjects). What this teaches us is that despite sin and rebellion against him, YHVH (the king) is gracious (to humans, his subjects).
Contrary to what many in the church have been led to believe, the grace of Elohim is a very prominent theme in the Tanakh. Examples of this include Noah who found grace in YHVH’s eyes (Gen 6:8), or the children of Israel although dead in their sins in Egypt and deserving of YHVH’s wrath, they were saved by the blood of the lamb. There are a number of other references to the grace of Elohim in the Tanakh as well (Gen 18:3; Exod 3:21; 33:16,17; 34:9; Ps 84:11; Zech 12:10).