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Saved By
Faith
In Romans 3, Paul first demonstrates that a person is saved through
God’s salvation by faith in Messiah Yeshua, and not by any works of the
Law: For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works
of the law (Romans 3:28). Then Paul seems to reinstate the relationship
between faith and Torah in Romans 3:31 “Do we then make void the law
through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”
Amazingly, Paul writes that rather than the Law being made void (or
nullified) through our faith, it is actually established by our faith in
Messiah! In light of other Scriptures this raises two immediate
questions:
Y In what way does our faith establish the Law (Torah)?
Y
Doesn’t Paul also teach that certain aspects of the
Torah are nullified by New Covenant faith?
How does our faith
establish the Torah?
In 2 Timothy 3:16,17 Paul wrote under the
inspiration of Ruach HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) that all Scripture--at
that time, meaning the Older Covenant since the New Covenant was not yet
fully written --is God inspired and profitable for our adequacy as sons
and servants of God. Mature faith understands that the Torah...
Y
reveals the holiness and righteousness of God (Lev. 19:2; 1 Peter 1:15).
Y
reveals the fallen nature of man (Deut. 28:1,15; 1 Tim.1:10).
Y
recognizes that the Law reveals as praiseworthy those who lived by faith
in God, not by their own righteousness (Gen. 15:6; Hebrews 11).
Y
discerns that the Law witnesses to and leads one to Messiah (Genesis
49:10; Jeremiah 31:31; Galatians 4:19-25).
The Law is still and will always be profitable. God forbid that anyone
should reject any inspired text, especially that which our faith
establishes!
How exactly does our
Faith Establish the Law?
The holy Law of our loving Father reveals
sin as our “falling short” of God’s standard, condemning us as sinners.
By receiving Messiah’s forgiveness and atonement we therefore
acknowledge the righteousness of the Law and its judgment of us. If a
condemned criminal accepts a pardon he is admitting to the guilt of his
crimes that put him under condemnation. But, if he refuses to admit his
guilt he would therefore not be able to accept the free gift of the
pardon. By our faith in Yeshua (accepting God’s pardon) we have thereby
acknowledged our guilt and our need to escape condemnation (Daniel 12:2;
Matthew 25:26). Our faith therefore establishes the Law.
Guilty or Not-Guilty?
Orthodox (traditional) Jews have a
reputation for Law keeping and Torah-oriented worship. In actuality they
are observing traditions of men (Matthew 15:1-13). They believe that the
keeping of the traditions is pleasing to God. In the Babylonian Talmud
it says “Whoever is careful with Sabbath observance will be forgiven all
his sins, even idolatry.” (Shabbath 118B). “Whoever studies Torah Law
every day is guaranteed to go to heaven.” - Tanna DeBei Eliyahu. These
same sincere people do not view themselves as condemned and hopeless
sinners by the Torah. Therefore, not seeing their need for Messiah
Yeshua as their Savior, they reject His salvation. In so doing, despite
their apparent devotion to the Torah, rather than establish the Torah,
their unbelief denies the very purpose of the Law they are reputed to
observe. Please pray for my people who are supposedly following the Law,
but who in fact contradict it by not believing in Messiah Yeshua, God’s
only way of salvation.
Are Certain Aspects of
the Torah now nullified?
In Romans 3:31the word that Paul uses for
“make void” or “nullify” is katargeo in the original Greek
language. The basic sense of this word is “to cause to be idle” or
“useless.” The term always denotes a superior power coming in to replace
the power previously in effect such as, for instance, when light
nullifies darkness.
In Romans 7:2,6 Paul uses katargeo to describe the marriage
relationship which is ended through the death of a spouse: For the
married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if
her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband
(Romans 7:2 ). Here katargeo is translated released. Paul is
showing here that we were “married” to the Law, and therefore under its
jurisdiction and authority (Romans 7:1). Paul goes on to say that in
Messiah we died to the Law that we might be joined, spiritually
“married” to Yeshua (Romans 7:4). Thus we are “released from the Law’s
authority and under the new jurisdiction and authority of our new
Husband, Messiah! But now we have been released from the Law, having
died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the
Spirit and not in oldness of the letter (Romans 7:6). The Law no longer
has jurisdiction over our lives. We have liberty through our trust in
and submission to Messiah.
This portion teaches us that faith does not nullify the Law, but that
the Law’s authority over the New Covenant believer has been nullified.
We therefore can develop our first principle from this truth for those
of mature faith:
Mature
faith is not under the Law,
but enjoys the liberty we have in Messiah Yeshua.
Remember, this does not mean that we are lawless, but that we are under
the authority of the Messianic ‘Torah’ of our new ‘Husband’, Messiah
Yeshua! (Matt. 11:28,29; 1 Cor. 9: 20,21).
Look for next month’s continuation of “Torah & Faith in Messiah,
Part 2.” Until
then, Shalom!
Y
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