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The
Premise of the Law There's
a common misconception about why the Law (or Torah*) was given. That
misconception is that by keeping the Law the Jewish people merit righteousness
before God. In other words, "We Jews don't need salvation through your
Messiah Jesus because we're made holy by keeping the Law. After all aren't the
Jews God's chosen people? Weren't we set above the other people of the world by
God?" Close, but no bagel. As
popular a thought as this may be, it is without scriptural basis. The
Law of Moses is actually a conditional covenant or agreement. Notice what God
stated when the Law was given:
"Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep
my covenant, then you will be a special treasure to Me above all the
people; for all the earth is mine.” (Exodus 19:5) We
read the same idea in the reiteration of the Law: After this follows 12 verses of blessings. Once more the words "if" and "then" are Italicized. These words describe a conditional covenant or agreement. (*Technically “torah” means “to point things out”, instruction or teaching, but its commonly accepted meaning is “Law”.) The
phrase "conditional covenant" means that the benefits are only
received when the conditions are met. For
instance, if I said to my son, "if you clean your room, then I will give
you a dollar". If he didn't
clean his room, he could not expect to receive the payment. But what if he
partially cleaned his room, would I be bound to pay him? If I wrote up the
agreement the way that God wrote the Torah, I would still owe him nothing. You
see, in the earlier Deuteronomy portion another word is italicized: “all”.
In other words, God's obligation to reward His people depends on them
first obeying all His commandments. (It's been determined there are 613 laws in
the Jewish Scriptures). Any expectation for rightful blessing under the Law is
dependent upon our perfect obedience to the Law. As
if this is not clear enough, the Deuteronomy portion restates the same idea in
the negative. "But it shall come to pass that if you will not heed the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (Deut. 28:15).
Then follows 53 verses of curses. So
what happens if there is imperfect obedience, if even only one commandment is
disobeyed? If you don't do "all" God legislated then all the curses
will come upon you. To those of us that see imperfect yet sincere effort as
"good enough", this can seem shocking and even unfair: "How does
God expect anyone to get blessed with that impossible standard? Doesn't He want
to bless His people?" This
brings us to the purpose of the Law. The Purpose of the Law The
purpose of the Law is to demonstrate how holy God is and our desperate need for
His mercy. Its purpose was never to reveal how good we are or how deserving we
are of God's blessing. God had made an unconditional covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12: 1-3 etc.). On the basis of the Abrahamic covenant, the Jewish people's existence and survival (and land) is guaranteed. But, unless we think such great promises demonstrate our worthiness rather than God's graciousness, God provided the Law to show us what we're really like (Deut. 9:6; etc.). In the Law itself there are provisions for our moral failures (sins). That's why there's so much material on the sacrifices for sin (Lev. 1-7; etc.), and the need for atone-ment, as in the Day of Atonement. A cursory, yet objective reading of the Scriptures makes it plain: the Law reveals our sinfulness, not our righteousness. The Law is like a perfect mirror that can only reveal our flaws, but do nothing to improve them. The
Promise beyond the Law Not
only can we not adequately keep the Law,
but also the Law can not keep us as a people, either. We are kept as a people
(and even blessed) by God's mercy and gracious promises.
When Israel's sin of the Golden Calf deserved God's utter destruction
(Ex. 32:10), Moses didn't plead for their welfare on the basis of the Law he had
just delivered, but on the basis of the gracious Abrahamic Covenant (Ex. 32:13).
The
Law gave God the prerogative to judge His people by His objective, holy, legal
standard. God wants His people to recognize His holiness, the evil of their
sins, and absolute graciousness of His promises.
It
would only be the Law in all of it's holy demands upon Israel ("You shall
be Holy even as the Lord your God is holy", Lev. 19: 2) that would
demonstrate Israel's constant need for mercy. This would prepare God's people
for the coming of His ultimate demonstration of mercy, Messiah. God's Messiah
would provide final atonement for sins though His own sacrifice: "He
was bruised for our iniquity…The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all…He
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgressions of my people,
to whom the judgement was due...He bore the sin of many"
(Isaiah 53:5, 6, 8, 12). As
we read the actual Scriptures, as opposed to the rabbinical traditions
concerning the Law, we face a Holy and yet loving God. Before Him we all fall
morally short, but we also see One who has mercifully provided the promise of
forgiveness and life to all who will trust in His Word. Individually
as Jews, or corporately as Israel, it is the gracious promise of God that is our
Hope. This promise is fulfilled in Yeshua Hamashiach (the Jewish way of saying
Jesus the Messiah), even as the *New Covenant proclaims: "…Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write” (John 1:45). (*see also Jeremiah 31:31-34) For
more information please call or write:
Sam
Nadler
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