Living the Life of Grace
Torah and Grace?
Are believers of Jesus Christ required to be Torah observant? Some people seem to be infatuated with believers who are Jewish. This reverence for their race is sometimes extended into admiration for those who attempt to observe Torah. If unchecked, the admiration can turn into agreement and devotion to Law-keeping. Then, this can result in joining with those Messianic Jews who try to keep the Law. In one Messianic congregation, four out of five of the members are not Jewish. The web site sponsored by this congregation encourages all believers, both Jews and otherwise to keep the Law. The site correctly says that salvation is by grace through faith and that keeping the Law has no value in justification. However, it says that it is important that believers (both Jews and Gentiles) place themselves under the Law after being justified. One of the objectives of the site is to get Christians to 'discover' the Law and to get them to start following it. Along with saying that following the Torah is how believers can live the Christian life, it claims a person must obey the Law in order to serve Jesus Christ.
Being Under Grace
A question to be answered, then, concerns sanctification: "How are believers to live? Are we to keep the Mosaic Law?" The Bible speaks of this subject in many places. The subject is important because sanctification is a vital part of our complete salvation. Since the context of chapters six, seven, and eight of Romans is about the manner in which we who have been justified by grace are to live, what they teach is appropriate for the subject. Chapter six specifically addresses how a person who is justified by grace should live. It says in verses 13-15, that the basis for why we should yield ourselves to God as His instruments of righteousness instead of yielding to sin is that we "... are not under the law, but under grace" Rom 6:14. (Being under grace excludes being under the Law.) After explaining that a believer is not in subjection to the Law or to sin, the chapter continues by saying that deliverance from sin and servitude to God will result in sanctification, which leads to eternal life (Rom 6:22). The explanation of this continues into chapter 7 where we are told that believers are "dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom 7:4) and are "delivered from the law" so that we can serve God in the spirit instead of trying to keep the law through one's own abilities - (Rom 7:6). "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Rom 7:4-6
Having been converted, believers receive God's Spirit (are baptized in the Spirit) through Whom Christ works in us. Since "the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Rom 8:10), the work of the Spirit in our lives is what makes it possible for us to serve Jesus Christ (Rom 8:5-11). Through the power and holiness of God's Spirit, we can kill sinful acts and, thus, live as God's children, be joint-heirs with Christ, and be glorified with Him (Rom 8:13-17). These are some of the gifts we receive because Christ has given us grace and freed us from the Law.
Freedom from the Law
It is certain that the New Testament does not encourage Gentile believers to keep the Law (Acts 15:19-21, 24, 28-29; Gal 2:3, 9-10, 14). According to Peter, also Jewish believers do not need to keep the Law in order to live for God (Acts 15:10-11); instead, they are "dead to the Law" so that they might live unto God (Gal 2:19). Certainly, having been freed from trying to serve God by following the details of the Law of Moses, all believers can now serve God through His Spirit. Since it unnecessary for a godly Spirit-led life, Law-keeping adds no spiritual value to the life of a believer. Instead, Law-keeping draws a person away from the grace that is in Jesus Christ.
God's Word says that it is foolish for a person who is saved, and, thus, filled with the Holy Spirit to think that the Law can complete righteousness in the person's life. "Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal 3:3) To the contrary, a person who believes on Jesus for eternal life is no longer under the Law. "But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." (Gal 3:25). Paul expressed concern for believers in Galatia because some false believers who were Jewish taught that believers should follow the Mosaic Law (Gal 4:11). The Word of God identifies this teaching as an effort to take away the believer's liberty in Christ Jesus (Gal 2:4). Far from giving believers "the freedom to be the new creations He has made us to be," trying to keep the law of Moses puts a person in bondage "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Gal 4:9-11). The spiritual danger from being in bondage to the Law is so great that God's Word indicates that to encourage believers to keep the Mosaic Law is to present a false gospel (Gal 1: 6-7).
A Light Burden
In contrast to the belief stated above (that following the Law is the way to serve Jesus Christ), the Word of God never tells believers in Jesus Christ to be Law-keepers. Instead it says, "If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." Gal 5:18. The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ has freed believers from being under the Law (Gal 5:1). It says that to be under the Law is to be in bondage (Gal 4:24-25), and that believers are now liberated from its weighty bondage (Gal 4:23, 26-31). Peter testified that trying to keep the Law of Moses is an oppressive burden that is too difficult to do: "Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" Acts 15:10. He then stated that a person (Jewish or Gentile) will be saved only through the grace of the Lord. "But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Acts 15:11. Peter was not referring only to the first aspect of being saved (justification); if he was referring to justification, he could have said, "we were saved." However, by using the future tense, "we shall be saved" he is referring to the whole of salvation and the completion of salvation, which includes sanctification and glorification. It includes being taken into the eternal city of God in order to live with God forever. Peter says that this salvation, rather than being through Law-keeping, is through Christ's grace. As Peter's statement shows, the way we are to live for God (the process of being made holy and living in righteousness) is through grace. And grace is a blessing, not a burden. In contrast to the oppressiveness of Law-keeping, being in Jesus Christ and following His commandments is not burdensome. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 Jn 5:3. Indeed, Jesus Christ says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" Matt 11:28-29. Jesus Christ takes away the need for trying to earn salvation. He also takes away the burden of Law-keeping when a person believes. For all of us who are made members of the Kingdom of Heaven, God's Spirit works in us and through us to enable us to serve God - that is, we live by God's grace.
The Law Fulfilled and Torah-keeping Made Impossible
Since 70 A.D. it has been impossible to perform one of the most central and important parts of the Mosaic Code. Because the temple has been destroyed, the ability to perform the sacrifices and the responsibilities of the Aaronic and Levitical priesthoods has been taken away. And without the temple sacrifices, many aspects of how the Sabbath was to be kept are impossible to fulfill. While the temple still existed, Jewish believers were tempted to straddle the fence between liberty in Christ and being under the Law of Moses. By having the temple destroyed, God took away part of the temptation to keep the Law and removed the ability to follow the Law. Along with the temple being destroyed, the Aaronic priesthood was decommissioned and the nation of Israel was dissolved.
Since Christ Jesus sacrificed His life as the atonement for sin, physical symbols that represented Christ's redemptive work are now fulfilled and replaced by spiritual truths. One of these symbols that has been fulfilled and thus ended and replaced is the Aaronic and Levitical priesthoods (Heb 7:12). Peter also speaks of this new reality in the letter he sent to believers (most of whom were Jews) dispersed throughout Asia Minor. He writes that believers who are the 'spiritual house' now replace the temple building. We are also the 'holy priesthood' who offer up 'spiritual sacrifices' to God. In addition, we are a 'holy nation' and the 'special people' of God. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.... But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar [special] people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" 1 Pet 2:5, 9. Peter continues by telling the believers how to live. In the letter, he does not tell them to keep the Law, nor does he tell them to keep certain parts of the Law. Why would he tell them to obey that which has been replaced by a new and better covenant (Heb 8:6; 12:24)? Instead, he gives them instructions about what to do in specific roles and situations. He summarizes by telling the believers to love each other (1 Pet 4:8-10). Amazingly, this also fulfills one purpose of the Law.
Peter is not the only apostle who writes about physical symbols giving place to spiritual truths of the New Covenant. A passage in Romans 2 specifically states that being a Jew is not determined physically. Even circumcision is now spiritual, not physical. "For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom 2:28-29. No wonder Paul speaks of his physical kinsmen being saved in connection to their jealousy of the grace given to the church (Rom 10:19; 11:11, 14).
Early Christianity and the Law
The truth about the relation of Christianity (the new covenant) to Law-keeping can be found in the New Testament books. There, the Spirit-inspired writers explain the new covenant and give directions as to how believers can live according to their new life in Christ. Concerning this, it is important to ask, "Did the apostles command believers (either Jews or Gentiles) to keep the Mosaic Law?" The answer is no, they never instructed believers to keep the Law. "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment" Acts 15:24. Instead, they instructed believers in how to serve Jesus and to love others. It is important to know that the Spirit-inspired writers of the New Testament books did not command, instruct, encourage, suggest, or even hint that believers (either Jewish of Gentile) place themselves under the Law. It is also important to understand why this was not done. Instructions were not given to keep the Law because Jesus Christ instituted the new, better, and complete covenant (testament). "And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." Lu 22:19-20. This new covenant is the fulfillment of all the symbols, types, and signs of the old covenant (the Mosaic covenant). Being fulfilled by Jesus the Messiah and being broken by the Israelites, the old covenant is abrogated, made obsolete, and replaced by the new covenant (Heb 7:18; 8:7-9, 13). The new covenant is better in every way. It is a glorious covenant that fulfills all the promises of the Old Covenant. However, the New Covenant does more than just fulfill the Old Covenant promises; the blessings of the New Covenant supersede and add to the promises of the Old Covenant. It does this because it is based on God's grace and received through faith. Thus, the relation of Christianity to the Old Covenant is that the New Covenant given by Jesus the Messiah fulfills, replaces, and upgrades the Old Covenant.
There were at least some of the leaders of the early Christians who did not keep the Mosaic Law. In Galatians, we are shown that Peter (along with Barnabas and other Jewish believers) did not keep the Mosaic Law. When Peter temporarily kept the Law, he was being hypocritical and was negatively affecting the truth of the gospel (Gal 2:11-14).
In their epistles, neither Peter, John, Jesus' brothers James and Jude, nor Paul tell believers to keep the Law. Instead, in their epistles, they give instructions of how to love God and others. Peter, when giving instructions of how to live the Christian life, does not tell believers to follow the Law of Moses. John also instructs believers in how to live the Christian life, but he does not tell believers to follow the Law of Moses. In Paul's explanations of how to serve God and love others, he does not encourage believers to be Torah observant. Rather, he tells them Christ has forgiven their sins and made them alive with Him; as a consequence, they cannot be judged for not keeping the law. He especially mentions food, festivals, diet and days (Col 2:13-17). James gives instructions of how to live the Christian life, but he does not tell believers to follow the Law of Moses. Rather, he tells them to live a life of purity and of love for others. He refers to this command to love as the Royal law (Jms 2:8). This concurs with other places in the New Testament where believers are told of the importance to love (Jn 13:34-35; 1 Jn 3:23; 5:1-2). Instead of telling believers to be Torah observant, the New Testament tells believers that love for God will result in love for others.
Conclusion
Some things the Bible teaches about Torah-keeping:
- Obedience to the Law is impossible.
- Trying to obey the Law is a return to bondage.
- Trying to obey the Law results in condemnation.
- Trying to obey the Law is contrary to justification in Christ.
- Trying to obey the Law is contrary to being under grace.
