August 29, 2023

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.” heb 4:2 nkjv

The “them” above meaning the Children of Israel who perished in their wanderings in the Exodus narrative. The generation “them” was those twenty years old and over who mummered against Moses [Yahweh]. Only Joshua and Caleb, from among them, came into the “Promised Land.” Of course, the faith they lacked was not totally absent… as their forefather, Abraham’s Faith, was accounted unto him as righteousness, and Yahweh chose him to establish a “chosen people;” many of the mysteries of their adventures, successes and failures, are not fully understood. Nevertheless, “their example,” is written for OUR admonition… for these end of days. Paul tells the Galatians:

“But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.” Gal 3:23-25 nkjv

I think, Yeshua was the “faith” that was to come… It was His faith, extended in our behalf, that with His indwelling presence, makes it possible for us to overcome our fallen nature, which otherwise, is under the condemnation of the forever settled Word… The Torah [Law], forever stands to condemn the sin and rebellion of men who disdain its authority, and those who deny Yeshua (who’s willing sacrifice offers us the only way out of the absolute justice and execution of Torah’s righteous terms). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of Yahweh is eternal life through our Messiah Yeshua… by faith in His finished work at Calvary.

I think even the religious teachers of Yeshua’s time struggled with these same ideas, understandings, and “examples” that the above scriptures are given to us for… Take Nicodemus, for example:

“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” jn 3:1-3 nkjv

This troubled Nicodemus, who was trying to understand… same problem some people have yet today. To cut to the short answer, the new “birth” is the spiritual new creation we become by faith in Yeshua’s work completed for us at Calvary. By acknowledgment of our hopeless “old Adam” natural man’s corrupt nature, and asking Yeshua to save us [which He surely does if we ask with a pure heart]; we, born again believers, in a certain sense, are delivered, not unlike the “salvation” of the Children of Israel being delivered from bondage of the natural world’s enslavement to pagans holding them in the prison of extreme hardship… which Yahweh was about to deliver them from. That was a “natural” experience; whereas the new covenant believer’s salvation/deliverance, from sin and death, is a spiritual deliverance which is to eventually become (for the faithful) a physical transformation into the likeness of the resurrected Yeshua… Though we are NOW in the flesh, we are told to walk in the Sprint NOT after the flesh (agreement with Torah's forever settled truths). Same rules, different venue, same “cause and effect” blessings or curses, depending upon obedience versus disobedience…

Now… if you can, consider that there are definite parallel dimensions, symmetric of one natural and one spiritual. Both with the same set of rules. The Torah written on the stone tablets on Mt Sinai, is the same Torah Yahweh writes upon our redeemed “circumcised hearts of flesh.” Our being taken out from under the “tutor” Paul mentions above, is thankfully due to the law of the Spirit of Life in Messiah Yeshua, thereby the born again saint is now set free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2. But… and this is hard for some to accept, just as you cannot break laws of our society and not be punished, likewise you cannot violate the eternal Torah of Yahweh and not expect to have to answer for it. It should be noted that we can have forgiveness for our violation of Torah, if we sincerely and quickly ask… but for the one “practicing” careless sin, here is a very terrifying warning from the New Testament:

“Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

Shalom, John