IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE HEBRAIC FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
It is vital that we who follow Yeshua understand the Hebraic foundations of the Christian Faith. The Christian church has fallen far from her original foundations and has left us all the poorer for it.
We are grafted into Israel
A thorough reading of Romans 9 through 11 confirms that we have been grafted into Israel. The early believers in Yeshua were converted to the Covenants of God as expressed in the Old Testament.:
So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren. Acts 15.3
You could say they were converted to Judaism! The Judaism they were converted into recognized Yeshua as the Messiah and did not conform to the oral law of the rabbi’s. These converts only studied the Torah or Law of Moses for instruction on how to live righteously--not the oral law and traditions of men the rabbi’s had developed.
This is a huge difference from Judaism. Even today in Judaism the oral law is studied more than the Torah and the word of the religious leaders, the rabbis, over rides the Torah. In other words, what the rabbis say and teach is final--no matter what the Torah or Bible says. These are the very things that Yeshua preached against. New believers only studied the Bible--not the oral laws or traditions of the elders.
Here are two examples from Matt 15.1-20:
Jesus uses the example of the “Corban”. This is a word meaning “something that is given.” The Mosaic Law said to honor you father and mother--part of this is to see to their welfare in older age. The Pharisee’s would let an individual say “Corban” and give a gift to the temple. Then later if the parents needed some help the children could say they had already given that money to the temple. (Sometimes the priest would use this “corban” for themselves.)
This violated the Mosaic Law on caring for your parents for a command the Pharisees had made up to get around that law. There are many other examples of these kinds of getting around the law in rabbinic writings. They would say Moses gave these laws orally, but forgot them, so they have restored them.
The issue of washing hands has many requirements or rules: 1. It is better to walk four miles to water than to occur guilt by not washing. Take a hike! Don’t eat until you wash hands. 2. One who neglects hand washing is as bad as a murderer. 3. One who neglects hand washing is as bad as going to a prostitute. 4. To eat without washing hands is as bad as eating non-kosher food. 5. One who eats without washing hands is to be uprooted.
Earlier Jesus had said about Pharisees: 1. They are plants not planted by God, therefore they are to be uprooted. 2. The blind guides lead the blind and will fall into a pit.
These issues are not Mosaic Law, which Jesus kept perfectly, but about Mishnaic Law--traditions of men. The Mishnah is sometimes thought to be more important than scripture. We do not believe this way--scripture is final word. We study scripture as the word of God--not the Mishnah.
The issue about washing hands according to the tradition of the elders now arises. Here, then is the Biblical definition of the Mishnah, “The tradition of the elders.” This does not make a great impression on Jesus. Jesus responds by pointing out three things:
1. The true definition of Pharisaism is hypocrisy. “In vain do they worship me proclaiming as their doctrine the traditions of men.”
2. You leave the commandment of God for the tradition of men.
3. I say they reject the commandment of God to keep your traditions.
Yeshua walked out the true Torah during His ministry and came against the man made laws the Sadducees and Pharisees had developed in order to live in what they thought was a higher purified state. They had erected a fence around the Torah and Yeshua tore that fence down. That was a constant focus of Jesus’ ministry--He had come to fulfill and teach Torah--not the man made laws which were used to control the lay people.
Jesus explains defilement: The act of “doing” something against the law is a defilement that is made inside--the act is carrying out the internal defilement--it is already in the heart. It is what comes from our hearts that defiles us. In our hearts we rebel against the laws of God. That is why Yeshua came as our sacrifice--but we are still required to live lawfully!
Once you understand this the scriptures begin to make much more sense. Early converts were coming into the Renewed Covenant which restored the Torah and in which Yeshua was our salvation from the judgments of the law. His death on the cross set us free from our sin and violation of Torah. Now we can walk in the spirit of the law!
The early converts were told:
“Known to God from eternity are all His works. Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” Acts 15.18-21
They were to immediately restrain from pagan practices of sacrificing animals to idols, drinking the blood, from the sexual immorality that went along with those practices, and to go to the synagogue and study the Torah.
This was the reason the early believers were persecuted by the Jewish religious leaders of that time. They could no longer practice “Nicolatitanism” or control of the laity. The Torah was restored to it’s rightful place and Jesus was recognized as the Messiah King who would teach us God’s ways. He became our sacrificial lamb that sets us free from the curse of the law--our human inability to obey the law in it’s entirety because of our sinful heart.
Not Under the Law
The Christian church has totally forgotten the foundations of the gospel message. The most popular saying is, “We’re not under the law.” What they should be saying is, “We are no longer under the curse of the law because Jesus has saved us from our sin and rebellion of being unable to obey the entire law.” This is the truth of the matter.
Yeshua has saved us from our sin and inability to entirely obey the Torah. We are, however, still to live righteously. The law teaches us how to treat one another, to forgive, to restore, to heal, and to live the way God has instructed us to live.
World without Law
The world hates us because the world is lawless. The world hates God’s laws and does everything it can to dispute and over rule God’s law. That’s why Jesus said the world would hate us. If the world followed God’s Torah we would have no war, no killing, no stealing, no destruction, no hate, no abortion, marriage between a man and a woman, etc. We would strive to follow Torah--the instructions of God.
Until we, as God’s people understand this, there will never be peace on earth. Praise God there is a coming Millennial Kingdom in which all mankind will be taught God’s Royal Law! This is what our resurrection from the dead leads us to: The World of Tomorrow! The Bible explains it all.