Dear brother Mike,
Thank you for your email.
I just wanted to quickly share something with you. It has mostly to do with a research I have being doing for the past months about some specific questions that I have not found in christianity. What I am sending you here is just part of this research.
I would ask you to take a look at this guy’s articles and website after you read the articles, when you have some time. He raises questions about keeping the law and being under grace. He seems to believe that Christ kept the Torah, and we should, too.
I will write you again.
Thank you,
F_____
Hi F____,
Thank you for taking your time to send these links to me, but I must tell you that I lived under torah for ten years, from 1963 to 1973, so I am very familiar with what these links are promoting.
I pray you and I are not separated by this issue, but obedience to Christ is all that should matter to either of us, and Christ did not keep torah, and was hated and killed for that very reason:
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Here is Christ ignoring the commandment to prepare twice as much food on the sixth day before the Sabbath and “doing that which was not lawful for Him to do on the Sabbath day”. Then, instead of explaining that it is now lawful, He confessed that He and His disciples, like the priests, are “profaning the Sabbath and are blameless”. Instead of explaining that what He is doing is lawful according to torah, Christ justifies His actions by referring to David and the men with him doing “that which was not lawful for him…”
Our Lord had many things to tell his disciples which they could not receive, but which were eventually revealed, little by little in the book of Acts and later in much more detail in the epistles of the apostle Paul:
Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Joh 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law [torah] in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
Gal 3:12 And the law [torah] is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
Lest there be any doubt about which commandments Christ was speaking of when He said, ‘If any man breaks one of these least commandments, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of God…’, we are told by the holy spirit that Christ had Himself broken torah:
Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The entire “sermon on the mount” is loaded with many “but I say unto you…” teaching which are in direct contradiction to the teachings of torah. ‘Love your enemies’ versus ‘hate your enemies’; ‘resist not evil… turn the other cheek’ versus ‘and eye for an eye’ etc. etc.
One of the earliest articles I posted on iswasandwillbe.com is entitled The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit, which you can read at this link:
The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit
Please read that long, in-depth study of this subject and let me know what you think. It is my prayer the Lord will grant you to see through the false message of the links you have sent to me for my consideration. If you read The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit, you will see that I have given this subject much consideration, and have come to see the meaning of keeping old cloth with old garments and new cloth with new garments; old wine in old bottles and new wine in new bottles, and not mixing the two, as our Lord commanded us.
Mat 9:16 No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.
Mat 9:17 Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.Luk 5:36 And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
Luk 5:37 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
Luk 5:38 But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
Luk 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
Mankind does not desire the New Testament because it raises the bar so high above torah that it is not humanly possible to love our enemies, stop hating our brother, and stop lusting after a woman in our hearts. But through Christ we can do all these things.
Your brother in the Christ who is “hated of all men” (Mat 10:22),
Mike