Wednesday 8 January 2014

No Adjustments to Torah

With regards to the Torah, two things Jesus did: 

He kept the Torah, then He also inaugurated a new way.

He taught it, then He also inaugurated a new way.

He stayed in First Period right up until the bell rang, then He opened the door for His class to Period Two.

It was the Torah at first, then after that it was to be the new way. 

But one thing Jesus never did was bring an adjusted version of the Torah.

It was the Torah (while it stood), and then it was to be the new way (once Jesus inaugurated it).

Perfect, unadjusted, literal Torah - and then a new way.

We see this in Jesus' conversation with the woman of Samaria. He insisted that Jerusalem was [at that time] the required place of worship, then He also mentioned that the time was coming and now was when the true worshipers would no longer be required to go to Jerusalem to worship but would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

Literal insistence on Torah, and then the new way.

But an adjusted Torah - or a mixture of the new way and Torah-keeping - is something that was never meant to be.

Jesus never talked about a non-literal Torah or a partial Torah. Such a thing the Torah itself never foresaw either.

But what both Jesus and the Torah spoke about, was a new way which would be inaugurated after the Torah.

Therefore living according to the new way  fulfils both what Jesus said and fulfils what the Torah itself foresaw.

But attempting to keep some adjusted form of the Torah obeys neither Jesus nor the Torah.

There is no such thing as a new covenant  way of keeping the Old Covenant. There was only the Old Covenant, and now there is the New Covenant.

There was never meant to be a modified way of keeping Moses' Law. There was Moses' Law, and now there is the New Covenant. 

You can't have two covenants at the same time.

Therefore Hebrew-roots ways of keeping Moses' Law, and modern Judaism, were never envisioned by Jesus nor by the Torah. 

Only two things were envisioned by Jesus and by the Torah: perfect, literal Torah-keeping (while that was still relevant) followed by the new way (once Jesus inaugurated it).

I think you know which one of the two we are in today. 









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