Most people who have ever been to a sun-day church have unfortunately heard something like this taught, at one time or another:
“NO ONE can possibly EVER keep the Law” (so don’t even try)! After all, “it’s TOO hard!” And then there’s the ever-popular, “Jesus did away with the Law” anyway…when he “nailed it to the cross”. The trouble is that every single one of those statements is a lie, even though they may be popular with a people who don’t care for the fact that He “changes NOT,” and is the same “yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
In other words, perhaps the very biggest Big Lie of what should probably be called “Xtianity” — in order to distinguish such religion from that taught in Scripture — is that the very Savior called the “Word Made Flesh” somehow did away with His own Written Word!
And while that is easy to prove, just from the witnesses of His own Disciples in the apostolic Writings, His Words make far more sense in CONTEXT, since the whole point of Scripture is to establish the “Rock”, the Foundation upon which everything else must rest. For example, after an introduction in which Yahushua explains what it means that He “comes in My Father’s Name”, He chastens those who claim to believe in the Scripture revealed through Moses, but really do not. Yahuchanon (John) 5:46-47 then says “if you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me.” His next statement, however, truly reveals the fallacy of the Big Lie above:
“But if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe my words?
Over and over again, the Savior talks about the importance of a firm foundation, building on His Rock as opposed to shifting sand.
When it comes to a single section of Scripture which encapsulates the rebuttal to the Big Lie, my own personal favorite is almost certainly Deuteronomy chapter 30. In speaking to the children of Israel shortly before his own death, Moses clearly knew* what would happen to them, and how they would turn to “other gods”, to idolatry, and ultimately be exiled from the land and scattered. As such, he laid out for them not only a clear warning, but a clear choice. And in one eloquent, and perhaps even sarcastic, exposition, Moses demolishes every aspect of the bogus claim that following the Torah of YHVH is “too hard” for us.**
Debarim (Deuteronomy) 30:10-14
“For this commandment which I command you today [is] not [too] mysterious for you, nor [is] it far off.
It [is] not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’
Nor [is] it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ “
That pretty well sums it up. No… (A) it’s NOT too hard for you, and (B) you don’t have any excuse for claiming otherwise!
“But the word [is] very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.”
Over and over again, Scripture says that the essence of what it means to “love Him” is to follow His teachings and obey Him, with “all our heart”, and “all our soul”. Remember, too, that the Hebrew word for “hear” (shema) is an ACTIVE word…it really means “hear and OBEY!” Do!
And there is another equally compelling understanding about what has been “done away with”, and what, most certainly, has NOT! That can be found in the TWO witnesses called in verse 19:
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, [that] I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…
…that you may love YHVH your Elohim, that you may obey His voice…”
What is interesting about those two witnesses in particular is that — unlike EVERY single other living person who heard those Words that day — they are STILL here for us now! Each of us can look around and see them. And they are the SAME two witnesses that your Savior invoked in His “sermon on the mount”, quoted in Matt. 5:17-19:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I did NOT come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass from the Torah until ALL is fulfilled. ”
Yahushua Himself confirms that He did NOT come to “do away with” his own instruction (“torah”) and references the same two witnesses that Moses did to emphasize the point!
And finally, as we now enter into the period of the Fall Feasts, it is important to remember one more thing that these same verses help make so very clear. Not only do “heaven and earth” still witness to the Truth that He ‘changes not’, and that we are to keep and obey “His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments” — but that “all” is certainly NOT yet fulfilled that He has promised!
While those who do not know Him may indeed find that their hearts fail for fear, other witnesses, like Shaul in I Thess. 5, tell us that we should NOT be “overtaken” by what is coming, because we can walk in His light. IF we are obedient to Him, and learn to follow His voice, and His instruction.
This same verse, Debarim 30:19, also provides perhaps the most succinct summary outside of John/Yahuchanan 14:15 of the choices we face:
to serve YHVH or ‘the adversary’ – life or death – blessing or cursing:
“…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life…”
It’s an open book test — and He has already given us the answer. Choose life!
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* Deut. 31:27, etc.
** Do NOT be fooled by the (sunday – shuffle; the Constantinian Con) the fact that salvation is a free gift, and cannot be “earned”, does NOT in the LEAST mean that our Father does not expect those who love Him to be obedient to Him! After all, given all that He has done for US, what is our “reasonable service”? And, fer cryin’ out loud — “why do call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and not DO the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46)
