Love Yahuwah your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself
These two commandments contain all the others. This means that the 10 Commandments, 5+5, are the explanation and development of these two Great Commandments explaining in more detail: HOW to love Yahuwah and our Neighbor.
And all the other commandments written in the Torah (Deuteronomy) are the extension and the more detailed explanations of these 2 and the 10 from which they result. Each development helps us to better foresee and react in specific cases.
If Yahushua is the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), and if Yahushua is Love himself, how can anyone say that the law is no longer valid today?
Nor did Paul make such a statement, although his words may often seem to contradict this (we are not under law, etc). But in what context did he utter this sentence and who is able to understand this in spirit?
The Spirit of the Messiah keeps the Law. If He is living in us, then the law can no longer judge us, and so we are truly not under it.
According to what other rules could the Holy Spirit guide us from within, if not exclusively through the Commandments of Love, which is the sum of all the other commandments of the Torah?
Yahushua took from the hands of men the right to execute the judgment resulting from the Law. He took back that right for Himself. Therefore, even the laws associated with death are valid today. But Yahushua alone has the right to put anyone to death. And since the time of Grace is still in effect, its judgment mainly applies at the level of the spirit for now, when our old man is executed so that we can become new creations.
See: Death penalty (where life begins)
Why does Paul contradict Yahushua?
“We’re not under the law” / “Not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law”?
Let’s start from a fundamental principle that we must apply in all circumstances:
If there is a contradiction between the words of Yahushua and those of any other character in the Bible, the standard is ALWAYS what Yahushua says.
If we don’t understand, let’s not cling to what’s most likable to us or what theologians have put in our heads for centuries. Until we are wise and spiritually mature enough to understand Paul’s words, which are indeed often very difficult to understand, we must hold very firmly and exclusively to the word of Yahushua and act accordingly.
Then, when we reach the level of maturity and sufficient obedience, we realize that finally
Paul has never contradicted Yahushua
The big difference between them was that unlike Yahushua‘s message, Paul’s message was directed primarily to people who were already born again, and who were of very different spiritual ages and states. I might say that Yahushua was “in an easier situation” than Paul was, since everyone was on the same spiritual level and no one had yet been born again and received the Holy Spirit. Yahushua was able to deliver a homogeneous message that applied to everyone.
Therefore, Paul’s messages speak differently to people depending on their level of spiritual maturity and their seniority as disciples. We don’t speak the same way to a 3- and a 13-year-old child, and we don’t have the same demands of them. Less is asked of the little ones, and more rules apply in the case of the elders.
Paul wrote his letters according to a kind of differentiated teaching method, As when a teacher teaches students of different ages and levels in the same classroom and in parallel. Anyone who is a teacher, and has ever had the opportunity to work like this knows what I am talking about. Everyone hears everything that is said, but not everything is aimed at everyone, at least not yet or no longer. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify what the student should and should not, no more or not yet pay attention to, so as not to fall into confusion.
Furthermore, the systematic misrepresentation of Paul’s words, as in the case of many other passages in the Bible, is due to the fact that
believers often tend to take verses out of context in order to give them meanings that have nothing to do with their original senses
Did Yahushua at least soften the Law?
The Law is not only valid, but it is more effective than ever.
Yahushua did not abolish the Law, but on the contrary raised it to a higher spiritual level
In Old Testament times it was enough to refrain from doing things that were forbidden, but from Yahushua the very thought of breaking a law is considered as a sin. It is not enough not to sleep with someone, we must even avoid imagining it!
However, grace consists precisely of being freed from even the most hidden and profound thoughts that are trying to tempt us from within. Indeed, if we are born again, that is to say that we repent, then we receive the baptism of water and then that of fire when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we have the promise of deliverance and cleansing from sinful thoughts.
However, it is impossible to reach repentance without receiving judgment by law since it is:
through the law we become conscious of our sin
Romans 3:20
In what are the Old and New Testaments different?
The difference between the two Alliances is the material on which the Commandments are written: Stone in the case of the first / Heart of flesh or Spirit in the second.
The big difference between the Old and the New Covenant is that the former was a covenant set in stone, therefore weak and essentially theoretical. Whereas the New Alliance is the fulfillment of the first, which was only a shadow of it. The second Covenant operates and acts through the Messiah with power and authority and is no longer led by the human being, but by the Holy Spirit from within the human being.
Moreover,
the New Covenant liberates men from the burden of keeping the Law by planting it directly in their hearts so that the Law works in a practical way by itself
The law has not changed one iota! And if I’m not mistaken, heaven and earth are still there. Matthew 5:18
Old wine in old wineskins and new wine in new wineskins: the old wine was none other than the letter engraved in stones, the one that kills. New wine, on the other hand, is the one that is spiritual and engraved in the heart and that is bringing life.
Furthermore
the Messiah is greater than the Law. So whoever is in him is above the Law as well
together with Him and its judgment does not reach us, so we are no longer under the law; indeed. Nevertheless, until the world has passed, everything continues to work according to the Law.
The old covenant was to the new what Hagar was to Sarah, what the slave is to the free woman, what Mount Sinai is to Zion, and what Moses is to the Messiah. Likewise,
the stone tablets were the prefiguration of these two tongues of fire
which appeared above the heads of the disciples at Shavuot (Pentecost) in order to penetrate and engrave themselves definitively in their hearts.
Also, it should be noted that the New Testament is much more characterized by the Law than the Old Testament. The “rabbis” counted 613 commandments in the Torah in addition to the 10 commandments and the 2 laws of love. In fact, I estimate that the Torah contains 650 to 700 decrees. Indeed many have not been taken into accoun. However,
in the New Testament we have more than 1000 Commandments
These “new commandments” are nothing more than the clarification and repetition of the old ones, their re-formulation, their refinement and their ultimate putting into practice on the level of the spirit. In fact, none of them are new, but are closely related to the old ones and are sealed by the priestly order of Melchizedek, when the letter comes to life.
Old Testament = Slavery / New Testament = Freedom
Slavery is when you try to obey the law in order to please someone, in this case Elohim or even yourself. But in the bottom of your heart, you would like to do something completely different, even the perfect opposite of it. What an incredible burden. What a life filled with remorses and problems of conscience. What an enormous and constant waste of energy in order to restrain yourself from acting according to your own instincts. This is the life of Sisyphus, of the slaves in the Roman galleys, or of our Jewish ancestors in Egypt, and anyone who thinks he can keep the Law on his own.
But when freedom comes, it is our hearts that are renewed by the Holy Spirit and according to the Law. When we are freed we comply with the decrees of Yahuwah, through the Son who dwells in us, with a good heart and with all our soul, without aspiring to anything else and all this without any special effort on our part.
Sacrificial decrees
What about the decrees governing the Sanctuary, the priesthood, and the sacrifices since there is no more Temple?
These decrees also work in the same way. Except today
we have only one High Priest, Yahushua, and we members of His Body are all Levites assigned to the ministry of this Heavenly Temple.
The earthly Sanctuary was the image of the Celestial, as Moses received it. Therefore, the law is the same, only its order and mode of application have changed. Yahushua took back the right to execute judgment from the hands of men. He alone is authorized to apply the penalties and this at the level of the spirit, as long as the time of Grace is in force. But when he returns to judge the world, the enforcement of punishments will also be done physically in and on the visible world. There, he will destroy definitively and on all levels the sinners who will not have delivered to death their old man to Him.
The sacrifice was made once and for all.
However, additional smaller sacrifices are necessary for the Body of the Messiah to function as a Sanctuary even today.
Sacrifice is when I go out to serve others, I sacrifice my time and my energy. Moreover, it is often me who is sowing, but someone else will reap. This is also a sacrifice. Sacrifice is also when I give up things, thus renouncing the fat of the animals that are offered as a burnt offering on the altar instead of consuming it myself. Sacrifice is also when I fast, when I retire to pray, when I raise my children in the name of Yahuwah, when I put my own will aside so that His would be done. I make sacrifices when I go to visit widows, orphans, prisoners, the sick and the poor.
The old decrees were only shadows and promises of these spiritual and perfect sacrifices from within the heart of people.
For indeed, then they were managed and executed by men. Today, however, it is directly the Messiah who makes them work.
But it also works the other way around. Because there are not only laws of prohibition, but also laws of “fun”. The Levite sometimes benefits from the fats of the sacrified animals which is to say from the good things, and has the right to eat them as he pleases. The worker deserves his wages and should never be ashamed to accept alms in any form and enjoy such blessings. We just have to avoid falling into excess and the love of money and material goods and above all not to accept anything from people who obviously wish to buy us.
The Veil: not only over the eyes of Jews
Just as in the case of traditional Jews whose false Talmud and other Babylonian infections prevented them from recognizing the Word which became flesh and appeared in Yahushua, the same veil comes to cloud the sight of much of Christianity. It is this veil that prevents them from recognizing the Commandments in Yahushua. Even if they accept him as the Messiah, they refuse to see in him the fulfillment of what the Jews received through Moses. In both cases, Satan ensured that the veil was placed between the Law and Yahushua so that
On the side of Jews, they would not recognize the Law in Yahushua. And on the side of Christians, they would keep on refusing to recognize the Law in Yahushua.
So let’s not be afraid of the Law, because it is our best friend. It is a tool that our Elohim uses in us so that we do not fall back into sin after having been freed from it. By denying the law, we obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit, and can go so far as to grieve Him.
The commandments are like signposts that help us stay on course and on the narrow path that is leading to Salvation. Road signs are not the goal or the destination. And whoever considers them as such, ends up crashing into them and eventually die. The Messiah is the goal and whoever goes to him will receive the Eternal Life.
The Law is our pedagogue so that we can know the Messiah more and more and come closer to Him.
As we read the commandments of the Old Testament, we gradually realize what they mean to us under present conditions. What do the donkey, cow and other concepts related to agriculture symbolize. Even to a contemporary city dweller, it will be revealed to him what these concepts are meaning today in our modern situation. He will be able to realize that such and such a law has already been realized in his life in a given situation without having known it beforehand and without having had to think in order to act according to it. He will have respected it not out of fear, but instinctively and out of Love for Elohim or his neighbour, because the Commandments have been engraved in his heart.
Knowing the Law after being born again strengthens our faith that the Messiah really lives in us and testifies to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
The law truly becomes a curse when we take it into our own hands and obey it in order to gain some reward. It becomes a curse when we use it to judge others without Love and without the Holy Spirit. Such actions are signs that something is wrong with our Covenant in the Messiah. In such cases, tell yourself that you thought you were born again, but someone (even yourself) may have misled you. Examine yourself and see what have not been settled yet in your life. Is it the repentance, the baptism in water or the fulfillment with the Holy Spirit? What is missing? Because if you suffer from these symptoms, you are still at the level of religiosity and self-righteousness. It is in order not to fall into this error that others, on the other hand, choose the other extreme and begin to deny the Law. In such a case, you also make yourself a transgressor of the law, and you do not realize that you are rejecting the very essence of the Messiah.
Let only he who has engraved them in his heart speak of the Commandments and dare to teach them.
On our journey of discipleship, our sanctification is realized by the fact that the commandments are successively restored and reactivated in our minds.
So let us not stand in the way of the work that the Holy Spirit wishes to accomplish in us.
See also: Shavuot – Pentecost, Commandments in Yahushua HaMashiah?
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