The focus and daily life of the Disciple is Christ. To be His disciple is to follow in His steps. He fulfilled the Torah. He concluded the Torah. He calls us now to a greater and more demanding Torah than Moses, which included compromises because of the hardness of Israel’s heart – He calls us to the Torah of Love – this Law which is a light to our way, and leads in His paths, all the way to the cross. We bear our cross daily, denying all, deny ourselves. The Torah of love is the cross, because the cross is love. The Torah of love is the only thing that will please the Father, for the only fulfillment of righteousness was in the Cross.
The Torah, the benchmark of all righteousness, concludes at the cross. From then on we are in Christ and He in us. He demands of us love; total surrender. “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.”
It is neither Gentile Christianity or Messianic Judaism in the physical form we know today. It is the body of Christ. It is Discipleship. It is religionless Christianity. It is nothing but following the Messiah. Anything apart from the Messiah and from His Cross is self-righteousness, a work of the flesh and of the soul, pleasing to the self. Anything spiritual, of the cross, is death to the soul, death to the self, death to all selfishness, and only thing pleasing to God.
This is message of the Kingdom, for when the Messiah was immersed He was found pleasing to the Father.
We the body of Messiah has to return to our apostolic foundations, found neither in the “Church” culture nor in “Jewish roots” but in the One New Man, Christ/Messiah! Apart from Him every observance, whether of Sunday service or Saturday Sabbath is worth nothing more than filthy sh*t to the Father.
Religion- flesh, works, self, carnality- comes to end in Yeshua.
The cross of Yeshua alone transcends culture. The Kingdom of God does not consist in eating and drinking. Our message to the world, our gospel to the world must be Yeshua and Yeshua alone. We must add nothing and subtract nothing from the call to discipleship. We must preach the Word of God, Yeshua, alone!
Jews are Jews in the flesh. The gospel must be go to them. Gentiles are Gentiles in the flesh. The gospel must go to them. Whether to Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, the gospel must be preached. The gospel must be taught.
We fail to find carnal fulfillment in “loving God” alone. Yet that is the most important commandment. Without love, all our works are nothing. With love, all selfishness is removed and our eyes can see what truly matters.
Die, die, die to all that in the flesh! Be nailed to the cross and buried, O sinful man! Nothing good can be found in physical obedience. Find what is that true and perfect will of God – obedience rather than sacrifice, and obedience which leads to sacrifice. Obedience leads to the cross and nowhere else.
The cross is the conclusion of the Torah. The cross is the final death blow to our affections and lusts. When we preach the cross we have to realize that Yeshua’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. We need to the return to the pure Word of God, Yeshua and Yeshua alone. He has to be the one who calls, choses, and causes us to remain faithful. We need to know the essence of discipleship, the essence of God’s heart.
If there’s any law you want to fulfill, fulfill Shema Yisrael. Circumcise your heart. Try it – and see that Yeshua is the only way to the Father. Yeshua’s cross IS our circumcision. Yeshua’s blood is our atonement. Yeshua’s love must become our love. Then go and love your neighbor. This is righteousness.
What makes you think love is so “easy”? What makes you think love is not enough? Ask God, and see if love is not enough. Love is more demanding, more excruciating, more exacting, than the Torah.
Why did Paul not create specific laws, like concerning eating of meat, wearing headcoverings, - he wasn’t creating a religion of rules, he was creating guidelines to love amongst brethren and live a set-apart life.
The lines of our set-apartness are not like lines across fields I draw to separate you from me and me from you by my own particular religiousity. Every religion then is "set-apart" and has a human level of "spirituality" and "holiness" The set-apartness to be in disciples is an inherent, spiritual wholly-otherness, above and beyond the physical, carnal, or pseudo-spiritual, a quality which depends not on what we do, but who we are, which of course affects what we do. The disciples vs. the multitudes. (Matthew 5)
How did Abraham fulfil the Torah? Trusting in Elohim, he obeyed, left all, and followed Him. Today the call of discipleship comes to us today. Will we trust Him, obey, leave all and follow Him?
YESHUA, Yeshua alone. He said, “By this all mens hall know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” (Not that you go to church on Sunday, tithe, wear crosses, and give out tracts, nor that you wear tallis, keep Shabbat, and preach Torah).
Who says this “justifies sin”? Love (the cross) was the death blow to the shackles of sin! Love God, hear His voice, keep His commandments – and what is His command to the rich young ruler, who kept every tittle of the law since his youth, and who wanted eternal life – “Sell all you have, give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven”. This was the cross. This was a blow in the face of the most “righteous” carnal man. Nothing is more demanding and impossible than the cross.
I can keep it ALL, I can be the most PERFECT Christian who knows all the right terminology, or the most Torah OBSERVANT kid in town, who can quote you tractate after tractate, – but if I am not His sheep and His disciple, if I cannot lay down my life, my rights, my ambitions at Yeshua’s feet, and die, and meet the needs of His brethren (Matthew 25) at the cost of my own life , I jolly well stink!!
To tell you the truth, I have got distracted many times, tempted to rely on the flesh, and am daily assailed by my greatest opponent, pride, which has to be weeded out painfully by the cross. But remember:
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
(Matthew 7:21 KJV)
The works of the flesh are sh*t. The cross is the original, the perfect. No copy can be produced. No counterfeit can equal its power. Anything outside the path of discipleship is not righteous. We can only follow after Him, in His steps, and submit to His kindly yoke. Paul/Sha’ul understood the power and the demand of the gospel. He did not remain merely a Pharisee.If not he would have been worthless. He died in Christ. Please, he gave his life for the cross, for Yeshua, and for the gospel.
The only commands that matter are the commands impossible to keep and impossible to legislate, like Shema Yisrael, love your neighbor, sell all you have, do not hate, etc. etc. The only commands that matter are the kind that you cannot be praised for before man (Matthew 6).These are the actions birthed out of dying. Only when it costs us severely through the cross of Yeshua can our works count. Only when our actions are birthed by the command of heaven, from apostolic and spiritual being, can they (apostolic doing) be of world impact.
IN other words, don’t focus on what kind of fruit you bear and measure for qualities of good fruit, focus on being a good tree.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
(John 12:24 KJV)
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
(John 12:25 KJV)
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
(John 12:26 KJV)
Love is an action, of course, but the only valid action of love is the cross. That is why it's the focus of Yeshua and must be the focus for His disciples.
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