2011.01.10

What is LAW and what is GRACE?

by

James Robertson

There is great confusion about the meaning of "Law" and the meaning of "Grace" – many teach that with Yahooshua we are NOT under law but under grace and then suggest all sorts of arguments as to why it does not matter if various commandments of Yah are broken.

This article seeks to clarify the real issues relating to Law and Grace.

MattihYahoo {Matthew} (meaning gift of Yah)  5:17-20 – Yahooshua speaking "17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  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.  20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." KJV

This is quite conclusive not the smallest character of the law will pass away till heaven and earth have passed away and there is great reward for keeping the law.

This apparently contradicts Romans 6:14 "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."  KJV

Clearly it would seem that "the law" is no longer relevant to those who are believers through the covenant of Yahooshua.

So, we get two opposing camps, one camp that seeks to keep the law and who are regarded as "legalists" by the other camp and the other camp that says we are under grace and that the law no longer applies.  This latter camp comprises almost the entire "Christian" community.

They cannot both be right, can they?

The answer turns on the problem that the English word "law" is used for a number of distinct families of policy edict issued by Yah and by man.

These are summarized below.

In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 we read accounts of Yah appearing on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke, Moshe {Moses} going up the mountain to meet Him, Yah speaking audibly to an audience of millions of people and declaring the Ten Commandments or Ten Laws and then writing them in STONE.

Clearly, since Yah spoke them out aloud to an audience of millions He regards these laws as important and clearly since He wrote them in stone He does NOT expect them to change, ever.  The tablets of stone were found not long ago.

These are the Laws that Yahooshua refers to in Matthew 5 at the most fundamental level.

These laws govern the very essence of life, they form the basis of the Judgment and they will NEVER change and NOTHING Yahooshua did sets these Laws aside.  In fact, Yahooshua came in large measure to make it easier to deal with the consequences of breaking these Laws AND to make it easier to keep them – THAT IS GRACE!

We should ALL know these commandments and constantly test our lives against them.

They are:

1. Yah the eternally self-existing is ONE Mighty One, you shall have NO other mighty one's before Him – worshipping Yahooshua breaks this.

2. No idols, graven images, etc – worshipping the bible breaks this, also worshipping the cross or stake breaks this.

3. Not take the Name of Yah the eternally self-existing (Yahooeh) in vain – you break this by calling Him God or the LORD or by having a Yahoo.com email address or saying "ja" for yes.

4. Keep the Sabbath, the seventh day, that is Saturday – you break this by engaging in commerce or labour on Saturday and also by not observing Passover, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles.

5. Honour your father and mother – broken wholesale in most societies.

6. Not commit murder – includes abortion, contraceptives that prevent implantation of a fertilized ovum, also includes abolition of the death penalty for murder.

7. Not commit adultery – based on a covenant based on taking of virginity – most legal marriages break this, one man can covenant with more than one virgin.  Adultery and fornication are wholesale IN the body of believers.

8. Not steal – taking offerings under false pretenses, fraudulent tax returns, etc, etc all fall under this.

9. Not bear false witness / not lie – most of the doctrines of the Christian church that deal with the core issues referred to above are lies.  The world is full of lies and most of those in the church are serving Satan far more than they are serving Yah.

10. Not covet or lust – most advertising, etc drives covetousness.

These will never change and chances are that you and all the people you know are materially breaking at least one of these and you can be a good believer and Christian and still be breaking nearly all of these.

There is NO excuse for using the wrong names, observing Sunday as Sabbath, etc, etc, etc and grace does NOT cover breaking these commandments.

If you want any hope of heaven for eternity you need to GET SERIOUS about keeping these Ten Commandments.

A useful prayer is "Father please judge me severely and correct me harshly that I may serve you more perfectly".

The next form of law is what in Hebrew is referred to as the "Torah" and which is generally regarded as being the books commonly known as Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Problem is, there is a body of opinion that says that these documents were NOT written by Moshe {Moses} AND there is a body of opinion that says that the masters of these documents were lost during the exile of Yahoodah {Judah} to Babylon and that what we have today was compiled from fragments that survived the exile and that the scribes have lied to us about the integrity and completeness of these documents.

However, it does appear that what is contained in the average book {bible} is reasonably reliable albeit possibly incomplete, the Ten Commandments intuitively make sense least and much of the rest is history for which there is no real basis for dispute.

Note also that nowhere do any of these documents claim to be inspired or given by Yah as is almost universally believed within the body of people who call themselves Christian or Jew.

For the sake of this document let us simply assume that the documents as they currently exist are reasonably reliable albeit incomplete records of what was given originally.

Having said this these documents contain in limited measure text that amplifies and clarifies the Ten Commandments, explains how they should be applied, etc.

This is ALSO Law – that is policy edict -- and is included in the term Law used by Yahooshua in MattihYahoo 5.

Examples would be:

1. Exodus 20 – seventh of the Ten Commandments – "Do not commit adultery".

2. Leviticus 20 – the relationships that comprise adultery are listed – forbidden one flesh bonds and blood line corruption – other man's woman, mother, daughter, aunt, another man, animal, etc.

3. Deuteronomy 22 the requirement for a woman to be a virgin at the time she enters into covenant with a man (sexual consummation), stoned to death if she is not, evidence of virginity (blood on a linen cloth) to substantiate she was a virgin – sexual intercourse -- cleaving or cutting of the man into the woman's cleft with the shedding of blood is a covenant act and not reversible except under very specific circumstances and prayers.

4. Deuteronomy 21 a man can covenant with more than one woman {wife} – Yah designed us to live in families with more than one woman.

From the above we better understand the commandment not to commit adultery.

Yahooshua said that these laws would never pass away.

The rest of the so-called "old testament" contains documents at different levels of inspiration.  The same comments with regard to reliability, completeness, lack of claims for inspiration, etc apply here.

Various elements in various places that confirm, clarify and amplify the items in sections 2 and 3 above.

For example, Isaiah 4:1 says that in the last days seven women will covenant with {marry} one man, there is much else on adultery, etc.

Various Proverbs caution against sex with harlots and adulteresses, etc and caution that this is the way of eternal death and being cast down into the Pit.

Again Yahooshua said this would not pass away – with the caveat that there is uncertainty as to whether he was referring to exactly these texts.

This too is law that we must comply with.

In addition to this the Jews have a set of laws that were allegedly passed down verbally from Moshe and only written down much later, they also have written laws, called the Talmud which are the interpretations given by Rabbi's over the centuries and then they have traditions.

These "laws" are the laws referred to as being abolished by Yahooshua.

Careful reading reveals that many of them contradict the essence of the Ten Commandments and they make things very complex and difficult to understand – this is the hand of Satan on those who believe.

Yahooshua again in MattihYahoo 15:6-9 says "6 … Thus have ye made the commandment of Yah of none effect by your tradition.  7 Ye hypocrites, well did Yashayaahoo {Esaias} prophesy of you, saying, 8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.  9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." KJV adjusted – applies just as much today.

For example, the Talmud commenting on Deuteronomy 22 defines a virgin as a girl with one pubic hair – go figure what that has to do with sexual intercourse and, in one case one is left with the impression that sex with a girl without pubic hairs did not constitute a basis for an allegation of not being a virgin – so the traditions and teachings of man make the clear and straightforward commandments of Yah of no effect.

THIS is the "law" that Yahooshua constantly taught against and which we were set free from.

Then, in addition to the above there are a whole lot of rites relating to animal sacrifices, offices of priests, etc that Yahooshua FULFILLED and therefore did away with – THIS is the REAL grace that Yahooshua brought to us.

In terms of the old provisions if one sinned one had to bring an animal to the priest in Jerusalem, etc – quite a problem if you live in Johannesburg and had to fly and there is no sanctified priest and no temple in Jerusalem if you do succeed in getting the animal there – something had to change …

So, Yahooshua came to be the lamb of Yah, the scapegoat, etc, etc in order to fulfil all these things and he gave us the bread and wine (grape juice) as a substitute for the animal and he became our new high priest and advocate so we could go to him to intervene with Yah on our behalf at any time, and he opened the way for us to have the set-apart {Holy} spirit of Yah in us and on us through a simple prayer instead of anointing by an anointed prophet, etc, etc

THAT IS GRACE – making things easy for us.

That grace was given so it was EASIER to keep the Ten Commandments and easier to get back on track when we broke them.

It was NOT given so that people can say that calling Yah "God", etc is permitted because we are under grace and not under law – THAT is an abomination in the sight of Yah and Yahooshua, it is a gross insult to Yahooshua, it grieves and hurts Yah greatly and it is effectively SPITTING in their faces.

Please, IF you claim to love Yah and Yahooshua, call them by their correct names, observe the true Sabbath, stop worshipping the book, show Yah's name proper respect, honour your parents, oppose abortion, call for the death penalty, if you use contraceptives use those that prevent conception, clean up your sexual covenants, deal with all the lies of the church – which means that you observe Yah's call to "come out of her my people" – referring to coming out of the formal church, stop lusting and coveting, etc.

OR stop pretending you love Yah – I have seen Him in TEARS because those whom He loves care so little about His true Name and I have seen Him with tears of joy in His eyes over ONE believer who decided to get rid of their Yahoo Groups website!

Don't tell me you are under grace and then continue to sin in this flagrant fashion!

So

Yahooshua went through the most agonising and inhumane torture imaginable in order to purchase GRACE for us, in order to make it EASY to keep the commandments.

YOU are without excuse if you are not making a conscious and consistent effort to keep the Ten Commandments and you face eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone if you make the grace of Yah a cheap thing – Hebrews 6 and 10, Revelation 21:8.

If you cannot read the list of commandments above with the notes about how the church is breaking these commandments and THEN say that you are making a real effort to keep ALL of them then you need to CLEAN UP YOUR ACT FAST!

Yah has had enough, He is angry, He is going to CAST YOU AWAY and hand you over to Satan if you continue in your love of lies.

IF you have already adopted all these truths, then make sure that others know about them and seek to grow closer and closer to Yah – that means you get OUT of the formal church, it means you SEPARATE yourself as far as possible from the sinful aspects of the world system – so you hardly, if ever, watch TV, listen to radio, buy newspapers, read magazines, etc and what you do you watch selectively.

Seek others who are like minded to fellowship with IF you can find them, there are not many around.

Conclusion:

Yah is calling us ALL to clean up our acts, there is NO TIME TO WASTE.

* Words in curly brackets {} are words which are commonly used but technically incorrect.  Some of these words are simply incorrect, others like God, the LORD, Jesus are abominations in the sight of the Almighty Creator which He has, in His mercy tolerated up to now but for which grace has now been withdrawn.