THE PROBLEM OF MESSIANIC JUDAISM

PART 19

 

A TRAIL OF MESSIANIC ISSUES, CONT.

 

 

4. The Meaning of the Restored / Fulfilled Torah, Cont.

 

- Yeshua’s Exhortation on the Law’s Fulfillment

Messianics particularly depend on Yeshua’s words in the Sermon on the Mount to prove He intended His followers to remain subject to the Mosaic Law for all time:

 

17“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets, I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. 18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all be accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5)

 

Their assertion rests however on lifting this statement from its context—both that of the Lord’s immediate intent, His larger intent behind the Sermon; and the context of mind of the gospel writers who immediately followed the Lord and originally heard these words.

Firstly, Yeshua says that He Himself came to fulfill the Law: “I…come…to fulfill.” This self-fulfillment is the context of the word accomplished (“until all be accomplished”—5:18). He is speaking of His own accomplishment in fulfilling the Law—an event visible on the horizon with His nearing crucifixion. He is not speaking of some distant generalized state of fulfillment in eons to come as the phrase “until heaven and earth pass away” is taken to indicate.

The phrase “until heaven and earth pass away” is not meant to indicate passage of time, but to establish the fixed immovable veracity of what Yeshua is saying. It’s similar to Jer. 31:35-36,

 

“Thus says the LORD, Who gives…the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night… If this fixed order departs from before Me…Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me. “

 

In Mt. 5:18, Yeshua is really saying, “For truly I say to you, by the fixed order of heaven and earth, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until I have accomplished all.”   

Yeshua was to do what no one ever had done or would do. At the point He was speaking, He had not yet fulfilled all the Law. Thus all men were still under the era of obligation to it, an obligation that was fixed and immovable. But once He was to fulfill it with the words, “It is finished,” the Law was indeed to pass away as a basis for relationship between man and God and man’s entrance into the kingdom of God—as Hebrews testifies.

Secondly, Yeshua had a targeted purpose for this Sermon governed by the dispensation in which He and His followers were then still living. He was speaking in context of the immediate age of the Law into which He was born (“born under the Law”—Gal. 4:4), which He had not yet fulfilled and so to which they were all still obligated.

Within that remaining obligation, Yeshua’s purpose was to contrast the Law’s true intent with the contorted pharisaical reinterpretations of it designed to nullify that intent while appearing to keep its letter. This is shown by the next verse,

 

20 “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 53

 

This statement is connected to and frames the meaning behind Yeshua’s words on the Law’s steadfastness to the “jot and tittle,” and about those who annul them and teach others how to do so. His word is intended to defend the Law’s immovability against the Pharisees’ sleight-of-hand reinterpretations, and to condemn those who use them to evade the intent behind even the Law’s smallest obligation. It is not (as Messianics contend) designed to communicate the Law’s inalterability of function in the divine plan, nor reinforce a sense of everlasting precisional obedience to its “jots and tittles,” something which even they cannot perform.

Thirdly, Yeshua’s own words later in the Sermon, Mark’s testimony, and of course Paul’s entire teaching on the believer’s relationship to the Law all witness against the idea that Yeshua is advocating the Law’s permanency and our abiding obligation to its finest points.

Later in the Sermon (5:21-42), Yeshua transcendently distances54 His teaching from that of Moses (You have heard that it was said…but I say unto you…), embellishing on its intent.⁵⁵ If the Messianic interpretation of Mt. 5:18-19 is correct, then Yeshua is contradicting Himself just verses later. How can he distance His own teaching from the Law and embellish on it if He has just said men are obligated to keep it to its letter—no more,⁵⁶ no less—for eons to come? Must He not then count Himself least in the kingdom of God??

The same applies to Mark’s record of Yeshua’s teaching (7:3-23). Yeshua opens by castigating the Pharisees for using their interpretations to annul the Law (7:13). He then moves to reveal the true spiritual intent behind the laws of unclean foods—something that leads Mark to understand, “thus He declared all foods clean” (7:18-19).  Again, if the Messianic interpretation of Mt. 5:18-19 is correct, then Yeshua once again proves Himself a hypocritical liar; or else Mark is twisting what Yeshua meant, and thus erroneously teaching the superseding of the Law. (Mark too then must be counted least in the kingdom!)

And of course, Messianics have absolutely no way to reconcile their interpretation with Paul’s plain teaching that men are no longer under the Law. They must insist that Paul too then be considered “least in the kingdom!” Once again, is it not amazing that Paul, the former “Pharisee of the Pharisees”—entirely aware of Yeshua’s Sermon—saw no contradiction between his teaching and that of Yeshua?

 

- Conclusion

By their out-of-context assertions, Messianics put themselves above the scriptures and off foundation from apostolic teaching, not to mention at odds with their own prophets.⁵⁷ The fact is Messianics simply have not reconciled themselves to Christ’s finished work in having fulfilled all the Law on our behalf; and they continue “kicking against the pricks” of Paul’s gospel.

One simple word from Ezekiel perhaps argues more eloquently against the reconstructionist interpretation of future Torah restoration than all others:

 

20:25 "I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.” 

 

God Himself here gives away His secret concerning the Mosaic Law, testifying that the legal order He gave Israel was ultimately not good for them, also acknowledging He knew they could never keep it. Indeed, the Law was ultimately designed to be viably executable by only One Man.

In view of this single prophetic witness, it’s simply not credible God would again after Christ “restore” (ie, reinstitute) such a failing order. The imparted righteousness of Yeshua’s once-for-all perfect Torah-fulfilling Life by the Holy Spirit is the only order of righteousness that makes sense or that should even be desirable since He has come.

 

NEXT – PART 20: MESSIANIC CONCEPT OF FEAST RESTORATION

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