Torah and Grace: Two Sides of the Same Coin
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James 2:14,17,24:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such “faith” able to save him?
Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.
You see that a person is declared righteous because of actions and not because of faith alone.
There are too many people who fail to understand the whole truth of the Bible that believers need good deeds to “compliment” their faith.
Faith to God or to His Words should not be kept hidden inside oneself but the faith we have is required to be exercised as proof to the world that there is this faith towards God and His Words in us.
Our minds have long been taught and brainwashed that faith planted in our hearts is sufficient to bring us to eternal salvation.
And indeed, it is true that our own salvation is only by faith, however, the faith referred to is the active kind of faith and NOT the dead or passive kind.
There has been so much disadvantages that believers suffer due to this teaching that faith in our hearts is sufficient. Many are still unable to see that the saving kind of faith is one that is work out and manifested in the obedience and faithful deeds towards every will of God.
In the eastern world, there are still a lot of believers in Christ that still go to shaman and hold on to magical lucky charms without feeling guilty about it.
They are usually taught since very young that in order to get saved in this life and the other life (olam haba), it only takes faith. Period. Does not matter if we all still live in sin!
Fellow brothers and sisters, through this article I would like to show you how the kind of faith that lives is the kind that is one based on hearing the Word of God (Rom 10:17), which saves by believing it, and then is also work out or manifested in totally surrendering and trusting and obeying the Lord and His Word.
Let’s have a look at the Hall of Faith of the patriarchs which is recorded in Hebrew 11:1-40.
This chapter records how our patriarchs and heroes of faith expressed their great faith to God and how it is always written about them that by faith somebody did something. This is the kind of faith that demonstrates truth. It is nowhere written in this chapter that by faith somebody sits there passively, doing nothing.
True faith in Jesus (Yahshua), The Messiah, will inevitably result in good fruits being borne in the form of obedience to His Words through total surrender to God, being able to do that by the power of the Holy Spirit!
I have once been asked by a pastor of a local church in Indonesia the following question, “Are we not living in the Age of Grace, the Age of the Holy Spirit? We have been saved and we have salvation only by faith!” This question was asked when I spoke to the congregation about the importance of obeying God’s will and command in our lives.
And this is how I answered him:
Firstly, he was right that this is the Age of Grace and the Holy Spirit.
I invited him to open the Bible and read Eze 36:26-27.
I will put my Spirit inside you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them. You will live in the land I gave to your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God. (Eze 36:27-28 Complete Jewish Bible)
God clearly states here that His Spirit will be given in us so as to cause us to obey and faithfully live in his laws and rulings. The Holy Spirit was not given in order for us to be able to get away from any of the laws.
It is unacceptable to think that the Holy Spirit that comes out of the Father (John 15:26), the maker of the Laws and Rules, would be given to you so you can get away with disobeying commands and rules of the Father.
But where are the commands and rules of God written? Deu 30:10 says,
However, all this will happen only if you pay attention to what Adonai your God says, so that you obey his mitzvot and regulations which are written in this book of the Torah, if you turn to Adonai your God with all your heart and all your being.
(Deu 30:10 Complete Jewish Bible)If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
(Deu 30:10 KJV)
The Messiah, Jesus (Yahshua), Himself taught in Matthew 5:19:
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.
(Mat 5:19 KJV)
Secondly, I invited the pastor to look at the Bible as a whole regarding grace. I have noticed that the way the pastor thinks about grace is a very common way by the vast majority of Christian believers, that I think it is necessary for me to share about this here as well.
We will see how the concept of ‘grace’ was not actually mentioned the first time in the New Testament (NT) but in the Old Testament (OT). The Hebrew term for New Testament which is Brit Hadasha does not exactly translate into “New Testament” but “Renewed Testament”. There has never been anything “new” from something that was “old”. What have been were really the Tanakh and the Brit Hadasha which comprise of the Torah, the Neviim and the Kethuvim (Torah, the Books of the prophets and the writings) and the renewed testament.
The term “New Testament” or “Renewed Testament” was first mentioned in Jeremiah 31 which was then quoted in the Books of Hebrews and in Jesus’ (Yahshua’s) words in the four books of the Gospel. This term didn’t just magically appear in the Brit Hadasha the first time.
A lot of people understand the term “new” in “New Testament” as completely new, replacing the old. The truth is that this is a veil that has blinded believers in the Messiah. However, these are the days in the end of time that the veil will be opened by the works and power of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s go back to the discussion of grace.
In the Tanakh, which is also called the “Old Testament”, the Hebrew term “grace” is khen (×—× ) and khesed (חסד), and in the “New Testament” the Greek term for “grace” is kharis and eleos.
I will give you a couple of examples.
Gen 6:8,
But Noah found grace (khen) in the eyes of the LORD.
(Gen 6:8 KJV)
Psalm 5:8,
But I can enter your house because of your great grace (khesed) and love; I will bow down toward your holy temple in reverence for you. (Psa 5:7 CJB)
When we count the number of times these terms in Hebrew and Greek show up in both New Testament and Old Testament, we can compare how many times the term grace show up in each testament.
khen and khesed = show up 321 times in the Old Testament
kharis and eleos = show up 283 times in the New Testament
By looking at the comparison above, we understand that:
1. God’s grace is not something new that is mentioned only in the New Testament.
2. God’s faithfulness and grace prevail through time and ages, throughout the time of the Tanakh to the time of the Brit Hadasha.
3. There is a perfect unity of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Let’s go back to our discussion about faith.
How is it that the vast majority of believers have a partial understanding of faith as we have discussed above?
There has been a great misunderstanding or misinterpretation of the writings of Rabbi Shaul (a.k.a. Paul). Paul was a Hebrew, a Pharisee, one taught and trained to observe the Torah and live in the Hebrew mindset and way of living. In the minds of a Hebrew, faith and work go hand in hand and can not be placed against each other.
What Paul was against was exactly what the Messiah was – the legalism within the Torah, but NEVER against the TORAH which is the Word of God Himself.
Legalism is considered as a hypocrisy in Matthew 23:23 and was compared with whitewashed tombs (Mat 23:27). Legalism is the kind of faith that is dead because whatever is done based on legalism never comes out of the heart.
Therefore in Phil 2:12 Paul urged us to work out our salvation:
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (Php 2:12 KJV)
He understands that salvation is not instantaneous but long process over a lifetime, requiring a strong commitment to God and worked out through obedience to God’s Word.
Finally, we should also pay close attention to Jesus’s (Yahshua’s) prophecy reported in Mat 7:21-23.
Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in heaven wants. On that Day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord! Didn’t we prophesy in your name? Didn’t we expel demons in your name? Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’ Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’ (Mat 7:21-23 CJB)
In the last days, when Jesus (Yahshua) returns, there will be many people crying out and claiming that they have done things in His Name but whatever it is that they claim to be doing, Jesus (Yahshua) will not be recognizing them as doing the will of God. God will reject a lot of people that seem to actually have faith in the Messiah. But why? Because they have not done what God’s will, God’s commands, God’s Word. They may have faith, but unfortunately this kind of faith is dead.
I would like to conclude this article as follows:
To have a living faith is…
1. To know the Name of the Father in heaven, namely YHVH Elohim Adonai, understanding and experiencing what He has done for us through the salvation in His Son, Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Messiah).
2. To obey His Word and commandment which brings to a fullfillment in our Saviour, Jesus Christ (Yahshua the Messiah).
3. The kind of faith that ignores the ways of this world (Eph 2:2)
4. The kind of faith that bears good fruit (Mat 7:20)
May YHVH Elohim bless us all. HalleluYah.
Posted by Yokhanan Eliyahu
on December 13, 2011. Filed under Hebrew Roots, Readers' Contributions, Teachings, Writers.
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