Living Under Grace: Understanding God’s Commandments

Oh how burdensome it is to take a day off each week. To dedicate it to rest and restoration. To honor God and His instructions. It is a heavy yoke to carry. Oh that there would be a simpler way than resting in His presence. Oh thank You Lord Jesus. He completed it so I don’t have to. No longer am I burdened with what the children of Israel were burdened with for thousands of years. They couldn’t do, for it was too hard. Even though You constantly called them back to it and told them if they turned from their own ways. If they followed you again and kept Your statutes You would bless them again. Yet, you must have known that it was too hard and that they would fail. You punished them so that you could send Jesus and make it easy on us gentile believers. No longer burdened with living a life that sets us apart. Thank you for freeing us from the law of sin and death. Thank you for giving us thousands of years of illustrations of punishing a people so we could be free. Free to live however we want, for all things are permissible, for grace sake.

Does this statement sound absurd? It should, yet for many Christians this is exactly what they believe. Oh, they won’t say it out loud but deep down they believe it. They have to. If they don’t then they will be forced to recognize their constant depravity. And their need for walking out the commands of God. They will be forced to consider the whole of God’s Word. They cannot rely only on the few verses they cling to in order to break the commands of God. Does this sound too harsh? It’s better than eternal darkness and complete everlasting separation from Yahoshua (Jesus). Who is King of kings, and Master of masters.

Henry David Thoreau an early American poet and philosopher said; “I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of a man to elevate his life by a conscious effort.” The writer of Revelation, pens this statement; “Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yahoshua (Jesus).” It is both, and, not either or. We must do what we can to honor the commandments of Elohim and couple that with our faith in Yahoshua. It is not by works that I am saved. It is by living within the instruction of Yahweh that I show myself as having faith. I believe, therefore, I do.

Jude writes, “Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints. For certain men have crept in among you unnoticed—ungodly ones who were designated long ago for condemnation. They turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality, and they deny our only Master and Adonai, Yahoshua Messiah.” How does one deny Yahoshua while claiming faith in Him? Simple, they say His teachings were for the Jews. That He came to fulfill the law so that we don’t have to. They deny statements like “I did not come to abolish the law, but to bring it to the full.” He challenged the religious leaders of the day and the man made traditions they held above the Word of God.

Ezekiel writes about the shepherds who don’t feed their sheep. “Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what Adonai Elohim says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock? You eat the fat, wear the wool, and butcher the fattened sheep, but you do not feed the flock.” There are many pastors getting fat off the flock today. They aren’t scattering them. They are deceiving them with false messages of prosperity and even making a mockery of grace itself.

He continues, “You have not strengthened the weak, healed the sick, bound up the injured, brought back the strays, or searched for the lost. Instead, you have ruled them with violence and cruelty.” The violence and cruelty today is that they are not teaching the commandments of God but of man. They have created a different religion and their Christ Jesus is the lawless one He himself warned about. They both cannot be true. This is why I choose to use His Hebrew name. This is why I choose to seek Him fully and completely. To know His Word is to know Him for He is the Word made flesh. Thoreau may not have been a true believer but he did get it right when he said, “. . . unquestionable ability of a man to elevate his life by a conscious effort.”

Paul writes, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Messiah Yahoshua took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Messiah Yahoshua.” Are we striving for “Your Kingdom come, Your WILL be DONE“? Or are we content with mediocrity? Are we content with lukewarmness? Are we content fooling ourselves that what the Word describes as not burdensome, to be too burdensome? “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” For this is what John 5:3 says.

Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. It is true to this day. Jeremiah records this in the sixth chapter. “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’'” Yahoshua said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Early believers before they took on the ‘christian’ moniker were known as the sect of the Nazarene. They were also known as the people of the way. We know truth to be the Word, “Your Word is Truth”. Life, for all who come and obey Yahoshua will live.

As Jeremiah later writes in the sixteenth chapter. “O Yahweh, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all. Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!” Some churches do have idols, engraved images, but beyond that many have man made traditions. They them place above the Word of Elohim. They justify themselves by taking the words of Paul and twisting them. As Peter warns. If the faith you follow allows for lawlessness, which is Torahlessness, you are outside the ways of Yahweh. Therefore, you are not following Yahoshua Messiah.

“Then I will tell them to their faces, ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’” These are Yahoshua’s (Jesus’) words to those who live outside the instructions of Elohim, outside of Torah. The lawless one is coming and he will deceive many. In fact the spirit of the lawless one is already at work. Wake up! The time is drawing short. Put your faith in the true Messiah Yahoshua! The ‘Jesus’ the Apostles taught about and live for and ultimately died for. Not the lawless one being taught today in the majority of churches.

You are loved,
cj