Pip: There’s a question that doesn’t get asked often enough in religious circles: if someone suffered horribly so you’d be free from all obligation, who exactly is the abuser in that story?
Mara: That’s the provocation cj opens with on The Way of the Rabbi, and it sets up the territory we’re covering today — the line between legalism and genuine faith, and what a life shaped by Messiah’s example actually looks like.
Pip: Let’s start with where that tension lives.
Breaking Free from Legalism, Embracing Messiah’s Love
Mara: The central question here is whether following God’s commands and trusting in Messiah are two separate things — or whether they were always meant to be inseparable.
Pip: And the post doesn’t ease into that. It opens with a scenario: you look at everything Yahoshua endured, and your takeaway is that you no longer have to keep the law. The post asks you to say that out loud and notice what it sounds like.
Mara: From Galatians, Paul’s words are quoted directly: “You stupid Galatians! Who has put you under a spell? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power?”
Pip: That’s not a gentle pastoral nudge. Paul is saying the Galatians made the same error many make today — they separated the practice from the person, making Torah observance a performance rather than a response to trust.
Mara: And that distinction is the spine of the argument. Abraham is the example: he trusted God, acted on that trust, and obedience followed naturally. The post draws on Romans 6 to sharpen this — “Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not.” Then 1 John 3:4 defines sin plainly as lawlessness, as being outside Torah.
Pip: So the post isn’t arguing for rule-keeping as a transaction. It’s saying faith without the life that reflects it is the same problem, just wearing different clothes.
Mara: The resolution the post offers is relational. It uses the image of a long marriage — both partners seeking to honor the other more than themselves. That’s the model for how trust in Messiah is meant to work: not obligation, but orientation.
Pip: Which is why the closing image lands. Psalm 51 — a broken and contrite heart, a renewed spirit, and then the line: “I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.”
Mara: The post ends on Revelation 14:12: “Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Yahoshua.” Both together. Neither alone.
Pip: Faith and faithfulness — turns out they were always the same direction.
Mara: The thread running through all of this is that relationship and obedience aren’t opposites — one is how the other shows up in a life.
Pip: Next time, we’ll see where that thread leads.
Read the full post here: Breaking Free from Legalism: Embracing Messiah’s Love
The Way of the Rabbi 