I believe if you ask most Believers what is the main difference between the Tanakh (the “Jewish” Bible) and the New Covenant regarding salvation, they will say the old way was through works, and the new way is only through faith.

Well, they would be right, but for the wrong reasons.

If you prefer to watch a video, click on this link: Watch the video.

In the entire Bible, Genesis through Revelation, the only thing that saves us is faith. But faith in what?

Christians will say faith in Jesus, but what the heck does that mean? Faith that he existed? Faith that he was immaculately conceived? Faith that he is the Messiah God promised to send? Faith that he was resurrected? Faith that he did what the Gospels tell us he did?

My answer is faithfully believing that he was the son of God through divine conception, that he was (and still is) the Messiah God promised to send, that his death was accepted as a once-and-for-all sin sacrifice (proven by his resurrection), and that through his sacrifice we can ask God to forgive our sins any time, any where, because his sacrifice replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem.

Which has proven to be really convenient since the temple was destroyed nearly 2000 years ago.

My answer also includes that the way we demonstrate that faith is to obey the Torah, which is what Yeshua did throughout his lifetime, and what we must do if we truly want to follow in his footsteps and live as he did.

And doesn’t Christianity state that is an essential part of being Christian? Yet, sadly, they say “Do as Jesus did” while teaching to do everything except what Jesus did!

TIME OUT: When I said Yeshua’s sacrifice was a once-and-for-all event, I did not mean that all sins are automatically forgiven, which some Christian religions teach. No! I mean that when he sacrificed himself, it replaced the need to bring an animal to the temple in Jerusalem, which the Torah required for any sacrifice. We still have to fulfill every step of the sacrificial system for sin: we have to be accountable (confession), we have to be remorseful (repentance), we have to have the shedding of innocent blood as our substitution (that’s the part Yeshua took care of), and we have to do T’shuvah (turn from sin) as we go forward.

Throughout the Tanakh the means of salvation was obedience to the Torah, mainly because the Messiah hadn’t come yet. But the requirement for salvation was still faith-based.

God said that sacrifices and offerings mean nothing without obedience; read 1 Samuel 15:22, or Isaiah 1:11-14 or Jeremiah 7:21-23, or Psalm 51:16-17… they all say that obedience is more important than sacrifices or offerings, meaning that just going through the motions is useless without obedience, meaning faithfulness!

Going through the motions is obeying, isn’t it? So how can God say obeying means nothing without obedience? It’s because when he says “obedience”, he means faithful obedience, i.e., obeying from faith that what God says is righteous and correct.

Truth be told, Yeshua proved that someone CAN be saved by obedience to the Torah because he was 100% obedient, and after he died he was resurrected to eternal life in God’s presence. The “fly in the ointment” is that we humans are born sinful and not filled with the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) as Yeshua was. As such, we don’t have a chance of being 100% Torah observant, 100% of the time as he was.

That’s why God planned for a Messiah right from the get-go.

The New Covenant is all about faith in Yeshua, but the problem is that most Christian faith is misplaced. Some believe Yeshua is God, some believe he is the son of God but that he forgives sin, and some even pray to dead people. Most Christian religions, whether Trinitarian or not, have gotten to the point where they pray to Yeshua instead of to God, effectively replacing God with Yeshua.

That is changing Yeshua from an obedient son (like Isaac was) into a rebellious, throne-stealing son (like Absalom was.)

How can we find salvation through a Messiah who teaches to ignore God? If Yeshua taught to ignore the Torah, he committed treason against the King (God) and was a sinner. And we know sinners don’t get to be in God’s presence.

And those who follow sinners are the blind being led by the blind, and both will fall into a hole. That hole goes all the way down to Sheol.

So, both the Old and New Covenants teach we are saved by faith:

• Non-believing Jews faithfully obey the Torah (well, at least as best as they can) while faithfully waiting for the Messiah
• Messianic Jews (like me) faithfully accept Yeshua IS the Messiah God promised to send, and we also faithfully obey God’s Torah (again, as best as we can)
• Most every Christian religion teaches that they need to only have faith in Jesus (again, whatever the heck that is supposed to mean) and to love each other. The BIG mistake they make it that they totally ignore doing as God said to do, as Yeshua did throughout his lifetime, and which is the only acceptable proof that their faith is genuine.

Bottom line? Faith is not just one or the other, Jesus or Torah, law or lawlessness, but it is both sides of the same coin: one side is faithfully believing Yeshua is the Messiah and the other side is proving that faith through obeying God’s instructions (in the Torah).

Thank you for being here and please remember to share these messages with everyone you know, even non-believers. Hey, after all, you never know how fertile the soil is until you plant a seed in it.

That’s it for this week, so l’hitraot and (an early) Shabbat Shalom!