We have all heard that passage from Romans 6:23, you know… the one that says, “The wages of sin is death.”
And that’s true, but sin isn’t the only thing that threatens your salvation.
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How many times have you tried to explain to someone that their actions are hurting them? Whether it be misuse of drugs, or an ill temper, or maybe ignoring the word of God? Or maybe, as in my case, my sense of humor.
And when you try to alert them that they are hurting themselves, they say, “I’m okay, it’s not a problem. Don’t worry about it.”
They’re complacent. They have an uncritical and unconcerned attitude about themselves.
Many people are like that, and my concern is for the ones who profess to worship God, who say they believe Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah, and yet they accept, complacently, their religion’s explanations for rejecting the way God says he wants us to live.
If you go through the entire New Covenant, from Matthew to Revelation, there really isn’t any place in there where God, himself, tells us what he wants us to do. Everything in there was told to us long ago in the Torah.
There is nothing new in the New Covenant, and the reason is that Yeshua came for the lost sheep of Israel (Matthew 15:24), and since they already knew the Torah, it didn’t need to be repeated. What he did do was to teach us the deeper, spiritual meaning of the Torah.
Yet so many people rejected his teaching because they were complacent- in other words, they were comfy-cozy with the way they already lived. They didn’t want to learn anything different, or act differently, or make waves with the power elite (who saw Yeshua as a threat to their position) even if it might affect their salvation.
I have been saying for years that everyone needs to follow the Torah, whether you accept that Yeshua is the Messiah or not, because the Torah is God’s User Manual for Righteousness. Yeshua proved that by living it perfectly (something no other human can do) and, because he did, he was resurrected.
I think we can all agree that being resurrected to eternal life is definite proof that you were righteous in God’s eyes.
Christians have been taught for centuries that they can ignore the Torah because they have Yeshua, but Yeshua had the Torah! So, if someone wants to really follow in Yeshua’s footsteps, they need to follow the Torah. Duh!
In Romans 3, Shaul says that the Torah identifies sin, and later in Chapter 6 (as we stated above) he says the wages of sin is death. So, the Torah tells us what sin is and that when we sin we will die, so knowing what sin is we would (of course) want to avoid it.
Right?
So, think about this: Does it make sense that God gave Israel the Torah so they can avoid sin, which leads to death, then he sends the Messiah to Israel to tell them to ignore the Torah so they can all die?
And later, when the Gentiles were running the show, they told the (now called) Christians to ignore the way Yeshua lived, which was a Torah observant life, pretty much condemning them to death!
Really, when you think about it, would God send a Messiah to save the world by telling everyone they should ignore what God said to do? It don’t make no sense!
Christianity has made salvation sound like a “Come-As-You-Are” party, well… I don’t see that working out well for them at Judgement Day.
So, here’s the message: if your religion tells you that you do not have to obey the commandments in the Torah, and you’re fine with that because you don’t want to read for yourself what God says or be open to the idea that, since all Christian religions are man-made, that maybe what God says is more important, then I have to think that you are too complacent with your worship, and you might wanna consider that complacency is just as lethal as sin to your salvation.
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!