This is going to be a deceptively short and simple message today and is pretty much the definitive difference between Legalism and Faith.
It is such a simple concept that I am not even going to do a video.
Legalism is the belief in performance-based salvation, meaning that what we do is how we are saved, regardless of our actual feelings. This is what religion still teaches today, especially Christianity: just do what we tell you to do and you will be fine.
Faith-based salvation is what Yeshua brought to us because he went beyond the “just do it” legalistic teachings of the Pharisees, and taught us that why we do is just as important as what we do. He taught us the spiritual meaning of the law, the true “new covenant”, i.e. what it means to have the law written on our hearts.
And in the Torah, we are told that Abraham, the poster-child for faith, was considered righteous not just because he believed God (Genesis 15:6) but also because he DID everything that God told him to do (Genesis 26:5).
So no matter how faithful you think you are, if you don’t do what God said to do, and the ONLY place that is found is in the Torah, your faith is not going to get you anywhere (James 2:14). Conversely, if you don’t have faith but try to act in accordance with the Torah in order to earn salvation, you will fail because no one can do everything in the Torah perfectly. That is why God sent the Messiah.
So there you have it: faith and works are inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin and one can’t function without the other. Faith is what must motivate us to do as God says; despite what you may have heard, Yeshua never changed anything and Shaul (Paul) never rejected the Torah or his Judaism. If you do not do as God said you should- not Paul or James or your Rabbi or your Priest, Minister, or whatever- but as God said to do, and you do it because you believe God’s promise of blessings (Deut. 28) and that salvation can now only be through Messiah Yeshua, then you are on the right path.
God has no religion, but men created religion to have power over other men, so if you succumb to religion you will be taken off the path of righteousness and directed down a path made up of ritual and false worship which ends in destruction.
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L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!
