THE TEMPLE: OT/ NT PERSPECTIVES vs. THE RABBIS

The rabbis often denounce the New Testament claiming that it misconstrues the Old to support its own doctrines. In The Jew and the Christian Missionary: A Jewish Response to Missionary Christianity, Gerald Sigal had written:

·       Misreading the essential meaning of the Torah, Christian theology developed along lines that are at variance with the message of Hebrew Scriptures. (Introduction, xv)

For instance, in the NT Jesus likened His own body to the Jerusalem Temple, in effect, proclaiming that His body has become the actual place to meet God and find His mercy, instead of the Temple. In a revealing account, the Jewish leadership demanded that Jesus justify His authority to drive out the money-changers and animal-salesmen from the Temple:

·       Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21; John 1:14)

Jesus equated His body with the Temple. He had been hinting about this to a Samaritan woman who thought religion was just a matter of the geographical place of worship, pointing out that the Jews worshipped in the Jerusalem Temple and the Samaritans on Mount Gerizim. However, Jesus corrected her:

·       “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

According to Jesus, worship, ultimately, was not a matter of place but of truth. It is through belief in the truth that we meet God and not through a literal building.

When the Pharisees criticized Jesus’ disciples for eating standing grain on the Sabbath, Jesus retorted that priests who serve in the Temple also violate the Sabbath. If they could do it, so too could His disciples, because He was greater than both the Sabbath and the Temple:

·       He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here…For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:3-6, 8)

How could Jesus imply about Himself that “something greater than the temple is here?” He understood that the Temple was merely a symbol or a shadow of the reality – that He was the One to whom Israel must come to find mercy (Colossians 2:16-17).

The Book of Revelation claims that the New Jerusalem would not contain a physical temple:

·       And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. (Revelation 21:22; 13:6; 21:3)

Has the NT perverted the teachings of the Mosaic revelation? Moses had been given the plan for the Tabernacle (the moveable Temple) while on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 25:40; 27:8; Numbers 8:4; Acts 7:44). However, the NT interpreted this plan as symbolic (a shadow) of a deeper reality:

·       They [the Temple and its services] serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things [of Christ]. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:5)

Did God simply have a preference for certain physical forms and structures, or did He command these Temple forms, because they symbolically conveyed heavenly truths? The NT writers understood that the Temple and the prescribed forms of worship were symbolic of a deeper reality. Interestingly, the OT also suggests this. Even before there was a Tabernacle, God had been Israel’s refuge and sanctuary:

·       Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. (Psalm 90:1; 71:3; Isaiah 57:15)

This suggests that the Temple was a shadow of a deeper reality, which God wanted to convey symbolically. The NT claims that God Himself would be our sanctuary (Temple). This is also true of the OT revelation:

·       “Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary [“mikdash”] to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’” (Ezekiel 11:16; Isaiah 8:13:14)

God would be a temple to Israel even in their exile. The physical Temple was therefore symbolic, suggesting that, instead, it represented a reality beyond itself. Besides, God promised that He Himself would “build” the ultimate Temple in conjunction with the New Covenant:

·       “I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary [“mikdash”] in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place [“mishkan”] shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary [“mikdash”] is in their midst forevermore.” (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

Would this be a physical sanctuary? The fact that God would build it suggests otherwise. Besides, it seems that  this “everlasting covenant” with Israel will replace the Mosaic Covenant. In fact, nowhere in the Scriptures is the Mosaic ever described as everlasting.

Of what will “my sanctuary,” which God will create, consist? First of all, it is not only associated with a new and eternal covenant, it is also a Messianic covenant, the work of the mysterious BRANCH:

·       “And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ (Zechariah 6:12-13)

It is noteworthy that the physical Temple had already been rebuilt by the Israelite exiles returning from Babylon. Evidently, this temple constructed by God would be a very different kind of temple and even a different priesthood. This Priest, the Messianic BRANCH, was also regarded by the rabbis as the promised Davidic offspring, the Messiah who would create an everlasting kingdom (Isaiah 9:6-7; Jeremiah 23:5-6), would also be a King (Psalm 110). A single person fulfilling these two roles had been absolutely forbidden under the Mosaic Covenant (Numbers 18:7). The fact that the Messiah would fulfill both roles suggests a change in the Covenant, the Temple, its rituals and even the end of animal sacrifices:

·       “Before they call [for forgiveness as they sacrifice an animal] I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD. Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; he who presents a grain offering, like one who offers pig’s blood; he who makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations.” (Isaiah 65:24 - 66:1-3)

Since there will be no more “destruction” in the Kingdom of the Messiah, the death of animals could no longer be required. Instead, the promised Messianic sacrifice will put an end to all sacrifices:

·       Surely he [the promised Messiah] has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)

The Psalms also promise that one offering will put to end all subsequent offerings and the Temple system, which required them:

·       Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [Psalm 40; LXX] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first [covenant] in order to establish the second. (Hebrews 10:5-10)

Evidently, the Temple animal sacrifices had been a shadow of the coming reality – the offering of the Messiah Himself for the sins of the world. How else can we explain the fact that God wasn’t truly pleased with the animal sacrifices, although He had ordained and required them? They weren’t pleasing to God because they and the Temple were only symbols. Besides, the Scriptures inform us that the true offerings of Israel were to be those of the mouth and the heart:

·       For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17; Hosea 6:6; 14:2; Malachi 1:10-11)

God also desires the figurative “sacrifice” of the entire person (Romans 12:2):

·       “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings.  As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered.” (Ezekiel 20:40-41; Isaiah 66:20-21)

The Temple and its prescribed worship were only meant to apply until the Messiah (Hebrew 13:8):

·       “And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days,” declares the LORD, “they shall no more say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. (Jeremiah 3:16-17)

The Ark, which carried the centerpiece of the Mosaic Covenant, the Ten Commandments, would not be remembered or made again because this Covenant would be superseded by the New:

·       “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:31-33)

The New would replace the Old. How do the rabbis answer this claim? They respond that the New is a mere remodeling of the Mosaic Covenant. Rabbi Sigal had written:

·       By any objective reading of the text, one fails to see any reference to a substitution of a new covenant which will supersede the old. (The Jew and the Christian Missionary, 70)

However, God explicitly declares that the New is “not like the [Mosaic] covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.” Nevertheless, Sigal claimed that:

·       …what Jeremiah meant by it was the renewing of the old covenant, which will thereby regain its full original vigor. Jeremiah is thus able to speak of a “new covenant,” and still remain a true prophet among his people because there was absolutely no difference between the new and old. (72-73)

“Absolutely no difference?” Not according to Jeremiah! Once again, the rabbis have studiously side-stepped their promised Messiah as prophesied (Isaiah 8:13-14; 28:16; Psalm 118:22).

In contrast, the NT follows in the path laid out by the OT with a lantern in hand to illuminate what had previously been obscured by the shadows. We find that the NT fits the OT like a glove fits the hand, demonstrating the internal consistency of the entire Bible, pointing to the fact that the Bible expresses a single, although cryptic revelation by a single divine Author.

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We cannot ignore the eternal Temple described in Ezekiel 40-48. According to the NT revelation, this temple symbolizes the presence of God Himself. However, these nine chapters contain so many details that some argue that this temple must be an actual temple and not merely a symbolic non-physical one. However, even the rabbis were perplexed by Ezekiel’s lengthy description:

·       The difficulty of interpreting Ezekiel’s temple vision isn’t limited to only Christian scholars. It has also been a problem with Jewish ones as well. Michael Brown notes that Talmudic rabbis believed the images of the visions were difficult enough that the prophet Elijah would have to come and explain them.

Since the description of Ezekiel’s temple does not coincide with that of the Mosaic Temple, it has led many commentators to believe that Ezekiel’s temple must be a spiritual one:

·       Dr. Michael Brown argues for the spiritual view based upon a handful of reasons including the fact Ezekiel’s temple contradicts a lot of the descriptions in the Torah (Exodus/Leviticus/Numbers particularly) and the text suggests the prophecy will be fulfilled in Ezekiel’s lifetime (Ezekiel 40:4, 43:10,11), but wasn’t. https://hipandthigh.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/interpreting-ezekiels-temple-vision/

Besides, many of the features of the temple are supernatural. Water is flowing from the temple, and its volume increases as it flows. It nourishes trees that bear fruit every month:

·       And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither, nor their fruit fail, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.” (Ezekiel 47:12)

There are numerous reasons to believe that the temple is not a physical temple but a “temple” whose features convey theological truths. God instructed Ezekiel to describe the temple to the Israelites so that they would be ashamed. How could a mere architectural plan bring shame unless this plan conveyed theological truths and revealed the sinful intentions of the heart:

·       “As for you, son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the plan. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the temple, its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, that is, its whole design; and make known to them as well all its statutes and its whole design and all its laws, and write it down in their sight, so that they may observe all its laws and all its statutes and carry them out. This is the law of the temple: the whole territory on the top of the mountain all around shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the temple. (Ezekiel 43:10-12)

This temple plan conveyed God’s law, and it wasn’t the same as the Mosaic Law. The whole territory would now be holy, not just the holy place itself. God’s presence would sanctify the surroundings. Consequently, this symbolic “temple” need not contradict the many prophecies listed above.

ABRAHAM AND THE NATURE OF FAITH

The simplest questions are often the hardest to answer, but they also might be the most important. For example, “What is faith?” The life of Abraham answers this question. After about ten years of sojourning in the Promised Land, Abraham had lost faith in what God had promised him – that if he would leave his family and go to a land that God would show him, He would give him many descendants (Genesis 12:1-3, 7).

However, after ten years of waiting for the promise, Abraham despaired and had resigned himself to the disappointing likelihood that his servant Eliezer would be his heir. However, the Word of the Lord came to him again through a vision:

·       And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” (Genesis 15:4)

The Lord then led Abraham outside to look at the sky and told him that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars, and Abraham believed the Word of the Lord:

·       And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6)

This doesn’t mean that Abraham’s faith was now filled with a glowing and unquenchable feeling of confidence. It certainly wasn’t. Even though Abraham believed, he asked God to reassure him regarding this Word:

·       But he said, “O Lord GOD, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (Genesis 15:8)

God granted Abraham his request by pledging Himself to His Word through a formal covenant. What then is faith? It is not exactly peace of mind and emotion, although this might be the result of faith. There is no indication in this account that Abraham’s faith was accompanied by a glowing, warm, and fuzzy experience. Instead, God’s covenantal pledge to Abraham was associated with a “dreadful and great darkness” which came down upon him (Genesis 15:12). Besides, the presence of God was accompanied by symbols of His wrath as He made this pledge to Abraham. (Why was it that such a great promise was associated with dread? I think that this was indicating that, in order to fulfill His pledge, the Son would have to die for the sins of the world – 2 Corinthians 1:20. Thus, God was giving Abraham a foretaste of the Gospel.)

Let me further illustrate this principle. My wife had once coaxed me to go on the rollercoaster with her. Although I believed that I would survive this ordeal, it felt as if I was going to die. This means that even when we go through times of great emotional upset, it doesn’t mean that we are not trusting in the Lord. Instead, it points to the fact that our flesh is often unwilling to comply with our renewed heart (Romans 7:24-25; Galatians 5:17). These two parts are at war. It is, therefore, important to realize that when we sin, it doesn’t mean that as a new creation in Christ, we are sinning, but rather, it is the sin that remains in us:

·       Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:20)

What then is faith?  It is fundamentally a willingness and a commitment to take God at His Word, even when it hurts and doesn’t make any sense to us. It is a matter of trusting in the Word rather than in ourselves. Abraham trusted when God tested him with His Word. He asked Abraham to offer his son Isaac, the child of the promise, as a burnt offering. Abraham must have been tormented by this trial, but he trusted in the Word of God:

·       By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead… (Hebrews 11:17-19)

After perhaps 40 years of his sojourning in the Promised Land, God had proven Himself trustworthy. His Word hadn’t failed, and Abraham was convinced that His Word wouldn’t fail this time, even if he had to put his son to death.

We too often get discouraged with the lack of feelings of certitude that we think should accompany our faith. Instead, if we regard faith for what it is, a willingness and a commitment to take God at His Word, we will not despair by looking inward to the level of our faith instead of at the Word of God. Instead, the question that confronts us is this: “Are we willing to obey even when it is not convenient and doesn’t feel good?”

However, this too is not easy. It wasn’t for Abraham. A few years later, Abraham again despaired of the Word of the Lord. Instead, he placed his trust in his own ill-advised devices and impregnated their servant girl, Hagar, in order to produce his heir. Although this didn’t thwart the plan of God, it did produce a ton of heartache.

Generally, trusting in the Word of the Lord must be accompanied by despairing of self-trust and our unbiblical devices to accomplish our goals. After all, who is willing to wait on God and His promises if we can obtain the desired results on our own! Faith in God’s Word may never be perfect. However, our trust in Him has to be greater than our trust in anything else, and usually we have to learn this trust the hard way, as Paul had explained:

·       For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. (2 Corinthians 1:8-10)

Learning to trust in God means learning to distrust in ourselves. Abraham had to learn that his best bet was with the Word of God. Yahweh appeared to him when he was about 100 years old and still childless and promised him that in the next year Sarah his wife would give birth to the promised heir, Isaac (Genesis 18). By this time, all of his own maneuvers had failed him. He was more than ready to trust in the Word of God:

·       He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Romans 4:19-21)

How did Abraham grow strong in his faith? Through the many lessons that God had taught him over the trying years of his sojourn! During this time, he learned to give the “Glory to God,” acknowledging that God will do what He has promised. As Abraham learned that he couldn’t trust in himself, his cup was emptied enough to begin to trust in God.

However, Paul’s statement is perplexing. He claimed that Abraham did not waiver in his faith. However, right after Yahweh promised that He would give them a son through his wife Sarah, Abraham traveled to Gerar, where he, once again, passed off Sarah as his sister and not his wife. Consequently, the king took her for his harem, but God intervened by tormenting the king and his nation with such a horrible disease that they could not have sex. In a dream, He then warned the king to return Sarah lest he die. After he did this, the king asked Abraham to explain his unfaithfulness. Abraham explained:

·       “And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’” (Genesis 20:13)

Consequently, it seems that Abraham did waiver in his faith. How do we explain this paradox? Let me make a suggestion. Abraham now knew better. He had to trust in the Word of God, but he had succumbed out of fear and not disbelief.

If this distinction doesn’t seem palatable, take a look at a few examples from the “Hall of Fame of Faith” – Hebrews 11:11, 27, 29. In each instance, from our perspective, it appears that these individuals had been without faith. However, our God is very gracious and sees faith where we don’t see it. Let me cite one of these verses to illustrate this truth:

·       By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. (Hebrews 11:29)

If this seems strange, it is for good reason. The original account shows us that Israel rebelled against God as the Egyptian chariots were approaching:

·       [Israel] said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?  Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:11-12)

Nevertheless, in the midst of their rebellion, God graciously saw faith in Israel. Likewise, it might seem that we too waiver in our faith, but our Savior might be seeing something very different. Over the years, our Lord grew the faith of Abraham to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his son. Don’t worry that you are weak in faith. Take heart! Our Lord will restore us.

MY CHALLENGE TO SOME SEGMENTS OF THE MESSIANIC COMMUNITY

I had been a zealous Zionist, living in Israel for three years. My meaning in life revolved around my Jewish identity; my purpose was to fight for the preservation of Israel as a sanctuary for Jews. My years of enduring anti-Semitism had proved to me that the Jews needed a sanctuary away from the taunts and fists.

The idea of becoming a Christian was unthinkable, as unthinkable as becoming transgendered. However, life is stranger than fiction. While lying in a pool of my own blood, wondering if my next breath would be my last, I know that God was there, that He loved me, and would be with me even if I died. Later, I surrendered this life to my Savior Jesus.

Yet, my tenacious Jewish identity remained intact. I wanted to be part of a Messianic congregation, but there were none within several hundred miles. So I had to content myself with the fellowship of the Goyim. However, over the next several years, my Savior revealed to me that my identity was at odds with my new identity in Jesus.

This identity had been laced with pride – the type of pride from which the Lord wanted to deliver me. His surgery was painful; the recovery protracted. However, now I can see what I hadn’t seen before – how this pride is motivating other Jewish believers, even causing division within the Body of Christ.

The Apostle Peter’s conduct was also causing division. He was gladly fellowshipping with the uncircumcised Gentile believers in Antioch, until the leadership (the circumcision party) arrived from Jerusalem. Hastily, Peter withdrew from his Gentile brethren, even drawing others away with him. Paul was appalled by this sight:

·       And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (Galatians 2:13-14 ESV)

Peter had been living as a Gentile, making no distinction between Jew and Gentile as the Gospel required, since, in Christ, there is no longer Jew or Gentile (Galatians 3:28). However, when he withdraw from his Gentile brethren at the arrival of the circumcision party, in effect, he was telling them that they must also become Jews if they were to fellowship together.

Paul correctly understood this behavior as a betrayal of the Gospel, which had made us all one (Ephesians 3:6) and to not separate into two but related communities. He explained:

·       For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:18-21)

To insist that the Gentiles had to become circumcised to become a Jew and to also follow the law was to “nullify the grace of God” and to “rebuild” what the Savior had fulfilled. To insist on this as a necessity for full fellowship was to again place believers under the law and to become a “transgressor” of the law in the process.

Actions speak loudly. Paul understood that Peter’s action represented the betrayal of the Gospel of Jesus and the unity that He had created through His death and resurrection (Ephesians 5:1-6). This unity in love would also serve as evidence that Christ is in our midst (John 17:2-23).

While many of my Jewish brethren understand this, some do not and call themselves “Messianic Jews” and insist that they are required to follow certain commandments that set them apart from Gentile believers.

Consequently, I will not allow my Jewish brethren to describe or introduce me as a “Messianic Jew.” Instead, I insist that I am a Christian. I want this name and my Savior to define me entirely, at least what is most important about me.

I don’t deny my Jewishness or how it has shaped my life. However, I am sold-out for my Savior and want this to be clear:

·       For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28)

LEGALISM, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THE RABBIS

When I was a young Christian and wasn’t certain about what I should believe and where I should place my trust. I concluded that the safe thing to do was to cover-all-the-bases and to place my trust in both Jesus and my good deeds. However, I later realized that to place my trust in anything in addition to the Savior and His dying for me on the cross would disqualify me:

·       Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. (Colossians 2:16-18 ESV)

Here, Paul warned about two things that could disqualify us from salvation – trusting in asceticism (a severe form of self-denial or self-punishment) and the worship of angels. I began to see that, to some extent, I too had been trusting in myself and my moral merit to earn me salvation.

I too had believed that I could make myself worthy of God by denying myself. This is common in perhaps all religions and even in sects of Christianity. However, self-punishment is a denial of the fact that Christ had paid the price for all of our sins forever. Instead, asceticism insists that we have to pay the price.

We do this in subtle ways. I would only indulge in a milkshake if I felt deserving. Getting an “A” on a test would make me feel deserving. Otherwise, indulging would make me feel anxious and unworthy. If I spent more than two minutes in the shower, I would also feel anxious.

Masochism is a form of asceticism. We hurt ourselves as a way to reduce stress and feel entitled to enjoy ourselves. Why? Our conscience correctly tells us that there is something wrong with us and that we have to pay a price for our unworthiness. However, once I learned that Jesus paid the price for my sins in full, the need to prove myself worthy of His love and mercy began to decrease.

Some Christians value asceticism in another way. They believe that the discipline of self-denial is transferrable to spiritual matters. If we learn to discipline our bodies as an athlete or a soldier, we can then transfer this discipline to combat the temptations of sin. However, Paul had argued against such reasoning:

·       If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (Colossians 2:20-23)

Paul denied that physical training would help us resist sin. While he didn’t dismiss the value of bodily discipline and exercise, he refused to prescribe it for spiritual matters:

·       Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

The “worship of angels” is a matter of placing our trust in anyone – even in ourselves – in addition to Jesus. Therefore, Paul had warned:

·       Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision [to become a Jew in order to trust in Law-keeping], Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified [or made righteous] by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

When we trust anyone in addition to Jesus, we are not truly trusting Jesus but in ourselves or someone else. To worship angels is to trust in angels.

Trusting in anything in addition to God is forbidden, even in the Hebrew Scriptures:

·       He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken…For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:2, 5-8)

Israel was to trust in God alone and not in themselves, foreign gods, or in their own righteousness:

·       Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.” (Jeremiah 17:5-7; Psalm 2:12; 25:2; 34:8; 71:5; 125:1)

To trust in our own abilities, strengths, or righteousness represented a failure to trust in God. To trust in anything in addition to our Savior is spiritual adultery. It is as acceptable as having an adulterous relationship. However, we commit spiritual adultery when we place unqualified trust in anyone else. When we go to spiritualists for answers, we are no longer trusting in God:

·       And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

Trusting in God was always a matter of putting trust in His Words and in doing them, the way to fulfill His Covenant. However, Israel consistently added to the law against the commands of God:

·       You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32)

These became known as the “Traditions of the Elders” in Jesus’ time. There is nothing the matter with traditions as long as they are not elevated to a status equivalent to the Word of God. There is nothing wrong with a family tradition of celebrating birthdays as long as it is not elevated and made mandatory as if from God. Jesus castigated the religious leadership for doing this:

·       “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:7-9, citing Isaiah 29:13)

Consequently, their heart-less worship was for naught. It reflected the fact that they didn’t really trust in God but in their own doctrines. When the heart is right towards God, we place His Word above all else. Unless our heart is right towards the Lord, all of our external piety is also for naught. It is merely a grotesque show. Even our prayers were unacceptable to God if we are not devoted to Him through His Word:

·       “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider…Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies--I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands [in prayer], I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.” (Isaiah 1:3, 13-16)

Even today, superficial law-keeping is extoled among some Orthodox groups. The Lubavitchers, one sect of the Hasidic community, have often stopped me on the street to ask if I am Jewish and to invite me into their van to put on the prayer shawl to perform a ritual. When I’d explain that I cannot do it because I do not believe in it, they respond, “It doesn’t matter. You will be blessed if you do it.” I then refer them to Isaiah’s warnings against superficial, faithless law-keeping.

For them, God’s blessings can be earned apart from a faith-filled relationship with God. Instead, we must believe and trust in God:

·       But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

This is also a principle deeply embedded within the Hebrew Scriptures:

·       For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart-- these, O God, You will not despise…Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. (Psalm 51:16-19)

To have a contrite and broken heart is to grieve over our sins (Matthew 5:3-6) and to humbly confess them to God. If one’s heart is right towards God, then the prayers and offerings would be gladly received. However, this required that God had to be Israel’s first concern:

·       “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14; Matthew 6:33)

A relationship with God was always intended to arise from a sincere heart, as David had counseled his son Solomon:

·       “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.” (1 Chronicles 28:9)

However, the Lubavitchers have rejected this all-important principle. Paul had explained that the Jews of Jesus’ day were convinced that they could attain the righteousness of God on their own:

·       …Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone [Christ]. (Romans 9:30-32)

This belief that in our own righteousness actually reflects the entire history of humankind.