Every heart responds to the Creator in one of two basic ways: thankfulness and joyful obedience (Ro 6:17) — or distrust and disobedience. (Ro 1:21)
We all start out in sin, as rebels hating God (Ep 2:3), but God transforms some of us so we begin loving Him, trusting Him, thanking Him and obeying Him from the heart; He quickens our spirits to delight in His Law, (Ro 7:22) and starts writing His laws into our minds and hearts. (He 8:10) We then begin to enjoy obeying Him: a transformed nature, a new creature, is evidence of our redemption. (2Co 5:17)
It is in obeying Jesus that we love Him: He said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments;” (Jn 14:15) we love Him by keeping His Laws (1Jn 5:3), those laws within Torah, which are all spiritual (Ro 7:22) and eternally good. (Ro 7:12)
Unfortunately, most Christians are consistently taught that certain parts of the Mosaic Law are obsolete, no longer relevant, but Jesus didn’t abolish any part of Torah and He specifically told us not to think this way (Mt 5:17-19); it’s still God’s definition of sin. (1Jn 3:4)
Though we aren’t justified by obeying God’s Law, we’re deceived in thinking we’re in a right relationship with God if we’re still willfully disobeying Him. (1Jn 2:4) We’re far from salvation if we aren’t seeking to know and obey God’s statutes (Ps 119:155); we can’t worship in truth until we’ve learned His commandments (Ps 119:7), or even be earnest in seeking salvation if we aren’t already obeying Him the best we know how. (Ps 119:176)
As we seek to make our election sure, here’s an easy litmus test: if there are parts of God’s Way we still don’t like, that we disdain and deliberately refuse to obey, then we’re deceiving ourselves, carnal, still out of step with God. (Ro 8:6-7) Though there’s definitely room for sincere ignorance (1Ti 1:13), the stubborn, willfully disobedient soul has yet to be redeemed. (Ro 2:7-9) In other words, What’s the point in pretending to be transformed … if we aren’t acting like it? (1Jn 3:7)
I like it!
Plain and simple.
Thanks!
The questions we ask reveal our hearts. Are we asking, “What parts of Torah must I obey?” Or are we asking, “What parts of Torah am I allowed/permitted to obey?”
As God writes Torah into the minds and hearts of His own (He 8:10), He is revealing that Torah is holy and just and good (Ro 7:12), such that we “delight in the law of God after the inward man.” (Ro 7:22) As He transforms us we will be obeying every law that we are able to obey as well as we can, and asking Him to help us obey Torah better all the time. (Ps 119:35)
But if we don’t delight in Torah, we’ll be looking for excuses and explanations that relieve us of any sense of duty (Ec 12:13), and most any deception will do. (2Ti 4:3) This is the posture of the carnal mind (Ro 8:7), enmity against Torah, and ultimately against the heart of God. (Ps 119:136)
So, ask yourself the question: “What kinds of questions am I asking? What does this reveal about my heart?” Examine yourself. If your questions don’t reveal and express a delight in Torah, then something is wrong with your inward man.
Due to the common erroneous teaching on the subject, that Christ has abolished Torah, it is certainly possible that one might be truly redeemed but not be following the Law due to ignorance, having been deceived. This was my personal case before I understood the truth about Torah. But even then, I found Torah beautiful and awesome; I did not despise it, I just did not think that I was obliged to obey it.
As can be observed in Augustine’s Letter 75 (p16), Jerome and Augustine evidently base their anti-Torah mindset on a single underlying principle: “What is not required for salvation is not required at all, and thus is prohibited.” The ridiculousness is manifest, being equivalent to: “Good works are not required for salvation, so all good works are prohibited.”
They manage to back themselves into this absurdity by claiming that what they esteem to be symbolic parts of Torah (e.g. dietary laws, animal sacrifices, biblical feasts, etc.) are all fulfilled by Christ in His first advent. Thus, to practice any of these things is to deny Christ has fulfilled them … it is denying Christ Himself.
How this insanity became generally accepted in Christendom is a mystery, apart from the power of cognitive bias; we tend see what we want to see and believe what we want to believe.