YaHshua servant's -- Home Page // About Us Law Abolished? Has The Law Been Abolished? By Your servant, Dan Baxley dan@servantsofyahshua.com www.servantsofyahshua.com The Law is abolished, it no longer rules over us, we are set free from the law, the law is our enemy and we don't need to bother with it -- Really? Recently I have received emails wanting to know how to live, law or no law, or which laws? The confusion over this issue has several sides and each side using the Scriptures to support their teaching. Some find it comforting to embrace the LAW of the Old Covenant, finding direction and purpose to their lives. It is only human to want something you can see and hold and handle or to be told what to do and how to do it, especially if it seems your god is telling you to do it. Believe me when I say, the first century church struggled over this very thing too. Most of the requests are concerned about "type of life style". I have discussed this before and will not go over it again (Living your Life in YaHshua), Suffice it to say, we all have different styles but it is natural to desire a method by which we can know we are worshiping our Savior properly. For the Hebrews it was a series of Commandments, Statutes, and Ordinances. These various three division were all summed up in the Law. YaHshua called this the Law of Moses, not the law of YHWH. It is, however, acknowledged that the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of YHWH Himself. Keeping it simple we can understand the Law better if we understand the purpose of the three divisions of the Law. Commandments: These Ten Commandments is the base upon which the worship of the Living God and the respect for fellow man is found. These Commandments are good and holy and when accepted as part of your life will bring you to a life of right living. In no way, however, do these Ten Commandments bring you salvation. The salvation we desire comes only through our Savior YaHshua an our confession of Him personally. (Act 4:12) Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
(Mat 5:18)For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Mat 5:19)Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teachthem,the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Statutes and Ordinances Statutes and Ordinances: These are part of the civil laws all nations need to govern themselves. Things are written out in detail, punishments and rewards, etc. These also contain the ceremonial procedures for the sacrificial system under which Israel lived. This system cannot exist as a "covenant" without the Temple. The person of Israel, having rejected YaHshua as Messiah and Savior, are in a spiritual limbo as there is no Temple and the sacrificial system by which they were able to redeem themselves before Their God no longer exists and has not existed for just under 2,000 years. Jews and non-jews alike can keep, observe, and use these statutes of ancient Israel as a life style if they wish but without the Temple in place it is all for nothing. During the first century the Christian Church, however, did have the Temple, the Apostles all went to synagogue and taught on the Sabbath day (7th day of the week, Saturday). After the destruction of the Temple the sacrificial system ceased. How could it go on, the Temple had been taken to the ground, save one wall the Romans left standing as a memorial to their great accomplishment in utterly destroying such a large complex. It truly was quite a feat as some to the stones the Roman engineers and soldiers dislodged and in some cases, pounding into dust actually weighted more than the stones found in the pyramids of Egypt. The destruction of this edifice King Herod had built was a great accomplishment. The City was not totally destroyed until about 70 years later. The point being -- Israel has been cut off from their God, by their way of thinking, by their rejection of YaHshua, ever since that day. Just the opposite for followers of YaHshua, by the removal of all of these external exhibitions the Gentile Church and some Messianic Jews have been allowed worship of the one and only Father in Heaven unencumbered by stick, stone, and brick. The times of the Gentiles will come to an end, as it is said -- (Luke 21:24)And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Rom 11:25) For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Yahshua said it, Paul taught it, the "times of the Gentiles" is the period of time we are living in. Notice the wording, "until the fullness" which tells us it is not going to continue. How long is this period? We do not know but like in most prophetic utterances, it will be evident when it happens or is completed. All we know today concerning this "time" of gentile dominance in the
worship of the Living God, having gained access "outside of the Law" by and through YaHshua is that it is, so far, longer than 1,940 years, give or take. If you are one of the date setting speculators then you can have fun with this -- "a day is as a 1,000 years" concept would mean we have another 60 years to go before the 6,000 year mark. All of this aside, coming to the base of base arguments concerning the LAW as being abolished, let us speculate concerning our obligation as believers. You say you believe and want nothing to do with those brothers that are buried in the Old Testament; you are a New Testament convert. So, what is the New testament? Do you know? Now that you have accept YaHshua and you are to be a new person then what does that mean? No laws over you, right? So, how are you going to live, how are you going to conduct yourself among others. No judgments, no Laws, you are perfectly free, or so you think but in reality you know you are not. Even the Apostles taught allegiance to civil authority, and that encompasses a lot of Law. The Apostles instructed the Church in how to select Deacons and Elders -- more rules. Then we have the Bible and writings themselves, one of which says that if we obey His commands we belong to Him --- hey, wait, I thought the laws were all abolished? Some one stands up and says, "I will live by love alone", that is my code, it is what's in my heart, so there. Hey, I'm all for that, as we are even told that our Savior and our God is Love. What happens, however, is the love man uses is not the same Love our Heavenly Father is capable of. Man's love can be diabolical, it can be deceitful and arrogant and selfish. As human beings we would be hard pressed to exhibit the Love YaHshua has for us, and we cannot come even close to what Love the Father has for us, a love by all rights we do not deserve. It is not the thing we do, or the way we part our hair or whether we have a beard or not. To my way of thinking it is our obligations to conduct ourselves as if we are literally the Children of the Almighty awaiting our transformation into the actual spirit brothers and sisters of YaHshua. We can do nothing to bring this about; this is given to us out of unconditional love from our Heavenly father. But, and this is a big but, this does not release us from the Law as teacher and guide, it saves us from its penalty. So long as the Temple is dust, the ordinances and statutes concerning that fashion of worship is too. We have become the Temple, we are the dwelling place of YaHshua and of our Heavenly father and we all too often forget that. If Satan were allowed to take you and place you in a box only big enough to curl up in and kept you alive for years on end so that you could not worship the Creator and confess YaHshua, this assuming you could keep your sanity Satan would lose in attempting to steal your soul, so to speak. He cannot have your mind, you spirit, the spirit given you, that little bit of spirit given you, connecting you to your Lord and Master YaHshua. Se what I am getting at? Would you be lost because you could not perform some act, burn a candle, wash some feet, observe a Holy Day -- would this cut you off from you Savior? Not at all, how could it as He is with you, as promised, He is protecting that part of you that will go over into the Kingdom. It is a new body we are looking for and waiting for, not a new spirit. Our spiritual essence, so to speak, is within us, trapped in the body of flesh, we are waiting the replacement so we can literally enter into the Kingdom of YaHshua.
We are not all called to the same calling and as i have said before, your calling may be to the Messianic side as in the first century Church the first converts were these and they had a bit of a struggle in accepting the Gentiles into the fold but when that did happen they were not required to become Jews. So, in the first century we have, Jewish Christians, and they continued to attend the Sabbath meetings, until thrown out, and you had Gentile converts doing their thing and Paul was with them at times and even gave instructions about conduct becoming a brother in the faith when it came to sitting and eating with the Gentiles at their table when weaker Jewish brethren were present. Were the Gentiles wrong in their worship of YaHsua? Were the Jewish brethren wrong in their methods of worship? No, neither group but his did not keep them from treating one another differently. If you worship YaHshua as Savior and you are a Jew then what is wrong with you continuing in your traditions? Nothing, so long as you now understand it is all about YaHshua, it is in honor to Him and to our Heavenly Father whom He came to reveal. What about the Gentile convert, are you supposed to begin to live as a Jew? Heaven forbid, as we are given two distinct warnings in the book of Revelation about claiming to be something we are not. Many Jews are called to the Messiah and many more Gentiles and we are a different people for a different purpose. Our Heavenly father is not trying to make "cookie-cutter" children, just as not all of those He has called to YaHshua are given the same talents or events the same truths at the same time. The Laws of Moses are for our instruction not our master, we can learn from them and the largest lesson we can learn is what our Creator thinks concerning various issues and attitudes. We have the rare opportunity of look into His way of thinking by what we read in the Hebrew Scriptures. He tells us how it all started, how mankind failed, how He felt sorry but instead of quitting He started over with a better generation of man, Noah, and still things went wrong. We see how He dealt with individuals and then with a nations. He guided Moses and helped him with putting together a complex system organized for the Nation Israel -- not for the heathens round about, but for Israel, even offering to be their King but that was eventually rejected by the people as they wanted a flesh and blood king, like the heathen nations around them. Still, the things from Moses and from YHWH has proven to be more than correct and more than adequate to govern a people but not just a people but individuals which included instructions on a diet that would bless them physically. What can we learn from all of this? Really, I don't need to answer that question, as you know the answer already, in you heart, you know the God If Israel, the God Christians have accept, never gave a law or a commandment meant to harm the people He said was Holy to Him. Any believer that would take His words seriously would understand and would never dare breathe the words, "Oh, but those OT laws are done away". If you need, my friends, a focus object, something to help keep you on track and you find that honoring the Holy Days unto your God, and our Savior, YaHshua then by all means learn about them and apply them. If you feel you need a special day set aside for study and worship, what better day than the Holy Sabbath? Speaking of the Sabbath day, it is my understanding that so long as the Jews do not have the Temple they cannot properly observe, keep, the High Sabbaths, or Holy Days as outlined th Scripture and if they cannot keep these days as Holy Day correctly, then neither can you. But, what you can do, is learn from them, you can honor those days as
coming from our Creator to instruct a Holy People to Him about coming events, as the Holy Days are literally the outline and plan of YHWH. And, when you understand the Passover, our Savior as the ultimate sacrificial Lamb, then you begin to see the importance of the Holy Days and that they are not nullified but are being carried out, as planned. Love is good, I have no quarrel with the Love ministries, just remember, even the Heathen love their own. I know, it is supposed to be more than that but outside of YaHshua and our dedication to Him even the love we need to express toward our fellow man is a small thing. Our love coupled with charity can be a wonderful thing so long as we see YaHshua at our side, it is His love sustaining us, it is His righteousness, not our own, it is His smile we are conveying, His patients. Never forget, a loving parent will administer a living beating to correct a bad behavior. Israel should understand and know this above all others, just look at her history, she, by all rights should not even exist but she does and her sustainer continues to teach, correct and use Israel as an example for us -- Some where it says that Israel is spilling her blood for the nations, like YaHshua spilled His blood to heal us, Israel has been going through what all nations deserve -- she is paying the price and this will end one day and every nation will be accounted for its own sens. Yes, the day is coming, when all Israel will be delivered and held in high esteem by the nations. (Isa 66:22-24) For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. (Rev 21:1) And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Same time, same place and you will notice the mentioning of Sabbaths, and New Moons all of which are part of the Law -- the Law some would have you believe if nullified. It is not finished and will not be finished, fulfilled, until the 1,000 years are finished and even then it appears as there will still be some of it, still applicable in the New Heavens and New Earth. Hallelujah Email: dan@servantsofyahshua.com Go To Home Page