Here's a letter I wrote to a friend/pastor that was heavy into Hebrew Christianity
Blevins,
Grace vs Law?
Never.
Falling from Grace?
By returning to the Mosaic Law as a means of spiritual maturity and or spiritual sanctification.
Gen 1-11 had the rule of life for saved people before Abraham and even Abraham followed these laws of God, ordinances of God Gen 26:5. The promise of God was made to Abraham and later the Mosaic Law was added to the promise but it did not take precedent over the promise nor did it replace the promise.
What was the purpose of the Law?
The Law was never ever a way of salvation.
The Law was given to make an increase of sin, to reveal sin to augment sin.
The Law was given to as a child tutor to lead the Israelite to his need for Messiah.
The Law was given as a rule of life for the already saved man covering every aspect of his life.
The Law was not given to Gentiles.
The Law could not produce a mature sanctified life because it was weak in that the flesh uses the law to rebel.
The Law was not given to produce godliness in the Old Testament saints (it could not because it was weak thru the flesh).
What is the believers rule of life today?
The Law of Liberty called that because we have been set free from the Law of Moses.
The Law of Christ - every commandment given in the New Testament hundreds of them.
Please keep in your mind that just as the Law of Moses was not given for salvation but as a rule of life for saved men, the Law of Christ has not been given for salvation but as our rule of life. Furthermore, a distinction is that with the law of Christ the believer today has been given divine enablement thru the Holy Spirit and in contradistinction with the Law of Moses which could not produce spiritual maturity, the Law of Christ does produce spiritual maturity as taught by Paul who exhorts us to put on Christ as a garment - (the metaphor being the adult Toga given by the Father to the child signifying adulthood). In other words the Law of Moses kept the Old Testament saints in a state of spiritual immaturity but we now can reach spiritual adulthood.
To return to using the Law of Moses as a means of sanctification or to gain spirituality is as Paul says to "fall from grace". Because the Law of Moses operates on the basis of works, faith operates on the basis of grace living, appropriating grace daily. Hebrews says that Yeshua cannot be our high priest according to the Law of Moses because He is from Judah not Levi - the entire Law of Moses has been rendered inoperative as a rule of life for us. It can be used to teach lessons about God and parts of it are optional for us to observe such as the feasts but we are forbidden to make any of it mandatory and we cannot teach the flock of Yeshua that they will attain spirituality by means of observing Mosaic Law, to do so is an error and be tokens unworthy scholarship and is the evidence of a low view of one's value of Yeshua's death.
Please do not move into a Torah observant messianic vein. It is wood hay and stubble brother.
Your Friend,
Tui
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