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Subject: OLD replaced by NEW? Part 1
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 01:07:18 +0000
From: heb_roots_chr@mail.geocities. com
Reply-To: heb_roots_chr@geocities.com
To: "Hebraic Heritage Newsgroup"heb_roots_chr@8eocities.com

From: Nehemiah Trustees Covenant Fund
      ntcf@netvision.net·i1
To: Betty & Mason
      ntcfusa@ix.netcom·com

Subject: OLD replaced by NEW? Part 1

Shalom o'vrachah (Peace and Blessings)

The following is my lengthy reply to an eMail debate I was involved in
concerning the question "Does the NEW Covenant replace the OLD Covenant?"

It is copied here for your edification, for those who may be interested in
the issues that are often raised in this discussion. This reply consists
of 2 parts, so you should have received 2 separate messages. Enjoy!

Shabbat Shalom,

Uri Marcus

Part 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------

Shalom Lambert Dolphin
At 12:47 PM 11/22/96, you were rumored to have typed:

=BB No one here wants to be found misrepresenting God

I wouldn't worry about it, for the Holy One, blessed be He, was wise
enough NOT to make any of us His representatives, but instead has chosen
for Himself only one representative, even Y'shua HaMashiach, who is the
head of the Body, into which HaShem has knitted us together as Members,
not Reps.

=BB >We are
=BB >redefining what we once took for granted and thought was solid ground.
=BB If you are talking about seeing old scriptures in a new light, well I
=BB think
=BB that is true for all of us as the end of the age approaches· In the final
=BB redemption of Israel I would expect much new light on both the Old
=BB Testament and the New, from the Holy Spirit. This does not mean new
=BB revelation, but simply more of the illumination of the Spirit. I think you
=BB would agree with me on this?

 Agreed. This is what I meant.

=BB In our discussions I kept thinking of the council James the
=BB Brother of our Lord presided over in the First century, (Acts 15) I hope
=BB you and I aren't reviving that particular debate!

As as matter of fact, I am. It is central to much of my theology regarding
the Torah and the Gentiles, and they would do well to pay attention to its
implications. At Jerusalem Council I, it was established that Gentiles
don't need to become Jews to join the Body of Messiah. Today, we should
convene Jerusalem Council II and proclaim to the world that Jews don't need
to become Gentiles to join the Body of Messiah, as many have supposed.
However, on the basis of this same passage, I could prove to you without
being tagged as a Judaizer that you as a Gentile should be eating Kosher,
and the rest of scripture would agree with me. But that is another sermon.
You might want to start saying goodbye to BLT's and Shrimp cocktails.

By the way, I thought you knew... there is no James in the Bible. There is
no James the brother of the Lord, there is no James the Apostle, and there
is no James the Epistle. There is however a man named Ya'acov (Jacob)
"James" was inserted in the text because King "James" bankrolled the
translation which bears his name, and he wasn't satisfied until his name
appeared in the Holy Writ. In every language the Bible has ever been
translated into, you will never find "James" but instead a derivation of
"Ya'acov", that is, except in English language versions.

=BB No, in no way do I negate the Law of Moses. It is a revelation from God of
=BB His character, His eternal nature, His Person. The Law is eternal.

Lets get our terminology straight first. Whenever the text refers to "the
Law of Moses," it is a euphemism for "Torat Adonai" or "instruction from
G-d." That is why it is eternal.

=BB It is our relationship to the Law which changes, for instance, Romans
7:4ff:

Correct. What was our relationship with the Torah before we became part of
the community of faith?

Our relationship involved condemnation, but the Torah also served as a
revelation of the need of Messiah. It led us to Messiah,

But was the Torah a means to obtain salvation? NO! Why?

Because Torah was not given to save people. Its not a salvation document.
You cannot earn, possess or maintain salvation by means of observing Torah.
Just as you cannot fix a car substituting Time Magazine for the Repair
Manual, you cannot use the Torah to gain salvation. If you do, it will
backfire and produce only guilt and condemnation. For those who use it
this way, the Torah can only reveal their sinfulness. "because law brings
wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15)

But the Torah protected us even when we were not "in Faith." "Before this
faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith
should be revealed. (Galatians 3:23)

The picture here is of Torah serving the unsaved as a protector, until
faith comes along and is revealed.

In summary then, Torah for the unbeliever:

A. Is not a means of salvation
B. Shows men their sinfulness
C. Condemns them when they sin
D. Serves as a protector until faith arrives.

But what then is the relationship or the purposes of the Torah for the
Believer?
The answer is 7-fold:

1. It reveals what a righteous life looks like. This is where we can see
Y'shuah who is the living Torah, as a model. He shows us what
righteousness looks like because He observed Torah at every point. I don't
know about you, but I want to be just like Y'shua.

2. It helps us to enjoy the blessings of G-d's promises.

In order to see this played out, lets look at the covenants of G-d. There
are two, and both were given to the Jewish People.

"The people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine
glory, the covenants (notice the plural!), the receiving of the law, the
Temple worship and the promises. (Romans 9:4).

A. The first was with Avraham. Galatians 3 explains it as a covenant of
Promise. The promises were for Land, Blessing, Greatness, etc. The
expected response was FAITH. Gen. 15 tells us the Avraham believed G-d and
he was credited with Righteousness because of that. Avaham gave the correct
expected response to this contract from G-d.

Now there is a physical and spiritual application to this covenant as
Sha'ul in Galations tells us. The physical side is that Avraham and his
response. The spiritual side pertains to us. G-d gave Promises to us
(inheritance of His Kingdom, forgiveness of sin, being made into a new
creature, blessings, eternal life, and all the things that describe who we
are in Messiah.) And the response is what? FAITH or TRUST.

B. But the second covenant is different· It teaches us how to enjoy those
promises that G-d gave in the first covenant. It doesn't deal with the
giving of the promises. It assumes you already have them. It was given to
show you how to enjoy and to walk in those promises.

But what is the covenantal response? OBEDIENCE! So ONE covenant is
received through TRUST and the other teaches us how to enjoy the first and
appropriate it through OBEDIENCE.

How can we verify this? Easy. By studying the narratives in the Torah
itself. What do we know about the people to whom the Torah was given?
Well, we know that they were a people already redeemed. They were already
set free when they received the Torah. Now this teaches a very important
lesson, that G-d gave his teachings as a lifestyle, not for the
unredeemed, so they could earn their redemption, but to the already
redeemed so they could have a lifestyle of blessing. So~ again, YOU don't
do Torah to get redeemed. You do it because you ARE redeemed.

When you are redeemed, naturally you want to know how to have a successful
marriage, how to have a successful business or ministry, how to relate to
your family, how to govern your relationships to friends, enemies,
brothers, the government -- all these things are given to us in the Torah,
and Y'shua came to correctly interpret that Torah for us.

Why "in G-ds name" has the church thrown away these instructions by making
them invisibly disappear into Y'shua, and then dismissed mystically with
high sounding theological arguments like, "We don't need Torah anymore,
because Y'shua is in our heart," or "Y'shua is a new Torah, the old has
been done away with." They have injected their own substitution called,
"Living under grace3" failing to notice that its takes grace to do the
Torah. This is because they have confused Torah with salvation.

3. The third purpose for which the Torah was given was to reveal a way of
life. It helps us to define who we are. In the Ya'acov's letter, chapter
1, he says, "Anyone"e who listens to the word but does not do what it says
is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at
himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the
man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and
continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he
will be blessed in what he does. (Ya'acov 1:23-25)

He says in effect that when a man looks at the Torah and does it, its like
looking at a mirror. Suddenly you find out what you really look like, and
then acts accordingly· But if he doesn't do the Torah, he forgets what he
looks like, and acts out of character. That is why we need the constant
reminder.

4. The Torah also gives us an identity through lifestyle. It defines what
Jewishness is· But don't let that term throw you, for you have been
grafted into the Jewish Root and made part of the commonwealth of Israel.
If you still don't like the term, substitute "sanctification," because
that is what the Jews were called to be.., set apart. How does the Torah
help in this area. Well, it gives us reminders, and practice sessions of
what we are headed for, and thereby strengthens our identity as citizens
of G-ds kingdom. And G-d knows we need the practice, don't we' We get
weekly practice and reminders living out our rest in the Messiah through
the Shabbat. Then we get yearly practice in living out our redemption
through the holidays and feast days. We get daily reminders by looking at
our Tzitzi'ot [fringes], which help steer us clear of trouble. Without all
these reminders in the Torah, we simply forget who we are and we will
never know what our part is, when G-d opens the curtain for the main
performance.

5. The Torah serves also as a revelation of the righteousness of G-d. "So
then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good."
(Romans 7:12) This is similar to #1, but here it shows us the unending
loving compassion G-d has for us.

6. The Torah reveals the Messiah. Y'shua said, the Torah speaks of Him,
and He was right. Even when we are part of the household of faith the
Torah continues to reveal to greater and greater degrees who the Messiah
is, and what he does for us.

7. The Torah connects us with our own people, to our Jewish root. Now the
church doesn't think much of that these days, but they should. What do the
Jews think of Christians as a result? They have a very low opinion. Even
Gershon will tell you that he tolerates Christians as long as they keep
their "Jesus" to themselves· Why the low opinion? Because over and over
again, through-out history, Jews have seen Christians bury their precious
and holy Torah. They have mishandled and misinterpreted this sacred
document which is the very marriage agreement between G-d and His people.
They have seen it covered up, maligned and abrogated. No wonder there is
little to talk about with a Jew, when the Christian has taken the very
thing that defines Jewish identity and dismisses it·

Its high time we begin to do as was recorded in II Chron 34r when Yehoshiah
and the priests found the book of the Torah after it had fallen out of
use. Let us dust it off and relearn it and then we can talk about the
Messiah, the object which the Torah reveals.

=BB I do not think you are advocating justification by grace PLUS keeping of
=BB the Law?

Being justified before G-d is a gift that you cannot earn. But keeping the
Torah is way to measure our response to that gift.

=BB I am aware that what Jews mean by "Torah" is broader than just
=BB "Law." If you agree that Christ is the Living Word, and the Bible reveals
=BB Christ, and we are to allow the Word of God to "dwell in our hearts richly"
=BB then we are.probably on the same wavelength.

The problem with this is that your explanation stops at the heart. If
Y'shua is dwelling in our heart, then the result is a Torah dependent
lifestyle that is visible. Even Y'shua's commandment to "Love" consists of
good deeds, and speaks of action, not mere feelings.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
=BB I have never, ever, said or implied or the Law was null and void, but I did
=BB say the OLD COVENANT with Moses had been replaced by a NEW COVENANT.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Torah is part and parcel of this "old covenant" you refer to, and
therefore you are saying and implying that not only has the Torah been
replaced, but that it is in fact null and void. The "Law" as you say is in
fact "Torah" and is better translated as "Instruction." It is comprised of
the first 5 books of the Bible, and contains much of the legal material
you refer to as the "old covenant" beginning with Ex 20.

In my mind, still echoes the words of a popular song John Fischer wrote
years ago during my PBC days, which if left unchallenged, subtlety plants
and continues to plant the anti-Torah bias that so many Christians buy
into:

"Do this and live, the Law demands,
   but gives me neither feet nor hands.
A better way his grace doth bring
   It bids me fly and gives me wings."

But this chorus ignores the fact that grace is contained in Torah. It
pronounces "a better way" in contrast to the Torah, as if grace were an
unknown player, and bids the seeker to "fly" away from the Torah into
"freedom" without it. But this is total non-sense and a rejection of the
G-d of Israel and His Torah, which He intended to give to all men through
the Jewish people.

But what about this "Grace?" Does Grace reside in the older covenant? No!
not if you accept the standard explanation of Yochanan (John) 1:17, "the
law was given through Moshe; grace and truth came through Y'shua the
Messiah."

But as it turns out, Christians have long misunderstood this verse. Look
carefully at the phrase "grace and truth" You would think that there is a
contrast going on here between it, and "law." But there isn't. The only
place you will find the contrast is in English Bibles! If you search them,
you won't find one single occurrence of the phrase "grace and truth" in the
OT, leading one to believe that it never existed before Y'shua was born.

But do the search in Hebrew, and you will find no less than 16 occurrences!
Why? Because the translators all wanted you to think that there was no
"grace and truth" in the older covenant. But there is! Most notably in the
Torah. When G-d revealed himself to Moshe, He got a live demonstration of
it! ...

"And he passed in front of Moshe, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the
compassionate and gracious G-d, slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness, (Sh'mot [Exodus] 34:6)

The words "Love and Faithfulness" here (NLV) are an incorrect translation.
The words in Hebrew are "Grace and Truth"

Back to Yochanan. What did he mean? Well, notice that the word "given" is
passive. Torah was "given" through the agency of Moshe. Who gave it to
Moshe? G-d of course. But what about "grace and truth"? Didn't "grace and
truth" come with the Torah? Of course it did! Moshe witnessed it. But this
aspect of the Torah was not passively "given" THROUGH Y'shua in the same
way that the Torah was given through Moshe. Rather it was revealed, made
evident, or made itself apparent upon the stage of history when Y'shua
appeared in His role as Mashiach. He was the one who expressed it. He
explained it. He came with it. Y'shua delivered "grace and truth" found
and promised in the Torah.

Another area of confusion comes from the misunderstanding of the word
"new" in "new covenant". In Hebrew, the term is "Brit HaChadasha". "Brit"
is the word for covenant or contract. "Chadash" which can mean new, here
means "renewed." The the case of the NT, the material is not new, like in
"brand new" but it is a "renewed covenant". It functions like an
amendment or annexation to the first covenant, through which the first
is explained or clarified, releasing the power necessary to "Do this, and
live," and removing the penalty of death when we fail to do so. Yet, even
this provision was evident already in the older covenant, but needed
amplification through the renewed covenant.

The difference in the renewed covenant is that it provides the basis in
which the older covenant (the Torah) can be written on our hearts.

The critical question now becomes, "Does Torah written on our hearts mean
that "doing Torah is no longer necessary?" If the answer is "Yes" then the
newer covenant has in fact replaced the older one. But if the answer is
"No," it time to get back to the drawing board and rethink our theology,
quickly, before its too late.

Most people would assume that Rav Sha'ul (Paul) understood better than any
of us the concept of Torah written on our hearts. Using hermaneutical
principals, and the life example of Rav Sha'ul himself, we should be able
put this question to rest once and for all.

If there was ever a crucial time in history that Sha'ul faced in which he
had the clear opportunity to set the record straight with regard to his
views on whether or not he taught believers that Torah was being phased
out, and grace being phased in, it was staged for him in the events of
Acts 21:18-24. This passage deserves our greatest discernment for if
Sha'ul lived differently than what he preached, we should regard him as a
hypocrite, and his writings as unreliable and unworthy of our attention.
But if Sha'ul lived in concert with his teachings, then we must discover
the real intent to his writings which we have previously misunderstood as
having an anti-Torah bias.

Thirty years after the resurrection, we find Sha'ul still observing Torah.
Note also, that the events of Acts 21 took place AFTER Sha'ul wrote his
letters to the Romans and the Galations. When confronted with the
accusations that he was teaching Jews to "turn away from Moshe" and then
given opportunity to prove the accusation false, Sha'ul could have stood
up at that moment and said, "Wait a second fellows. I must tell you that
G-d has given me new revelation. Its time we put away Torah for Y'shua and
His never covenant are now the order of the day." But, Baruch HaShem, we
know this never happened. Instead Sha'ul upheld the law, forever closing
the debate for Jews and Gentiles, and thus established for the community
of faith that Torah still intact, still operational, and was a cornerstone
in depicting a life of trusting faithfulness to G-d.

Those today who say that "the OLD COVENANT with Moses had been replaced by
a NEW COVENANT" not only ignore Sha'ul's own example, but forget from where
they came, and disassociate themselves from the roots into whose tree
they where grafted. They do indeed replace Moshe with a whole new set of
laws, like how and when to pray, read the Bible, witness, go to church,
etc...

In contrast, with Torah, we can live out what was written on our hearts,
which include instructions about all the major themes in life that need to
be addressed, from warnings against showing favoritism, to proper
communications, to proving your faith by your works. Many of these things
are taught by Ya'acov in his epistle who drew his material directly from
the Torah. Ya'acov was, by the way considered a model "Tsadik" in his day
(a Torah Observant Messianic Jew)

The final issue to be dealt with is, "Do you want to do what Messiah did?"
If the answer is "Yes", then you have to ask, "What characterized Him?"
Since he was the living Torah, we have an example to follow, and Y'shua
was definitely a Torah-observant Jew, just as Rav Sha'ul was.

But what we have today is a generation of Christians who are petrified and
paranoid of "legalism," or becoming "legalistic" because they don't want
to appear insincere, perfunctory or phony, in recognition of their own
weakness with regard to sin. But in Sha'ul's day there wasn't a convenient
term in Creek to describe this activity, yet it was equally existent. So
Sha'ul had to invent a compound term, using words, which otherwise taken
by themselves would convey the simple meaning of "law" or "Torah." By
disregarding Sha'ul's usage of the compound term to express legalism, found
mostly in Romans and Galations, Christian theologians far from their
Jewish roots, down through the centuries have missed his point. In doing
so, they have assigned Sha'ul with an anti-Jewish and an anti-Torah bias,
which they adapted and expanded upon, and which later created the most
viral form of anti-Semitism that Jews would ever experience, culminating in
the Holocaust.

Continued in Part 2 -----------------------------------------------------

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