The Law is Holy and Good

Since I have been studying and reading more works written by Messianic believers, I have realised more and more how much of the New Testament was written about the division and unity of Jews and Gentiles. Understanding the relationship between the Tanakh and the New Testament and the place they hold in our lives today is something I find to be instrumental in giving me a deeper understanding of God's will, His Word and His relationship to the various races of people. As a gentile I have found it enlightening to recognize that the Scriptures were written in the context of Jewish culture, not American. . .lol. . .and they need to be understood in their context (which was not an American paradigm). Also, as a believer (one who trusts in Yeshua - Jesus - as the Messiah), how do we balance the place of grace and the place of the Law of God that was given through Moses?

In connection to this, there seems to be some contradictions in the Scriptures (though we know the contradiction is only in our understanding). For instance, Romans 3:28 says, "Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands." Then we read in Romans 3:30 & 31, "Therefore, He will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting. Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? On the contrary, we confirm Torah."

So how do we confirm the Torah? For me, the passage in Romans 3:21 holds an interesting insight. It says, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." It seems to me that throught the ages, the Torah was a witness. Now is human experience, witnesses can only give an accurate account of an event that has already happened which they personally saw. For instance, a witness to an accident must have been at the scene when the accident occurred. And they cannot be a witness to the accident, before it occurred. However, Scriptures tells us that Yeshua was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Therefore, the Torah - even in the Tanakh was a witness concerning the sacrifice of the Lamb, even though the event had not yet manifested in our physical world. It pointed to the coming manifestation of His sacrifice. When the the Messiah appeared, He indeed fulfilled the events the witness told us about. Yeshua said that the law and the prophets spoke of Him. Once He came and did what the law and prophets said He would do, did that make their witness void? Of course not. It confirmed what the witness said all along! When we believe the testimony of what He did - His righteous life, death and resurrection - we also affirm that what the law and the prophets - the witness - told us. We agree with the witness they give. We concur that their testimony is true and we declare God's faithfulness in doing what He said He would do. My King James Bible lists 38 passages in the Old Testament that foretold the events concerning the Messiah, and were fulfilled in the New Testament. It is not a comprehensive list either, because I am thinking right now of a foretelling (prophecy) that is not in that list. I will share it here because it is one of my favorites. It is found in Numbers 21:5-9. The Israelites were travelling around the land of Edom and became discouraged. They spoke against Moses - and God - and complained. Because of this, God sent poisonous snakes which bit the people, and many died. When the people repented and asked Moses to intercede for them, God told Moses, "Make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. When anyone who has been bitten sees it, he will live." Moses did as the Lord told him. Scripture records that, "Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole; if a snake had bitten someone, then, when he beheld the bronze snake , he stayed alive." The serpent on the pole represented our sin that was nailed to the execution stake along with the Messiah. Colossians 2:14 speaking of Yeshua says, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,which was contrary to us,and took it out of the way, nailing it to the execution stake." 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with Him we might fully share in God's righteousness." As the Israelites beheld the serpent on the pole and as we behold the Messiah on the execution stake, we are made whole, healed and brought into right standing with God. Those are only the prophets. Then there is the witness of the law. The peace offerings, the sin offerings, burnt offerings and the passover all were foreshadows and types that were fulfilled in Yeshua. Bible teacher Marilyn Hickey has some excellent teachings along these lines.

Because of a lack of time today I will not go into it further, but if there is an interest in it, I could blog on this topic more at another time. But for now I hope it is a little clearer why Paul could confidently say that the Law is Holy and Good. It witnessed of Yeshua and the grace that was brought to us through Him.