Understanding the Blessing

Disclaimer: I am not a scholar or rabbi. I write this based on what I've found to be true in particular situations where I became curious, and wanted to know more. In no way do I intend here to accuse anyone or say that everyone thinks the same way. I have the deepest respect for Israel, and the Israeli people. My desire is to understand; it is not to put down or to insult.



Galatians 3:10-11 says that all who rely on observing the law are under a curse. For it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything that is written in the book of the law. Clearly, no one is justified by the law, for it is written, "the righteous shall live by faith.'

Okay, here it is...pretty much the basis for my Evangelical Christian faith all this time. But let me make it clear, I am so GRATEFUL to Evangelical Christians who shared with me the redemption that is found in Christ and nowhere else! If it had not been for them, I would not be walking so closely with Yeshuah today. I did in fact pray and ask Jesus to come into my heart, and he did! He met me right where I was and has been drawing me unto himself ever since. There is no doubt that the grace of Christ abounds in my life. I write this blog, simply to say that I have been trampling all over it...and now I'm realizing that.

I had sort of a falling out with the church I was in. This was not a moral issue. This was not a doctrinal thing. This was a situational thing that forced me to back up and take another look at myself. I puzzled over this. How could it be Elohim's will that I not be in church? Why should I be "separated from the body of Christ (as some are in the habit of doing?)". Because I needed to take a closer look. Crazy as this sounds, I could only do this if I backed up a bit.

So, if all who rely on observing the law are under a curse, does this mean that the law is done away with completely? I no longer think so. I used to tell people all the time that there actually is only one sin that anyone ever went to Hell for...and that's the sin of remaining unsaved. However, I would not want anyone to quote me on this, because, this is only half the story. The fact is, our deeds do matter. Whether or not we do our deeds according to God's law does matter. I can't count how many times I've listened to some pastor (usually on radio) try to get it through my head that there is nothing I can do to earn salvation...it's by God's grace alone. True. I don't deny this. My question is, why do we stop there? Why don't we tell the rest of the story...as Paul Harvey would say?

I will back this up with scripture as much as possible, but it seems to me that the problem is this: Much of the Christian world has everything divided into two camps. Simple, right? Sure. The problem is, this then becomes the lens through which all other scriptures are viewed. So, when a Christian says, for example, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation," what we mean is, he's now "crossed over" from the unsaved camp, to the saved camp. He (or she) is forgiven, they're redeemed. They will spend eternity with Christ forever. (Yes!!!!). Great! But what if this is only part of it? What about when Ruth tells Naomi: "Don't urge me to leave you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God."? Does this sound like a woman who wanted to identify with the way Naomi did things and be her family? Sure it does.

So, when we become born again, we enter into a relationship with Yeshuah, right? I heard it every week in church, no matter where my pastor was teaching in the scripture, this was the conclusion... You must be born-again, as Jesus said to Nicodemus. From my heart, I must say now, I really think that this means more than simply accepting salvation. When we consider that faith without works is dead, and that Yeshuah said that he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, why would Galations 3 say that all who rely on serving the law are under a curse? Well, most Evangelicals have this shoved down their throat every week: Salvation is by God's GRACE through FAITH alone. It's not faith, plus works.

Okay, all I know how to do, is say this in my own language, the way I understand it. So, here goes... The grace of Christ is what we as believers trust in when we mess up and we fail to keep God's commandments...but this does not mean that we don't bother to keep the law, or that we say it does not matter. The Abrahamic covenant law, and also parts of the Levitical law are the mandates Yahweh gave to his people as the evidence (you might say) that we belong to HIM. Why did I say "parts" of the Levitical law? Simply because parts of it were suitable for the time it was written, but simply do not apply for the way we live today...this is true. But how many of you are now thinking "No, no, you can't do that...you don't get to CHOOSE the parts of the law you follow...we need to follow it all. Okay, I see what you're saying. But let me ask you: Do you plan on boiling a baby goat in it's Mother's milk as part of a Babylonian fertility ritual? Of course not, right? Yet this is what Exodus 23:19 instructs because, at that time, this was a pertinent issue. Yahweh warned his people that when they made it into the land he would show them, there would be folks participating in practices that He did not want his people assimilating to. This was one. So obviously, "keeping" with this command now, is no longer "relevant" if you will, because I would HOPE no one does such a thing anymore.

Anyway, let me just say it like this: Perhaps when we "Christians" become "Christians," we don't truly realize who's identity we are willingly taking on, or even WHY we're taking it on, because the so-called Evangelical church (bless their hearts) has watered it down so much. Read Romans chapter's 9, 10 and 11. I think a person could spend a lifetime digging into what these chapters say, and still not fully grasp the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of such an awesome G-d!! Generally, we love to quote Romans 8 verse 28 that says "we are saved by trusting"... This is true, we are, through God's leading us unto himself. But when we are born again, and we now claim to belong to, and be following the G-d of the Hebrews, and we are grafted into the Olive tree (as a wild olive branch, maybe we should understand that we are now assuming the "identity" of the G-d of the Hebrews as well?

In today's Evangelical church, we are basically taught that this is not necessary (the Jewish identity) and that the death of Christ on the cross "did away with" the (original) covenant, and that we are now no longer under legalism. Legalism, this is the way most evangelical's refer to any "evidence" of a Jewish faith. Whether it's celebrating the Jewish feast days, celebrating the Sabbath, eating Kosher, or simply being diligent about memorizing the ten commandments (!!!!). How would we feel if the shoe were on the other foot? But if this were not enough, most of us sit in church on Sunday and use Jewish traditions and customs as OUR example of what NOT to do. We say that all of this without accepting Christ's death is worth nothing...which is why, I think that Galations 3:10 says that those who rely on following the law are under a curse. My dream would be for those who are offended by what I just said to understand that this is G-d's idea. This is not simply the dogma of a bunch of unkind, uncaring Christians who want to be cruel to those who are Jewish. Anyway...turn it around the other way...When I looked up cross references for Galatians 3:10, I was given Deuteronomy 27:26... "Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of the law, and do them (by carrying them out) and all the people shall say Amen!"

Okay, so, the Christian version of this story is that the Law let's us know that we are sinners...but our human imperfection can't be accepted by a a perfect G-d...so he sent his son as a "payment" for our sins. So, with this payment now put in place on our behalf, it now seems to me that if we belong to Christ, we ought to be following the law, as much as we're able, rather than throwing it out, or proclaiming that we're no longer under it. Until now, I had not believed this. I was taught that Christ's death paid for the sins of the world, and whether someone is a Jew or a Gentile, they need to accept Christ's death on the cross, or they will...here it comes...spend forever in Hell, rather than in Heaven.

But an interesting thing happened. I read verse 25... "Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.". I thought of Pilate, knowing that Jesus was innocent, but giving into the crowd screaming "Crucify him! Crucify him!". Pilate knew that Jesus had done nothing wrong, he even admitted it (verse). Yet Jesus was crucified anyway because Pilate gave into the demands of the huge crowd. What about the silver that Judas was paid to have Jesus arrested? Was this not a "bribe" accepted for the death of an innocent man? Goodness, did we not "accept" that? Hmmm, are we now "under a curse" for that? Wow. We've actually been under a curse since the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden, but that's another thing...

I visited a website just last night called the Conversion to Judaism Resource Center (link below) on which is stated that Jews do not believe in the idea of Original Sin. They believe that humans are born neither good nor bad, but having the ability to choose, good or bad, also implying that with this choice...humans have some merit. This sounds great, but is it true?? It's my understanding that folks who aspire to Judaism do it because they want to learn and keep the Torah because this is what honors G-d. Don't the very first chapters of the Torah deal with Original Sin?? If not, then what exactly IS the story of Adam and Eve???? Why would Yeshua have gone to the cross if he didn't have to? In the entire process, he did not even take the wine he'd been offered for relief. Because he took our punishment on himself...this is what I've always been taught. This was his mercy shown to us.

But let's get back to Deuteronomy 27:25. Could it be possible that we are under a curse for sending Jesus to the cross, rather then for the "original sin" of Adam and Eve? Suppose Jesus had no divinity, the way Judaism seems to suggest...even Pilate knew he was an innocent man. Would Jesus have been the first innocent man to have been crucified? I'd doubt it. Just as many innocent people were executed at the Tower of London, I'm sure innocent people were crucified as well. But if Jesus was G-d as he claimed to be, then not only did (we) crucify an innocent man, we "accepted a bribe" (Judas and the silver) for the death of G-d himself. If this sounds too good to be true...I think this is exactly the point. Only a perfect G-d willing to become like one of us could be the "sacrifice" for our imperfection.

As I've written on this blog before, I came to believe that Jewish folks are especially blessed, because they share the lineage of the most high G-d. So, I thought that if Judaism is good enough for them, it's good enough for me. I just wanted to be as close to Yeshua as possible. So, to find out that (most) Jewish folks don't even believe that Yeshua even had any divinity is s heartbreaking reality. What?? I said "most" because, as I'm learning many Jewish folks have come to believe in Yeshua. They've accepted his death on the cross (or tree), and believe that he is the Messiah. He is Lord. These folks are called Messianic Jews...or, at least where I come from this is the "term" used to refer to someone Jewish, who believes Jesus is the Messiah.

Now, based on what I've found on YouTube, there are in fact Messianic Jews living in Israel as well, but oddly enough I saw someone who works at a Messianic college in Israel, post on Facebook, that he was perplexed by the whole Messianic movement in "the west.". "Can you keep his commandments perfectly?" he asked. Of course not. But anyone who lived in the days of the Abrahamic covenant could not keep them perfectly either...neither can anyone who practices Judaism today. So why is this idea so "shunned" when it involves the belief in Yeshua as the Messiah? Where I come from, the folks who celebrate Messianic Judaism, do it because they wish to embrace Hebrew roots and embrace the traditions and teachings of the original law, and show support for Israel...God's chosen people. To put it another way, we wish to "validate" (again) those things which the Western Evangelical church has largely been taught are both not applicable to those who are not Jewish, and not applicable period, because (supposedly) we are no longer under the Old Covenant law.

See, here in the states, there is this image of the US having formed all of these wonderful alliances with Israel. I believe this image comes largely from the Christian community, because we believe that allegiance to Christ involves loving his chosen land and chosen people as well. There are all sorts of Facebook pages about it, there are organizations such as Stand With Us who send shaleach's, if you will, all over the US to educate people about Israel and help shed light on the overwhelmingly negative images and stereo-types. But ironically, much of the lies that are spread about this gem in the Middle East, come from mis-Information, spread by the media in the US, not only in the US, but may other places as well. The lies are everywhere, and they run deep. So anyway, which side are we on here? We have this huge Christian community praising Israel to the skies because of a Messiah that most of Israel... does not believe has even come yet. US Christians love for Israel and her people causes us to spend millions of dollars every year, sending over (what we call) "missionaries" to share the love of Christ with the Israeli people. Again, because of our allegiance to Christ, we think...what better folks could we share Christ's love with?

At the same time, our media rips Israel and the Israeli people apart, portraying this tiny Jewish state as some sort of blood thirsty tyrant, who only wants to do harm to the world. We seem to believe that Israeli's don't like anyone who is not Israeli, and our media seems to only want to cover the violence going on in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Hmmmm... add to this, the fact that many Jewish folks grow up believing that Christians were responsible for the Holocaust. Many folks who practice Judaism will not read the New Testament, because they believe it's blasphemy (Go to www.oneforisrael.org), and most Americans can't even find Israel on a map. I would imagine then, that Christians desiring Jews (particularly Israeli Jews) to accept the bloody, violent death of an innocent "Rabbi" as their "redemption" would feel like the cherry sitting on top of a huge "sundae" of hate. Wouldn't you?

All of this, to me, is very sad. So, long story very short, I've embraced Israel and the traditions of Judaism, in every way I could, because of my devotion to Jesus, only to soon find that for this very reason...much of Israel would probably just want to... give me the finger? I saw a video about it just last week. There's an organization in Maryland called "Jews for Judaism" that made a video saying that Christians "prey" on Jews and they are everywhere. The video pointed to groups such as "Jews for Jesus" and "Messianic Visions" and displayed the numbers for the immense amounts of money poured into sending "missionaries" to Israel. Now, this was an AMERICAN organization but is it true that many Israeli's don't understand what we mean (in America) when we say "missionary"? Is it true many Israeli's even think of this as curse word?? Well, in short, what do we American Christians look like spending all those billions of dollars trying to get them to accept the violent, bloody "bribe" for the death of one of their own...Yes? An innocent man...yes? How do you think you'd feel? It would seem to to me that Jewish folks, like no others in history, have had to fight very hard and endure a lot of bloodshed, just to simply be who they are. Are Christians any different when we too attempt to "convert" them, using the bloodshed of Yeshua as the basis for that change?

I just think that these are things we Christians need to consider when we are witnessing to folks, but particularly those that we may feel, hold a special "devotion" to Yeshua, because he was a descendent of the tribe of Judah. This truth is simply not the wonderful "proof of divinity" that many evangelical folks may believe that it is for the Jewish people. I say all of this because...this is what I believed myself, and it tickled me pink, because of my excited visions of introducing Israeli's to the Messiah (whenever I went to Israel myself) and sharing his love with them. This excitement has absolutely died now...and much of it has turned to sadness. But it's worse than that: I've begun to wonder whether the Israeli people just laugh at us behind our back and think we're complete idiots. I know that certainly, not everybody in Israel feels this way, just like not everyone in America hates Israel...not at all. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of us love Israel like crazy because of our devotion to Jesus...we want to be like her people and learn what Israel is all about. Gee, with a heavy heart I say, is the joke on us?

I hope that we can simply be patient with each other and try to understand.


Scriptures:

1 Corinthians 3:12-15 "Our deeds do matter"
Matthew 27:22-26 "Pilate says Jesus is innocent."
Genesis 12:2-3 "Blessings for those who bless Israel"

Links:

Conversion to Judaism Resource Center:

http://www.convert.org/Judaism_and_Christianity.html

One For Israel:

http://www.oneforisrael.org/

Jews For Judaism:

http://jewsforjudaism.org/