Many churches claim this is the teaching of St. Paul—particularly in Colossians 2:14, Ephesians 2:15, Galatians 3:25, Romans 10:4 and 7:6. Is the claim legitimate? The answer is No.
Scripture says, “The Lord will judge the world in righteousness” (Psalm 9:8). Along this line, St. Paul wrote:
13 It is those who obey the Law who will be declared righteous. ROMANS 2
12 The Law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. ROMANS 7
21 Is the Law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! GALATIANS 3
31 Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the Law. ROMANS 3
14 I [Paul] believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets. ACTS 24
St. Paul was not telling anyone to disregard or disobey the commandments. The Ten-C are never passé and obeying them is not empty legalism. What St. Paul was saying in Colossians 2:14, Ephesians 2:15, Galatians 3:25, Romans 10:4 and 7:6 is that no one may re-enter the kingdom of God by sheer obedience of the Law of Moses (the Ten minus Commandment No. 1 version). He was saying the Jewish belief must be corrected.
The full teaching of St. Paul was this: Man’s relationship with God should be one of faith perfected by 100% obedience of God’s instructions, resulting in good works motivated by LOVE.
It was not obedience that really mattered but the motive behind the obedience. If LOVE was not the motive, then the obedience was insipid and worthless in God’s sight.
10 Love is the fulfillment of the Law. ROMANS 13
Also, St. Paul stressed that obedience must be accompanied with faith that Y’shua is God. (Y’shua is Jesus Christ to the world.) God alone can forgive sin and so Y’shua alone can forgive sin. He who has no faith in Y’shua will not receive total forgiveness of his sins. Without the total forgiveness, the impure will stay impure and barred from heaven; his obedience will be worthless—an exercise in futility, an empty legalism.
4 If anyone ever had the reason to hope that he could save himself, it would be me [Paul]. 5 For I went through the Jewish initiation ceremony when I was eight days old, having been born into a pure-blooded Jewish home that was a branch of the original Benjamin family. So I was a real Jew if there ever was one! What’s more, I was a member of the Pharisees who demand the strictest obedience to every Jewish law and custom. 6 And sincere? Yes, so much that I greatly persecuted the Church; and I tried to obey every Jewish rule and regulation right down to the last point. 7 But all these things that I once thought very worthwhile—now I’ve thrown them all away so I can put my trust and hope in the Messiah alone. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Messiah Y’shua my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have the Messiah, 9 and become one with Him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting the Messiah to save me; for God’s way of making us right with Himself depends on faith—counting on the Messiah alone. PHILIPPIANS 3 tlb
15 We are not under Law but under grace. ROMANS 6
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that one can boast. EPHESIANS 2
Think logically. Sin is the breaking of the Law (1 John 3:4). If the Ten-C were passé, that would mean no more sin and no more need for total forgiveness and for faith in Y’shua. No more need for anyone to be righteous, ethical and decent. No more need for religion, the churches and the clergy!
Many churches teach that the New Covenant has replaced the Ten-C (“the Law of Moses”) with the two commandments of Love God and Love your neighbor (“the Law of Christ”)? Is this true?
It is not. Y’shua said:
17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill [pleroo, make full, perfect] them. MATTHEW 5
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. MATTHEW 24
17 It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. LUKE 16
19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. MATTHEW 5
Take note of His encouragement for the Ten-C to be taught and obeyed.
29 Let them listen to Moses and the Prophets. LUKE 16
31 If you continue in My Word, you really are My disciples. JOHN 8
21 My mother and brothers are those who hear the Word of God and put it into practice. LUKE 8
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him. JOHN 3
Discard and dishonor the Ten-C? Do not be hoodwinked. Y’shua said:
17 “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” the man inquired. Y’shua replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” MATTHEW 19
Never will God abolish the Ten-C because doing so will contradict the very purpose of His incarnation and His instituting the New Covenant. “I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts,” said He in Jeremiah 31:33. To stress this, the New Testament quoted Jeremiah 31:33 twice in Hebrews 8:10 and 10:16.
27 I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws. EZEKIEL 36
19 Keeping God’s commands is what counts. 1 CORINTHIANS 7
34 I will not violate My covenant or alter what My lips have uttered. PSALM 84
8 (The commandments) stand fast for ever and ever. PSALM 111 kjv
The Gospel teachings were given to expound the proper intentions and applications of the commandments, to raise our level of awareness of them. The two commandments Love God and Love your neighbor (which really are one) were not given to replace the Ten but to make the Nine to be Ten again. The element of love was reinstated to perfect and amplify the Law.
God did not expunge any commandment. What He expunged were the man-made traditions (kjv calls them the handwriting of ordinances) that were effectively diluting or nullifying the sought-effect of the commandments to which they were grafted.
14 [He] canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross. COLOSSIANS 2
Let us cite an example of a man-made tradition that was expunged off Commandment No. 5.
3 (Y’shua said to some Pharisees and teachers of the Law from Jerusalem:) Indeed, why do you break the command of God by your tradition? 4 For God said, Honor your father and your mother and Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. 5 But you say, “If anyone says to his father or mother I have promised to give to God what I might have used to help you 6 then he is rid of his duty to honor his father or mother.” Thus, by your tradition you make null and void the Word of God! 7 You hypocrites! Yesha’yahu [Isaiah] was right when he prophesied about you, 8 These people honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines. MATTHEW 15 cjb
12 Then His disciples came to Him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?” 13 He replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” MATTHEW 15
In the Oxyrhynchus Gospels Y’shua explained to His disciples, "The Pharisee plans in advance; before doing wrong, he slyly reasons everything out. Take care that you do not end up suffering the same fate as them. For the wicked of humanity receive Judgment not only among the living, but they will also undergo punishment later." (Wikipedia)
11 “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that He was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. MATTHEW 16
Many churches teach that the Messiah’s resurrection had fulfilled the Law and therefore observing them is no longer necessary. Is this true?
It is not. Let us recall what Y’shua said on the matter:
18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. MATTHEW 5
Take note of the words “until heaven and earth disappear.” Neither the earth nor the heaven (the sky) has disappeared or passed away. That means the Ten-C stands.
Colossians 2:17 says the Law is a shadow of things to come, the substance of which is Y’shua. That is true. But “not everything that must happen has happened”—at least not yet. The Law is given so man could be restored; therefore, the fulfillment of the Law will come after the Judgment, when the impure-turned-pure shall have received his reward of restoration. This being the case, observance of the Ten-C is still necessary.
Y’shua purified the commandments of the corruptions grafted into them. He warned us of the troubles we shall face for obeying the commandments. This indicates that He expected us to keep and honor the Ten-C.
17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman [the Church] and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Y’shua. REVELATIONS 12
20 If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. JOHN 15
2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. JOHN 16
Many churches teach that the Ten-C is only for the Jews. Is this true?
It is not. If it were, why else did God say in Leviticus 24:22, “You are to have the same Law for the alien and the native-born”?
13 Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ECCLESIASTES 12
Observance of the Ten-C does not stop in Isra’el. The Jews are called to live by the Ten-C and so are the rest of the world (Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Catholics and Born Again Christians included).
15 The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the Lord. 16 The same laws and regulations shall apply both to you and to the foreigner living among you. NUMBERS 15
16 Then, if [the other nations] will carefully learn My people’s ways, swearing by My name, “As Adonai lives,” just as they taught My people to swear by Ba’al, they will be built up among My people. JEREMIAH 12 cjb
God looks down from heaven at both Jews and non-Jews to see if there are any who are wise, any who worship Him (Psalm 53:2 tev). He is waiting to welcome into His kingdom Jews and non-Jews whose hearts are right with God.
10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? MALACHI 2
29 Is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too. ROMANS 3
5 [There is] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. EPHESIANS
16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. JOHN 10
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship Him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant— 7 these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. ISAIAH 56
Whether one is born a Jew or non-Jew is immaterial. God is after the spiritual man, not the physical man. He does not look at our religion, nationality, skin color, intelligence, wealth, gender, strength or physical beauty; God looks at our hearts. To Him the true Jew is anyone who hears the voice of the Good Shepherd and heeds His instructions. The true Jew is he who worships God in spirit and in truth. The true Jew is he who soaks in LOVE and exudes it.
6 For not all who are descended from Isra’el are Isra’el. 7 Nor because they are descendants are they Abraham’s children. ROMANS 9
29 A true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the Law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people. ROMANS 2 nlt
The true Jew is the true lamb of Messiah Y’shua.
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