Ariel HaNaviy Supporter Messianic Jew and Torah Teacher with Messianic Congregation 'The Harvest'

Short Answer:
All of the Torah (Law) is concentrated as it were into the two most “important” commandments (love God with all you’ve got and love your neighbor as yourself). Thus, I agree that the Law of Christ must in fact be the heart of the Law as given by God his Father, with one proviso: the focal point of a person’s Law-keeping must include faith in Messiah in order for it to be counted as the Law of Christ. After all, did not Messiah confess that he only lives to do what the Father tells him to do? (read John 14:31) And, that he kept his Father’s commandments (John 15:10)? 

This would tell me that as we love Messiah and keep the Messiah’s commandments, we are in fact loving God and keeping the Father’s commandments just like our Master did. And what are the Father’s commandments? Did he not in fact already give them to us somewhere else in the Bible before Jesus even showed up on the scene?

Yeshua (Jesus) did NOT replace the “Old Testament” Law with the “Law of Christ.”

Long Answer:
(From my commentary to Galatians available here: http://www.tetzetorah.com/exegeting-galatians/)

(Speaking of the phrase "Law of Christ")...why should we interpret this phrase as anything other than the perfect Law of God as already revealed in the pages of Scripture and as perfectly modeled by our Master himself? 

I think the true meaning is: “Bear one another's burdens - in this way you will be fulfilling the Torah's true meaning, which the Messiah upholds.”

The teachings of Yeshua were no doubt known among the congregations of The Way, even before the gospels as we know them were finalized in their canonical form. The Apostles were commissioned to “make disciples of the nations” and to “teach them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt 28:18ff). Thus, the “Torah of Messiah” (νόμον τοῦ Χριστοῦ) should be understood as “the Torah as Messiah taught it and lived it.” It is anachronistic to interpret the phrase as though the Torah of Messiah is different than the Torah of Moses. Surely Yeshua's teachings were at variance with a good deal of the rabbinic interpretations of the Torah, but they were not in any manner contradictory to Moses. 

Rather, Yeshua, both in His words and in His actions, brought the divinely intended meaning of the Torah to the eyes and ears of those He taught. His emphasis was upon a living out of Torah in which genuine love for God and for one’s neighbor was the driving factor in group policy decisions. While the sages were expert at piling burdens upon men’s shoulders without lifting a finger to help them bear the load (Matt 23:4), Yeshua sought to unwrap the Torah from the entanglements of men, and to show that living a life of Torah by faith is not a burden, but a delight. Therefore, by bearing the burdens of one another, the followers of Yeshua fulfill the Torah as it was intended to be fulfilled, by living it out in the context of love for God, and love for one’s neighbor. In this way, the Torah as taught and modeled by Yeshua would be fulfilled.

August 31 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

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