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3. Is the Torah for us today?

Contrary to popular notions, the Old Testament Law (Torah) was not abolished by a "New" Testament “gospel.” The early believers continued to practice the commandments of the Torah throughout the New Testament period and beyond, because they were “saved by grace through faith” and therefore, able to “walk in truth” and stop walking in sin.


Why can I say this with such confidence? Because the Torah is that which God used to define sin. All have sinned, therefore, all have violated God's Law (i.e. Torah); even those with no knowledge of Torah at all (Romans 2:11a).


Because the Torah of God is that which defines sin, "Freedom in Christ" is NOT freedom to sin (or violate the Torah of God), but rather freedom to stop sinning perpetually (i.e. Stop violating God’s Torah), and receive the grace of God which frees us from bondage to sin, and makes us bondservants of righteousness. In other words, we are no longer slaves the to enemy, we are slaves to God, and therefore, we chose to submit our will to His will, as detailed for us in His Word.

Romans 8:7-8 says, “Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the Law/Torah of God; for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

Here we see that obeying the “flesh” means we do NOT subject OURSELVES to God’s Laws (His Torah or righteous laws and instructions); however, the natural opposite of this is walking by the SPIRIT of God, which means subjecting OURSELVES to the Torah or Law of God out of hearts that love Messiah. For Messiah said, “if you love me you will keep my commandments” numerous times throughout the Last Supper in the book of John.

The FLESH wants to “pick and choose” which Laws of God seem good to it, while ignoring the rest. The SPIRIT, as seen in the life of Messiah, is obedient in ALL THINGS, in ALL AREAS of Torah, not just the things that “fit” the flesh’s religious preferences and cultural comforts.


Sadly the believing community today has been force fed meat, when they are babies, and never given time to learn the basics of walking in righteousness through obedience to the Lord’s Sabbath, the Feasts of the Lord, etc.  These things are the very basics that begin to train one’s flesh in righteous living.  But as the body of Messiah, we should have grown up learning these things so that we could at this point in history have moved on to focus on the more weighty matters of Torah.  As it is, we must go back and teach God’s people the milk of the Word, for they have never been prepared to handle the meat, and even now are still not ready! . . . Just as Paul also stated in 1 Corinthians 3.

Salvation and forgiveness of sins are not simply something that happens abstractly to us, or only in our heads/thoughts alone. The salvation offered to us through faith in Jesus Christ (Yeshua the Messiah) results in a new heart for the believer, a heart in which God writes His Law (His Torah) on it; and through the power and wisdom given to the believer through the work of the Holy Spirit, the believer is able to live a holy (i.e. set apart) life to God. He is free from the bondage of sin (as Paul teaches throughout Romans); and enabled to stop sinning and obey God. Forgiveness of sins is just the first step in the total salvation of the human being. The whole person will be saved, and this is not just a future reality, or an abstract spiritual reality today, the body of the person experiences ongoing sanctification as he/she submits his/her will and life to God's will through obedience, and the person is then able to grow in their faith and knowledge of God.

However, it all starts with simple acts of obedience, including the external types of commandments, which are the "training wheels" for the baby believer, who begins to submit his/her flesh (old nature) to the will of God (as detailed in God's Torah specifically, reiterated in the Prophets, sung about in the Writings, and rejoiced over in the Apostolic Scriptures (i.e. New Testament).

HOWEVER, the Law of God (Torah) was never given as a means for attaining eternal salvation for anyone at any time throughout all of salvation history. Instead the laws, instructions, precepts, judgments, etc. of the Torah were and are given to us to be placed upon our hearts (i.e. written on our hearts); and when this happens our hearts should seek to obey that which God has written upon it (i.e. His Torah, His Word!).


This is the new struggle that Paul speaks of in Romans in which the old man (i.e. our sin nature) will now fight against the new man (i.e. our new nature). The first, old nature does not and cannot submit itself to God's Torah instructions; however the new nature (our new heart) does desire and can submit and train its flesh (old nature) through the work of the Holy Spirit to submit to God's Torah instructions, and in so doing gives glory to God and validates the truth of Yeshua’s (Jesus’) reign on earth today even as it is in heaven. (See Romans 8:7)


We are to demonstrate our love for God by keeping the commands of God (Deuteronomy 6:4–6) the same commandments Yeshua/Jesus extols us to obey over and again (see John 14 and 15); but we do not earn or merit our salvation because of obedience. The Torah of God is used to combat our sinful flesh and make it submit to God today, in this life, not simply in the life to come.  For Paul confirms that ALL of the Scriptures (OT at that time, but today would also include the NT) are profitable “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).

Jesus warned us not to think that He had come to abolish the Law of God (i.e. Torah) nor the Prophets (Matthew 5:17). Christ came to fulfill the Law or in other words, DO that which the Law proclaimed He would come and do. He also DID the Torah, i.e. He was the only human being capable to actually fulfilling or DOING all of it PERFECTLY. To “fulfill” the Law (i.e. Torah instructions of God) is to do the Law...not do away with it, THAT would be (by definition) LAWLESSNESS, and SIN IS LAWLESSNESS or TORAHLESSNESS (1 John 3:4).

Jesus also said that “Whoever then annuls [i.e. does away with or makes void] one of the least of these commandments (i.e. The Torah commands), and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:19). Granted, I do not know what “least” and “greatest” fully imply here, but suffice to say, I would personally rather fall into the greatest category than the least.

This does not mean that we must do the Torah in order to “earn” salvation, for this is impossible anyway.


Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We do not keep the commandments of God in order to “be” saved, we keep them because we are saved. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”. . . so that the Torah might be fulfilled in us as the Scriptures teach, Romans 8:4, “so that the requirement of the Law (Torah) might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”