Let me explain.
At Mount Sinai, after the Israelites‘ salvation from Egypt, God gave His people His teachings. The laws that He taught helped them to realize their sins, and turn from their evil, natural instincts in order to behave in a way that is more conducive to the Holy society of His tribe.
Even when they failed to uphold His ways (which we all fail to), He punished them for a while, but still promised that He would have mercy on His people and regather them from the ends of the earth:
“See, I am going to gather them from all the lands to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation; I will bring them back to this place, and I will settle them in safety.”Jeremiah 32:37
Never did He state that these laws were done away with, and never did He say He would forsake His people. Any Son of His who would come in His name would never state anything otherwise.
In fact, the LORD warns of anyone who comes in His name teaching against the law from the very beginning:
“But those prophets or those who divine by dreams shall be put to death for having spoken treason against the Lord your God—who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery—to turn you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.“ Deuteronomy 13:5
If a prophet comes in His name trying to dissuade Israel from the Torah and its commandments, then the people must regard him as a false prophet. We must not listen to him. God has stated:
“The Lord your God you shall follow, him alone you shall fear, his commandments you shall keep, his voice you shall obey, him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast.” Deuteronomy 13:4
The LORD warns of people coming in His name who contradict Torah from the very beginning. He explains that He would let this happen in order to test Israel’s fidelity to Torah. Anything that tells us to do so is not of God. Therefore, Jesus would not be able to teach others to disregard the law if He were to be the true Messiah, as He is.
Nevertheless, traditional Christian theology has consistently presented Him as a prophet teaching against the Torah:
Missionaries typically present Yeshua to the Jewish people as a miracle-worker who has thrown off the Torah and invites them to do so as well. They tell the Jewish people, ‘Become a Christian and you will no longer be under the Law.’ According to the Bible’s own criteria, we thereby disqualify Yeshua as a potential prophet. Such a man is not even a true prophet, much less the Messiah. Our presentation of the Torahless Yeshua is self-defeating and discredits Messiah and His message. We bring shame on the gospel and on the name of Messiah. If the Word of God is true, it must be consistent. If Messiah is true, He must be consistent with the Torah of Moses. The true Yeshua described in the New Testament is consistent with the Torah, but the traditional Jesus Christ who breaks the Torah and sets us free from the Law is not.
Restoration: Returning the Torah of Moses to the Disciples of Jesus, D. Thomas Lancaster
I am a believer in the Yeshua of the Bible and not the man-made Jesus so accepted in our modern world today. He was not some all-accepting peace and love man preaching non-judgment while defying authority. He is instead the Son of the Most High God, Who came to die in our place, and held true to the Law of God while calling the world (Jews and Gentiles) to live like Him. As His disciple, I believe that our faith is worth defending. If we have made mistakes in the past, let’s own up to them and move on.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Hosea 4:6
“Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today,” Deuteronomy 30:8
The LORD has not abandoned His people, has not exchanged them for another, and has not abolished His Holy Torah.
“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”” John 14:21
Jesus told His disciples to keep and teach the Torah, and He encouraged them to demonstrate their love for Him by being faithful to the commandments.
“Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.” Revelation 12:17
“Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, “We will not walk in it.”Jeremiah 6:16
The ancient paths are the paths of Torah. I believe the Hebrew Scriptures to be a True revelation from our never-changing LORD. The good way is the way of our Messiah, the way of discipleship. Our salvation would not be True if it were not for the fact that Jesus Christ not only perfectly obeyed the Torah, but taught His disciples to do so as well. God laid out His plan of Salvation all the way from Genesis. If we don’t observe the Law as Truth, then we discredit our own Hope. We cannot pick and choose which Scripture we believe or disregard. We can, however, study hard Scripture to learn if and how they apply to us as Gentiles.
“If the owner does not reside near you or you do not know who the owner is, you shall bring it to your own house, and it shall remain with you until the owner claims it; then you shall return it. You shall do the same with a neighbor's donkey; you shall do the same with a neighbor's garment; and you shall do the same with anything else that your neighbor loses and you find. You may not withhold your help.” Deuteronomy 22:2-3
I have found something that you have lost, and I hope to restore it to you. The thing I have found is the Torah. It used to belong to you. Now I need to restore it to you. This is especially true if you are a Jewish disciple of Yeshua, but even Gentile disciples have a heritage in the Torah.
As a Gentile, I never aspire to convert to Judaism and obey all of the commandments. That is the beauty of the LORD opening His promise to all of those who believe in Him - that I don’t need to be Jewish and shouldn’t obey those commandments which may blur the lines of my identity. However, I also realize that it is wrong to say we are “free from the Law.” As believers, we already obey most of the commandments as it is. So how can we possibly say the Law is “old and done away with”?!
We have lost the Torah and forgotten that it ever belonged to us. It is a beautiful gift that was never meant to be taken away from God’s children, and I feel that I have been given a responsibility to return it back to you.
“But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’”
Acts 26:16-18
Sofia me encanto tu articulo, muy bien escrito y con una verdad inegable, La Torá es un regalo de Dios para nosotros ....