The thoughts of man are vanity (excessive pride) and selfishness.
You may think this is too harsh, but it is not. Only when you come to the
realization of your total worthlessness without Yahusha (Jesus) Messiah can you begin
to enter grace. Only when you internalize your total helpless state and 100%
dependency on Yahuah, can your grace begin.
You must have this dependency, not just every day, but every
second of every day, to put on the low view of one's importance for true grace.
There is a problem with the way people define grace nowadays. They
do not want to accept their total inability to obey Yahuah's law (Torah). Nor
do they want to totally surrender to Him so that they can overcome sin. But instead
true grace is exchanged for a cheap grace—a quick prayer, an emotional
experience—then back to the old sinful, selfish life again.
True grace is not just accepting Yahusha Messiah into your life
but creating a brand new life in him.
You must come to the realization that apart from Him, every deed
you have done in the flesh is toward self. You work to feed yourself, cloth
yourself and shelter yourself. You buy mountains of new clothes, cars, and
jewellery while many in this world do not even have food to eat.
To truly put on grace, we must admit that, even at our best, we
are a complete failure, without the shed blood of Messiah.
He did not die to save us from law, but from OURSELVES! The law
can teach you right from wrong but cannot make you choose right. So, until the
life, death, and resurrection of Yahusha Messiah mankind has always made the
wrong decision.
It is like an alcoholic who knows that it is wrong to get drunk,
but he cannot control himself. He has to take the drink.
Under the new/renewed covenant, Yahusha has freed us from that. He
has not freed us from law but from sin. The law can only tell you right from
wrong, but cannot make you choose right.
The renewed covenant gives you the Ruach (Holy Spirit) that convicts (declare) you to do right. No longer does the alcoholic take the drink, nor does he want to.
Galatians 3:21 tells us that if there was a law that could have been given, to
give us salvation, Yahuah would have given it. But the law can only lead you to
righteousness.
It is the Ruach ha Kodesh (Set-apart Spirit/Holy Spirit) that
makes you righteous.
Now think for a moment. What got mankind into this trouble of
being unrighteous before Yahuah to begin with? SIN! REBELLION!
Would Yahusha die to do away with law, or sin (rebellion)?
If you believe that the law is nailed to the cross, then you are
saying that Yahusha died to legalize sin.
It is like saying that we have a problem in our neighbourhood
because 3 homes where broken into last week. You have a town meeting with the
mayor to solve the problem. The mayor comes into the meeting and tells the town
folk, "The problem is solved. I just made it legal to break into homes.
There is no more problem of someone illegally breaking into your home, because
now it is legal.” It sounds foolish.
But no more foolish than saying that, since we have a death
penalty over our heads because of our sins, Yahusha Messiah did away with the
law.
Yahusha did not do away with the law. On the contrary, he paid the
penalty for all of our law breaking.
If we continue to sin WILLINGLY after we accept his shed blood for
the forgiveness of our sins, we are no longer under grace.
Read carefully the following strong words of warning in Hebrew 10:26-31 "For
if we are WILLFULLY sinning after receiving the full knowledge of the truth,
there remains no more sacrifice concerning sins, but a certain fearful expectation
of judgment and zealous fire being about to consume the adversaries.
If anyone did not regard the Law of Moses, that one dies without
pities on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you
think he will be thought worthy to receive having trampled on the Son of
Yahuah, and having counted the blood of the covenant in which he was
sanctified, common, and having insulted the Ruach ha Kodesh?
For we know who has said, “Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay" says Yahuah. And again, “Yahuah will judge his people" it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living Creator."
Messiah paid a great penalty for us to have our sins forgiven.
Nowhere does it say the law is done away with.
Romans 6:15-18 "What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the
penalty of law, but under grace? Yahuah forbid! Know you not that to whom you
yield yourself slaves for obedience you are slaves to whom you obey. Whether of
sin to death or obedience to righteousness, but thanks to Yahuah, that you were
slaves of sin but you obeyed from the heart the form of teaching which you were
delivered. And having been set free from sin, you were enslaved to
righteousness.
(Psalm
119:172) “All thy commandments are righteousness.
Think logically. If there is no law then there is no sin, and if
there is no sin, then why do we need to repent and accept Yahusha as Savior?
Where there is no law there is chaos.
That is exactly what satan wants the world to believe. What he has
done in the body of believers is gotten people to believe that the law is done
away with, and has gotten them to exchange their own human conscience for moral
right and wrong.
People will tell you what they feel, or what is in their heart,
instead of looking to Yahuah's perfect law for judgment.
What does Father think about judging by our conscience or by our
heart rather by his law? Jeremiah
17:5-7,9 “So says Yahuah, cursed is the man that trusts in man, and who
makes flesh his strength; and who turns aside his heart from Yahuah. (verse 7) Blessed is the
man that trusts in Yahuah, and Yahuah is his trust. For he shall be like a tree
planted by the waters.
Satan uses vanity. That is how he works on human beings, through
pride, lust and covetousness.
Satan tried it on Yahusha, but to no avail. Matthew 4:8 "Again the devil takes
him up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the Kingdoms of
the world, and the glory of them. And said unto him, All these I will give you,
if you will fall down and worship me."
It is interesting to note that Yahusha did not question his
authority over this world's kingdoms. Many in this world too often blind
themselves to the fact that this world, with all its governments, schools,
financial institutions, and even most of its churches, are part of satan’s
system. I repeat this: the world we live in is run by satan and his system.
Wake up people! The system is based on greed, lust, pride and self-pleasure.
Yahusha Messiah did not fall for this. Look closely at Yahusha’s
reply and you will see that he combated satan’s evil with scripture. Matthew 4:10 "First
he rebuked satan, and said, "Get thee behind me satan, for IT IS WRITTEN,
thou shalt worship Yahuah thy Elohim, and him only shall thou serve."
We need to follow Yahusha’s example in our fight against satan.
Not with our own human reasoning, but with the powerful written word of Yahuah.
The law cannot save you, but it can tell you right from wrong and
teach you proper judgment. You cannot know right from wrong through human
reasoning. The law was not changed at Yahusha's death, but our judgment for
breaking it was.
Under the blood of the new covenant we are no longer judged by law
but by faith. We no longer need to feel unwarranted guilt if we repent each
time we slip up and sin unwillingly.
It does not change the fact that sin is still the breaking of the
law and the penalty of sin is still DEATH.
Even after conversion, WILLFUL sinning still brings death. This
seems to be missed by most professing believers today.
The penalty of our sins at baptism is not ignored, or excused, but
rather PAID for. There is always a penalty to be paid for sin. Yahuah never
excuses sin. On the contrary, Yahusha paid a great price for every sin ever
committed on this earth. His crucifixion did not excuse, but rather paid for
our sins.
What started our separation from Yahuah was rebellion (sin).
Mankind thought that he knew better than Yahuah’s rules (laws, statutes and commandments) laid out in the Garden of Eden. Each one of us, through sin, put Yahusha on the tree of the crucifixion.
If all the world's problems originate with sin, why would we think
by having the penalty of those sins paid for, that we would have license to go
back to the very act that caused us the death penalty to begin with?
For instance, if you were speeding on a highway, going 160km/hr in
a 120km/hr zone, and you were pulled over by a traffic cop, and he explained to
you that, since he has already pulled you over, he has to give you a ticket—a
penalty for speeding has to be paid. That is the law. Then he tells you that he
will pay the ticket himself, out of his own money. He gives you grace—unmerited
forgiveness. What will you do when you get back on the highway? Will you go 120km/hr
as the law states, or will you go back to breaking the law by going 160km/hr?
The traffic cop's grace did not give you a special license to break the law
(continue sinning).
In the same way, Yahusha did not suffer a horrible crucifixion and
death to save us in our sins, but from our sins.
Listen carefully to what Yahusha tells the crippled man that he
heals in John 5:14.“Behold
thou art made whole: SIN NO MORE lest a worse thing come unto thee!” This does
not sound like he is giving this man an unlimited amount of “get out of jail
free” cards. He is very clear—SIN NO MORE.
We are saved by grace through faith in Yahusha Messiah, for the
forgiveness of our sins. The sins that we have already committed before baptism
leaves us with a death penalty hanging over our heads. Nothing we can do can
erase that. If you kill someone you must pay the penalty. No amount of law keeping
can make up for the past sins committed. Only the acceptance of Yahusha's shed
blood for the forgiveness of sins, can pay the penalty for those sins. But
after baptism—after your sins have been forgiven—you must be like the crippled
man whom Yahusha told to go and sin no more.
We must be obedient to the best of our ability to the word of
Yahuah. Obedience does not earn us our salvation because it is already promised
to us upon accepting Yahusha as Savior.
We now obey the Torah (law), not to be saved, but because we are
saved and we love Yahuah.
Father always wanted the Torah to be written on our hearts even at
Mt Sinai but the people rebelled.
Yahuah tells us a covenant (new/re-new) will be made with Israel
and the Torah shall be placed in our inward parts and be written on our hearts
-Jeremiah 31:33 and
then confirmed again in Hebrew
8:10.
Listen to what the apostle Paul tells us about the law after our
conversion. Romans 3:31
“Do we make void the law through faith? Yahuah forbid, yes we ESTABLISH the
law!"
The law is called the perfect law of liberty because it will keep
you free.
The blood of Yahusha will set you free from the death penalty
brought on by breaking the law, and obedience after conversion will keep you
free.
Satan is the one trying to deceive the flock of Yahuah by saying
that to obey Yahuah's law is legalism.
But you will not find one penalty, from Genesis to Revelation, for
obedience to the word of Yahuah. Every penalty or curse comes because of
disobedience or law-breaking.
Deuteronomy 11:26-28 “Behold I set before you this day a blessing and a curse. A
blessing if you obey the commandments of Yahuah your Elohim, which I command
you this day. And a curse, if you do not obey the commandments of Yahuah your
Elohim, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day."
Every word that Yahuah gave for mankind is for his good. I know
how subtle satan is. I also know how flawed my own human reasoning is. So I
just trust Yahuah and his word literally for everything. It is the secret to a
rich, wonderful and fulfilling one-on-one relationship with Yahuah, and also
the key to a happy life.
Pride, vanity, and self-worth stop us from this child-like
humility and obedience.
Yahuah warns us not to lean on our own understanding. Deuteronomy 12:8 “You
shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, everyone doing what
is right in his own eyes."
Obedience and faith go hand in hand. It is satan that is trying to
make believers choose one or the other.
But you cannot truly have one without the other. James 2:17-18 “Even so
faith, if it has not works is dead, being alone. Yes, a man may say, you have
faith, and I have works; Show me your faith without your works, and I will show
you my FAITH BY MY WORKS. "
You cannot have one without the other. The works are the evidence
of your faith. Faith without works is a dead faith—in word only—not being true
faith at all.
1 Corinthians 4:20 "For the kingdom of Yahuah is not in word, but in
power."
Works without faith is pure self-righteousness.
Paul also says in Acts 26:20 your works must be worthy of repentance - It is an
action not just talk (your faith must bear good fruit).
Messiah is going to reward those who bear good fruits (works of
faith)- Matthew 16:27.
Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness
are as a filthy rag."
You must put faith and works together, and faith must always come
first. Nothing we can do can redeem our lost souls back to Yahuah. Only by
accepting, from a humble spirit, that we are all together worthless can we
freely accept the shed blood of Yahusha to cover our sins and reconcile us to
the Father.
However, there is much we can do after accepting this shed blood
that can separate us from our Creator. WILLFUL sinning after the full knowledge
of the truth can eternally separate us from our Heavenly Father.
2 Peter 2:20-21 says once we have come into the full truth of our Master Yahusha
and decide to turn away again, it would be better that we did not know the
truth. Do we release what the serious outcome is of turning back to WILLFULLY
sinning. Most do not, because they have been taught this cheap grace.
That is why Acts
2:38 says to repent and believe! It is a command! Repent means to “turn
back to.” Turn back to what? To the obedience of Yahuah's commandments. Then
and only then can we humbly accept Yahusha's sacrifice for the forgiveness of
sins.
If we think the law is done away with, we will never truly grasp
our fallen nature. We will never truly repent for going our own way rather than
the way of Yahuah, our Father.
Repentance is a full 180º turn around. It is not making excuses
for our old way of life with all its pagan worldly influence. It is changing,
maybe even with tears, finally realizing that our own way has only brought us
the death penalty that must be paid. Our death penalty was paid! It was paid by
our Savior Yahusha.
Moses knew about the savior to come and all the prophets spoke
about the Messiah. Paul also says in Acts 26:22-23 that Moses and the prophets spoke about the
Messiah's coming.
We do not have any excuses.
We need to get rid of the hatred for Yahuah's Torah.
Romans 8:7 tells us that we hated Yahuah’s law before baptism and the
indwelling of the Ruach (Set-apart Spirit/(Holy Spirit).
We have to stop our rebellion and self will and follow every word
that comes from the mouth of Yahuah (Matthew 4:4).
Our Abba Father loves us so much and shared his eternal Spirit and
law with us, as his children, out of love. All he asks in return is that we
obey his law of love. He wants us to obey because it is the only way that will
bring true happiness to us and to all around us.
Listen to what our loving Father expects from each and every one
of his children. Deuteronomy
10:12-13 “And now Israel, what does Yahuah thy Elohim require of thee,
but to fear Yahuah thy Elohim, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to
serve Yahuah thy Elohim, with all thy heart and with all thy soul. To keep the
commandments of Yahuah, and his statutes (Holy Feast Days) which I command you
this day for your good! "
There is not one of the laws of Yahuah that will hurt you. Rather,
every law will lead to happiness and to eternal life.
More than 25 years after the resurrection, Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 and 8:13 that
the wages of sin are still death.
Back then and still today, sin is the breaking of Yahuah's law (1 John 3:4).
Did Yahusha do away with his Father's law? Malachi 3:6 states, “For I am Yahuah, I
change not!"
Hebrews 13:8, “ Yahusha Messiah, the same yesterday, today and forever."
Elohim, unlike man, does not change or go back on His Word.
The grace that Yahuah gave in the so called Old Testament is
exactly the same grace He gives in the so called New Testament, the only
difference is the sacrifice. Yahusha shed His blood once for all and so is it
with grace.
Those who have repented and come to know the truth, walk in truth,
we cannot turn back to our old ways and think there will not be any
consequences.
Mercy is then needed and we also know we serve a merciful Father.
David understood the grace of Yahuah! He realized his big mistake
and repented of his sin. David did not just say "I am sorry," the
scripture tells us he fell on his face with sorrow for days without eating or
drinking, asking Yahuah forgiveness and begging Yahuah not to remove the Ruach
ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) from him - Read Psalm 51 of his repentance. Did David continue
sinning after forgiveness was given? No, we know from scripture David's life
was all for Yahuah.
Why then do we think it is different today, asking forgiveness and
then continue living in sin.
True faith and true love (obedience) towards Yahuah brings true
repentance which gives us true grace.
