Do Not Think … part 1 of 6

Do Not Think … part 1 of 6 Rabbi Michael Weiner

Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I came to abolish the Torah or the Prophets! I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

Jackpot! I can’t believe this is our verse today. How fortunate… for me. This verse has to “fly in the face” of the hyper-grace movement. Of course it is one of the most misunderstood verses in the entire Bible. How many times have I heard this … “Jesus fulfilled the law, so I don’t have to.” But there are many scriptures that indicate that would be impossible.

Romans 8:4 (God sent His Son) … so that the requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Ruach.

Rabbi Trail: Let’s break it down. All we have to do is back up one verse. Romans 8:3 For what was impossible for the Torah – since it was weakened on account of the flesh – God has done. Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering, He condemned sin in the flesh … Not so that we could live like “hell” and expect to get to heaven (grace is not a license to sin), but so that we (from all the people throughout history), who live in Yeshua would be able to fulfill the commandment first given to Father Abraham when God told him, “Walk before me blameless.” (Genesis 17:1) End RT.

If the Torah is written on our hearts, then what could that mean except we are finally able to walk in it? Jeremiah 31:30 “Behold, days are coming” – it is a declaration of Adonai – “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” This New Covenant is explained as a covenant of grace, and grace is not a lie.

Romans 10:9 For if you confess with your mouth that Yeshua is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Please understand this, our “Lord” and any true “lord” must (by definition) be obeyed immediately and without question. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10, also in the Sermon on the Mount.) How is God’s “will” done in heaven? Immediately and without question. If we say “Yeshua is my Lord,” but don’t obey His words, we are lying.

Luke 6:46 “Why do you call Me ‘Master, Master’ and do not do what I say?”

John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Hear more of the words of Yeshua … Matthew 7:2-23 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, and drive out demons in Your name, and perform many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Get away from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

But now I’m getting way ahead of myself in teaching the Sermon on the Mount. Let’s pick this up again next time.