Grailhunter
Well-Known Member
Part 1/2
While I agree that everything that Jesus spent his ministry teaching by word and by example was in regard to how to walk in obedience to the Torah under the Mosaic Covenant, the reason why Jesus did established the New Covenant was not for the purpose of nullifying anything that he spent his ministry teaching or so that we could continue to have the same lawlessness that causes it to be needed in the first place, but rather the New Covenant still involves following the Torah (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27).
In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and the 613 laws of the Torah was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to them is a central part of the Gospel of the Kingdom/Grace. There would be no point in spreading the Gospel as a light to the Gentiles if Gentiles had no need to repent from dong what the Torah reveals to be sin. Jesu also said that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God and then commissioned his disciples to teach to the nations everything that he taught them (Matthew 28:16-20), so Jesus did not intended for what he spent his ministry teaching to only be for Jews. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for dong good works, so the way to believe in the Gospel that he spent his ministry teaching and accomplished through the cross is by repenting and becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Torah while the way to reject everything that he accomplished would be by returning to the lawlessness that he gave himself to redeem us from.
The fact that there are parts of the Torah that we can't currently follow does not mean that we should not follow the parts that we can follow.
In Isaiah 45:17, it says that all Israel shall be saved, which has led some to hold the position Jews are saved by simply by being Jews and that Gentiles need to become Jews in order to become saved, which has nothing to do with resenting or harassing Gentiles. The way to handle the sacred meal that was only done with Jews was also a major issue.
The issue that the Jerusalem Council was debating was not whether followers of Christ should follow Christ but whether salvation is by grace (Acts 15:11) or by circumcision (Acts 15:1). In Acts 15:6-7, Peter argued that Gentiles had heard and believed the Gospel message, which calls for us tor repent from our disobedience to the Torah (Matthew 4:15-23), so he was agreeing with the Pharisees from among the believers about Gentiles obeying the Torah (Acts 15:5) and disagreeing with the men from Judea (Acts 15:1). In Ezekiel 36:26-27, God will take away our hearts of stone, give us hearts of flesh, and send His Spirit to lead to obey the Torah, which is in accordance with what Peter argued in Acts 15:8-9 in regard Gentiles receiving the Spirit and having their hearts cleansed, so again he was agreeing with the Pharisees. In Psalm 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey the Torah and he chose the way of faith by setting it before him, so this has always been the one and only way of salvation by grace through faith, which is in accordance with what Peter argued in Acts 15:10-11 that Gentiles are saved by grace just as we are, so he came not firmly on the side of the Pharisees.
Some treat Christianity as if Jesus had come to start his own religion, but Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah of Judaism in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and he spent his ministry teaching his followers how to practice Judaism by setting a sinless example of how to walk in obedience to the Torah. In Acts 21:20, they were rejoicing that tens of thousands of Jews were coming to faith in Jesus who were all zealous for the Torah, which is in accordance with Titus 2:14, so Jews coming to faith in Jesus were not ceasing to practice Judaism but were becoming zealous for it. This means that there was a period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and the inclusion of Gentiles that is estimated to be around 7-15 years, during which all Christians were Torah observant Jews and that Christianity at its origin was the sect of Judaism that recognized Jesus as the Messiah. Christianity has long since been overrun by Gentiles who turned into a separate religion that is opposed to following Christ's example of obedience to the Torah.
LOL You disagree with the scriptures and me. LOL Read the scriptures in post 175.....argue with them.