Does The Apostle Paul Close The Book On Torah? On The 10 Commandments? – Shabbat Shalom

Hallelujah!  I praise Yahuah and cherish my home with Him.  I love every hardship, every rejection, every denial, every victory, every loss, every hour of loneliness and sorrow, every moment, every twinkling of His presence.  Regardless if I live or am burned in this world- Yahuah is my El Shaddai, He is my glory and my redeemer.  I sought and I found.  I knocked and He invited in.  He is my rock, as every man will fail God, will fail himself, will fail you and will fail me.  You will fail many.  I will fail many.  We are broken vessels accepted into Glory by the Merciful One.

The Apostle Paul, hand-picked by by The One, known for eternity before birth, and dwelling in Righteousness with his great reward for a life given up in service to Truth, told us plainly that there is a New Covenant.  Those who deny the New Covenant also deny the teacher chosen by Yahuah Himself.  It is madness to turn away from Truth, clinging to death instead, all in the name of Righteousness.

Ministers of the New Covenant

2 Corinthians 3:1  “Do we begin again to commend ourselves? (for our own righteousness – jd) Or do we, as some, need commendatory letters to you, or commendatory ones from you?  You are our letter, having been inscribed in our hearts, being known and being read by all men,  it having been made plain that you are Christ’s letter, served by us, not having been inscribed by ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart.

(Jerry) – So it is not the letter of the law which gives life, but the letter of Yahusha writ large in the hearts of those who follow Yahusha and obvious to all men.  Paul and his teachers ministered to these believers, teaching them that the path was not through mechanical/contractual ( “ink”) obedience to written laws, but obedience based on the burning of our hearts.

2Co 3:4  “And we have such confidence through Christ toward God;  not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reason out anything as being out of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also made us able ministers of a new covenant, not of letter, but of Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

(Jerry) – Their ‘sufficiency’, or level of ‘good enough’ is from Yahuah Himself, creating a new covenant of the heart and displacing the former covenant of strict and well-defined behaviors.  It is not the “letter”, which is the “every jot and tittle” of the written words which gives life, but is rather a contract that assures prosperity in trade for obedience, leaving out any idea of eternal life.  Eternal life came only with Yahusha, a new covenant with much, much better promises.

The letter (the written laws and many commands of Yahuah) does indeed kill, and it says so many times, commanding death for various violations, but the Spirit of Yahusha indwelling the heart of man leads to paradise and eternal life with Yahusha in a mansion prepared for those who follow Him.

2Co 3:7  “But if the ministry of death having been engraved in letters in stone was with glory, so as that the sons of Israel could not gaze into “the face of Moses” because of the glory of his face, which was to cease, Ex. 34:34
2Co 3:8  how much rather the ministry of the Spirit will be in glory!
2Co 3:9  For if the ministry of condemnation was glory, much rather the ministry of righteousness abounds in glory.

Clearly the “ministry of death engraved in letters in stone” initially possessed the glory of Yahuah and was reinforced by the radiance of the face of Moshe, a radiance which, Paul notes, faded and “was to cease”.   Paul identified the old Covenant as a “ministry of condemnation” which originated in glory, but that the ministry of Righteousness, manifested in and through Yahusha is more excellent still, abounding in glory. A “NEW COVENANT”  rightly taught by Paul and his fellow ministers, replacing the letter of death with the divine Spirit of Life.

2Co 3:10  For even that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, because of the surpassing glory.
2Co 3:11  For if the thing done away was through glory, much rather the thing remaining is in glory.

Paul nails the lid shut on the letter of the law in that statement, citing that the former letter of the law, the written commands which kill (verse 4 above) are already replaced: “2Co 3:11  For if the thing done away was through glory, much rather the thing remaining is in glory.

Paul is referring to the 10 commandments and every remaining inferior command of Torah, because Moshe came down from the mountain with his face glowing like a lamp and the 10 Commandments hand-written in the stones under his arms.  If the 10 Commandments are done away, and with it the death sentence for all which accompanied those commands, what remains of any kind of standard for Righteous conduct?

2Co 3:12  Then having such hope, we use much boldness. And not as “Moses, who put a veil over his face,” for the sons of Israel not to gaze at the end of the thing being done away. Ex. 34:35
2Co 3:14  But their thoughts were hardened, for until the present time the same veil remains on the reading of the Old Covenant, not being unveiled, that it is being done away in Christ. 
2Co 3:15  But until today, when Moses is being read, a veil lies on their heart. 

2Co 3:16  But whenever it (the heart – jd) turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Ex. 34:34
2Co 3:17  And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

This “freedom” is not liberty to sin, or to ‘miss the mark’ or to disobey the commands, but that the Truth of our personal conduct is written on our hearts when we turn to Yahusha.  He writes the Way upon our hearts, and the Spirit teaches us what is right, and what is wrong.  We do instinctively know good from evil when we walk in the Way, and the Way is salvation through Yahusha and studying the Torah to gain the sense of Righteousness.  loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.  These two sum up the Law and the prophets. Salvation we do at the urging of the Holy Spirit.  Loving our neighbor we do because Yahusha requires that we do so.  

As we learn from study, the hand of Yahusha upon our hearts guides us into good obedience, because the behavioral standards of Yahusha are very high.  The mere thought of transgression is wickedness.  Lust, greed, hate – we do these things and we ache in our spirit over our sin, unlike the lost, who feel no remorse for their own wickedness.  

2Co 3:18  “But we all with our face having been unveiled (the glory of Yahusha upon our countenance), having beheld the glory of the Lord in a mirror (our countenance, our faces), are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord Spirit.

We are being changed, a process whereby we become a living image of Yahuah, moving from the former covenant of death via imperfection into the glory of Spirit-based life centered on Yahuah, loving Yahuah with all our heart, mind and soul and also loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Galatians 5:13  “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Gal 5:14  For all the Torah is understood in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

Love – we are called to love.  We all know what love is, and we all know what love looks like when we see it.  When we love our parents, we necessarily honor them.  When we love our neighbor, we do not have sex with his wife.  When we love our children, we give good to them, not evil.  When we love our neighbor, we do not hate his race.  When we love our neighbor, we do not hate her gender.  When we love our president, we pray for him and do not hate him.  

We fail at love every day of our lives.  We hate, we lust, we covet, we do every wicked thing and need no document to tell us that we failed.  We know when we fail because the Spirit of Yahuah dwells within is, as Yahusha promised 

John 14:21
Jesus said “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.

Mark 12
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[b] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[c] There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

The more you love, the less you sin.  There is no working one’s way into heaven.  One can only accept Yahusha as savior and love one’s neighbors as much as one loves himself.  This is the Strait Gate and the narrow path.  I stand corrected by the love of my Father, Yahuah.

Matthew 5:17  “Think not that I am come to destroy the Torah, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For amein I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one yod or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Torah, till all be fulfilled. 
      Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven (is this Paul? – JD): but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Parashiym, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. “

Remember – Yahusha hand-picked Paul.  Of all people on earth, Yahusha selected Paul to bring the gospel to the earth outside of Israel.

A little more information on the radiance of Moses and the veiled face, if you are interested…

The Commandments And The Veiled Glory Of Moses

Exodus 34:27 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.

The Radiant Face of Moses

Exodus 34:29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

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