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2 Corinthians 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Moses convenes the whole congregation of the children of the Children of Israel who came out Egypt. He calls in the tribes' heads, the elders, the officers, all the men of Israel. Moses also includes the little ones, the wives, the sojourners, or strangers who live with Israel. Each human soul of the Sinaitic congregation is to stand alone before its Maker and be made personally responsible for the terms of the covenant (Deuteronomy (29: 10-12). The people are to understand the resultant blessings for obedience, and the retributions for disobedience. Moses' lecture betrays his insight into the future. It is as if he could predict Israel's apostasy, two exiles, and overall future spiritual condition. Moses especially warns of the cynic, he who thinks he can ignore the covenant terms and get away with it. He says, Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from Hashem our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, 'I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.' This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. Hashem will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of Hashem and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and Hashem will blot out his name from under heaven (Deuteronomy 29: 18-20). The Book of Hebrews alludes to this verse in, See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled (Hebrews 12: 15-16). This idea flies in the face of those who comfort themselves with an erroneous idea of 'grace', of a 'grace' which through a clever perversion of the enemy becomes the gate for un-retributed licentious living, a 'grace' where a man says to himself, "I need not to fear sin; there is no condemnation for me; I am forgiven". The 'Son' who teaches this is certainly not the 'Son' of the Father who spoke the words in Deuteronomy 29: 10-12 (2 Thessalonians 2:3; John 3:16)! 'Grace' as implied in the Apostolic Scriptures is of a different nature. Paul, the Jewish apostle defines the Hebrew word, 'chesed' translated as 'grace' in English texts. He says, God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8). In other words, Grace is given to us that we may abound in every 'good work' which in the mouth of the apostle refers to 'every mitzvah', which in turn refers to 'every commandment'. Grace therefore is given to us that we may have the love, strength, and power to be obedient, not to be forgiven for being disobedient. There is a place in the Torah for making the proverbial slate clean, but this is not the idea of grace. May His grace help us abound in those 'mitzvot' (commandments) which we fail the most in, those Messiah claimed to be the weightier matters of Torah such as love, mercy, humility, temperance, unity, and gratefulness.
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Philippians 2:13
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. As they readied to enter the Promised Land, Moses addresses this second generation of Israelites from Egypt. He reminds the people of all that happened during the last forty years of wondering. He debriefs them on all the lessons learned and on how not to repeat the same errors. Knowing that he will not enter the land, this was Moses’ departing address. Promises of wealth, prosperity, fertility and military victories fill this address, promises that all hang on one phrase, “Because you listen to these rules and keep and do them” (Deuteronomy 7:12). From this we can define the role of Torah in our lives. Our fathers in the desert had already experienced salvation from Egypt and entered a relationship with El-Elyon, the Almighty God on the Mount. They had been chosen not for their goodness and works but because of the promises God made to their fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 9:5). The Hebrew word translated as ‘grace’ is ‘chesed’, which means: covenant loyalty. We have a God who, unlike man, keeps His promises and doesn’t repent from them. The covenant was ‘cut’; they were the redeemed on their way to the land God calls His Own. The Torah was simply the contract on how to live and prosper in that Land. If they kept it, they would prosper in it, if they disobeyed it, He would take them out. Was it good news or bad news? It was both. If our success is to be measured by our obedience we are all doomed as we are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). As human, not only do we need to be shown the way, but we also need someone to walk it for us, and we have it: Yeshua our Mashiach. True, some people seem more virtuous than others. Some rationalize stealing in business while others keep their integrity; some lie while other’s word is as good as gold; some easily break promises (especially in marriage) while others wouldn’t dare; some are proud while others humble; some use bad language while other’s mouths are clean. All these virtues though have nothing to do with any personal goodness of our own. They are solely the results of the indwelling of the Spirit of the Almighty within us, which is given to us though the atonement of our Adon Yeshua. This was the promise that was given to the people at the Mount that He will walk ‘within’ us. Take that Presence away from us and we are again as wicked as the most wretched criminal on the planet. When Yeshua walks within us, He is the shield that in a way ‘blinds’ the Father to our iniquities. In the Name of His virtuous sinless life we are redeemed and it is because none of our own works. No matter how much we try to obey Torah, because of our wicked human nature we will always fail. We need the atonement of the Righteous One, of the Tzaddik Yeshua as they say in Hebrew, to intervene between us and the Father. All Abba sees then is the atonement of the Master for us, and it is this grace which then gives us the ability to perform the ‘good works’, the obedience of Torah ( Titus 2:11-14; Eph 2:10). |
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