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1 Corinthians 3:13
But each one's work will be shown for what it is; the Day will disclose it. The knowledge that every act whether good or bad carries its own reward or punishment should create in us a certain fear of Hashem. When I say 'fear of Hashem' I do not mean just respect, but the actual fear of the consequences of breaking His rule. This system of 'measure for measure' is actually meant to be a form of soul-policing imposed on us by the Holy Spirit. There are many who claim that since the time they have applied the blood of Yeshua upon their souls they are regenerated into sinless being and therefore are impervious to sin. They claim that through this process the Torah of God is written in their heart as it is said in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 33:31-33). I have no problem with that except that if it were true, with the amount of people in this nation, and in the world, who claim to have been regenerated, we should see a substantial decline in crime and immorality, which is not the case. Instead, man seems to be receiving upon its own head the fruit of his own rebellious nature and unchecked actions. Only one hope remains. In the End, at the time when judgment calls and the books are opened, we will each stand before God. In the presence of the Ancient of Days who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it, we will stand on the scales of judgment and our lives will be measured and weighed for virtue (1 Corinthians 3:13). As the scales drastically tip to a negative balance, the accuser and prosecutor of our souls will shout, 'middah k'neged middah' or, 'measure for measure', this is the law of all the Heavens. In the deep silence and awe of the courtroom, the Defender and Redeemer of our soul will then approach to step on the other side of the scales adding to the balance the righteousness earned by virtue of His stripes and innocent suffering. As the scales now tip to the other side, He will also claim, 'middah k'neged middah', 'measure for measure'. With a knock of His gavel, the Judge of the earth will then proclaim the final sentence: "the measure has been met". I get saddened when I hear people talking flippantly about sin. Just because they don't pay for it they think that their redemption is so-called free. It is only free for them because someone else pays for it. In this case, Yeshua paid the price in the measure of His dedicated life and cruel suffering on the cross.
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Colossians 2:14
‘… Canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.’ As much as Leviticus tells us of the blessings incurred by those who walk in Abba’s Instruction, it also tells us of the curses that befall those who don’t (Leviticus 26). There is a common teaching out there that claims that in His death and resurrection, Yeshua conquered and annulled the curse that comes through disobedience and that only the blessings remain. In essence, the Torah has lost its ‘teeth’; there is no more retribution for sin. This interpretation of a statement found in Paul’s letter to the believers in Galatia is mostly due to mistranslation. Those who translated the letter did it under the influence of a theology that discarded the writings of Leviticus and believed the ancient Hebrew Scriptures obsolete. They also did not understand the cultural and social context of the Letter to the Galatians. Paul’s statement, “Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us … (Galatians 3:13)” certainly annot infer that the Torah itself is a curse. That would fly in the face of Its life giving purpose (Psalms 19:7) and eternal status (Psalms 19:9). It would also go against everything King David said about It (Psalms 119). What does Paul mean in his statement? It is explained by another statement “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Colossians 2:14)”. What Messiah cancels ’nailing to the tree’ is the ‘record’ of our ‘debt’. Every sin (disobedience to Torah: 1 John 3:4) is a ‘debt’ unto God. A record is kept of this ‘debts’ which is what is brought to the judge by the prosecutor in a Roman court of Law; it is the written record of the charges against any of us. This is what is being annulled: the record of the charges against us that require the death penalty, not the Universal Code of Law that defines right and wrong. If the Code of Law if annulled sin disappears and then, what need is there for forgiveness? The death mentioned here is not physical death which we all partake of, but the ‘death’ that separates us from God forever. We must never forget though that the only reason we do not get the punishment of this death is because Mashiach takes it for us in a settlement out of court. The ‘charges’ are not ‘deleted’, just paid by Someone else! He is the only One Whose righteousness successfully defied ‘death’ and conquered it. In Yeshua, The ‘prosecutor’ found its match! In essence, we owe Him our lives. Our lives belong to Him and we should live in a state of eternal gratitude. When asked ‘how are you?’ a famous radio show host always answers, ‘better than I deserve’. That should also be the sentiments that runs through our being day and night, “better than we deserve”! 1 Corinthians 3:13
But each one's work will be shown for what it is; the Day will disclose it. The knowledge that every act whether good or bad carries its own reward or punishment should create in us a certain fear of God. When I say 'fear of God' I do not mean just respect, but the actual fear of the consequences of breaking His rule. This system of measure for measure is actually meant to be a form of soul-policing imposed on us by the Holy Spirit. There are many who claim that since the time they have applied the blood of Yeshua upon their souls they are regenerated into sinless being and therefore are impervious to sin. They claim that through this process the Torah of God is written in their heart as it is said in Jeremiah (Jeremiah 33:31-33). I have no problem with that except that if it were true, with the amount of people in this nation, and in the world, who claim to have been regenerated we should see a substantial decline in crime and immorality, which is not the case. Instead, man seems to be receiving upon its own head the fruit of his own rebellious nature. Only one hope remains. In the End, at the time when judgment calls and the books are opened, we will each stand before God. In the presence of the Ancient of Days who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it, we will stand on the scales of judgement and our lives will be measured and weighed for virtue (1 Corinthians 3:13). As the scales drastically tip to a negative balance, the accuser and prosecutor of our souls will shout, 'middah k'neged middah' or, 'measure for measure', this is the law of heaven. In the deep silence and awe of the courtroom, the Defender and Redeemer of our soul will then approach to step on the other side of the scales adding to the balance the righteousness earned by virtue of His stripes and innocent suffering. As the scales now tip to the other side He will then also claim, 'middah k'neged middah', 'measure for measure'. With a knock of His gavel, the Judge will then proclaim the final sentence: the measure has been met. I get saddened when I hear people talking flippantly about sin. Just because they don't pay for it they think that their redemption is so-called free. It is only free for them because someone else pays for it, and Yeshua paid the price in the measure of His suffering on the cross. Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, … and you will be sons of the Most High. Many make fun at Yeshua’s injunction to love our enemy. Even our American President had something to say about it. In an interview where President Obama broaches several Bible passages including the Sermon on the Mount he said that (and he could be right) it is “a passage that is so radical that it is doubtful that our own defense department would survive its application” (see link below). We need to remember that it is not a prophet or an apostle who said that we should love our enemies, but that it is Yeshua Himself who fished the elements of His doctrine from another sermon on another mountain: the Oracle of Mt. Horeb where it says, "If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him (Exodus 23:4-5). To comment negatively on these passages is to comment negatively on the very nature and character of God. Reading the passages of the legal terms of the Torah we obtain a formidable peek at the very nature and essence, at the heart of the Almighty. The idea is that He expects these things of us is because they are Him; they are His nature. Just as if someone lived in my house I would expect them to live by the same standards I do, the Father who takes us into His great family expects us to live by the ideals He condones. His commandments reflect His very nature so when He tells us how we should respond to our enemy’s misfortune, we are given a peek at the way God is and He tells us to be like Him. You might say, ‘oh, but when I read the Bible; I see God dealing with His enemies in very harsh manners’. Maybe so, but it is usually after repeated attempts at peace. The story of Jonah is the story of an Israeli politician whom God asked to go as an emissary of peace to Nineveh, a city that was stealing territory from Israel and harassing its northern villages. If Nineveh didn’t change its ways towards Israel, God was going to punish them. Of course Jonah didn’t want to go. He wanted God to punish those who were persecuting his country. Jonah didn’t want them to have a chance at repentance. When people asked Yeshua for a sign of His Messiahship, the only sign He offered was the ‘sign of the prophet Jonah’. Not only did Jonah’s three days and three nights in the belly of the fish represented Yeshua’s three days in the belly of the earth, but through Jonah, this story tells us of the Father sending the Messiah as an emissary of peace to offer us, God’s enemy’s because of sin, a message of repentance before the end comes (Matthew 12:39). Again this is all measure for measure. Yeshua taught us to ask the Father to forgive us our debts (sins against the Father), but only as we forgive our debtors (those who sin against us). So if we can’t have a merciful attitude towards our enemies, how can we expect God to have mercy on us who through sin have set ourselves in enmity against Him? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FCNKwHRCQM) |
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