Luke 16:16
“The law and the prophets were until
John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth
into it.”
There is a growing
movement out there called “Hebrew Roots”. This movement in effect calls
believers to go back to the law of Moses and keep it. There are also other
similar movements that do not call themselves Hebrew Roots but have similar
beliefs, these would be various forms the Messianic movement including Messianic
Judaism.
The above verse is
very revealing in that the law and the prophets were until the time of John who
then started announcing the arrival of the gospel of the Kingdom. There seems
to be a distinction made between the dispensation (administration) of the law
and the prophets and the gospel of the Kingdom. This is because there is. While
the law of Moses is not abolished, as Messiah states shortly after this verse,
we as believers in the dispensation of the gospel of the Kingdom are not under its
administration.
Luke 16:17
“And it is easier for heaven and
earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.”
What the Messiah is saying in Luke 16:16-17
is that the law and the prophets are brought to their fulfillment with the
arrival of the gospel of the Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom is indeed a
different administration than the law and prophets. Jehoshua fulfills the law
in how He lived it out and how He wants us to live it out as taught in the Sermon
on the Mount. Jehoshua is the fulfillment of the prophets being the eternal
Davidic King promised to his father David. This is why Jehoshua is called the
spirit of prophecy in the book of Revelation. Jehoshua is the final revelation
of God’s will as the true and final authoritative prophet:
Hebrews 1:1-2
1 God, who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us
by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds;
In effect, what
Jehoshua is saying above is that the law and the prophets must now be filtered
through Him and His commandments i.e. the Sermon on the Mount and His whole
ministry in general. The law of Moses is now filtered through the law of
Messiah and the prophets are now understood in light of Jehoshua. The Son of
God is fulfilling not nullifying these things. The gospel of the kingdom has
arrived in the ministry of the Son of God and its adherents are pressing into
it.
John 1:17
”For the law was given through
Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”
Moses gave us the law of God but the grace
and truth of the law of God was given through Messiah. There is no
contradiction here but rather a revelation of the intent of the law by the Son
of God. As Paul says the law was our school master to bring us to Messiah:
Galatians 3:23-26
23 But before faith came,
we were kept in ward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. 24 So that the law is become our tutor to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But
now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For
ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.
The Hebrew roots and parts of the Messianic
movement want to bring people back under the tutor that was the Mosaic Law.
Paul says that the law was our tutor to bring us to the faith that was hidden
in times past but is now revealed in the manifestation of the Messiah onto the
scene of Israel as the eternal Davidic King. This is in agreement with what
John says above, that the law was under the administration of Moses but now
that Messiah has been manifested we are brought into the administration of the
grace and truth of that law and thereby according to Paul graduate to sonship.
The law of Moses was the guardian of the
Israelite nation and then when the faith of the Messiah came that was fulfilled
in terms of its administrative authority. We graduate from being servants under
the law of Moses to being sons and daughters of Jehovah God. To go back under
the law of Moses is to go from being a son or daughter of God to being a
servant. Paul even states that the goal of the law is Messiah:
Romans 10:4
“For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth.”
This should be
understood that Messiah is the goal not end of the law. The law has not been
ended in terms of the moral law of Moses. but rather the law pointed to Messiah
who lived out the law showing us it’s intent. The law of Moses had its place
but now that faith has come in Messiah, who showed us how to live out the law,
we are no longer under the tutorship of the law. This would be akin to our
secular schooling all throughout K-12, in which once we graduate high school we
then are no longer under the school system but we indeed use what we learned in
our post schooling life. We will use those things we learned in school for our
now post graduate career. We have graduated to a higher plane of society and
will need that K-12 schooling as we navigate life but we are no longer under
its stringent rules. In fact, now that we are graduated from that system we may
not even need to use everything we learned but what we learned will be summed
up and at our disposal for life’s situations.
The Hebrew roots
movement is trying to put people back under the law of Moses yet Paul himself
said he is not under the law of Moses but rather under the law of God and
Messiah:
1 Corinthians 9
21 to them that are
without law, as without law, not being without law to God, but under law to
Christ, that I might gain them that are without law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the
weak: I am become all things to all men that I may by all means save some.
Paul makes it clear that even though we nor
him are under the law of Moses, we are indeed under the law of God and Messiah.
This statement is interesting in that Paul now equates the law of God with the
law of Messiah. This shows that the law of God is now to be understood within
the context of the Messiah most notably His teachings. Paul is not teaching a
lawless gospel but rather saying that the law of God is now under the
administration of the Son of God not Moses. The law of Messiah entails all that
He taught summed up in the Sermon on the Mount. Why is it important to
understand this? Because the Sermon on the Mount is essential to the gospel of
the Kingdom as it is the constitution of the Kingdom. To put yourself under the
law of Moses will then lead to false conclusions regarding what is required of
Kingdom Messianics and also it is to inadvertently place Moses above Messiah
when the new testament writers say the opposite:
Hebrews 3
1 Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a
heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, even
Jesus; 2 who was faithful to him
that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house. 3 For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than
Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house. 4 For every house is builded by some one; but he that
built all things is God. 5 And
Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of
those things which were afterward to be spoken; 6 but Christ as a son, over his house; whose house
are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the
end.
As much glory as was bestowed upon Moses,
far greater glory is given to the Messiah Jehoshua as He is the only begotten whereas
Moses was a servant in the house of God. Jehoshua as prophesied of the Davidic
Branch was to build the new covenant house of God (Zechariah 6:9-15). The author
of Hebrews states emphatically that Jehoshua is counted worthy of more glory
than Moses, which is in step with what Paul says in 2nd Corinthians
3 that the old covenant under the administration of Moses was glorious but the
new covenant under Messiah far exceeds it in glory.
Moses was a servant but the Son of God
exceeds that title and is the only begotten Son of God due to Him being the
prophesied seed of David. Thereby as a King He has the right to give law which
was also prophesied of Him in Isaiah 42:4
“He will not fail nor be discouraged, till
he have set justice in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law.”
The Davidic King has authority over heaven
and earth and to think that He was simply here as a Moses revivalist preacher
is to diminish His ministry and who He is as the long awaited Davidic King.
Jehoshua gave His law in the Sermon on the Mount and it is this law that the
nations wait for. Jehoshua is the banner (ensign) of God’s new covenant house
which is the church:
Zechariah 6:13
“even he shall build the temple of Jehovah;
and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he
shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between
them both.”
Jehoshua will not
only build the new covenant temple but He will also bear the glory and be a
King-Priest of the temple. This far exceeds Moses.
Hebrews 7:11-12
11 If therefore perfection were by the
Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further
need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec,
and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there
is made of necessity a change also of the law.
The cold hard fact is
that there has been a change in the law and this change is specific to the Levitical
priesthood, animal sacrifices and temple system of worship. With the Levitical
priesthood being abolished the law has changed, which affects many aspects of
the law of Moses. The feast days come to mind as they were to be held in
Jerusalem within the context of the Levitical system of worship and the temple.
These two things no longer exist so obviously this affects the requirement to
keep the feasts. Certainly, we can celebrate the festivals of Jehovah and their
meaning but to require it is outside the new covenant law. Yet this what the Hebrew
roots folks do, they command believers in Messiah to keep these days but they
absolutely do not have the authority to do so. They are tempting Jehovah God by
doing so as Peter stated in Acts 15 regarding the Law of Moses. With no
Levitical priesthood it is nearly impossible to determine what would be
required to keep the feast without a physical temple. Since neither are around
anymore then not one single person living today has the authority to require believers
to keep the feast as they themselves wouldn’t know how and where to keep them.
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