It is unfortunate that nearly two thousand years after He came, we have a Jesus who is nearly devoid of any Jewish identity and a Church that is almost completely severed from its Jewish roots. Although this was never God’s intention, it started very early in Church history. It began with a movement away from celebrating Shabbat (the Sabbath) and the other biblical Feasts and calling these observances heretical. And so today, we have a Jesus who is not recognizable to His own Jewish People as the Messiah of Israel.
Rabbi Bernis states:
This comes from the fallacy that Yeshua taught against the Law of Moses. This lie emerged largely as a result of an overemphasis of being under the Age of Grace, the Church Age. However, Jesus never taught against the Law, the Torah. He followed and taught the Law. While Yeshua redefined the Law and taught how to rightly interpret it, He lived and died as an observant Jew in Israel. Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah or the Prophets! I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17 TLV). Some believe that “fulfill” means “to bring to conclusion” or “to complete,” but this is incorrect. In this context, it is best understood by reversing the syllables of the word “fulfill.” Doing so more clearly reveals the meaning “fill full” or “bring fullness to.”
If that isn’t clear enough, Yeshua goes on to declare: “Amen, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or serif shall ever pass away from the Torah until all things come to pass” (Matthew 5:18 TLV).
This is crystal clear—Yeshua is not advocating the abrogation of even the minutest detail of the Law. Reading on in Matthew 5 verses 27 through the end, you see that He even takes the Torah commandments further. Jesus is fulfilling exactly what was prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah when He promised the new covenant: “‘But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ it is a declaration of Adonai, ‘I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart’” (Jeremiah 31:33 TLV).
Yeshua is saying that we are not under an external law, because we now have the law within—written on our minds and hearts by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, He calls us to go even beyond the written Law (i.e., do not even commit adultery or murder in your heart). Does this sound like teaching against the Mosaic Law and the prophets? Absolutely not!
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