The Fear of God — Lost & Forgotten?

Has Religion replaced God’s Word & Jesus’ teachings with an extreme form of Grace Gospel?

Modern Christianity seems to have lost the one thing that is required to live a life in obedience to YHWH, the fear of God.

Much like the Pharisees showed extreme vigilance in keeping their Oral Laws, does not modern Religion show extreme vigilance in getting rid of everything “Left of Matthew”?

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Before we begin, let us establish one thing:

We are saved by the Grace of God our Father through Faith in His Son Yeshua

This is the ultimate Truth.

Love & Grace does not contradict keeping God’s commandments; it is rather an expression of our obedience and faith.

‘Saved by grace’ does not grant us the freedom to live our lives as Christians as we please, and do what is right in our eyes.

Judg 21.25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

The moment we follow a doctrine that says “we can do as we please, we are free from the law”, we are not following Yeshua anymore.

We are not free from keeping God’s Law, but free from the wages of our sins which is death.

Did Yeshua do what pleased Him?

No.

He always did what pleased God the Father who sent Him.

John 8.29]] He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn’t left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”

Are we not called to follow Him?

Are we not called to be set-apart, i.e. holy?

1 Pet 1.15]] but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;

So what then are we supposed to do?

There can only be one answer to that:

Do as Yeshua did

John 15.10]] If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

This passage holds the entire truth of what God expects from us, and what Yeshua taught during His earthly ministry.

What this passage implies is serious: If you don’t keep my commandments, you are outside of my love, and outside of the Father’s love

Greek Word Study

The greek word used for ‘commandments’ is ἐντολή (entolē)

Logos gives the following explanations:

command — noun. an authoritative direction or instruction to do something; through speech or writing. ethical system ⇔ commandment — noun. the Christian ethical system understood as if a single commandment; perhaps related to the two great commandments summarizing the moral law of the decalogue. system ⇔ commandment — noun. the Mosaic law system; understood as if a single Mosaic commandment representing the entire system.

It is the same word used as in Matthew 5:19 where Yeshua speaks as follows:

Matt 5.19]] Therefore, whoever shall break one of these least commandments and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

This is significant because in Matthew 5:17–18 Yeshua explicitly explains that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, to bring it to its full expression.

Matt 5.17]] “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. Matt 5.18]] For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished.

Yeshua referred to commandments as to those commandments in the Torah.

Let us take a closer look now at what John 15:10 teaches us.

An attempt of a Framework

First, we shall attempt to establish a framework

1. Yeshua did not teach anything new (apart from the New Commandment)
2. He always taught the Torah and the Word of God
3. He always spoke and did what He heard the Father say, or the Father commanded Him
4. His Word was rooted in the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings
5. Yeshua upheld God’s Law and brought it to full expression
6. Yeshua tells us that He did not come to abolish the Torah

Let’s look at the passage under this light and keep these in mind.

God’s Law brought to a deeper spiritual application — The Law of Christ?

When Yeshua says in John 15:10 “if you keep my commandments”, does he mean different commandments than His Father’s commandments?

Are we to keep only Yeshua’s commandments but not the Father’s commandments?

It sure sounds like it.

As if Yeshua makes a distinction between His commandments and God’s commandments:

• He followed His Father’s commandments
• We should follow only Yeshua’s

This is by large the doctrine of religion today, and the understanding of many believers.

But is that really so?

Same Law…nothing new, except:

A deeper spiritual Application of God’s commandments

Here is one suggestion on how to understand this passage and get closer to the truth of Yeshua.

1. In the original covenant, God’s Commandments had its expression in the flesh
2. Yeshua brought a deeper spiritual application to God’s law in the New Covenant, i.e. still the same commandments
3. These same commandments remain as the foundation in the New Covenant 👉 God wrote His law in our hearts. He would not trust us anymore to keep His commandments in the flesh because we utterly failed to do so.

Examples

1. Adultery ([[Bible Vault/Scripture (WEB)/40 — Matthew/Matt-05#v27|Matt 5.27]] ) Adultery now begins in the heart, not in the flesh anymore. A man can now commit adultery by lusting after a woman. Notice that this could mean that even an unmarried man could commit adultery in the heart by lusting after a married woman. Meaning, the man would make the married woman commit adultery yet the full weight of transgressing (i.e. sinning) the commandment is on the man, not the woman who was lusted after. → How serious is this commandment taken by married Christians today — considering the divorce rate amongst believers is as high as non-Christians?
2. Murder ([[Bible Vault/Scripture (WEB)/40 — Matthew/Matt-05#v22|Matt 5.22]]) Equally, murder now begins not in the flesh, but in the heart. Even hating someone is now considered a sin, Yeshua teaches us. → How easily can we let something go and not hold a grudge? Tough…

Therefore, it can be suggested that the meaning of Yeshua saying “keep my commandments” refers to the deeper spiritual application of God’s commandments — not a new set of commandments making God’s Law obsolete as is proclaimed by many doctrines. We shall also remember that Yeshua’s doctrines are not His but ‘the One who sent” Him, i.e. the Father.

We abide in His love if we keep God’s commandments on our heart, not flesh.

How come, then, that many doctrines proclaim that we don’t have to follow any of God’s Laws anymore?

Maybe the 2, or maybe the 10, but nothing beyond Exodus 20, please!

Let alone anything before Mt Sinai

(spoiler alert: God’s 10 words can be found in Genesis. Have you seen them?)

Could it be that these modern doctrines of lawlessness covered under a veil of Love & Grace are as extreme as the doctrines of the Pharisees in Yeshua’s days?

Modern Doctrines = Pharisee Doctrines?

There seems to be doctrines in religion that say:

• The Old Testament is obsolete
• Yeshua kept the Law so that we don’t have to
• We don’t have to obey the Law because the Law is written in our hearts (do you see the contradiction already?)
• Yeshua loved everyone
• I repented once. That’s enough.
• Yeshua did away with the Old Testament
• The Law was nailed to the Cross

And on and on.

These doctrines of radical ignorance towards anything ‘Left of Matthew’ — and sometimes even ignorance against most of what we read within the New Testament — shows a startling resemblance of the extreme religious stance of the Pharisees.

Yeshua did teach the Way, not religion or man-made traditions

He did not abolish the Torah (or the Tanakh in totality). Neither did he put the Oral Laws above God’s commandments.

He brought a more profound application of the Law to us which would be expressed in our obedience to God enabled by the Holy Spirit.

Yeshua sent the Holy Spirit to us not that we could happily ignore God’s Law, but to enable our ‘want to’ and our ability to obey Him and keep His commandments.

This teaching of Yeshua is divisive especially today.

• Have you ever encountered opposition when you say that you follow God’s commandments?
• Have you ever been called a Judaizer, a Pharisee, legalistic?

If not, are you living a set-apart life? Do we even know what that means today? If we follow a doctrine of ‘being free in Christ to eat what we want, do what we want’ then how could we possibly live set-apart from the nations?…do you know?

Yeshua and God’s Word: Fire & Sword

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In Jeremiah, we see that the LORD says:

Jer 23.29]] “Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Now, Religion will say (again) that this is only the Old Testament. That’s for the Israelites, the Jews. We are Christians. That doesn’t apply to us.

But did Yeshua not say the exact same thing?

Matt 10.34]] “Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword.

God’s Word brings division

Even in our own families:

Luke 12.49]] “I came to throw fire on the earth. I wish it were already kindled.

Luke 12.51]] Do you think that I have come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.

Following God’s commandments will make you an outsider, an outlier, someone who does things that the majority would consider ‘weird’. Not eating pork, keeping Shabbat, wearing Tzitzit… All this makes those who join themselves to YHWH set-apart. Exactly as supposed to.

Yeshua was sent for the lost sheep of the house of Yisra’el. This could imply that the meaning of these sayings was as to say that whatever their parents did to worship YHWH would clash with the children following the Way.

Nothing has changed today. The faith of our parents, even well-meaning Christians, and the way they walk out their faith will inevitably clash with Yeshua’s Way. He did not preach a new religion, he taught God’s commandments. He brought people back to the Word of God. He countered satan’s temptation with “man shall not live on bread along but on every word that comes from the mouth of Adonai”.

Non-messianic Jews rejecting Yeshua as Messiah. Christians rejecting the Jewish/Hebrew context of Jesus Christ — a man-made mess…

Yeshua and the Torah. Post-Resurrection

If the Law (Torah), the Prophets, and the Writings would have been made obsolete by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ Yeshua, how can we reconcile then this passage:

Luke 24.27]] Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

On the road to Emmaus, He (Yeshua) explained the things concerning Him in all the Scriptures.

There was no New Testament. Yeshua has always taught the Torah / Tanakh (Scripture totality) during His earthly ministry — and now all of a sudden after His resurrection He goes back to Scripture to explain everything about himself.

If the Law was nailed to the cross, why would Jesus teach from something that was abolished after His resurrection?

Luke 24.32]] They said to one another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?”

Notice that the disciples said their hearts were burning within them when Yeshua opened Scripture to them?

Remember Jeremiah:

Jer 23.29]] “Isn’t my word like fire?” says Yahweh; “and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

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God’s Word is forever

Isa 40.8]] The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”

The Word of God stands forever. It has been for thousands of years, and it will continue until, as Yeshua said, heaven and earth fall away.

Certainly, if we ignore everything left of Matthew, then we will never discover the fullness of God, and its expression and exaltation in Yeshua Messiah.

Without the Tanakh we would…

… lack the wisdom and understanding that the Torah is not a burden, but it is easy to keep.

Deut 30.11]] For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant.

We would never know that God says that He would make a new covenant with the House of Israel and Judah, and write His law in our hearts, therefore making it (His Torah) valid and foundational in the New Covenant. While many seem to understand it as an abolishment of the Law.

We would miss out on understanding that ‘Saved by Grace through Faith’ is not a New Covenant specific original process. Many people in the Tanakh were saved by God through faith. 👉 Hebrews 11

We would fail to understand that the fear of God is something to strive for. And that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, says Scripture.

The Fear of God is good…

In closing, let us consider that many believers have lost the fear of God. They are more afraid of worldly circumstances. More afraid of those who can kill the body but not the soul. More afraid to lose ‘their freedom in Christ’ not knowing that this is a rejection of God’s commandments.

Let us shine our light in the world, walk the Way, be Talmidim and teach others to obey everything He commanded, plant the seeds of Truth, water them, and let YHWH provide the growth.