What do you think Righteousness is… ?
Noah and Abraham were considered righteous. So, what does it mean to be righteous?
Rabbi Sha’ul, Rabbi Paul had a great many problems in his congregation because of the confusion caused by those who would try and hijack the simple and freeing truth that righteousness is not earned through religious activity, but bestowed on us Y’HoVaH [יְהֹוָה]. He calls us righteous when we have faith in His plan of salvation and when we dutifully follow Messiah in obedience to the Written Torah.
There is a duel blessing for doing so, both in Heaven and on Earth. How would we ever know how to love Y’HoVaH as well as love our neighbours if we discard the Written Torah—heaven forbid.
However, it’s another thing altogether to rely on our own ability to become righteous. We are surrounded by laws, regulations and statutes which take away our freedoms. Of course, many will say that these are necessary because they keep us free, but this is not true. Freedom comes by following God’s laws and His statutes. Yeshua sums this up beautifully when He sees the harm that religious bondage has on all who would come under its spell.
We demonstrate our trust by our actions. Yet we still make mistakes. Can we ever be perfect? How is it possible that Y’HoVaH [יְהֹוָה] expects us to be perfect? God says we should strive for this expectation: it can only be because He demanded the same thing from Adam, Abraham, Moses the Israelites and Yeshua. He demanded that they love and obey Him with all their heart, soul, mind and might—and He said they that it was ‘not too difficult’.
The main reason as I see it, is that Y’HoVaH [יְהֹוָה] cannot use us if we are not loyal to Him. Faith is not loyalty—thinking good thoughts, saying right things and doing good works demonstrate loyalty. Don’t you think?
Y’HoVaH [יְהֹוָה] needs us to demonstrate our faith through our works. How well we keep the commandments does not prevent us from entering Heaven, but it does determine how effective we will be once we are in His Kingdom. Matthew 5 is very explicit on this point.
Why we use the complete Jewish Bible
We use the Complete Jewish Bible mainly because its Author, Dr. David Stern is a Jewish believer in Yeshua-Jesus as the true Messiah who was sent by God to come into this world as our Redeemer. Dr. David Stern also wrote the Jewish New Testament Commentary which we highly recommend to any Bible student who wants to understand Scripture from a Hebrew perspective and know more about how the Jewish Yeshua-Jesus lived, acted, thought and dedicated His life to God as a Jew. Dr. David Stern opens up the Scriptures through his Hebrew background to explain so much of scriptural confusion which exists in the exegesis of Christians who study the Old and New Testaments from Greek-Western thinking, which by definition, is different to Hebrew thinking and understanding. Dr. David Stern is a scholar of both the ancient Hebrew and Greek languages and translated the New Testament from the Greek manuscripts.
The Complete Jewish Bible contains all four main sections of the Bible, which are:
- The Torah: The Books of Moses—the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah is sealed by God and not to be changed. - The Prophets: Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi
- The Writings: The Hebrew Bible arranges these in three parts:
- >Poetic books: Psalms, Proverbs and Job
- > Five Festival Scrolls: Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Eccles. & Esther.
- > Historical books: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles.
- The Brit HaDashah (New Testament): The Gospels, Writings and Letters, with Revelation—God seals the Book of Revelation as He did with the Torah and is not to be changed.
Why did Yeshua-Jesus Live by Torah Instruction?
Yeshua-Jesus authorised the above Scriptures, which are known in Hebrew as the Tanakh and in English, the Old Testament. “Yeshua said to them, “This is what I meant when I was still with you and told you that everything written about me in the Torah of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44 CJB)
As students of the Bible it is important to prove for yourself whether or not Yeshua-Jesus…:
- was the Word of God, the Way, the Truth and the Light. These are also descriptions of Torah.
- was the Shepherd of God’s People who came only for the ‘Lost Sheep’ of the House of Israel.
- lived a perfect life because He obeyed God’s Torah instructions, without condemnation by Torah.
- was a great Rabbi on Earth and taught Torah and rightly judged others using Torah standards.
- came to establish the immortal truths about Himself, those written in the Torah, Writings and Prophets.
- told His disciples that the Torah would not pass away until everything in God’s plan has happened.
John 14:21 (CJB) “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me, and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Romans 3:31 (CJB) “Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.”
Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (CJB) “For this mitzvah [these Torah commandments] which I am giving you today is not too hard for you, it is not beyond your reach.”
Matthew 5:18-20 (CJB) 18 Yes indeed! I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away, not so much as a yud [a mark] or a stroke will pass from the Torah — not until everything that must happen has happened. 19 So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot [Torah commandments] and teaches others to do so will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever obeys them and so teaches will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness is far greater than that of the Torah-teachers and P’rushim [Pharisees], you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
Messianic Education Australia: Copyright © Natan Ben Yehuda 2016
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