The Torah’s Two Primary Roles
Welcome back everyone to Torah Today Ministries and our continuing series Grappling with Galatians. In this episode we find ourselves in discussion number three. And as you know from listening to the previous two teachings, I’m not going through Galatians chapter by chapter, verse by verse — I’ve done that before, years ago, and those teachings can be found at the Beth Tikkun Messianic Fellowship website. But this time I’ve decided to take a different approach with Galatians and instead of discussing it verse by verse, to take the blocks of misunderstanding — the major roadblocks and hindrances to understanding this book. And as I’ve been going through and preparing these teachings and thinking about them, I think that by addressing these blocks of misunderstanding it will help us to understand not only Galatians but all of Paul’s letters and other concepts throughout the scriptures.
So in this discussion we’re going to talk about the Torah’s two primary roles. There are many roles that the Torah plays, but there are two primary ones — and those are the ones we want to look at in this discussion.
Now I asked my good friend Phil Rose to make an illustration for me, and he did. And I could just camp out here at this drawing — we’re going to be looking at this for a while. And if we can really understand what we see here in this illustration, it will help us to understand so many things about the Torah, about God’s word, about walking in the Spirit, and other things like this.
What we have here are two identical views of someone’s view out the windshield of their car. On the left we see a road — there are no road signs, it looks straight — but the driver is saying, “I should slow down. I see a dangerous curve ahead.” Now in the drawing I can’t see that curve, but the driver obviously has better eyesight than I do. And so his common sense, that inner voice, tells him: “I need to slow down because there’s a curve ahead. If I go too fast on the curve I’ll crash.”
Now on the right the driver is silent, but we see some road signs. On the left side of the road we see a 25 miles per hour speed limit sign, and on the right we see a large sign that says “Dangerous Curve Ahead.”
Now this kind of describes two ways people walk in this world. On the left we have the people who say, “Well, I don’t need the Torah. I don’t need the commandments. I walk in the Spirit.” And I have to ask you a question — and I want you to be very honest about this, if you’re one of these people. I mean, I hope we all walk in the Spirit. I try to walk in the Spirit the best I can. But my question is this: how good of a job are you doing with that — really? How good of a job are you doing in really walking in God’s Spirit? Do you do a good job of walking in the Spirit when your emotions are raging? Or maybe when you have not had enough sleep? Or maybe you’ve been ill? Or you’ve just experienced a horrible loss and pain in your life? And we could go on and on about things that affect our ability to truly hear God’s voice — that inner voice — and be sensitive to what he wants us to do.
How good of a job do we do? I wish I did a better job than I indeed do in walking in the Spirit. But if we say, “I’m just going to walk in the Spirit, I don’t need the commandments, I don’t need the Torah” — I think you’re going to find that you do. Because what if you’re driving — going back to our illustration — and it’s a bit foggy and you can’t see the end of the road, you can’t see the curve up ahead? Then having the signs, having the commandments — “25 miles per hour, dangerous curve” — having these warnings in print can save our lives.
So think of the signs in the right-hand panel as being like the commandments of the Torah — the written Torah. Now what is written on the signs does not disagree with what the driver is saying on the left. On the left the driver says, “I should slow down, I see a dangerous curve ahead.” The sign on the right says “Dangerous Curve Ahead — 25 miles per hour.” So they’re not in conflict with one another. And the commandments of God are not in conflict with walking — or in this case, driving — in the Spirit. They are not in conflict at all. They bear witness to one another.
You know, this reminds me of a passage in Romans. I want to read this — Romans 2, verses 14 and 15:
For when Gentiles who do not have the Torah by nature do what the Torah requires, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the Torah. They show that the work of the Torah is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. — Romans 2:14–15
So what we’re saying here is that people who don’t have the written word of God — God’s Spirit can still speak to them and say, “You shouldn’t do that. You should do this. You need to be careful here. This is dangerous — slow down.” And we find people in the scriptures who, though they do not have the scriptures, do the things that are written in the scriptures — because their consciences, that spark of God’s Spirit within them, is guiding them in the right way, and they’re listening to that still small voice.
Now I’ve spoken in past teachings — it’s been a while — about the drive we take when we go to services at our congregation, Beth Tikkun Messianic Fellowship. To drive from my home to the place where we have our meetings, I have to drive through a little town called Mogadore. And going through Mogadore — pretty little place, but it’s a pain in the neck — as you drive along it’s 45 miles per hour, but when you get about a quarter or half a mile away from the city limits it drops to 35 miles per hour. And then when you hit the city limits it drops down to 25 miles per hour. And it’s just a straight road. And it’s just really aggravating. And you creep along watching the snails pass you on the sidewalk. And you finally get through town and come out the other side, and then eventually the speed limit increases to 35, and then a short distance later back up to 45.
And so I complain about it. And my wife — my sweet Robin — she knows I complain about it. And oftentimes I’ll be driving through Mogadore and kind of grumbling about how slow it is. And she’ll say, “Now honey, you need to watch your attitude.” And when she says that, that doesn’t really help my attitude — but she is correct. Because though I might be following the law, I’m not happy about it. I want to go faster.
And here’s something else that happens: everybody I know who drives through Mogadore has been ticketed by the police. Mogadore is one big speed trap. And seriously — everybody I know who’s driven through Mogadore over the years has gotten at least one ticket. Except for me. And when this comes up in conversation — somebody will start talking about and complaining about Mogadore, I’m not the only one — they’ll say, “Grant, have you ever been ticketed in Mogadore?” And I say, “No. Driven through it hundreds and hundreds of times. Never a single time have I been ticketed.” And I feel kind of like the Pharisee in Luke 18 — “God, thank you for not making me like one of these sinners,” ya know? And so pride rises in my heart and the ego kicks in.
So even though I’m obeying the signs, I have a bad attitude about it. And then I brag about it when I do obey the laws. And what we see here likewise is: when we follow the Torah, we can do it with a bad attitude, and then we can brag about it when we have obeyed the commandments. So obeying the Torah doesn’t change my attitude and doesn’t necessarily make me humble.
And so the Torah, as I said, has two major roles that I see — but neither of these roles addresses the problem that’s called “me.” It doesn’t address my ego. It only addresses my behavior. It tells me how to drive so that I can get to where I’m going safely, so I can navigate life with the least amount of damage to my life and to others, and to give me success in this life that God’s given us to live. But it doesn’t change my attitude, it doesn’t make me humble, it doesn’t make me a better person. That was never the Torah’s role. We need a deeper work in our lives to truly make us more in the image of God and his children.
So let’s explore the scriptures a bit. I want to begin in Romans 7, verse 12. Now this is Paul writing this — the same Paul who wrote Galatians. When you read Galatians, we can get this attitude that Paul was against the Torah. So let’s establish once and for all that Paul followed the Torah, he loved the Torah, he held up the Torah as God’s standard of righteousness.
So the Torah is holy, and the commandment (he uses the singular—this is a common jewish thing. We find it in many jewish writings and in the scriptures when it’s referring to all the commandments when it just says “the commandment”, cause it’s all facets of God’s will)—And the Commandment is holy and righteous and good. — Romans 7:12
There’s no way God wants to get rid of the Torah — this thing that is so holy and whose commandments are holy and righteous and good. God is not interested in dispensing with his word and putting it aside. That can never be a good thing, that can never be helpful to us.
So let’s get to the two roles of Torah.
The first one is this: Torah makes sin illegal. Torah makes sin illegal. Let’s go back to our traffic laws analogy. Let’s say there’s a country road out there and let’s go back in time — maybe to the invention of the automobile — so no traffic laws have been established yet for driving on roads. And so if there are no traffic laws and I go 100 miles an hour down the road, it can be very foolish, it could be really stupid and dangerous. I’m not breaking any laws — I may break my neck, but I’m not breaking the law. But because it’s stupid and careless and dangerous, a law is established that on this road you can only go 50 miles an hour. Now what was legal before today is illegal. Yesterday I could go a hundred miles an hour and not be ticketed — now if I go 100 miles an hour I’m a law breaker. The law has made my stupidity illegal, it has made my careless and reckless driving illegal. And the Torah — one of its primary roles — is to make sin illegal.
So it says here in Romans 7, verses 12 to 14:
So the Torah is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. But did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. — Romans 7:12–14
That last phrase — “sold under sin” — means I’m like a slave who’s been sold as a slave to sin. Paul is simply saying that the Torah is revealing in me something that’s wrong. If it’s safe to go only up to 50 miles per hour on that road and they make a law — the speed limit is 50 miles an hour — it reveals to me that my going 100 miles an hour was wicked and sinful and stupid and careless and thoughtless and deadly. And though it wasn’t illegal the day before, what I was doing that was so wrong is now being made illegal — to show me there’s something wrong with me. If I’m going to continue going that speed on this road, if I’m going to continue living my life my way despite the wisdom of God who has given us wise and just laws — there’s something wrong with me.
Going back to our illustration: the sign that said “Dangerous Curve Ahead” — if I go and take a saw and saw that sign down and throw it away, does that get rid of the dangerous curve? No. What the Torah does — it reflects reality. It reflects truth. And ignoring God’s word and commandments does not make life safer for me.
I want to clear up something. In Romans 6:23 it says “for the wages of sin is death.” And we tend to read that and think: okay, if I sin then God is going to strike me down, and if I really sin in a really bad way he’s just going to kill me — in other words, he’s catching us doing something wrong and he’s going to punish us for it right away. That’s not what the verse says, that’s not what it means. What it’s saying is sin itself is deadly. And if I go around a dangerous curve at 100 miles per hour I’ll probably go off the road, off the cliff, and die. It wasn’t that God said, “Oh, you’re going too fast,” and he kills us. No — our sin kills us. The wages of sin is death. Not the wages of God getting angry at us, not God seeing us doing something foolish. No — it’s our own sin that is deadly. And so the consequence of sin is experiencing the fruit of sin, which is not a healthy thing. It’s deadly in one way or another. So ignoring God’s commandments does not remove the consequences of disobeying them.
I remember once — years ago — I was invited to teach at a ladies’ Bible study group. And I forget what I taught on, but I was teaching something about the commandments or answering a question concerning the commandments. And I think it was the kosher laws that came up. And this fine Christian woman afterwards came up and asked me: “Grant, are you telling me that I’m not allowed to eat pork or shellfish or any of that?” And I said, “You’re allowed to eat whatever you want. You can eat whatever you want to eat. But the question is — how much blessing do you want in your life? And there are blessings that come with obeying God’s commandments, and there are dangers we avoid by keeping his commandments.”
So it’s not like — like the speed limit sign, “25 miles per hour” — that speed limit sign doesn’t make me go 25 miles per hour. I still have a free will. And I can obey the speed limit sign or I can ignore it. The sign that says “Dangerous Curve Ahead” — does it make me go slower? It just simply warns me. It tells me the truth. But what I do with that truth is up to me. I can do whatever I want. But if I’m wise, I’m going to order my life according to the rules that God has set for it, because he created me, he created the world. And it’s the healthiest, the wisest, the best way for me to live a successful and healthy life in this world.
So that brings us to something that is important at this time— You know, the analogy of traffic laws and speed limit signs only goes so far. I went to the license bureau down the road and I wanted to get a copy of the traffic laws that young people study when they get ready to get their driver’s license. And as I looked through it, it’s only 51 pages. And honestly, there are very few laws mentioned in there — there aren’t many traffic laws. There’s a lot of good advice about how to merge onto an expressway, and what to do in case there’s an accident, and how to make sure your child is strapped into the car seat the proper way. All kinds of good advice. But the laws are pretty limited. And driving a car is a pretty simple thing — as long as you’re alert and you follow the few laws that there are, you’re probably going to be okay, provided others do the same.
But life itself is much more complicated, much more dangerous. And I only have to worry about following the traffic laws when I’m behind the wheel of a car. I’m only behind the wheel of a car maybe a few minutes or an hour a day, if that. Life happens 24/7. It’s much more complicated. And so God’s word is more complex and more invasive — it gets right down to the nitty-gritty of every single part of my existence. And it is there to tell me that certain behaviors are illegal in God’s eyes, and certain behaviors are deadly. It may not mean I’ll die instantly if I do that. But it means a relationship could begin to suffer. My relationship with God can become more distant. My relationship with my body — my health — may begin to break down. Death has many forms. Death means separation. And things can separate, and come apart, and disunity can come into our lives in any number of ways by violating God’s commandments.
God wants us to be one. He wants us to be healthy, to be whole, to have a close relationship with him, with our husbands and wives, our children, our community, our friends, our neighbors, our employers, our employees — whoever it may be. He wants us to have the best relationship we possibly can have.
So as we look through here, I just wanted to look at a few passages.
For by the works of the Torah no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the Torah comes knowledge of sin. — Romans 3:20
There we go — it’s through the Torah I realize the danger of sin, the illegality of sin in God’s eyes. You know, I can follow all the traffic laws. And by doing so, I get a really bad attitude going through Mogadore. That bad attitude is probably more important than breaking the speed limit — because that bad attitude is something that’s poisonous. It can poison my relationship with other people in the car and even with the people I meet when I get to my destination. That bad attitude is evidence of ingratitude, it’s evidence of pride. And even when I keep the commandments — and I can brag to my buddies, “I’ve never gotten a ticket in Mogadore” — watch, im heading through Mogadore this evening and ill probably get a ticket, so stay tuned— but you know, the pride that I get from keeping the commandments — that’s even more dangerous. Pride is a deadly thing. It’s something God just hates. It’s probably something that aligns me with my enemy Satan.
So the commandments cannot make me a righteous man. But they do show me what a righteous life looks like. But they cannot make me a righteous man — any more than a speed limit sign can make me slow down.
Let’s go ahead and look at a few more:
Why then the Torah? It was added because of transgressions. — Galatians 3:19
That phrase “because of” is better translated “for the sake of defining transgressions.” In other words, there are certain things I would not know are wrong if the Torah didn’t tell me they were wrong. There are certain things I can derive by observation in life, but God’s viewpoint is so much loftier than mine that he can see things I can’t. And in his Torah he reveals these things — and he says, “dont covet, don’t dishonor your parents. Keep the Sabbath, keep it holy. Don’t work on the Sabbath. Eat these things but don’t eat these things. Arrange your calendar in this way.” He sees things I could never see. And by reading the Torah, studying it, it helps me define what transgression truly is.
Over in First John it tells us that sin is lawlessness. What kind of law is John talking about? Let’s talk about the Torah. Sin is Torah-lessness. Torah is what defines what sin is and it makes sin illegal.
What then shall we say? That the Torah is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the Torah I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.” — Romans 7:7
In other words — if it wasn’t for the speed limit sign, I wouldn’t know it was wrong to go faster than that down this road. Covetousness — some of this came natural to me. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with it. But the Torah comes along — God’s word says “you shall not covet” — oh, that’s wrong. I didn’t know that.
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness.
In other words, sin is this thing that makes me want to rebel and do it my way. And I might fight covetousness to a certain degree, but as soon as somebody tells me not to covet — well, I want to rise up and say, “Well I’m going to covet if I want to covet.” As soon as you’re told not to do something there can be that thing in you that rises up: “By George, I’m going to do it anyway.” That is the ego. That’s the same spirit of the enemy who says, “I want to do it my way.”
For apart from the Torah, sin lies dead. — Romans 7:8
In other words, apart from the Torah, sin is legal. But now that the Torah has come, sin is made illegal — and now it rises up and wants to have its way.
Here’s a second role of Torah: Torah establishes a standard of righteousness. By making sin illegal it’s telling us what righteousness looks like, and makes me more aware of sin. Because once you have a standard of righteousness, then you realize what a poor job we’re doing at being righteous people. It’s like if you’re learning how to play an instrument — you might think, “I’m getting really good at this.” Then you hear someone who really knows how to play that instrument, and you think, “I don’t know a thing.” How many times have you heard someone play the piano or the violin, or someone who can sing, and you think, “I’m just going to quit because I can never compete”? Well, that’s a bit of ego as well. But you understand the feeling — you think you’re doing okay until you hear the standard, until you see the standard of perfection.
And the Torah shows us the standard of perfection. And Messiah came — who is the word made flesh — and he lived out the Torah to that perfect standard. And so we can either say, “Well, I just give up” — or we can say, “Father, help me. Put in me the Spirit that was in Messiah. Help me to live according to your word the best I possibly can. I know I won’t be perfect, but I can do better than I am doing. I may never reach the top of the mountain — I’m not going to stop climbing. I may never be able to play like a professional pianist — I don’t know, but I’m going to keep practicing, I’m going to press on.” Paul says again: pressing on to lay hold of that for which I am laid hold by God.
So we want to not give up but keep moving.
So the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. — Romans 7:12
It gives us our standard of righteousness. It tells us: this is what a righteous life looks like.
Now there are some things we have to keep in mind. The moment you start to think that Paul is teaching us to do away with the Torah, or some teacher tells you the Torah is done away with — you immediately call up these verses to mind. First of all, the Torah is holy, it’s righteous, and it’s good.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. — James 1:22
Now what is the word that James is talking about? There was no New Testament when James wrote that. James, the brother of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — he said, “Be doers of the word.” What’s the word? It’s the Torah — the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings. Be a doer of the word. Obey it, follow it, keep it, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. — 2 Timothy 2:15
Why would a worker be ashamed? Because they’re not rightly handling the word of truth. What is the word of truth? It’s the Torah. There was no New Testament when Paul wrote this to Timothy. We are to be skillful in the way we handle the scriptures. And the only scriptures they had then were the Old Testament scriptures — the Torah in particular. We need to be skillful in handling it. And there are a lot of people who are unskillful — or you might say they’re skillful at mishandling it and misapplying it and misleading people with it. That was part of the problem in the community at Galatia — there were teachers coming in who knew how to teach the Torah but were misusing it. We are going to see how they were miss using it in a moment.
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. — 2 Timothy 3:16–17
2 Timothy 3:16–17
what is the scripture that Paul is referring to? The New Testament? Nope — there was no New Testament. Paul would be shocked to think that the letter he wrote to Timothy would be part of our Bibles. I’m glad it is in my Bible — but the scripture Paul is referring to is the Torah. All scripture is breathed out by God — it’s God’s breath. The same breath that animated the body of Adam is the same breath that we can inhale by studying the word of God, the Torah. And it is profitable for four particular things: for our teaching, for reproof — pointing out the things that need to be fixed — for correction — fixing those things — and fourth, training in righteousness. You want to be a righteous person? You need to study the Torah.
The New Testament scriptures will tell us what our attitudes should be, what our spiritual stature should be. But the particulars — the day-to-day nitty-gritty — is spelled out in the Torah. And these four things — teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness — will help us so that we become the man of God, that we may be complete and be equipped for every good work.
We were created for good works in Messiah Yeshua. — Ephesians 2:10
How do we do those good works? How do we accomplish them? We must have the Torah, because then it will make us complete and equip us for every good work God has ordained for us to do.
Now let me give you two roles that the Torah cannot fulfill. And right here — if nothing else — this puts the finger right on the issue with the community in Galatia. They were trying to use the Torah to do something the Torah was never designed to do. And when we try to use the Torah to accomplish these two things — which are Redemption and Relationship — to establish a relationship with God— when we try to use the Torah for those two things, we are misusing the Torah.
Paul, of course, as we’ve seen, was not against the Torah. But he was against these teachers coming into the community at Galatia and trying to teach them that the Torah is how they get saved. And he argues with them — as we’ll see in future teachings — that this is a misapplication of the Torah. The Torah is not a salvation document. It’s a blessing document. It’s the traffic laws, the discipleship manual for how to live this redeemed life. But it can’t save you. And the Torah itself teaches us this. And to try to use the Torah as a salvation document is a misapplication of the Torah itself and a violation of the Torah.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the Torah but by the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah. — Galatians 2:16
Now I’ve corrected the mistranslation you find in many Bibles here. In fact, this is one where the King James gets it better than some of the more modern translations. The New American Standard translates it “by faith of Yeshua” and I think the ESV says “by faith in Yeshua.” And this is extremely important. When we read our scriptures it looks like we’re saved somehow by faith in Yeshua. It is actually the faithfulness of Yeshua. We’re saved by what he did. And sometimes we find ourselves trying to whomp up faith like it’s some kind of thing we have to work up on ourselves, and we get very frustrated. We need to be faithful — we need to have faith — but we are redeemed and justified by the faithfulness of Yeshua. By what he did. By his faithfulness to God, to the word, by his obedience to God — going to the cross and doing what he did for us. The faithfulness of Yeshua — that is the correct translation of this.
Anyways:
We know that a person is not justified by works of the Torah but by the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah. So we also have believed in Messiah Yeshua in order to be justified by the faithfulness of Messiah and not by works of the Torah, because by works of the Torah no one will be justified. But if in our endeavor to be justified in Messiah we too were found to be sinners, is Messiah then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Torah I died to the law, so that I might live to God. — Galatians 2:16–19
Now he’s addressing something very particular going on here in Galatia. Because the people there had claimed to be justified in Messiah — because of his faithfulness, they put their faith in what Yeshua had done for them. But then they were also trying to add to that by saying, “But we have to keep the Torah too to really be saved.” And Paul says: “No, no, no, no. The Torah has a purpose in your life. But redemption, justification, salvation — that is not its purpose. That comes through a relationship with Yeshua.”
And so imma back up again,
But if in our endeavor to be justified in Messiah we too were found to be sinners, is Messiah then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
Because I am going to fail over and over again.
For through the Torah I died to the law, so that I might live to God. — Galatians 2:16–19
In other words through the Torah my sin was revealed as being sinful — those attitudes of pride, of covetousness, of anger — they’re all revealed by the Torah. They’re all revealed. But the Torah could not get rid of them. But my relationship with Messiah does get rid of them, if I will just walk in the steps of Messiah.
It is no longer I who live, but Messiah who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the Torah, the Messiah died for no purpose. — Galatians 2:20–21
Righteousness cannot come through the Torah. Those speed limit signs cannot make me drive slower. And even though I do drive slower, they don’t change the essence of the person I am.
In other words: following the Torah is no substitute for a living relationship with Yeshua. It is not a substitute.
So you might think the Torah is contrary to what God has tried to do through Yeshua. So in Galatians 3:21, Paul asks that very question:
Is the Torah then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not!—
It simply just has a different function
—For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the Torah. — Galatians 3:21
The Torah can’t give life. The Torah is a life — but it can’t give life. But when the Torah became flesh and dwelt among us, and voluntarily went to the cross and rose from the dead — that form of the Torah, the Torah made flesh — it can impart life to us.
Here’s a schematic I want us to keep firmly in mind. The pattern for everything that Paul wanted to teach — and that I’m trying to teach — is all laid out for us in the Torah. And the grand scheme of redemption, of salvation, is laid out for us in the book of Exodus.
We see Israelites as slaves in sin — just as we were once slaves in Egypt, just as we were once slaves in sin. We were in darkness, there was no hope of escape. We had a Pharaoh over us who just kept making us grind out bricks, things to build his glory. And it was just deadly, awful, horrible work. What did we do to get saved from that? Not one single thing. God did it all. And through the Lamb — through the blood and the body of the Lamb — he set us and moved us from death to life, and from slavery to freedom. By the body and blood of the Lamb, that Passover Lamb — God did it. Redemption came first.
Now — how is a redeemed people supposed to live? Well, 49 days later they find themselves staying at Mount Sinai, and God speaks to them and he begins to give his Torah. Now notice the order here: the Torah was given to a redeemed people. It was not given to an enslaved people to say, “Keep the Torah and you’ll get redeemed.” He redeemed them first — through the body and blood of the Lamb — just as he redeemed us through the body and blood of the Messiah. And now he says: “Here’s the discipleship manual for how to live a free life. I want you to follow these rules so you can drive the streets without going around curves off cliffs and crashing into one another. I’m giving you some healthy, good, wonderful laws to keep. And if you keep these, your redeemed life is going to flourish. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s going to be wonderful.”
And then: “If you practice these, you can begin to experience life, victory, and fruitfulness in the place I have for you. I’ve got purpose for you. The goal was not just to get out of Egypt — but to get to the land of promise — because I’ve got wonderful work for you to do in the world. But you can’t do that work unless you know the Torah. And I’ve given you the Torah as a gift because I love you so much. I redeemed you through the Lamb, I redeemed you through my Son”. You get the order here? — don’t ever get these things out of order.
The Torah is the discipleship manual for the redeemed life. It is not an instrument that brings Redemption. That comes only through the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Now I’ve given you the two primary roles of the Torah — one that makes sin illegal and establishes a standard of righteousness which helps me recognize sin in my own life. Let me give you a third as a bonus.
One additional role: obedience to Torah is evangelism.
You’re thinking — what? How can that possibly be? When you read the early chapters of Deuteronomy it’s wonderful. How Moses, there on the last day of his life, is telling the people what good laws God has given them. He says: “And God is putting you in this land. You’re going to go to this land. And the nations that pass through there are going to see, and they’re going to say — ‘What other nation has a God who is so close to it? Has such wise laws? Look at this place!’”
When God put his people in the land of Israel, it was the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe. All the trade routes passed right through Israel. It’s like he put his people in a fishbowl. He put them on display so the whole world will see — this is what it looks like for a people to live in close relationship with God, to live holy and righteous lives.
As Daniel Lancaster puts it so well: “When strangers experience the people of God keeping the commandments of God, it is God they experience.” When we live our lives according to the Torah’s commandments, we are actually living out a revelation of godliness. The Torah is called a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And then Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) in his sermon says, “I’m the light of the world” — he is the light of Torah. They looked at the people around him and said, “You are the lights of the world.” In other words, if we’re living out Torah, we are living out the life of Messiah. We are being light to the world.
And you may do your best to walk in the Spirit apart from the commandments of Torah. But you don’t need me to tell you that it’s not going as well as you might think. May I suggest that as you continue to walk in the Spirit, look at the traffic signs around you — look at the commandments of God and follow these. Because they’re going to point out things to you that you can’t see. As good a job as you may be doing walking in the Spirit, walking in the commandments of God will help you do it better. And when you live out this godly standard of the Torah, you’re going to be a light to the world.
So one more time: when strangers experience the people of God keeping the commandments of God — it is God they experience. And isn’t that what we want people to experience through our lives?
So I hope that this next block of understanding — about the roles of Torah, what the rules of Torah are and what they are not — will help us as we read through Galatians and all of Paul’s writings.
So until next time — with discussion number four — I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם). May God bless.
Torah (תּוֹרָה) — “Instruction, teaching, law”; the written five books of Moses — the Torah Shebikhtav (תּוֹרָה שֶׁבִּכְתָב). In this teaching, its two primary roles are established: (1) it makes sin illegal by defining transgression, and (2) it establishes the standard of righteousness. Critically: these roles do not include Redemption or establishing a relationship with God — that comes through Messiah alone. — Strong’s H8451 · Sefaria: Torah
Emunah (אֱמוּנָה) — “Faithfulness, trust, steadiness”; the correct translation behind the phrase “faith of Yeshua” or “faithfulness of Yeshua” in Galatians 2:16. We are justified not by our ability to muster up faith but by the emunah — the faithfulness — of Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) himself: his obedience, his going to the cross, his doing what God required. — Strong’s H530
Avon / Sin as Lawlessness — First John 3:4 defines sin as anomia (ἀνομία) in Greek — “lawlessness.” In this teaching, that is rendered Torah-lessness: sin is the violation of Torah. The Torah is what gives sin its definition and its illegality before God. — Blue Letter Bible: Greek Anomia G458
Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; the Torah made flesh (John 1:14). He is the living embodiment of the written Torah — who lived it to the standard of perfection — and the only one through whom Redemption comes. The Torah cannot give life, but the Torah made flesh can impart life to us. — Strong’s H3442
Passover Lamb / Korban Pesach (קָרְבַּן פֶּסַח) — The sacrificial lamb of the Exodus whose blood redeemed Israel from Egypt. The pattern of salvation: redemption through the lamb came first, 49 days before the Torah was given at Sinai. This is the grand schematic that governs Paul’s entire argument in Galatians — you are not redeemed by keeping the Torah; you keep the Torah because you are already redeemed. — Strong’s H6453 · Sefaria: Exodus 12
Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness, well-being.” — Strong’s H7965
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Romans 7:12 So the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
#1 – Torah makes sin illegal
Romans 7:12-14 So the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the Torah is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Romans 3:20 For by works of the Torah no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the Torah comes knowledge of sin.
Galatians 3:19 Why then the Torah? It was added because of transgressions …
or
It was added for the sake of defining transgressions …
Romans 7:7-8 What then shall we say? That the Torah is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the Torah, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the Torah had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the Torah, sin lies dead.
#2 – Torah establishes a standard of righteousness
(& makes me aware of sin)
Romans 7:12 So the Torah is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for (a) teaching, for (b) reproof, for (c) correction, and for (d) training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.
Two Roles that Torah cannot fulfill:
Redemption
Relationship
Galatians 2:16-21 Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the Torah but by the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, so we also have believed in Messiah Yeshua, in order to be justified by the faithfulness of Messiah and not by works of the Torah, because by works of the Torah no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Messiah, we too were found to be sinners, is Messiah then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Torah I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Messiah. It is no longer I who live, but Messiah who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the Torah, then Messiah died for no purpose.
i.e., following the Torah is no substitute for a living relationship with Yeshua.
Galatians 3:21 Is the Torah then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the Torah.
1st Redemption from Slavery & Death
2nd TORAH
3rd Life of Victory & Fruitfulness
One additional Role of the Torah:
#3 – Obedience to Torah IS evangelism
When strangers experience the people of God keeping the commandments of God, it is God they experience… When we live our lives according to the Torah’s commandments, we are actually living out a revelation of godliness. – D. Thomas Lancaster
RESOURCES:
Romans 2:14-15 For when Gentiles, who do not have the Torah, by nature do what the Torah requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the Torah. They show that the work of the Torah is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them…
Philippians 3:6 As to zeal, [I was] a persecutor of the community; as to righteousness under the Torah, blameless.
Galatians 3:17 This is what I mean: the Torah, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.