Some Reasons to Keep Torah

Some grounds (which seem to be very clear) for why I believe Paul kept Torah, as should we, include:

• · Romans 3:20 – “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” If Torah is the knowledge of sin, and we do not observe it – then surely we have committed sin. It is like the NYPD has laws, which they go by. I know that to break them is a crime. But if I (not the NYPD) do away with them and actually break them does that make it not a crime? No, the laws, which the NYPD have are to keep me from committing a crime, because I know if I do then I will be punished. They teach me how to live in a civil, lawful way.

• · Romans 3:31 – “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” – In the Strong’s Concordance here establish actually means continue – or for the Romans, it would mean establish, because they had never had it before unless some of them were proselytized Jews to begin with.

• · Romans 6:15 – “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” The word for sin is chata in Hebrew and hamartia in Greek. Both words have the same meaning – to miss the mark. Torah, in Hebrew, on the other hand, means to hit the mark. Taking this into consideration Paul says, “God forbid that we sin because we are under grace.” If we do not sin (miss the mark) them it must mean that we hit the mark (obey Torah). Romans 7:7 is similar.

• · Romans 7:12 – “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” If the Torah is holy, and we, as saints, are to be holy, shouldn’t we grasp the Torah?

• · Romans 7:14 – “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” – Paul says the Torah is spiritual. When we are saved, we are suppose to mind spiritual things. Also Jesus told us to worship in Spirit and in Truth. If we worship in Spirit and the Torah is spiritual, wouldn’t it make sense that we worship by obeying torah?

• · Romans 7:25 – “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” Paul says that he serves the Torah with his mind.

• · Romans 8:7 – “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” This refers to Jeremiah 31:33 (“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”) and it’s reference in Hebrews 10:16 (“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.”) So, what Paul is saying here, is that unless we are in that covenant, and have His Torah written on our hearts, then we cannot obey them, neither do they come to mind to us.

• · Romans 10:4 – “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” This should be translated Christ is the goal of the Torah for righteousness for everyone that believeth.

• · 1 Corinthians 6:1 – “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?” Paul tells the Corinthians that instead of them going to take matters before the heathen courts they should settle them among themselves with their law. What law did they have to settle these issues?

• · Galatians 3:13 – “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” What is the curse of the law?

• - Deuteronomy 28:15 – “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.” The curses were circumstances, which would fall upon them for not observing the Torah. The Torah was not a curse in itself, so the curse of the law is what happened when they did not follow it.

• - Deuteronomy 5:33 – “Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess.” The Torah was actually a blessing to the Israelites because it prolonged their life.

• · 1 Timothy 1:8 – “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.” There were so many Pharisees who did not use it lawfully, but had so many manmade traditions added onto it and exaggerations. These are those whom Jesus rebuked.

These are some of the reasons I believe in keeping the Torah, outside of Paul’s writings:

• · Isaiah 2:3 – “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” In the Millennium we will actually keep the Torah, as taught by Jesus Himself. Does it make sense that God would have us keep the Torah, throw it away and them learn it again? Doesn’t that idea negate the verses about Him not changing His mind (Numbers 23:19 - “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”) and Him being the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8 - “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”)?

• · Isaiah 5:24 – “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.” If you read the whole chapter, you can tell that it is pertaining to the judgment of God (His day of wrath.) Also consider that the wheat will be separated from the chaff (Matthew 3:12 – “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”) And the stubble are the wicked that will burn at the end (Malachi 4:1 - “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”) It all ties together to point to God’s day of wrath at the end, where all the wicked will be burnt, and so Isaiah 5:24 includes those who throw away Torah in the process.

• · Isaiah 51:4 – “Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.” This is talking about when God restores the deserts to grassy lands again, and the curse will be taken from off the earth – He says them will He make His Torah as a light for us.

• · Jeremiah 16:19 – “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.” When the Jews become saved, the Gentiles will go to them and tell them that they have been following vain traditions, which their fathers have passed down to them.

• · Zechariah 9:13 – “When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.” Judah is Israel. Ephraim is the nations. When they become one again (when God grafts Israel back into the olive tree (which is spiritual Israel) then God says that they are going to band together and fight Greece. What this means is that the Hebrew mindset is going to be exalted over the Greek mindset, where the church is today.

• · Hebrews 12:14 – “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Paul (or so we think) says that no man will see God without holiness. Didn’t he say in Romans 7:12 that the Torah is holy? How can we be holy without the main element (Torah) of holiness besides God Himself? I say that the Torah is the main element of holiness outside of God, because, after all, Jesus is the living Torah, but even after that – every single book of the Bible has a theme. The theme for Leviticus is holiness, because it has the word holy listed 77 times within its content.

This is not an exhaustive list.

© 2010 Kimberly Padilla, A.A Religion