Becoming a disciple of Y’shua Messiah means giving up all for Him and His way of life. Being obedient to His teachings and instructions. Imitating Him. Ultimately conforming to His image. Consequently, it means leaving behind all that one holds dear and precious and fixing one’s focus upon Him and His ways. Not an easy thing to do. For doing so clearly establishes a line of demarcation in the world: those that are His and those that are not. There is no middle ground as it relates to following Master, as churchianity would seem to suggest—coming just as one is and simply saying the sinner’s prayer and having an emotional, cognitive response to a “call to repentance.” In that equation, there is no call to discipleship. There is rarely no call to leave everything for the cause of Y’shua Messiah.

As it related to this inquiring individual, it would appear that he held some amount of wealth that was important to him. Master saw this aspect of his being and challenged him to abandon that which was near and dear to him, as He does to all of us who would attempt to answer the call. Unfortunately, this individual was hard-pressed to abandon his possessions for a life devoted to Y’shua Messiah and the Gospel. Today, churchianity offers us the opportunity to hang on to those things that we hold near and dear first and foremost, and then follow Jesus Christ as a part-time endeavor—if you will. In fact, I would submit that most of us fall into this category, even in the Hebraic Roots. We have little problem compromising the Sabbath by shopping and dining out on this holy day. We have no problem forsaking fellowshipping because it is just too much to deal with at the end of a busy work week. We having no problem forsaking the mandated Feasts of Yahovah each year. Sure, we can’t keep the Feasts as originally given to us because the Temple has gone away, but we don’t even honor the spirit and purpose of the Feasts. Many of us will even work on a mandated Feast day. We won’t find gatherings or sacred convocations to attend on these appointed days. We will give primary preference to family and personal vacations than the Feasts of Yahovah each year. Then there is the issue of reading our Bibles and learning about Father and the ways of our Master, which most of us find no time in our lives to devote to this central requirement of the Faith. Yet, we say we’ve committed our lives to following Y’shua Messiah and obeying His Torah—but our lives don’t tend to show that we’ve sold-out, that we’ve given up everything for this journey. At least for this individual who questioned the Master, he opted out of the offer to follow Y’shua.

Granted, many throughout history have abandoned secular life for the so-called “cause of Christ.” I don’t pretend to second guess these individuals’ sincerity and conviction. But looking at this from the perspective of the true Faith once delivered, most of these individuals left their lives; their possessions; their human relationships, for their chosen religion—not for Y’shua Messiah. I would imagine that a great many who have taken this journey of forsaking their secular lives for the “cause of Christ,” believe they have done so in good faith. But at the end of the day, these individuals answer to a hierarchy of men and a denomination or organization first and foremost. Some answer to other things such as the almighty dollar or fame and notoriety. While others answer to the enemy unwittingly.

I said all of this in summary of last week’s episode on Righteousness and Torah because we need to have a clear understanding of righteousness and its relationship to Torah. Torah does not make us righteous. As you can hopefully tell from this monologue of sorts, our efforts to be obedient and true to Torah or the “cause/call of Christ”—of Messiah even—does not make us righteous. Father requires us to be righteous, yet our meager efforts through obedience to Torah, Judaism, denominationalism, and the like, in reality, serve to steer us in a specific direction: if to Torah, our obedience steers us towards a life that is pleasing to Yahovah; a life of righteousness—although our obedience doesn’t make us righteous; our obedience steers us towards living holy and righteous lives and maintaining a proper and viable relationship with Yahovah.

So this week, let’s look at another seeming anti-Torah passage of Paul’s, which is found in the third chapter of Galatians. And let me just say this before moving on with our examination of this passage. The whole reason for this series on Grace and the Law is for us to gain a clear understanding and proper perspective of how Torah should fit in a true believer’s life. Secondly, for us to be able to defend why we practice our Faith the way we do. We are an enigma to fundamental churchianity and judaism, thus we must be able to defend why we live and believe the way we do when we are questioned by others, both inside and outside our Faith.

Many in Hebraic Roots would have us avoid entirely, any such discourse or defense of our Faith, sighting 2 Timothy 2:23 as the reason for their avoidances to questions and challenges from others who are unfamiliar with the truth of our Faith. As I’ve said in many of our Torah Living Daily Challenge episodes, we need to be studied up, so that we may “…be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks us for a reason for the hope that is in us…” (Reference 1 Peter 3:15)

So my hope is that we don’t take these discussions too lightly and that we know and understand within our being that which energizes and drives us in our quest—that is our walk with Y’shua Messiah.

Now back to Paul’s letter to the Galatian assembly. The passage in question is found in chapter 3, verse 10 which reads as follows: “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” (NAS) The English Standard Version reads: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Please note that the corresponding reference to Paul’s statement here is found in Deuteronomy 27:26 which reads: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. (KJV)

A simple, plain read of this passage would say the following to the uninitiated: Those of us who choose to obey Torah, we are under a curse. Never mind that most people who read this passage of Paul’s will ever take the time to read this passage in context, nor stop and find out where Paul got this information from—that is what he means by “for it is written.” Again, many problem passages can be properly dealt with by simply looking at things in context and researching where we find other supportive passages for the statement or passage in question, in other parts of the Bible. As it relates to Galatians 3:10, the passage of Torah that Paul is referencing is found in Deuteronomy 27:26.

It is here in Deuteronomy that we find clarity as it relates to the relationship that exists between curses and Torah. It is in chapter 28 of this same book of Torah that we learn of the relationship that exists between blessings and Torah. There is a life and death relationship associated with one’s obedience or disobedience to Torah. This is Hebrew Roots 101, is it not? But Paul seems to suggest in his letter to the Galatian assembly, that those who are Torah observant may be under a curse. Sort of a reversal of what Torah teaches, right?

Is this indeed what Paul is actually saying. Are we cursed as a result of our honoring and obedience to Torah, as so many outside our Faith contend? Or is this one of those Pauline passages that Peter wrote about where he contends: “…just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him as he does in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (Reference 2 Peter 3:16) I would contend that it’s the latter of course. I base this initially upon my understanding of the place of Torah in a believer’s life and the fact that our Master instructed us to keep Torah, as we touched upon earlier in this discussion. But we need to have biblical support for our belief that Paul is not condemning believers who obey and honor Torah. So we will next look at this passage from a historical and book and chapter context (in that we step back and read previous verses to get a sense of where Paul was coming from when he reached verse 10).

We know from last week’s posting that Paul was addressing the activity of Judaizers who were operating in the Galatian assembly. We found that the Galatian assembly was made up of a descent number of Jewish believers in Y’shua Messiah who felt compelled to prey upon the Gentile members and insist that they adopt Judaism in order to become a part of the body of Messiah and the Galatian congregation. Thus, these Jewish Galatian believers were completely altering and superseding the true gospel message and replacing it with religion—with Judaism. These Judaisers insisted that the Galatian gentile believers completely adopt Judaism in all its instructions and traditions. One thing’s for sure: when we begin to place our entire belief system in a religion, we find that we take our focus off of Father and the work of Y’shua Messiah. Thus the focus of Judaizers in the Galatian assembly and in other assemblies that Paul oversaw, was to indoctrinate gentile believers to work for their salvation. The default thinking that accompanies Judaism as well as other religions is that we can achieve righteousness and become justified before Yahovah by strict obedience to our religion’s laws and traditions and teaching. And this is what Paul was battling against: the denial of the work of Y’shua Messiah and Faith in that atoning sacrifice, through blind obedience to religion. Sadly, it would seem that many Galatian gentile believers gave in to the Judaizers and went over to Judaism, although they likely maintained their identity as Messianics. These I guess we could refer to as Messianic Jews. These that gave into the prodding of the Galatians Jews to adopt Judaism were just as guilty as the Judaizer, for they were abandoning the principles and the true Gospel message that Paul had originally taught them. So Paul was not only addressing the Galatian Judaizers, but also those who adopted Judaism within the Galatian assembly. For all intents and purposes, Paul was addressing the whole of the Galatian assembly.

Having established the contentious religious situation taking place in the Galatian assembly that Paul was addressing in this epistle, let’s step back and look at this passage from a chapter contextual perspective. Let’s pick it up beginning at verse 1 of chapter 3. We see right off the bat in verse 1 that Paul is scolding the Galatian assembly, calling or addressing them as foolish, and questioning what got into them to change what was originally put in place by his ministry. Paul recognized that the work of Y’shua Messiah had all but been replaced by religion—by Judaism (verse 1).

So we now enter into an investigative but corrective inquiry of the Galatian assembly’s choice to replace the gospel with Judaism by Paul. In verse 2, Paul places before the Galatian assembly a crucial question as to how they came about receiving the Holy Spirit. Paul asks: “did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance (i.e., by works) of Torah, or was it received through their faith in Y’shua Messiah. Now we know that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on Gentile and Jew alike in the course of the Gospel message being delivered and accepted by believers of the first century church. (Reference Acts 10:44-47) There are 3-places in the book of Acts where the speaking in tongues was a manifestation of believers receiving the Holy Spirit. Certainly, there were other manifested signs that believers had received the Holy Spirit and the Spirit was received on Gentile and Jew alike. The giving of the Holy Spirit was the guarantee or deposit of their “inheritance” of and inclusion in the Faith (reference Ephesians 1:14), devoid of adherence or obedience to a set of laws, ordinances, precepts and commandments. It couldn’t have been, because gentiles did not observe the law nor did they observe Judaism. Entrance into the Faith was free to all who would accept the grace of Yahovah: open to both Jew and Gentile. (Reference Romans 1:16) So Paul is asking the Galatians, “what would make you think that your acquiring or adopting of the one true Faith was based upon religion?” For there was no requirement for one to be a Jew in order to be a part of the One Faith nor to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I found it very interesting that this same Galatian mindset exists even today in Churchianity. I love what Andrew Roth has to say as it relates to verse 2 in his Aramaic English New Testament: “The point is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s Jewish or Christian tradition that makes void the Word of Yahovah (YHWH) in favor of one’s own “works of Torah” ! Christians who think they are exempt from this rebuke are only fooling themselves. Those who attend church on Sun-Day, erect Tammuz (Christmas) trees, paint Ishtar (Easter eggs), or follow other pagan rituals have heaped up on their own “works of Torah” (religious works) unto themselves. Did these receive the Spirit by attending church meetings? Believing in a theology? Being part of a local religious status quo? “ (AENT) Think about it: everyone’s hands is dirty in this folks; be we Jew or Christian.

So Paul brings this questioning home in verse 3: so you’ve then elected or chosen to now, after receiving the Faith and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, to seek to earn Father’s favor and righteousness through legalism and the Law. The wording of verse 3 in the King James seems a bit cumbersome. I prefer the wording of Stern’s Complete Jewish Bible: “Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think that you can reach the goal under your own power?” (CJB) In other words, do you really think you can get to where you need to be in your walk with Y’shua Messiah through your own efforts—through the keeping of the Law? Of Torah? So many of us have fallen for the trap of becoming so Torah focused that we ignore the need and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and adopt a belief and practice of Torah being THE means by which we reach our goal in the Faith—to be sons and daughters of Yahovah—to reign with Him for all eternity—to be His kings and priests in the world. Torah and Judaism won’t get us there friends and this is what Paul was trying to get across to the Galatian assembly. Our own efforts, regardless how noble they may seem to us, just doesn’t cut it when it comes to measuring up to the goal of our Faith.

In verse 4, Paul basically guilts the Galatians into correcting their behavior by reminding them that they’ve come a long way and they are now throwing all that has happened in their Faith’s journey away. Coming into the true Faith once delivered, comes at a price. For most of us, there is a great amount or degree of suffering that comes from following Y’shua Messiah, and it appears that the Galatians were not exempt from such suffering. One can only imagine that many of the Galatian Jewish believers were abandoned by their families and friends; some probably lost jobs, social standing and possessions as a result of their transition in to the Faith. The Galatian gentiles probably experienced the same thing: that of losing and giving up everything for their newly found Faith. Many of us today, in Hebraic Roots, have been rejected by family; had our jobs compromised or lost; given up conveniences and a secure way of life in secular society and in some cases, even in Christianity, because we adopted this same Faith that Paul is talking about to the Galatian assembly. And when we turn away from the foundation of our Faith, which is faith in Y’shua Messiah, for legalism—which often translates into Judaism for many of us—then as Paul states: “our suffering certainly will have been for nothing.” (verse 4, CJB)

In verse 5, as we move closer to the passage in question (verse 10), Paul seems to question the Galatian assembly in a reasoning manner. He asks the Galatians: does Yahovah work miracles in their midst because they are obedient to Torah; to Judaistic traditions and statutes; or legalism? Or does Yahovah’s Spirit operate in response to their faith. The works of the Holy Spirit are manifested in response to our faith and conviction. Healings and other manifestations of the Holy Spirit do take place in nominal churchianity, whether we choose to believe it or not. And one may ask, why does this happen when those guys don’t keep Torah? Clearly, the Spirit works in an environment of faith and trust in Y’shua Messiah. The works of the Spirit does not rely or require at all the works of the Law. It’s faith. And it’s that lack of faith—that lack of focus on faith in Y’shua Messiah—and that emphasis solely upon Torah observance that I believe is the reason why manifestations of the Ruach Kodesh (the Holy Spirit) is so rare and mostly absent in our Faith. We tend to reject the workings of the Spirit as Hebrew Roots folks because we see it as being of a sole propriety to churchianity. But as we can clearly see here, the working of the Holy Spirit was part and parcel of the first century church. So why do we in Hebrew Roots seek to turn to Judaism and leave behind the true Faith once delivered.

I see the next two verses, 6 and 7, as being primarily posed to the Jewish Galatian believers who no doubt took great pride in their Abrahamic lineage. Paul points out that Abraham’s faith in Yahovah was inputted unto him for righteousness. This fact comes directly from Torah and is found in Genesis 15:6 which states: “And he (speaking about Abraham) believed in Yahovah and He (speaking about Yahovah) counted it to him for righteousness.” (KJV) So it wasn’t Abraham’s obedience to Father’s Laws (that actually did exist and was obeyed by Abraham despite Abraham living many centuries before Moses and the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai event) that made him righteous before Father, but Abraham’s faith in Yahovah made him righteous. And it is this same exact principle that applies to us today: our Faith makes us righteous before Father, not our obedience to Torah. We don’t obey Torah in order to achieve righteousness: we obey and honor Torah because we love Yahovah and we want to please our Father in heaven. We obey and honor Torah because in doing so, we enjoy blessings and we live a life that is pleasing to Yahovah. So our Faith in the work of Y’shua Messiah and in our Father that not only makes us righteous before Father—and Father requires without equivocation righteousness in order to establish a true relationship with us and for us to have eternal life—but also engrafts us into the lineage of Abraham, with the blessings and benefits that come with that engrafting and adoption. We are become true sons and daughters of Abraham because of our faith, not because we follow Torah or Judaism. Abraham stood for more than flesh and blood existence. Abraham stood for an eternal and spiritual reality that has unfortunately escaped most Jews throughout the centuries.

So moving on to verse 8, we see a brilliant progression in Paul’s argument in favor of faith first, over obedience to the Law, especially as it relates to the gentile. Paul, the brilliant Torah scholar that he was, evoked Torah as the foundation of his argument that the gentile was destined from early on to come into Yahovah’s family through the example and lineage of Abraham. (Reference Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 22:18) The gentile would be grafted into Yahovah’s family as a result of Abraham’s faith first, followed by his obedience. And let me just say: I am in no way nullifying the critical importance of obedience to Yahovah’s Word. For it is recorded in Genesis 22:18—And in thy seed (talking about Abraham) shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (KJV) So obedience remains a necessity. But first and foremost, faith is the basis upon which our righteousness rests and this is what Paul was trying to get across in part to the Galatians—that it was Abraham’s faith that resulted in the gentiles coming into the family of Yahovah. (Reference verse 8)

So then we finally get to the point of the matter here friends: verse 9, Paul corrects the misconceptions and missteps of the Galatians by instructing them that one’s faith (in Y’shua Messiah) places them in the same place—the same spiritual situation—that Abraham was in and that being one’s faith in Y’shua—one’s faith in Yahovah, results in righteousness being inputted unto him or her. Plain and simple.

But then we get to verse 10, although most translations cite it as the start of a new section or topic in that chapter, and we read here that Paul is saying that “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse…” This is a tough verse that seems to place a nail in the coffin of all those who are Torah Observant Believers in Y’shua Messiah. But is this in fact the case? Is Paul actually saying that Torah observance is done away with?

No. The King James rendering, like in many other places of Paul’s writings, is cumbersome if you ask me. The English Standard Version and the Complete Jewish Bible to me provide excellent renderings that better clarify Paul’s point and remove a lot of the misconceptions and ambiguity that is found in the KJV. The ESV reads: “For all who RELY on works of the law are under a curse…,” while the CJB reads: “For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse…”

Before Y’shua, one’s physical and spiritual security was founded in Torah observance. If one were to obey Torah, he or she would be blessed in this life. If one were to disobey Torah, he or she would be cursed in this life. Those were the two choices facing a human being on this planet. Father explained to us: “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of Yahovah your Elohim that I command you today, by loving Yahovah your Elohim, by walking in His ways and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and Yahovah your Elohim will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-19) This was the agreement we had with Father: He would provide for us in every conceivable way if we obeyed His Torah. But Father would reject us and cause us to die if we disobeyed Torah. This was a life or death situation as it related to our obedience to Torah. We were not deemed righteous before Father, even if we were impeccable in our keeping of Torah. The only way we were deemed righteous before Father was through our absolute and undying faith in Him. We still did not possess eternal life because of that nagging problem sin that prevented us from appearing righteous and justified before Father. Then along came Y’shua and took care of that nagging sin problem. It is because of Y’shua’s atoning sacrifice that we are deemed righteous and our sins are atoned for. But it is when we get our priorities mixed up and we associate our righteousness before Yahovah through the keeping of Torah, that we are cursed. If we depend upon our obedience of Torah to be declared righteous by Yahovah, we are doomed; we are cursed. (Reference: Stearn’s Complete Jewish Bible Commentary of the New Testament) Then if we take a couple of small steps forward and look over at verses 11-13, we receive a finalized perspective on this issue: “…it is evident that no one comes to be declared righteous by Yahovah through trying to obey the Torah since the person who is righteous will live his/her life by trust/faith. Furthermore, the Torah is not based on trust but on the idea that the one who does these things—strict obedience to Torah—will attain life through them. Y’shua Messiah redeemed us from the curse, which consist in having to live under Torah.” (Stearn)

Because we can’t keep Torah perfectly—that is keep Torah Y’shua-style perfectly—the way Yahovah always intended for us to, we need help. Otherwise, we would always be under the curse of Torah in that we’d be on a merry-go-round that never went anywhere. There is no out. There is no end-game. But Y’shua Messiah helped bridge that gap and provided us the means to keep Torah as Yahovah always intended us to. But most importantly, His sacrifice resulted in us being declared righteous and placed us in a fair position—a safe default position if you will–to begin and maintain a relationship with the Creator of the universe and to have the hope of eternal life. Left to our own devices, we would always find ourselves trying to achieve Father’s desired righteousness, which can never be done through our works alone. Thus we are forever cursed without a true faith in Y’shua Messiah.

No, Paul was not condemning Torah observance by the believer in Y’shua Messiah. On the contrary. Paul was condemning Torah observance for misconceived purposes of achieving righteousness and eternal life. That was the curse that Paul was speaking to: the misconception that obedience to Torah leads to righteousness and eternal life. It doesn’t.

I hope that this discussion has been helpful to you as it has been for me, in understanding how Torah can be a curse to the Torah Observer. The key though rests in the full title that you will often here me use and that is Torah Observant Believer in Y’shua Messiah. That is the key and that is why I’ve adopted this title to describe who I am and what I believe and stand for in the Hebrew Roots movement and community. First and foremost, it is belief in Y’shua Messiah, followed by observance of Torah as the way of life that I’ve chosen.

Until next time, may Yahovah bless you and keep you; may Yahovah lift up His countenance unto you; may Yahovah be gracious unto you and grant you shalom. Shavu’a tov and may you be most blessed fellow saints in training.