Eyes on Yeshua, Nose on Torah

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Faith, Grace and Torah

Another misunderstanding common in the church today is the concept that Torah and Grace are mutually exclucive ideas. For example one author writes: A believer can not be under law and under grace at the same time. (God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 83) Now let us be noble Bereans to see if this is true. Let us ask ourselves: "How were people saved in 'Old Testament' times? Were they saved by works or by grace? The fact is that often when Paul speaks of how we are saved by grace through faith he often cites the Tanak to prove his point. Two of his favorite proof texts for this concept are from the Tanak: And he believed in YHWH; and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:6 = Rom. 4:3, 22; Gal. 3:6) ...the just shall live by his faith. (Hab. 2:4 = Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11) So Paul is arguing from the Tanak that one is saved by faith alone apart from works. In fact the real truth is that men of the "Old Testament" times were just as under grace as we are today: But Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH. (Gen. 6:8) ...you have also found grace in my sight.... ...for you have found grace in my sight... (Ex. 33:12, 17) ...and now I have found grace in your sight... (Judges 6:17) The people... found grace in the wilderness... (Jer. 31:2) Thus as noble Bereans we learn from the Tanak that people in "Old Testament" times were saved by grace through faith.

They could not have earned their salvation any more than we could today, as Paul writes: Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Yeshua the Messiah, even we have believed in Yeshua the Messiah, that we might be justified by the faith of Messiah, and not by works of the law; and by the works of the law shall no flesh be saved. (Gal. 2:16) In fact the "New Testament" contains more commandments than the "Old Testament". The New Testament contains1050 commandments [as deliniated in Dake's Annotated Reference Bible; By Finnis Jennings Dake; N.T. pp.313-316] while the "Old Testament" Mosaic Law contains only 613 (b.Makkot 23b; see Appendix). Thus faith and grace are in the "Old Testament" and law and works can be found in the New Testament. People in Old Testament times were saved by grace through faith just like people in New Testament times. Now many anomians will agree to this fact on the surface, but lets follow this thought through to its fullest conclusion. Lets go beyond the surface and really think this through. If what we have shown to be true is true, then the people in the wilderness in the days of Moses were saved by grace through faith. Now lets look at the full impact of that statement. That means that people were under grace, and saved by faith alone and not by works, when Moses was stoning people to death for violating the Torah! Obviously then being saved by grace through faith in no way affects Torah observance. So if grace and faith do not negate the observance of Torah, then what is the true nature of faith and grace? What is faith? What is grace?

Let us once again turn to the scriptures for answers. Now part of the reason that many people have come to think that there is more "grace" in the New Testament than in the Old Testament is a translation bias in the KJV and many other English versions. There are two words for "grace" in the Hebrew Tanak. The first word is CHEN (Strong's 2580/2581) which means "grace or charm". The other word is CHESED (Strong's 2616/2617 ) which carries the meaaning of "grace, mercy or undue favor." These two words closely parallel the meanings of the two Greek words used for grace in the Greek Bible. These are CHARIS (Strong's 5485/5463) which means "grace or charm" and ELEOS (Strong's 1651/1653) meaning "grace, mercy or undue favor." Obviously Hebrew CHEN = Greek CHARIS and Hebrew CHESED = Greek ELEOS. Now the KJV tends to translate CHEN/CHARIS as "grace" but tends to translate CHESED/ELEOS as "mercy". Now when we think of "grace" in biblical terms we are ussually thinking of the concept of CHESED/ELEOS "undue favor". Now if we follow with the KJV translation scheme then it appears that there is much more grace in the New Testament than the Tanak, since CHEN only appears 70 times in the Tanak while CHARIS appears 233 times in the New Testament. But remember, the concept of "undue favor" is actually CHESED/ELEOS. CHESED appears 251 times in the Tanak, while ELEOS appears only 50 times in the New Testament.

If anything there is far more "grace" in the Tanak than in the New Testament. Therefore there is clealy no conflict between grace and Torah. In fact the Torah is closely connected to grace. Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me your Torah. I have chosen the way of faith; I have placed your ordinances before me. (Psalm 119:29-30) Now I want to make it clear that we are not saying that one earns ones salvation by keeping Torah. At times I have been asked "Do I have to keep Torah to be saved?". I reply by saying "Of course not.... do you have to get cleaned up to take a bath?" You may ask, "Well if we don't keep the Torah for salvation, then why do we keep the Torah?" First of all, keeping the Torah SHOWS our faith (Titus 3:5-8; 1Jn. 2:3-7; James 2:14-26). Secondly there are rewards for keeping the Torah (Titus 3:8).

The Psalms tell us that it "restores the soul" (Ps.19:7). Yeshua promises that those who keep the Torah and teach others to do so will be called first in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:19). Now if the Torah is good and everlasting then it stands to reason that it should be observed. Paul tells us that we should not use grace as an excuse to sin (Rom. 6:1-2, 15) and that the only way to know sin is through the Torah (Rom. 7:7). Yeshua tells us that if we love him we will keep his commandments (Jn. 14:15, 21, 23-25; 15:10). The fact that we are saved by faith is all the more reason that we should keep the Torah, as the Scriptures tell us. And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, "I know him," and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. (1Jn. 2:3-7) From the beginning there was Faith, Grace, and Torah.