What is grace and why is grace and Torah so oppoed to one another

From Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 31, it is clear that the Torah was not given to the people of Israel to make them feel better about themselves, but instead it was given as a witness against the people as evidence that they were law-breakers.

If as a Messianic Jew you still feel like you should base your identity upon the written words of the Torah, I would suggest that you haven’t fully felt the weight of these commandments upon your shoulders, and you haven’t accepted that these laws could only ever condemn you as a law-breaker.

Even if you were somehow able to observe the majority of the commandments, and thus make your boast in the written Torah, you still have to side-step Moses’ intention for writing down the Torah. The fact still remains that Moses wrote down the Torah as evidence that you are a sinner.

Moses says that if the people of Israel were not faithful to Torah when he was alive, how much less faithful will they be to Torah after his death?

As Messianic Jews, it is entirely right and proper to identify with the people of Israel. As bnei Israel, we must acknowledge that the Torah was given to us as evidence against us and not for us, because we are a sinful people.

The Torah is like a speed camera, or like police CCTV footage – it only exists to catch you out.

As we are all caught out and condemned by the Torah, we should not declare ourselves to be Torah-keepers. Only Moshiach was able to keep Torah, and he kept Torah on our behalf, because of his grace and loving-kindness towards us.

If we can be faithful to Torah outside of Christ, then why did Moshiach take the penalty for breaking Torah upon his shoulders? Or, if we are now faithful to Torah as believers, then why does Moshiach continue to make intercession for us before the throne of God?

Moses uses a kol v’chomer, to make his point. Therefore his argument also works in a reverse application:

If we understand the Prophet (Messiah) is like Moses, then it is clear:
We are utterly corrupt when he (Messiah) is not with us (he’s dead to us). Yet when we have Messiah (he’s with us), how much less (reverse the kol v’chomer) we are corrupt, and we WON’T turn aside from the Way which He has commanded us. We may have Messiah and still be rebellious and stiff-necked, yet we won’t turn aside from the Way, and evil won’t befall us by provoking HaShem to anger as we won’t be doing that which is evil in His sight, by the work of our hands.

After all it is within this same passage we read concerning the Torah:

The Torah is no vain thing, and it is our life (life now as well as eternal life) through which we prolong our days upon the land (the World to Come). For the Torah tells us to obey Messiah, to listen to his voice, and thus have our sins forgiven (Ex 23:20-21)
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If we listen to Messiah, and are not rebellious against him, we will have our sins forgiven, and we will be kept on the Way, all the way to “life” and “prolonged days in the land.”
Torah then, serves to condemn the rebellious, and give eternal life to the one who listens and does not rebel against Messiah (for it is his merit that is credited to us and based on his righteousness alone do we receive his inheritance of eternal life as promised to him by the Torah).


....it would be foolish to disagree that we are not perfect when it comes to Torah keeping, yet Torah by design never intended us to be perfect or else it would not teach teshuvah – repentance that leads eternal life, by the mercy of G-d, or sacrificial atonement in order that we may draw physically near to a holy G-d in these corrupt bodies and not get fried. We are called to judge ourselves in order that we may continue to be aware of the price Messiah paid for our redemption, and live who we are in the world to come, in the now and present of this world. As long as we are like Adam, just as he was when he was alive before he died, our bread, our obedience to Torah will only come by the sweat of our brow, and will be hindered by thorns and thistles.

Yet it is not impossible to obey the command “love the L-rd your G-d…” at even the tiniest level, as we find that this leads to listening to and obeying Messiah, thus having our sins forgiven, and thus living forever in the World to Come with him based on his merit alone.

Yes Torah teaches us that we need mercy, and explains to us that G-d will “have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” I pray we all make teshuvah.


Psalm 119 is a declaration of love of the Torah and its wisdom.

The Torah causes rejoicing because it reveals what we are like.

Imagine if you went to the doctor, he ran some tests and he told you you had a life-threatening illness, and then offered you the antidote. You would be thankful to the doctor for running the tests, and grateful for whoever came up with the tests in the first place.

It’s better to know you’re sick and find a cure than to falsely believe you’re well, and the Torah both reveals our maladies and reveals the Great Physician who can heal us.

If the Torah does cause us sorrow, then it is godly sorrow which leads to repentance, repentance which leads to forgiveness, forgiveness which leads to thankfulness, and thankfulness which leads to rejoicing

It’s better to know you’re sick and find a cure than to falsely believe you’re well, and the Torah both reveals our maladies and reveals the Great Physician who can heal us.

If the Torah does cause us sorrow, then it is godly sorrow which leads to repentance, repentance which leads to forgiveness, forgiveness which leads to thankfulness, and thankfulness which leads to rejoicing.

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