- Jul 15, 2020
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Shalom JS,Shalom Santoso, my friend, I do not think you fully understand Paul’s words you quoted in Romans 7.17. It is not followed by, him seeking the L-rd to deliver him, as he was already told “My Grace is sufficient”. This after he admitting, “wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from my sin?”
He answers: “Thanks be to G-d through Jesus Christ our L-rd! So then, I myself serve the Law of G-d with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” 24-25
So he did not repent because of the cross, he had tried and failed over and over again. He threw his weakness to HaMoshiach Who replied, “My Grace is sufficient” which allows him to serve HaShem with whole heart, mind and soul and to perfect himself in all other areas, except for this one issue of the Law were he cannot overcome. He however is covered - period!
I admit I also struggled to understand this myself. So I suppose another short story might clarify this issue of what exactly “My Grace is sufficient” means.
Back in 1996 I had a dream: “First comes the interest; then comes the principle”. From this dream and many more dreams, visions and coincidences that in time were no longer are seen as such, my husband and I started to learn Jewish Laws as HaShem’s Will in our lives. So we took up a Jewish identity, one Law, and measure: by one Law and measure, a little here; a little there.
All I remember from back then is our first few Passovers were far from anything Jewish, yet as the years passed we grew better and better at keeping these traditions. By the end of the High Holy Days, last year, to look into our household and an Orthodox Jewish household, you would have seen Orthodox Jews.
Then around Purim when we started preparing for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, I faced the perfect storm of problems. First our eldest daughter developed a strange case of dizziness and everything she ate, she threw up. Around the same time we had enough money to remove our youngest daughters wisdom teeth and one molar. She ended up on a highly limited diet which weakened her considerably.
And if that’s not all, we were grace by the Bishop announcing my husband was accepted into the priesthood. He was to face a crash course over the next two months and if all went as planned he be ordained sometimes in the late spring (it will now be early May).
All this came down just as I was starting to clean for Passover. So instead of having help from two daughters and my husband, suddenly I had extra cooking, household cleaning for four, had three different diets to prepare, the weekly Shabbos prep and cleaning and a house to kosher for Passover!
I’m not going to go into koshering for Passover, only that doing so while taking care of so many people and keeping the weekly sabbath was impossible. Then I had the dream where I was told, “MY Grace is sufficient; whatever you can do, will be enough!”
Now, we are told once we reach a level of holiness we are never to go backward. The race toward perfection is forward only! Yet in the situation above, I fell short not because I was lazy, or disobedient but because so many things, outside my control, were set up to make keeping Passover perfectly, impossible. So in the race Paul describes I did not stop, I backed up, for a time…
So did I commit a sin? Technically, according to Jewish laws, yes. Yet like Paul I’m covered by the cross because the LAW any LAW even the laws against homosexuality is NOT Salvaic. We keep laws because they teach, help us become closer to G-d, because He said so and can discipline us, yet not for salvation. Salvation comes from the Cross, thus we are indeed free to keep His Law perfectly, in our hearts; even as we fall short because of our human condition.
My promise “His Grace is Sufficient”, was only for this Passover and Chag Hamotzo; Next year things will return to normal. So I admit, I was puzzled why did I face this year this “perfect storm”. Now I believe it was so I better understood His words about my niece and thus all homosexuals. If His Grace is sufficient, her redemption was never at risk because Laws, all laws are under Grace where the Redeemed fall short through no fault of their own, are covered.]
And if His Grace is sufficient as regards her and her partners love, then all of Romans 7.21-25 applies to them and their love. As you said: “If you love your niece, seek the L-rd’s help to deliver her.” We did last year when we found out, got that message that His Grace covers them and then when, like you, we did not understand that remark, faced that perfect storm just as Passover cleaning started: we learn the true meaning to: “My Grace is sufficient”.
Put another way no Law supersedes Grace even the Law of marriage being between man and woman:
“For all who rely on the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Curse be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no man is justified before G-d by the Law; for “righteousness shall live by faith,” but the Law does not rest on faith, for “he who does them shall live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become that curse for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree”...” Gal.3.10-13
Consider this !
Have you not heard this :
And He ( Christ ) came and preached peace to you who were FAR OFF and peace to those who were NEAR. -Ephesians 2:17
Aren’t we the Gentiles who were far off from God ? Are the Jews who were near God ? Yes, our Lord have come and preached PEACE to us, both the Jews and Gentiles.
As we have heard:
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were FAR OFF have been brought near by the blood of Christ. -Ephesians 2:13
For He (Christ) himself is OUR PEACE, who has made US BOTH ONE and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility -Ephesians 2:14
So we who Gentiles who were once far off have brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He (Christ) Himself is OUR PEACE, who has made us BOTH ( Gentiles and Jews ) ONE and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility ; yes our Lord have broken the wall of hostility between the Jews and Gentiles !
How He has done that ? This is what we have heard:
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, -Ephesians 2:15
and might RECONCILE US BOTH TO GOD IN ONE BODY through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. -Ephesians 2:16
So our Lord Jesus Christ who is our peace has reconciled us both (the Jews and Gentiles) to God in one body through the cross.
Likewise,we heard:
as a plan for the fullness of time, TO UNITE ALL THINGS IN HIM, things in heaven and THINGS ON EARTH. -Ephesians 1:10
That is why we heard:
Now IF PERFECTION had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), WHAT FURTHER NEED would there have been FOR ANOTHER PRIEST to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? -Hebrews 7:11
For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. -Hebrews 7:12
Since this is said about our Lord Jesus Christ:
For it is witnessed of him, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." -Hebrews 7:17
For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness -Hebrews 7:18
(for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God. -Hebrews 7:19
So Levitical priesthood after the order of Aaron made nothing perfect, therefore it was set aside.
Christ as our priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, NECESSARILY made changes in the law.
Just Moses have affirmed:
"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers'it is to him you shall listen' -Deuteronomy 18:15
This is what God has spoken through Moses :
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. -Deuteronomy 18:18
And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. -Deuteronomy 18:19
So those whether they are Jews and Gentiles, are to listen the word that God put in the mouth of Christ and Christ shall speak to us all that God command Him.
As we also have heard:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, -Hebrews 1:1
but IN THESE LAST DAYS HE HAS SPOKEN TO US BY HIS SON, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. -Hebrews 1:2
So we are called to obey what God COMMAND through Christ.
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