So you want us to stay as Jews? Just good Jews? I see. Abraham did not live as the Jews under the Law do.
In 1 Corinthians 7:17-19, Paul thought that we should stay as we are called, that Jews should not seek to become Gentiles and that Gentiles should not seek to become Jews, but that what matters is that we all obey the commandments of God.
There are many verses that describe the Mosaic Law as being instructions for how to walk in God's ways, such as Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Isaiah 2:2-3, Joshua 22:5, Psalm 103:7, and many others, so the Law was not given as instructions for how to live as Jews, but as instructions to God's followers for how to express His character traits in accordance with His nature, such as holiness, righteousness, goodness, justice, mercy, faithfulness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Jesus expressed these character traits through his actions and what that looked like was complete obedience to the Mosaic Law, so that is what it should look like when he is living in us. Our sanctification is about being made to be more like Christ, to have and to express the same character traits.
In Genesis 26:5, it says that Abraham heard God's voice and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His rules, so he also lived under God's Law. While it does specify the content of these laws, any two sets of instructions for how express God's character traits in in accordance with God's nature are going to be the same in kind and vary only in the degree of thoroughness.
In Acts 6:13, Stephen was falsely accused of teaching against obeying God's Law, and in Acts 21:20-24, Paul took steps at the direction of James to disprove false rumors that he was teaching against the Law and to show that he continued to live in obedience to it, so if no one in leadership was teaching against obeying God, then all Christians were Torah observant Jews for roughly the first 7-15 after Christ's resurrection up until the inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10. This means that Christianity at its origin was the form of Judaism that recognized Jesus as its prophesied Messiah and those Jews who become Christians did not consider themselves to be converting to a different religion, and this is the form of Christianity that I seek to follow, but with the inclusion of Gentiles. So while Gentiles do not need to become Jews in order to become members of Judaism and followers of the Messiah of Judaism, Gentiles can't follow him by refusing to follow the Law that he followed and taught us to follow by word and by example.
First of all. Christianity when its true is not a religion. Judaism today is religion. Many in ignorance and stubbornness have destroyed Christianity and made it into many religions (denominations).
Jesus fought religion. Christianity when pure is being given the potential to form an intimate spiritual relationship with God by means of the filling of the Spirit and by constantly growing in accurate understanding and knowledge of the Word of God.
religion
noun
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.
The Word of God teaches a set of beliefs in regard to these matters, so Christianity is a religion by definition. There is no need to deny this reality in order to emphasize that it is a religion that teaches about how to grow in an intimate spiritual relationship with God. The concept that we can have a relationship with God is inherently a religious concept. In James 1:27, it says that religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world, so Jesus taught true religion.
While Jesus did clash with religious leaders, his problem was not with religion itself, but with their hypocrisy. For example, in Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that tithing was something that they should be doing while not hypocritically neglecting weightier matters of the Law of justice, mercy, and faithfulness, so he was not fighting against the Law as though he were in disagreement with the Father, but rather he was teaching how to correctly obey it. The right solution to incorrectly obeying God's Law is to start obeying correctly, not to stop obeying God.
Keep it the same? Jesus spoke of a new era that was about to come to replace the Jewish age (and this new way had already come in his example of being our pioneered prototype).
"Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers
will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind
of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers
must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Jn 4:23-24
A time when we will worship God in Spirit and in truth does not refer to a time when we will live in disobedience to what God has commanded, but just the opposite. The primarily way to worship God is through submitting to His will as made known through His commands.
I was born a Jew. Raised a Jew. Later as a Christian I attended some Messianic services, and had even applied at one time to the American Board of Missions to the Jews...
But.. Something is dead wrong when Jews wish to maintain their Jewish pride when its no longer to be a Jewish and Gentile world we live in- when in Christ!
Peter especially had a hard time with the change, but eventually caught on. Paul was light years ahead in understanding the one new man in Christ. Clinging to Judaism is a form of snobbery and unwillingness to die to ones progenitor pride. But we must die in order to save our life in Christ.
"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses
their life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mrk 8:35
Too many messianic Jews refuse to fully assimilate into the body of Christ. I could be wrong.. I sensed while at a Messianic service that old Jewish pride that was still harboring a certain negativity towards the inferior "goyim." We are told to avoid all appearances of evil. And, it appeared to be the reason.
Not all Messianics. But too many. We are to be the one new man in Christ. Neither Jew nor Gentile = Christian.
I was also born a Jew because my mom was born a Jew, however, she became a Christian in her 20's, so I was raised culturally as a Baptist and it is difficult for me to think of myself as a Jew. I've heard of congregations where Jews were considered to have a desired status and where Gentiles were looked down upon, but that has never once been something that I have personally seen happen in the 8 or so years that I have been a Messianic, so I am in agreement with Jewish and Gentiles worshiping together as one new man.
Most Messianic come from other denominations, so there is a tendency for some to feel like they were lied to, mislead, or betrayed by their previous congregation, which causes is bitterness. Furthermore, new Messianics tend to want to tell all of their friends and family about what they have been learning, which often only leads to alienating them, which causes more bitterness, so there are certainly forgiveness issues that the movement as a whole needs to work through.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and
to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."
Tell us? In your concept of Christianity? How does God's grace teach that reality to ALL men?
Remember, God will also control/restrain unbelievers in a land for the sake of His faithful (salt of the earth principle) when believers are walking in a manner that pleases God. God grace does this for all men. Its a way to lead to salvation by first establishing morality. Morality is a law in itself. But, according to what Paul wrote in the Greek? How does God's grace teach all men to deny ungodliness?
How does God's grace teach all men to say "No!" to unrighteousness? Unbeliever and believer alike? All men.
I don't think this saying that all men have been saved, but that God's grace makes salvation available to all men. Our salvation is from sin (Matthew 1:21) and sin is defined as the transgression of God's Law (1 John 3:4), so being trained by grace to live in obedience to God's Law through faith is what being saved from living in transgression of God's Law looks like. The whole world is evidently not going through this process, so "teaching us" refers to those of us who are going through this process. In Philippians 1:6, he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it on the day of Christ Jesus, so God is working through us to teach us how to walk in His ways and to make us to be more like Him in accordance with His nature.
