Commandments, Pride and Fear

All Eternal Fruitfulness of The Torah Is Based on Grace

Neither pride nor fear of condemnation can produce repentance. Yet the commandments of G-d are given only to produce repentance in Adam.

Preparing for Messianic Torah Dialogues

In consideration of relationships between Jews and non-Jews pride and fear of condemnation both often arise and contaminate the air.

To clear the air of these elements of pride and fear we may begin with some clarifications about what is required for a standing of righteousness before G-d.

Israel did not choose Mashiach but Mashiach chose Israel. When this is clearly understood it is also understood that first G-d chose Israel, only then did Israel chose G-d. If it is said that G-d chose Israel because Israel chose to accept the Torah, this is true only in that sense that G-d attributes merit to those whom He justifies by His grace.

There Is Only One Nation Justified By G-d's Grace

Although, in the end, G-d justifies many non-Jews as well as Jews by His grace and attributes to them the merit of the works that their soul produces as it is restored through His redemptive Spirit, Israel is the only nation that G-d ever justifies corporately as a nation.

G-d began this justification of Israel when He called Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to Himself, promising this justification to Abraham and to his seed, and then when He redeemed Israel out of Egypt and claimed her as His own and gave to Israel His Torah because He had claimed her as His own. And He completed and sealed the justification of Israel for all eternity in the death and resurrection of the Messiah of Israel.

Correcting The Natural Mind's Ideas About Salvation

At the same time, the idea of a salvation that salvation is only from the legal consequences of sin is a meaningless idea of salvation. The idea that the judgement of G-d consists only in a legal justification, as if all that was important and necessary were a court decision where wrong is made right, without any regard for the damages done to the soul and to the world and the need for the healing and rectification of those damages is an idea that could appeal only to to the natural mind's desire to get away with its crimes without having to face the real consequences of the actions for which it is responsible.

There Is a Need For Repairing and Rebuilding The Broken Soul

Again, the limited concept of a salvation of the soul that does not consist in the restoration of the soul and of the world and of all relationships of the soul to a condition of perfect health and righteousness, is a meaningless concept. The need for the healing and rectification of the damaged soul applies both to the soul of the individual and to the soul of Israel, which is the soul of Adam.

Therefore G-d first imputes righteousness to the soul. Even though it is contaminated and corrupted, He declares it righteous and innocent, as when He first conceived and created it. For only as having such value is it worthy of being restored. In doing this, He judges the will and work to attain righteousness, which He cultivates within the soul by His Holy Spirit, as being responsible for this righteousness, which He imputes to the soul by uniting it with Mashiach. This is His act as Creator and Father, the Redeemer. For He calls that which is not as though it were and so it is.

Reframing Judaism and Christianity In Complimentary Opposition

Judaism has emphasized the restoration of the soul. Christianity, because it has been molded by the desperate situation of gentiles, has emphasized justification. If these aspects of salvation are kept apart they should each generate animosity toward the position of the other. Only if they are kept together do they and should they compliment one another. And so we see that this is acted out in history. We must bring these together. We must clear the air, for the sake of the repentance of all Adam.

First Christianity must be reframed right from its point of conception. Then, when it no longer speaks against the salvation of the corporate soul, it can begin to learn from the emphasis of Judaism upon the restoration of the soul. And in the course of learning this lesson it can then show the necessity of its own emphasis upon the justification of the soul as the completion of the foundation of salvation for Israel and for the world.

What Is The True Nature of Obedience?

We read in this way in Davarim (Deuteronomy) 28:1,2:

1. And it shall come to pass if hearing you hear by the voice of the Hashem your God for {receiving the ability of} guarding {the word given to you} for {the purpose of} doing the very thing, his commandments, which I have commanded you {as the light of} the day, then I will give you, Hashem your God, {as a c}over upon all nations of the earth.

2. And will come over you all the blessings, these {which shall be expressed} and {they will pursue and} overtake you because you heard the voice of Hashem your God. {Because you heard the ruach HaMashiach.}

-- The voice of Hashem your God -- this is the ruach HaMashiach.

We Must Be Careful About How We Use Our Intelligence

Our intelligence was given to us in order to assist us in listening to G-d. We use it in this world instead of listening to G-d.

We understand that the calling of Adam was in the beginning to hear the commandment given in the Garden of Eden, not through their own voice of thier own understanding but through the voice of the spirit of Mashiach. What is this spirit? It is the true spirit of the Oral Torah. What is this saying?

It is saying that from the very beginning, when G-d first gave a commandment to Adam, He gave with it a principle of interpretation and that this principle came as a spirit to enlighten the intelligence, to overcome the evil inclination and to give victory over temptation.

When this is understood it can also be understood that the day of death for disobedient Adam was a day of grace in which Adam was called by that same spirit of Mashiach to repentance, even though they were already in their graves in the sight of G-d, their Creator, Blessed be He.

Here we are at the source of all understanding of the The Great Commission.

For we are charged not with a new message, but with the message that was from the foundation of the world, to hear the Torah of the God of Israel through the spirit of Mashiach.

Is this another Oral Torah than that received through the Pharisees and the rabbis of Israel? May Israel's G-d forbid the thought! Rather, it is the eternal light of this tradition. For all the Oral Torah of Israel shall be made to shine with this light, the light of the voice of Mashiach, and shall radiate through this light forever.

Now how will this great unification take place between the spirit of Mashiach and the full body of the Oral Torah, which has had to speak to the most imperfect conditions of this world and has therefore not ever reached the level of perfection which Adam lost, the level where once the the commandment might have been received perfectly in the spirit of Mashiach? The answer to this is that which is to be given in the revelation of the mystery of G-d, which revelation is spoken of in Revelation chapter 10. For more on this see Hearing Seven Thunders.