God's Law is Grace

Most people recognize that law, in general, is good. Justice and order can result when a society is governed by law, but without it, society would be in chaos. However, human nature has a tendency to rebel against law. We also sort law into categories of "necessary", "acceptable", and "stupid", and base our law-abiding behavior on those laws that make sense to us.

The law that man makes is not always just, sometimes it becomes corrupt and perverted, but God's law is always just and good. Still, mankind often desires to rebel or to find reasons why obedience is not necessary.

This seems to be the situation in the church today. An entire theology has been developed in order to explain why the Torah is no longer applicable. Well-meaning and sincere believers in Messiah read the Bible from a Greek perspective, ignore its Jewish base, misunderstand texts that are used to prove the Torah's obsolescence, and then ignore those texts that prove Torah is still necessary. The bottom line is that we want to reduce the law to its smallest number and then become our own determiners of the standards in those areas outside the purview of our whittled down law. We are trying to usurp God's own role!

The Torah portion of this week is called, V'et'chanan, which means "I pleaded." The portion covers Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11.

This title comes from the Hebrew root "chanan," which is often translated as "grace." In traditional Christianity grace and law are seen as opposites, yet this is a very incorrect and skewed view. God has been extending grace to mankind since the very beginning of creation, it did not start with Messiah's human birth or His death and resurrection. The most visible evidence of God's grace to us, besides Messiah's gift of salvation, is His written Word, the Bible. Therefore, the Torah, the law of God, is a gift of grace to us. Each law, each sentence, and each word demonstrates God's love toward us. He has shown us how he wants us to live and how we can please Him.

So why don't we accept His gift? Why do we want to be the deciders of what is right and wrong when God has already told us?

Deuteronomy 4:5-8 (KJV)
⁵ Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
⁶ Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
⁷ For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
⁸ And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?

If we decide our own standards, how will we fulfill this passage of Scripture, that says obedience to Torah is to be the reason why the nations take notice?

And how can we fulfill the following in the end times?

Isaiah 2:2-3 (KJV)
² And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
³ And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

If we want to be witnesses and show our neighbors that we are truly different, we need to start practicing Torah living. It cannot save us, but it is the evidence of salvation.