Let’s step back and take a little breather to put some things in perspective and make some connections.
At this stage in our Torah studies, you should have a fairly strong understanding of just how HOLY the God of Israel is and that He will exercise any measure necessary at any cost to protect His HOLINESS.
Furthermore, YHVH doesn’t just expect but demands that those who claim allegiance to Him must themselves also be HOLY.
To this end, the Lord through Moses handed down a series of ordinances, rules, and principles typically referred to as the Law that carefully teach us what is HOLY and what is not.
We’ve also seen that attached to these laws are certain consequences for breaking them.
These consequences and punishments are referred to as “curses”.
We’ve also learned that the various sins are ranked in a kind of hierarchy from bad to worse with the consequences attached to them also escalating in nature from bad to worse.
We saw this principle being fleshed out in the various sacrifices we studied that conclusively demonstrated that the typical church doctrine that “all sins are the same in God’s eyes” or that “a sin is a sin is a sin” is a notion that is fallacious as hell.
It is simply ridiculous to think that stealing a candy bar is identical to murder for instance.
There could not be a more unsound Scriptural teaching than to promote something like that.
The simple fact of the matter is that some sins are far worse and far more dangerous than other sins, and this is clearly reflected by the different types of punishments meted out for breaking certain sins.
What startles most maple-syrupy, God-is-only-love type of church-going folk is that an all merciful, all forgiving, peaceful God would command that people be burned to death for committing some of the most serious sins against Him.
They are shocked that God will without a moment’s hesitation quickly snuff out life and permanently banish people from His presence in order to safeguard His HOLINESS.
They have difficulty comprehending that when the Lord demands that someone be perfect in His presence, that’s exactly what He means.
He ain’t speaking in code folks.
The Messiah also echoed the same notion.
“Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
-Matthew 5:48
Here’s the thing that needs to be understood.
For those whose sins have not been atoned for, they will still face the same consequences we have been studying here in Leviticus.
They will pay the price for their sins, either at the direct hand of God in this life or in the world to come, or possibly both!
Recall the Lord saying to the people that if you will not properly prosecute those who break My Laws, I will by My own had exercise due judgement.
The point I’m trying to get at is this: Yeshua, as God’s chosen Son, could no way have taught that His Father in heaven ordered that such consequences be required for breaking His Laws and then later said “Forget it. Now my laws have been done away with”.
No! No! No!
There will be an accounting for every sin committed, whether serious or small.
It doesn’t matter whether the violation occurred 2000 years ago, 2 days ago, or even 2 minutes ago.
In God’s universe, every violation committed must be paid for with NO EXCEPTIONS.
If this were not the case, God’s HOLINESS and justice system is a joke.
And frankly, how much respect would you have for a justice system if it didn’t have any penalties attached to it?
If you don’t pay for your sins, somebody is going pay for them.
This is the non-negotiable aspect of God’s justice system that we must come to terms with.
If you aren’t burned in the fire for committing some sexual immoral act, somebody is going to burn for you.
If you aren’t stoned to death for committing adultery, somebody has to be stoned in your place.
And as we have seen, that somebody was YHVH’s son who took on the countless punishments you and I are required to pay for our transgressions.
When Yeshua was hanging on the cross, it was the equivalent of being burned and stoned to death a million times over by His Father.
He took all of the terrible consequences we have been studying about and paid for them.
Because of Yeshua’s sacrifice, we have escaped the fire, but Yeshua didn’t.
Hence, it is with this sobering truth in mind that I find it downright blasphemous that people would trivialize Yeshua’s sacrifice by declaring that all those transgressions that result from violating the Laws of Torah can no longer be committed.
It is crazy to think that those very principles and commands that God sacrificed His son for have been done away with and are now obsolete and gone.
It might make our consciences feel better to think that God did away with the Laws, but that is ignoring reality.
The validity of the Law still stands, as do the consequences for breaking it.
It is just that Yeshua has been made our substitute and bore the horrific punishments required by those laws.
We should be grateful for what our Father in Heaven has done for us through Messiah.
And we should stay far away from deceived churches and congregations that teach that obedience no longer matters because “Christ paid for our sins”.
The opposite is true.
We should stay from those sins that Yeshua died for, otherwise we are crucifying Him, again and again.
So what’s the conclusion of the matter?
The Torah is ALIVE AND WELL!
Both the blessings AND THE CURSES of the Torah are alive and well.
The only question is, for those who transgress the Law, who bears the curses?
If you have accepted Yeshua’s sacrifice, then you are free from the eternal consequences but you are NOT free from the commands.
However, if you have NOT accepted Yeshua’s sacrifice, then as we have learned through our study of Leviticus, YOU must pay the price and bear all the punishments.
Understand that I’m not saying the laws of Torah have to be practiced in the exact same cultural way they were practiced back in Moses’ time.
However, the principles governing sexual immorality, fair play, being just and fair with our fellow man, and making distinctions between CLEAN and UNCLEAN etcetera are eternal and NOT bound up in culture.
We will wrestle with issues like HOW we are to observe the Sabbath or HOW we are to celebrate the Biblical holidays.
And we may struggle with the commands concerning the respective roles of males and females in society.
In many areas, we are going to have to learn how to reapply God’s eternal principles to our 21st century lives.
It is with this thought in mind that I feel called to teach you the Torah, the only source document where all of these principles are established and demonstrated.
And I will do so.
If as a “New Testament” believer, you have a problem with that, consider this.
Yeshua, as God’s Son, is the very fleshly manifestation of Torah.
He is indeed the Torah made flesh.
And as such, He could in no way have done away with the very Law that He was the fleshly manifestation of.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING WITH THE NEW TESTAMENT
“And the TORAH became flesh
and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.”
-John 1:14
“For when we were still without strength,
in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die;
yet perhaps for a good man
someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His love toward us,
in that,
while we were still sinners,
Messiah died for us.
Much more then,
having now been justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
For if when we were enemies
we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son,
much more, having been reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life”.
-Romans 5:6-10
“Who Himself bore our sins
in His own body on the tree,
that we, having died to sins,
might live for righteousness:
by whose stripes you were healed.”
-1 Peter 2:24
“For Messiah also suffered once for sins,
the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God.”
-1 Peter 3:18
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