Work Out Your Salvation

Work out your salvation with fear and trembling! (Philippians 2:12)

With that thought in mind, here are some questions to consider.

If the Creator never changes…

For I am the LORD, I change not. Mal 3:6

And if from the very beginning he declared the end…

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, Isa 46:10

And if YHVH said he would raise up a prophet like Moses who would speak only the Creator’s words…

Deu_18:18 I will raise up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

And if YHVH warned there will be consequences to those who do not heed the words this Prophet like Moses speaks…

Deu_18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

And if the writer of acts identified this Prophet like unto Moses as Yeshua…

… and that He may send forth the One before proclaimed to you, Jesus Christ, whom Heaven truly needs to receive until the times of restoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of all His holy prophets from the age past. For Moses indeed said to the fathers, “The Lord your God will raise up to you a Prophet from among your brothers, One like me; you shall hear Him according to all things,” whatever He may speak to you. (Act 3:19-22)

And if Yeshua said he did not come to annul the Creator’s Law, and if he warned that those who relax and teach others to relax even one iota will be least in the Kingdom of Heaven, and those who keep and teach others to keep the LAW will be great…

Do not think that I came to annul the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to annul, but to fulfill. Truly I say to you, Until the heaven and the earth pass away, in no way shall one iota or one point pass away from the Law until all comes to pass. Therefore, whoever relaxes one of these commandments, the least, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, this one shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. (Mat 5:17-19)

And if Yeshua also warned that not all who call him Lord, who prophesy, cast out demons, work miracles in his name will enter into his kingdom, but only those who do the will of His Father, those who do not practice lawlessness…

Then surely from their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but the ones who do the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many works of power? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; “depart from Me, those working lawlessness!” (Mat 7:20-23)

And if Paul said that faith establishes the Law…

Rom_3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

And that the Law is spiritual…

For we know that the Law is spiritual, Rom_7:14

And that the Law is just and good…

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Rom_7:12

And if Paul also wrote that not the hearers of the Law but the doers will be justified…

For not the hearers of the Law are just with God, but the doers of the Law shall be justified. Rom_2:13

And that in fact the reason the Holy Spirit was given was so we could fulfill the righteous demands of the Law…

…so that the righteous demand of the Law might be fulfilled in us, those not walking according to flesh, but according to Spirit. Rom 8:4

And if Paul then went even further and declared that those who walk according to the flesh, and therefore do not, cannot, subject themselves to the Law of God, cannot please God… because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God; for it is not subjected to the Law of God, for neither can it be. And those in the flesh are not able to please God. (Rom 8:7-8)

If John declared that sin is breaking the LAW…

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 1Jn 3:4

And if Paul, defending himself, testified the he believes all things written in the LAW…

But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law. Acts 24:14

And if Peter warned that we are not to be led away by the “error of the lawless” because some of Paul’s writings are hard to understand, and the unlearned pervert them to their own destruction…

… Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the unlearned and unsettled pervert, as also they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. Then beloved, you knowing beforehand, watch lest being led away by the error of the lawless you fall from your own steadfastness. (2Pe 3:15-17)

And if John stipulates those claiming to know God, but who do not keep his commandments are liars…and that by keeping God’s Law, which John uses interchangeably with God’s WORD, we can know we are in Him…

And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commands. The one saying, I have known Him, and does not keep His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. (1Jn 2:3-5)

And if Isaiah prophesied that during the millennium reign all nations will go up to the mountain of YHVH to learn TORAH…

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the TORAH, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. (Isa 2:2-3)

And if John saw in his Revelation that it will be those who do God’s commandments that will have a right to the right to the Tree of Life…

Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. Rev_22:14

And if David, a man after God’s own heart delighted himself in God’s Law…

Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight. (Psalms 119:33-35)

Then shouldn’t all believers strive to keep his LAW, His TORAH?

Shouldn’t we delight in it? Study it?

Stop disparaging it! Calling it a curse! Scripture says it is a blessing to those who keep it. Yeshua is the WORD of God, the TORAH of God, made flesh! TORAH means instruction!

Do not twist what I am saying. You cannot be saved by keeping the LAW! No one ever could!

We don’t need to keep every law because we can’t! Never could! Some laws are only for men, some only for women, and some only for priests. And there is no temple. Many laws require a Sanhedrin, which no longer exists, in order to carry out a sentence. Not to mention, most of us do not live in Israel, and Israel isn’t a theocracy at this time. But, it will be when Yeshua returns and then we will all be keeping TORAH!

For now, let’s concentrate on those laws that apply to us, and that can be carried out at this time. Asking ridiculous questions like, “Should I stone my child for disobeying?” serves only to mock YHVH! I wouldn’t recommend that!

I try my best to keep those I can, including those outlawed by Constantine and the Roman Catholic Church (and all her protesting, Protestants, daughters.) Their divergence from the Hebrew roots of the faith plunged the world into the Dark Ages!

Along with what’s called the moral law, I keep YHVH’s Sabbath, and call it a delight.

I celebrate YHVH’s Feast Days. They are His appointed times, shadow pictures of His Plan of Salvation and Restoration. He said we are to observe them forever!

I do not eat those things YHVH calls an abomination. No swine! No shellfish! You know the list.

But I eat and love cheeseburgers, for the prohibition against eating meat and dairy together never came from God’s TORAH. It comes from the Judaism’s oral law, which Yeshua railed against. These are traditions of men. Never confuse the two!

Yeshua and the apostles NEVER taught against YHVH’s LAW – only against the Oral Law! Unfortunately, the writers of the New Testament do not always make it clear which law—oral or written—they’re referring to. And for a good reason! They fully expected believers to have studied the first five books. Genesis through Deuteronomy, the TORAH, the Pentateuch, serves as the plum-line for the rest of Scripture. So study to show yourself approved, so you can rightly divide the word of truth! Otherwise you might end up thinking that Yeshua and his disciples broke the Sabbath when they picked grain to eat. The only laws Yeshua ever broke were the traditions of men—the oral law. If Yeshua had broken YHVH’s LAW, then he would not, he could not, have been the Messiah!

Mark 7:7 …and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Isa 29:13 And the Lord says, Because this people draws near with its mouth, and they honor Me with its lip; but its heart is far from Me, and their fear of Me is taught by the commandments of men.

What are the commandments of men?

I do not mix worship of YHVH, of Yeshua, with pagan ways, as in Christmas and Easter because YHVH forbids it.

Deuteronomy 12:30-31

Take heed to yourself that…you not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? And I shall do so, even I. You shall not do so to Jehovah your God…

We, of the Messianic, Hebrew Roots mindset, keep the law because we are saved by faith through grace.

We keep the law because we have been given the Ruach Ha Kodesh (the Holy Spirit) who gives us the desire and enables us to keep it.

We keep the law because Yeshua said, “If you love me keep my commandments!” And we LOVE Him!

And we keep and teach his Law because we do not want to be least in the Kingdom.

Do we keep it perfectly?

Of course not. When we fail, we repent. We ask for more grace to do better next time. And we get better each time. Keeping God’s law is a heart thing. We esteem YHVH as the Creator. He is the manufacturer. We are his product. His TORAH is our instruction manual. When He speaks, we listen! If He says pork is an abomination and not fit for human consumption, we SHEMA! We hear and obey! Because we LOVE him we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous!

1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.