A Vessel Unto Honour

Did you ever realize that Paul was directly quoting a prophet from the Old Testament when he said, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

With that in mind, now we have to examine the context of what Paul was quoting to get the full picture of what he was saying in his side of this letter of communication.

Paul was quoting Joel

…And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call…

Joel 2:32

God’s commandments were meant to have His people be amazing and the most hospitable, warm hearted and blessed people on the earth. They were supposed to be attractive and make the people of the other nations want what they had so they would join Israel like Ruth did. God’s people went way off track from following God’s calling on His chosen people.

Joel is living in a time of judgment and God is speaking through him about a way back for His people… a way back from their darkness, destruction and sins. It was a calling for them to cry out to the LORD, to “Gird yourselves, and lament, you priests: howl you ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God. Sanctify you a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD. Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.”

The LORD called His priests to “repentance, with fasting, and weeping, rending your heart, turn unto the LORD your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of evil.”

The priests were called out and set apart back in the Wilderness to be the spiritual leaders and teachers. When they were walking in darkness, the rest of Israel stumbled and fell behind them.

Many of the people in the early church were Israelites (Jews represent Judah and Benjamin of the twelve tribes of Israel), so it was understood by Paul that he was writing to people who knew the writings of the Law and the Prophets, so they would have known what Paul was referring to when he wrote that.

Paul also knew that any of the Gentile newcomers were under the instruction of James to learn Moses at the synagogues on the Sabbath days (Acts Chapter 15). God had already given a standard for how strangers could become grafted into Israel: They were to learn, to observe, and then, if they wanted to join, then they would become circumcised after they had knowledge and understanding of what they were becoming a part. The circumcision was necessary to participate in Passover. James was expecting that standard to continue which means Paul knew that even the strangers with the wild-root who came to faith in the Messiah would have their natural-root-brethren to explain the depths of scripture behind what Paul was saying.

Paul’s letters are full of quotes from the Old Testament, which all add depth of meaning and richness of understanding to what he is saying in his letters to the churches.

Paul did not need to say “Hey you guys, read the prophet Joel before reading my letter so that you understand that I am talking about repenting in the way that the God of Israel means.”

So with that understanding, when we reread the letter Paul wrote to the Romans, we find that Paul’s message can be understood on a deeper level. He is not talking about Jesus when He says “Whosoever calls upon the Name of the Lord.” He is talking about calling on the Name of the God of Israel.

A deeper study of the Son of God and the God of Israel will reveal that Y’Shua, the One whose Name was translated to Jesus in the New Testament, was indeed the Lawgiver at Mount Sinai. But the version of Jesus, who “did away with the Law,” is not the same Holy One of Israel that gave the Law at Sinai.

Y’shua – known by most as Jesus- is the most vital part of the Law of Moses. Without Y’Shua’s teachings, the Law of Moses is hard to be understood and practiced.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” He also said, “I only speak what I hear the Father say.” Therefore, everything He said was in complete agreement with everything the God of Israel and the God of Moses said. He only worshipped the Father, He never said to stop following His Father’s Words.

One of the commandments that I, the author T. L., found I was breaking is that I was thinking that Jesus “did away with the Law.” I was literally breaking the literal commandment of Jesus by thinking that way. How? Jesus is recorded by Matthew in Chapter 5:17 saying “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the prophets.

Think not….

He knows the end from the beginning, so it’s like He was talking directly to me knowing that this snare was going to come to pass, so He said this knowing that if someone loved Him enough, they would be able to recognize that He was warning us.

He went on to clarify:

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus fulfilled prophecies and He fulfilled the Spirit and truth of the Law by walking in the Law of Moses perfectly by walking in complete submission to His Father’s commandments and He did it with a perfect heart towards the Holy One of Israel. Jesus did not “complete the needfulness of the Law of Moses.” Saying that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, so now we don’t have to keep the Law is a lie straight from the adversary of God.

Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. I am alive on the earth this very day, which tells me that the earth has not yet passed away. “All being fulfilled” is referring to all the prophecies that John the writer of Revelations foretells of. Those things have not happened yet, so all has not yet been fulfilled. Just the prophecies that foretold of Jesus’s birth, life, death and resurrection, and Jesus finished everything that He had come to do in that earthly lifetime. Those have been fulfilled, but not the end time’s prophecies.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Keeping Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, and people who claim to be followers of the Son of God Almighty teach that keeping Sabbath is no longer necessary. They are taking a great risk in teaching such a thing. Jesus Himself literally commanded us to “think not that I am come to destroy the Law… think not... Think not that I am come to destroy the Law.”

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus also said, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue you in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”

We are called to become LIKE Him.

We can’t become like Him unless we do the things that He actually did.

We must discipline ourselves to learn how to do everything He did with the same heart for God as He had.

He teaches us God’s heart: God wants us to sincerely and truly- in spirit and in truth- love one another… for real, in real life practical day to day ways. PERIOD, that is God’s heart.

He teaches us about how our hearts can be bad ground, and how to recognize when our thoughts are wicked so that we can choose to cast out our wicked thoughts and imaginations so that we can intentionally cleanse our thoughts and our hearts so that we can become, over time, like Him, all the way from the depth of our inner being.

Jesus kept Sabbath on the seventh day of the week and was found doing the work of the Father all the time. When Jesus performed miracles on the Sabbath, He wasn’t feeding His belly with the healings He did. He was giving all the glory to His Father, the Holy One of Israel, and doing things that only God could do; He wasn’t profaning the Sabbath… He was doing Holy things on the holiest day of the week. Even the Levites, as long as there was a Temple, were commanded to do the work of the Holy One of Israel on the Sabbath days, and the children of Israel also did the work of the Father when they would circumcise their male children on the 8th day. Doing the work of the Father was never profaning the Law. The Pharisees had no response to Jesus when He reminded them that the priests worked in the temple on the Sabbath days and are blameless (Matthew 12:5). They were being hypocrites by saying that Jesus was profaning Sabbath while giving allowance to others who weren’t threatening to their authority.

Jesus never said “After I rise again, keep the first day of the week in honour of Me.” Never. None of the Old Testament Prophets ever said “Once Messiah comes, our Law will be done away with.” Never.

Jesus fulfilled prophesies. He did not do-away with the Law. The Law gives life.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life.” The Law is the way (it is a practical application of how to live God’s way), the Truth is God’s Word (Jesus said in an audible prayer to God, the Father, in John 17:17 Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.) To follow the Word of God is the path to life.

Psalm 16:11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures evermore.

Walking according to the Law of Moses is the only way to walk in righteousness, and the only way to become holy.

The Apostle John defines sin:

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

1 John 3:4

If we truly are following the Jesus who is the Son of the God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel and Moses, then we are trying to do the things that He actually did, with the same heart that He had as He was doing them.

If we are not doing those things that Jesus literally did with His time here on earth, then we are following an IMAGE of Jesus formed in someone’s imagination.

Also, in the last several chapters of Ezekial, Ezekial is given a vision of the Kingdom of God. The real Holy Temple. While there, Ezekial is shown that the Levites continue to serve the Holy One of Israel in His Holy Temple even then.

James said, “Be a doer of the word, and not a hearer only, deceiving your own selves.” Don’t fall prey to self-deception. God’s word is ALL still relevant to anyone who wants to spend forever with the God of Israel. The whole bible is meant, in its entirety for literally anyone and everyone who wants to have a relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

Isaiah 56:6-7 says “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to be His servants, everyone that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant, even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…

If you believe in Jesus, calling on the name of the Lord to be saved means you have to recognize that the Word of God is ALL true, ALL relevant and that only God knows what is right, good and true.

The Set-Apart One gave us an instruction manual for how to live, how to become holy and how to prepare for eternity with Him.

It is unholy to reject His commandments.

Paul says the Gentiles are to be grafted into the same olive tree. The children of Israel have the root. They were born being taught the Torah. We, the Gentiles, are the wild olive tree and we are to be grafted into the natural olive tree.

Don’t take my word for it. Search the scriptures. Ask God to show you what is true and what’s deception. Beg Him to give you the eyes to see, the ears to hear and the heart to obey.

Search the scriptures to see!