It is not “I obey, therefore I am accepted,” but rather, “I am accepted, and that is the obedience (ὑπακούω) of faith.” The opposite of sin is not virtue but faith, as Paul said: πᾶν δὲ ὃ οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως, ἁμαρτία ἐστίν, “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23). Putting it the other way around, trust is the means of attaining God’s righteousness and blessing (Eph. 2:8, Rom. 3:20-27). Paul calls this the “law of faith” (i.e., torat ha’emunah: תּוֹרַת הָאֱמוּנָה). Accepting that God is “for you” and “with you,” and trusting that you are accepted — despite your unacceptability — is the first and most fundamental step of faith, since this honors the love and blessing of God. It is not your wisdom or cleverness that enlightens your way in the truth, however, but the miracle of disclosure from heaven. It is all a gift: you need God to even see that you need God! Right thinking is indeed a path to God, but it is the givenness of truth that enables the seeker to seek; it is the reality of the Teacher (the Savior) that is all-important. By itself true belief does not conjure divine favor, and indeed it may hide the deeper truth that the heart exists in untruth despite the head’s “true” doctrine. Likewise, while goodness is indeed a path to God, true goodness is found in God’s righteousness that makes the way right for the trusting heart… Genuine obedience to the truth of God – inner connectedness rather than merely outer obedience – marks the divine mercy of transformation.
“Not by works of righteousness (מַעֲשֵׂי הַצְּדָקָה) which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us (ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸναὐτοῦ ἔλεον ἔσωσεν ἡμᾶς), by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit (רוּחַ הַקּדֶשׁ), whom he poured out on us richly through Yeshua our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7). The meaning of the gospel is, among other things, that you believe in the love of God that forever heals us through the life of Yeshua. To those who have ears to hear, this is the deeper meaning of “shabbat” (שַׁבָּת), chaverim!
Consider for a moment how your thinking defines your inner reality and the quality of your spiritual life. Thinking is inextricably linked to faith, and therefore we are responsible not only for what we believe, but for how we think (Acts 17:30-31). Sinful thinking creates “negative energy” that brings pain to yourself and others. Left unchallenged, such impaired cognitive function leads to slavery of the mind, hopeless addictions of thought, and distressing captivity. The first step to freedom is to confess our sin, acknowledging the reality of our own negativity – and bringing that truth to the light. Therefore teshuvah – turning to God – involves cheshbon hanefesh (חֶשְׁבּוֹן הַנֶּפֶשׁ), accounting for our soul and yielding it to the love of God for rectification: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). For freedom we have been set free, and that means freedom from the power of the lie. If we are blind to our own sin, we cannot confess the truth to find healing (James 5:16).
“Your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8). We sometimes pray for what we think we need but overlook what we really need. For instance, we may pray for health, material blessing, and opportunity, but what we really need is the ability to trust, the willingness to surrender our lives to God without qualification, and the grace to see the good in others and not their faults. These needs are just as real as our need for food and clothing, since apart from grace to extend empathy and love toward others, we will never be truly happy. Love “overlooks” a multitude of sins; it looks beyond the present moment to see with compassion, kindness, and empathy… What we really need, then, is to be after God’s own heart, to see other people as God sees them, and to overlook matters that offend or feed our sense of pride. This is what we truly need, and therefore we trust that the Lord our God mercifully “decodes” our apparent petitions to express what the Spirit of God groans and sighs on our behalf (Rom. 8:26).
Did you know that one of the most frequently occurring commandments of Torah is to love the stranger? The commandment is repeated in various forms over 30 times in the Jewish Scriptures, for instance: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD” (Lev. 19:18); “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:34); “Love the stranger, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19); “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Exod. 22:21); “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong” (Lev. 19:33); “Do not oppress the stranger” (Zech. 7:10); “Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due the stranger” (Deut. 24:19); “The stranger shall be as the native born children of Israel among you” (Ezek. 47:22), “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you”(Exod. 12:49; Num. 15:16), and so on. Clearly the LORD does not want people to feel ostracized, excluded, or otherwise left out of His providential and loving plans… Indeed, the message of the universal love of God is at the heart of the gospel itself, hearkening back to God’s earliest promises to redeem humanity and restore paradise lost. “Religion,” tribalism, prejudice, ethnic pride, and so on, are anathema to the Kingdom of God.
The receiving of the Torah (מתן תורה) must take place each and every day, as it says, “Trust in the LORD ‘bekhol libekha’ (בְּכָל־לִבֶּךָ) – with all your heart; and know Him ‘bekol derakhekha’ (בְּכָל־דְּרָכֶיךָ), in all your ways” (Prov. 3:5-6). The giving of the Torah is described as a “loud and never-ending voice” (Deut. 5:22), though it is our constant responsibility to shema – to receive the invitation of God’s heart.
We read in our Scriptures: “You shall keep my decrees and my judgments, the pursuit of which man shall live: I am the LORD” (Lev. 18:5). The Kotzker Rebbe advised reading this verse as “You shall keep my decrees and judgments to bring life into them,” meaning that we should bring all our heart, soul, and strength into the teaching of Torah. The commandments nourish the soul as food does the body. Just as we seek to season our food to make it flavorful, so we seek to observe the truth with conviction and joy. “May the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish the work of our hands upon us; yea, establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17).
In the Sermon on the Mount Yeshua warned that our righteousness should exceed that of the religious leaders of his day (Matt. 5:20), and he went on to say: “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Here we note that the Greek word translated “perfect” (τέλειος) may mean “mature” or “fully developed” more than morally flawless, though regarding moral and spiritual practice this distinction is not clear cut, especially if by “mature” we mean godly in character, as the context of Yeshua’s statement clearly implies (see Matt. 5:1-48). The Hebrew word translated as “perfect” (תָּמִים) can also mean “complete,” but it can connote being “wholehearted,” “sound,” or even healed (שָׁלֵם). So the question arises, does the word “perfect” mean “flawless” or “healed” — or perhaps both?
Despite the evident and manifold increase in the various prophetic “signs” that herald the return of Messiah, many people today seem apathetic and functionally agnostic regarding the imminence of the “End of Days…” Ironically, this indifference itself indicates the nearness of the hour, since Yeshua noted that just before the time of his return many would fall away because of a chosen ignorance of the truth and pervasive numbness of heart (Matt. 24:12). Therefore he rhetorically asked his followers, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). We are repeatedly urged to watch, to be vigilant, and to be ready: “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matt. 24:44).
God’s people are always “strangers” in this world; they are literally “e-stranged” — living here, yet not here. We are outsiders and pilgrims, not at home in this world, and our faith therefore is both a type of “protest” against any interpretation of reality that excludes, suppresses, denies, or minimizes the Divine Presence as well as a longing for the place where we truly belong…. If you feel crazy in an insane situation, then you are really quite sane… The world will feel oppressive and strange once you have been awakened from its madness and refuse to be moved by the delusions of the crowd… Life in olam hazeh (this world) is a place of passing that leads to the world to come. Our faith affirms that underlying the surface appearance of life is a deeper reality that is ultimately real and abiding. It “sees what is invisible” (2 Cor. 4:18) and understands (i.e., accepts) that the “present form of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7:31).
We “sanctify” our hearts whenever we consciously focus on what is sacred, awesome, wonderful, and glorious about Reality, and in particular, on the Living God, oseh shamayim va’aretz (עשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ), the Maker of Heaven and Earth, and the great salvation we have in Yeshua. In our Torah portion this week (