This week’s Torah portion (i.e., Bechukotai) promises blessings for those who obey God’s law and curses to those who do not. In the opening verses of portion we read: “If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them” then great blessings will follow (Lev. 26:3-ff). The sages comment that the phrase “if you walk in my statutes” (אם־בחקתי תלכו) does not refer to the regular commandments (i.e., ha’mitzvot: המצוות), but instead to the study and love of the Torah (לימוד התורה), the wisdom of which is a “Tree of Life” (עֵץ־חַיִּים) to those who take hold of it (Prov. 3:22). To “walk in the statutes” of Torah is to meditate upon it day and night, so that you will be rooted as a tree beside streams of water, bringing forth fruit in abundance and blessing (Psalm 1:3).
The portion continues by warning that if, on the other hand, you neglect God or are careless about keeping the commandments, you will experience the curse: all kinds of trouble, sickness, sorrows, exile, and (worst of all) alienation from God. The sages emphasize that the cure to the various curses of the law (i.e., tochachah) is the study of the Torah, by which they mean not simply intellectual study but also the careful practice of its principles in your daily life. Torah study, in this sense, is likened to medicine that heals the soul…
Now while it is assuredly true that the practice of Torah – walking in the decrees of God – is the ideal for people, and the imperatives of Scripture, if obeyed, direct the soul to life and blessing, the problem of indwelling sin is so incurably radical that it no amount of resolution of the will nor reformation of character will suffice to transform the fallen estate of human nature and thereby reverse the curse of death given to the sons of Adam, and therefore a cure that comes from beyond the realm of human nature must be found, a heavenly cure that is otherwise called the “righteousness of God” (צדקת האלהים).
Again the problem of the curse (i.e., death) is not with the law of God, of course, which is “holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good,” though indeed the verdict of the law exposes our sin and convicts us as transgressors. So the problem is not with the law of God but rather that we are lawbreakers, that we want to be “god” of our own inner world, and the effect of indwelling sin activates or “works” spiritual death within us. The rule (or power) of “indwelling sin” is called “the (principle of the) flesh” in Scripture, indicating that the source of human corruption is inherent and ever-abiding. This is otherwise called the “fallenness” of the human condition — its irremediable state that refuses to submit to divine authority (Eccl. 9:3; Mark 7:21; Rom. 8:7; Jer. 17:9; etc.) — and therefore the way of deliverance (ישׁוּעה) from the curse of our own inner corruption, from our own evil hearts, comes “apart from the law” that says, “do this and live.” In the New Testament this is called “the righteousness of God apart from the law, though testified by the law and the prophets” (Gal. 3:10-12; Rom. 3:21).
This divine remedy, or “the righteousness of God” is given by means of the promised Deliverer and Savior, namely, Yeshua the Lord, who has redeemed us from slavery to the verdict of the law (i.e., death) and also from the control of indwelling sin. His redemption releases us from the legal claim of Satan that we are his bound subjects, and his regeneration enables us to inherit the divine blessing from the LORD. We are saved from divine wrath (i.e., the verdict of the law) through faith in the efficacy of the blood of Yeshua as our atoning sacrifice for the remission of our sins, and our trust “justifies,” or puts us in right relationship with the LORD who is both the Lawgiver and our Savior (Rom. 3:26; Psalm 85:10). Salvation is “ontological,” meaning it affects the deepest realm of our being and our heart. Because we have a new relationship with God according to the truth and power of his redemption, we are given a new identity and a new nature. We are “regenerated” by the life of God and no longer enslaved to “fallenness” of the lower nature. The forensic (legal) claim of Satan to keep those who sin as his captives is therefore nullified and we are empowered to live as God’s adopted children.
In light of all this the question may arise, however, that if we are redeemed from the curse of the law, and if we are justified and empowered by faith to walk in the righteousness of God, then does this mean the law of God is nullified or abolished? After all, if the law is powerless to save us, as explained above, then is it not powerless in the realm of faith as well?
The Apostle Paul answers this question by saying “God forbid! We do not make void the law of God through faith, but on the contrary we establish the law!” (Rom. 3:31). In other words, our faith establishes the sanctity of the law of God by attesting to its validity and truth. After all, the law of God teaches that God is holy and just and that we are to be holy and just in all that we do (Lev. 19:2), and that the penalty for disobedience to God’s law is spiritual death (Deut. 27:26; Ezek. 18:4; Psalm 7:11; 9:17; 110:5; Isa. 1:4,20; Dan. 12:2; Joel 1:15, James 2:10). Sin is forgiven, according to the law, only by means of sacrificial blood offered on behalf of the trusting and penitent sinner, and without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sin (Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22). Note that the Levitical system at the Mishkan (“Tabernacle”) offered sacrificial blood on behalf of God for the atonement of the sinner, and that this blood represented the divine life of the Savior who was to come (Heb. 9:12-10:31). Yeshua, as the embodiment of the divine life and sacrificial blood, was offered for our sins to secure an eternal reconciliation and atonement for us (Rom. 5:11; 2 Cor. 5:19; Heb. 9:12). Far from nullifying the Torah, then, believers in Yeshua affirm the truth that the law of God is holy, just and good (even though the verdict of the law consigns us to judgment and death), and that the way of forgiveness comes by means of blood atonement of God’s sanctified sacrifice.
The “law of the LORD is perfect, returning the soul” (Psalm 19:1), since by means of the law we understand our need for deliverance from the curse of being alienated from the life of God, and therefore our beloved Savior became a “curse for us” so that we could inherit the blessing of God forever. Amen, praise the LORD for the everlasting blessing his salvation – the gift of His righteousness given on our behalf! The New Covenant of God — that is, the unconditional promise of God based on His love expressed in Yeshua — imparts new life to us, and by the agency of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual meaning and truth of the law of God is written upon the table of our hearts, as it says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which covenant they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my Torah within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer. 31:31-33). Amen, God gives to us a new heart and a new spirit so that we become new creations (Ezek. 36:26; 2 Cor. 5:17). So yes indeed by means of the New Covenant of God we establish the law as followers of Messiah!
Hebrew Lesson:
