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POSTED 01 AUGUST, 2003
What Does "Under the Law" Really Mean?
by
J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net
Those of you who have been in the Messianic community for any
elongated period of time know that we can be a
controversial group of people.[1]
Those of us who were raised in mainstream
Christianity and have now joined Messianic
congregations have questioned much of what we
were taught in the past, testing it against
Scripture. While today’s Christianity did indeed
give us a foundational grounding in the Word of
God, and thankfully and gratefully
presented us the gospel of salvation available
in Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), it is
nevertheless a human religious system, and as
such did present us with some non-Biblical
teachings.
One of the errant teachings of much of contemporary Christianity,
which has re-arisen in the past few years as the
Messianic movement has gotten larger, is the
belief that Yeshua the Messiah came to abolish
the Torah or the Law of Moses. Those of us who
have entered into the Messianic community of
faith do not believe this to be true. We
evidence this in our lives by now practicing
many of the things that Christianity has deemed
unimportant for the Body of Messiah, but were
adhered to and kept by Yeshua’s early followers.
We keep the seventh-day Sabbath or
Shabbat,
we celebrate the appointed times of Leviticus
23, and we follow the kosher dietary laws. These
are just a few Torah practices that most
Christians believe are unimportant.[1]
Now this I do not choose, as some in the Messianic
community do: to vehemently criticize, berate,
and harass Christians who do not feel the same
way as I do about these issues. I have taken my
fair share of negative comments and realize that
some are not ready to hear or receive the
message. All things happen in the Lord’s timing,
and much more unites Christians and Messianics
than divides them (Ephesians 4:1-6). Yet one of
the reasons why there can be problems between
Christians and Messianics is because many
Messianics do not know how to properly defend
their faith and practice. Rather than examining
Scripture, insulting terms are usually thrown
around and fights ensue. This is most evident
when Christians who oppose Torah obedience claim
that we are “under the Law”—and that this is not
a position in which born again Believers should
want to find themselves. Sadly, in my opinion,
much of the Messianic handling of this one
phrase has been anything but proper. We must be
able to properly respond to this and see
how it is used in the New Testament.
This article addresses the clause “under the Law” (Grk.
hupo
nomon,
upo nomon), how it is used, and what it means in
its appropriate context in view of what both the
Tanach and Apostolic Scriptures tell us about
the significance of God’s Torah. We will examine
Yeshua’s words on the matter of the Law of
Moses. We will examine how a variety of
Christians and Messianic teachers have handled
this term. We will then test these claims
against what the Apostle Paul says in his
letters. When you finish reading, the next time
a Christian says that you as a Messianic are
errantly “under the Law,” you should be able to
properly respond to his claim.
End of sample excerpt.
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J.K. McKee
(B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A., Asbury
Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN
Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic
apologist.
He is a 2009 recipient of the Zondervan Biblical
Languages Award for Greek.
He
is author of
numerous books, dealing with a wide range of
topics that are important for today’s
Messianic Believers. He has also written many articles on
theological issues,
and is presently focusing his attention on Messianic commentaries
of various books of the Bible.
NOTES
[1]
These three areas are
discussed in order in Chapters 10, 11,
and 12.
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