The
Pauline View of Torah Compliance
The apostle Paul, formerly Saul of
Tarsus, perhaps more
than any other man, lived and breathed Torah compliance. He was a
Pharisee of the Pharisees by his own admission. So fervent was his
disgust for fellow countrymen that embraced Jesus of Nazareth as the
Messiah that he obtained legal authority to imprison and murder them.
He gave consent to a Jewish mob to stone Stephen. Saul the Pharisee got
the shock of his life when, on his way to Damascus to wreak havoc on
the Lord's church, Jesus stopped him in his tracks with a blinding
light. When he inquired as to who it was that had engaged him, he heard
these words: “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest!”
The
confrontation of Saul by Jesus took place circa 35 A.D. Saul afterwards
changed his name to Paul, became apostle to the Gentiles and inspired
author of gospel and church truth. His thirteen epistles set forth by
revelation the unique relationship between Law and Grace. In 64 A.D.,
thirty years later, Paul wrote his epistle to the church at Philippi,
which was established circa 53 A.D. with the salvation of a jailor and
his family. In that epistle, Paul disclosed his perspective on his
former life as a Pharisee and how his faith in Jesus Christ had
transformed his life (Philippians 3:2-14). What
exactly is meant by 'Torah Compliance'? The Torah consists of the first
five books of the Bible, or Pentateuch--Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers and Deuteronomy. Two of these, Genesis and Numbers, are
primarily historical in nature. The other three--Exodus, Leviticus and
Deuteronomy--consist of the Mosaic Law handed down to Israel
by Moses. By 'Torah Compliance' we are referring to the
Mosaic Covenant. The Torah itself contains four covenants--Adamic,
Noahic, Abrahamic (revealed in Genesis) and Mosaic. We use the more
general phrase 'Torah Compliance' as a specific reference to
the Law of Moses even though the Torah itself includes multiple
covenants.
One
reason Paul shared his former thinking with Philippian believers was
the constant opposition he and his converts endured from disciples of
Moses, who felt that faith in Jesus neither precluded nor nullified the
need for Torah observance. These 'Judaizers' were a problem for the
church in Paul's day as they remain today. The mantra of 'Torah
compliance' is not new. There are a number of publications and other
media that advocate Torah compliance and the 'restoration' thereof as
integral to a life that pleases God. The text of Philippians 3:2-14 is
the death knell of the Torah compliance mentality.
Paul
begins by juxtaposing the words “concision” (3:2) and “circumcision”
(3:3). The word 'concision' means “to cut up, mutilate.” It's a
reference to physical circumcision, which disciples of Moses deemed a
necessity for salvation. Paul clearly uses it here as a code word for
those who embrace Mosaic Law. The word 'circumcision' is a reference to
spiritual circumcision of the heart, a spiritual reality for the
believer in Jesus without regard for physical circumcision or the lack
thereof. In the church at Philippi, there were no doubt many
uncircumcised Gentiles. But they were circumcised in heart. Paul
identifies three characteristics of this group: they (1) worship God in
the spirit as opposed to carnal ordinances, (2) rejoice in Christ Jesus
as their total sufficiency, and (3) have no confidence in the flesh in
terms of Torah compliance.
Paul continues with
a list of 'in-the-flesh' credentials from his Saul of Tarsus days. He
endured physical circumcision on the eighth day of his life. His
parents saw to it he was Torah compliant before he even had a chance to
consider it for himself. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee as
touching the Law. In other words, he was a zealot for Torah compliance,
who had few if any peers. As touching the righteousness which is in the
law, he was blameless (fully compliant). As a Pharisee, Paul considered
these credentials as “gain” (3:7). The word 'gain' is kerdos,
signifying “lucre, advantage.” Paul felt his religious credentials as a
Torah-compliant Hebrew would produce an advantage Godward. But after he
met Christ Jesus face-to-face, all of these gains turned into losses.
The word 'loss' is zemia,
signifying “damage” (as the result of violence). All of Paul's
Torah-compliant credentials, in his thinking, became damaged goods.
This is what the cross of Christ does to the works of the Law and human
pride.
Paul uses the word “count” three
times in 3:7-8. It's the Greek hegeomai.
Its root means “to lead.” But it can have a variety of meanings
depending on contextual usage. In this context, it means “to account,
deem or consider.” In 3:7, Paul employs the perfect tense (completed
action, abiding result). In 3:8, he uses the present tense twice
(ongoing action). Paul had come to the settled conclusion that all his
pre-conversion efforts at Torah compliance were damaged goods, and kept
on considering that to be true.
What was it that
replaced these damaged religious goods? It was “the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8). The word 'excellency' is huperecho (huper=”above”, echo=”to
have”). It means “to have above, to be superior in rank, to excel."
Paul deemed the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord superior to his
efforts at Torah compliance. Paul is referring to a personal, intimate
knowledge of Jesus; heart knowledge as opposed to mere head knowledge.
In comparison to his knowledge of the Lord Jesus, Paul considered his
former efforts at Torah compliance no better than “dung” (refuse) that
he might win Christ (i.e., a deeper knowledge of and conformity to the
image of Christ). He continues: And be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (3:9).
Torah observance, at its very best, is self-righteousness—nothing more,
nothing less—born of the Mosaic Law. And as such, it CANNOT please the
God for whom it's allegedly rendered.
The
righteousness with which God IS pleased is that which is produced in a
believer's life by the Spirit of God as they walk in dependence upon
Christ. When a man believes on Jesus, the Lord justifies him (makes,
declares him righteous). This imputed
righteousness becomes his permanent standing in Christ, never to be
lost. When the believer walks in daily dependence on Jesus, God
sanctifies him (builds IN him Christ's righteous character). This imparted
righteousness (the fruit of discipleship) can vary according to one's steadfastness in faith or
lapses thereof. Spiritual awakening, or revival, is the move of God's
Spirit among his people to cleanse from sin, reignite faith and
reinvigorate the sanctification process. Torah compliance has no power
whatsoever to impart righteousness or build Christian character. That's
the purview of the Spirit of Christ as the believer walks in humble
dependence upon his Lord.
Paul reiterates his
desire “to know him, and the power of his resurrection” (3:10). It is
the power of the resurrection that produces the new birth. That same
resurrection power, now WITHIN the believer and unleashed by faith, is
what Paul and every other true disciple desires. Again, there is NO
resurrection power available in Torah compliance. The schoolmaster is
able to BRING a man to Christ, but is NOT able to SAVE the man or FORM
Christ in the man (Galatians 3:24-25; 4:19). At the “resurrection of
the dead” (3:11), God will transform believers in the twinkling of an
eye to a state of perfect righteousness in a glorified body like unto
Christ's. Paul desired to “attain” this state before the resurrection
and thus “apprehend” that for which Christ had “apprehended”
him
(3:12). Perfection in righteousness was NOT something Paul had attained
to or apprehended. But the ”one thing” (3:13) that had become the focus
of his life was to “press [chase, pursue] toward the mark [goal] for
the prize [reward] of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”
(3:14). The high calling of God is holiness, as in
Christ-likeness, not something as rudimentary, weak and beggarly as
Torah compliance! The verb 'press' is present tense, signifying an
ongoing
effort. The goal is Christ-like righteousness, which itself becomes the
reward for a life of humble dependence upon Jesus.
The
predicate 'I press' has two present participles in nominative case as
modifiers. Paul lived his life both “forgetting” those things which
were BEHIND (his past) and “reaching forth” to things that were BEFORE
(his future). Paul was literally “one who kept on putting out of mind”
the past and “one who kept on stretching himself out” toward the
future. If there is a formula for success in pursuing Christ-likeness
in this life, one would be hard pressed to improve upon these two
activities. In forgetting the things of his past, Paul likely
had
in mind both his successes and failures. The context demands that we
include in that past ALL his efforts as a Pharisee to be Torah
compliant, which he later understood to be a futile exercise in
self-righteousness.
The gospel of grace in
Christ Jesus is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes it. The gospel believed puts the believer IN Christ and Christ
IN the believer by the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is the enabling power
of the Spirit—resurrection power—that makes for the formation of
righteousness in the believer's life. It is God working IN a believer
to will and to do of HIS good pleasure that allows that believer to
work OUT his own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians
2:12-13). The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him
free from the law of sin and death so the righteousness of the law can
be fulfilled IN him (Romans 8:2, 4). Torah compliance is external and
can do NOTHING to improve the inner man. But faith in Christ Jesus
causes the indwelling Spirit to write the Law of God in fleshy tables
of the heart, resulting in righteous character-conduct from the INSIDE
to the OUTSIDE of the believer's life (2 Corinthians 3:3).
The
Christian is NOT lawless or without Law. He is "under the Law
to Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:21). He is DEAD to the Mosaic Law,
having died with Christ, so
he can live by a superior, more excellent Law—the Law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Christ is resurrection power.
Christ is our righteousness. Christ transforms the believer.
It is Christ who apprehends the believer to attain to HIS
righteousness.
This living dynamic of grace is IMPOSSIBLE through Torah compliance.
Paul discovered this truth after his encounter with Jesus Christ. It
was transformative. All his achievements as a Torah-compliant
Jew
he counted as DUNG, that he might win Christ!
Let's
step back for a moment. For those who insist upon Torah compliance,
what
is the goal? It cannot be for the purpose of eternal life, for “Christ
is our life” (Colossians 3:4). It cannot be in the hope of future
glory, for it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 127).
It cannot be for the purpose of being part of Christ's bride, for the
believer is already married to Christ (Romans 7:1-4). It cannot be for
the purpose of finding acceptance, for the believer is “accepted in the
beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). It cannot be for redemption,
for “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” (Galatians
3:13; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:9). It cannot be for the
purpose of achieving righteousness, because the Law can bring neither
righteousness nor spiritual life to those who seek to be compliant
(Galatians 3:21). It cannot be for the purpose of finding peace with
God, for the believer, having been justified by faith, has “peace with
God” through the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Christ is made unto us
who believe “righteousness” (1 Corinthians 1:30). He is the “end of the
law for righteousness” to all who believe (Romans 1:4). The believer is
“complete in him,” which means Torah compliance can add
NOTHING to a believer's standing before God (Colossians 2:10).
If
one studies the NT phrase “in Christ,” he will discover that the
believer, by virtue of his position “in Christ” and “Christ in him”,
enjoys a wealth of benefits—redemption, no condemnation, freedom from
the law of sin and death, no separation from God's love, membership in
Christ's body, sanctification, wisdom, hope, created unto
good
works, reconciliation, redemption, liberty, election,
acceptance, predestination, a seat with the risen Christ in
heavenly places, consolation, eternal security, fellowship, and many
more. They are ALL part of ONE salvation package.
NONE of them can be obtained through Torah compliance.
God bestows them simultaneously upon a believer of the
gospel, one who has been crucified and resurrected with
Christ as well as passed from death unto life
(John 5:24). So again we must ask: Why Torah compliance?
It's evident at this point that the
huge problem with the Torah-compliance doctrine is its attack on
Christ himself and the gospel. The
NT teaches us that Christ is all-sufficient, that his death on the
cross was a complete propitiation (satisfaction) for transgressions of
the Law, that his death and resurrection provide a clear line of
demarcation between Law and Grace. Those who embrace the doctrine of
Torah compliance make themselves “enemies of the cross of Christ”
(Philippians 3:18). The doctrine implies that (1) Christ's death on the
cross was insufficient to atone for all of our transgressions, and (2)
Christ's righteousness, which God the Father imputes to those who
believe on his Son, is insufficient to give a sinner a righteous
standing before God. It is the height of spiritual folly to believe
that adding the filthy rags of “MINE OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS” (3:9) to
Christ's righteousness can in any way improve my standing with the
Father. But such is the spiritual folly of Torah compliance!
In
fairness to some that may have drifted into a Torah observance
mentality as the
result of listening to silver-tongued false teachers with
clever-sounding biblical arguments, they clearly don't understand what
they've done. They may be well intentioned. But good intentions are no
excuse for bad doctrine. One purpose of this article is to
help them
unentangle themselves from the yoke of bondage (Galatians 5:1).
Men
pursue Torah compliance for one of two reasons. The first is due to a
BLINDED mind, which Paul described in 2 Corinthians 4:4: “In whom the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them.” God created the FIRST Adam in his own
image and likeness. Sin marred that image. Christ, the LAST Adam, is
the image of God as well. The big difference is the LAST Adam was
declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection. Whereas
the FIRST Adam was created in innocence, the LAST Adam was raised in
perfect righteousness. The “glorious gospel of Christ” is the good news
that the risen Christ, in response to child-like faith, takes up
permanent residence in the heart of a believer and becomes his
Righteousness. Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers to this simple
truth. That's why Torah compliance is so alluring to a carnal,
unregenerate man. It allows self to think he is a contributor to his
salvation rather than a humble recipient of God's saving
grace.
The
second is a CORRUPTED mind, as Paul warned believers at Corinth: “For I
am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I
fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have
not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not
received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well
bear with him” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4). The gospel is a straightforward
proposition. It's the good news that (1) Jesus died (atoned) for our
sins and rose again, and (2) faith in an all-sufficient Christ puts the
believer IN Christ and Christ IN the believer.
The
entire NT message can be summed up in three words: CHRIST IS ENOUGH!
Torah compliance is just one satanic device among many to corrupt the
believer's mind into behaving like Christ is NOT enough. Torah
compliance is
ANOTHER gospel promoted by ANOTHER spirit that presents ANOTHER Jesus
other than the One who saved him in the first place. For the lost man
with a blinded mind, the doctrine of Torah compliance will lead to
the Lake of Fire. For a saved man, whose mind Satan has
corrupted, Torah compliance leads to the frustration of God's
grace and spiritual
adultery. To use Paul's words, the person Satan deceives into Torah
compliance, whether lost or saved, will live in a spiritual DUNG heap
until they discover (or rediscover) grace and the all-sufficiency of
Christ.
It's worth noting that Paul
listed “zeal” in "persecuting the church" as one of his religious
credentials. It is no surprise that those who have confidence in the
flesh (Torah observers) persecute those who have no confidence in the
flesh (Christ's disciples). It's the difference between those who mind
“earthly things” and those whose “conversation is in heaven”
(3:19-20). Those who have confidence in the flesh are the “enemies of
the cross of Christ” (3:18). In my youth, Herbert W. and Garner Ted
Armstrong were the most popular proponents of Torah compliance. In the
current day, Torah Restoration Ministries led by Evangelist Daniel John
Lee is a classic example. According his teachings, the apostle Paul
will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire for disavowing Torah compliance
as essential to salvation.
Salvation is
in Christ and in Christ alone. Anything that seeks to replace or
augment Christ, including Torah compliance, is pure DUNG! Early on in
scripture we learn that there are only two basic types of religion: the
way of Cain (works) and the way of Abel (faith). Torah compliance
represents the way of Cain. Faith in Christ represents the way of Abel.
God rejected the former and accepted the latter. Daniel John Lee is
nothing more than a Dungmaster. One who visits his website will find
all manner of high-sounding Hebrew lingo. But to those versed in the
gospel of grace, they'll recognize Torah Restoration Ministries as a
Dungheap, the religion of Cain on display. One wonders why he calls
himself an evangelist since there is no gospel to be found on his
website. Paul warned Timothy: “From which some having swerved have
turned aside unto vain jangling; Desiring to be teachers of the law;
understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm” (1
Timothy 1:6-7). This is a perfect description of Daniel John Lee and
every other advocate for Torah compliance, who have turned aside from
the gospel of Christ to vain jangling. They are self-proclaimed
teachers of the Law who have bastardized the gospel!
Let's
review what the circumcised in heart, including Paul, have in common.
They worship God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no
confidence in the flesh. This is the heart and soul of the local NT
church—one that truly represents Christ. At the risk of
oversimplification, a genuine church can be found WORSHIPING God the
Father and REJOICING in and WINNING Christ the Son. In that
blessed mix,
there is absolutely NO room whatsoever for confidence in the flesh.
That's why you'll NEVER find a genuine NT church, one that pleases the
Father and honors the Son, teaching Torah compliance as an essential to
salvation. These kinds of God-honoring, Bible-based churches have been
in existence since the days of
the apostles even though they might not have been
mainstream.
True
Christianity is Christ living in his people through the power of the
indwelling Spirit, who alone is the power behind true
righteousness, holiness and godliness. Men can NEVER please
the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ by their attempts to comply with
the Torah. True Christianity operates by a higher
Law, the Law of the
Spirit of life. This is the Pauline view of Torah compliance.
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