May 12th, 2012
This is the third message I ministered to my congregation when our Rav was away ministering in Africa to Torah Observant congregations that are beign raised over there. It took me awhile to get this up as I used a lot of power point and so I had to go back through my notes and try my best to fill in all the blanks for what would have been said with each of the slides. I have finally had the time to put it all together in article format. Please enjoy this crucial teaching on one of the central themes of contention during the first century: the fellowship of the Jew and the Gentile as one new man.
“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your Torah” (Psalm 119:18)Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the entire Bible and it’s a beautiful Psalm that speaks very clearly about the beauty and importance of Torah. In fact, it contains my favourite verse in the entire NIV translation,
“all your righteous laws are eternal.” (Psalm 119:160b NIV)Now there are two things that make this verse very controversial and very difficult for some streams of theology. The fact that it says ALL His Laws, and that ALL these Laws are eternal! This we know was fully supported by Mashiach’s teaching when He came and proclaimed in Matthew 5 that He didn’t come to abolish Torah but to fulfill, or as we learned before, properly explain and teach. This lines up well with what haShem spoke through the prophet Isaiah saying,
“The L-RD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the Law, and make it honourable..” (Isaiah 42:21 KJV)We read this in our liturgy every Shabbat, he will magnify the Torah. And if we continue reading Mashiach’s words in Matthew 5-7, we can see that during the Sermon on the Mount He did exactly that. He took a command and he magnified it by saying “if you think you’re doing well by not committing adultery, well, guess what, if you even look at a woman to lust after her you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart”. This magnifies the Torah command concerning adultery.
“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations.” (Ephesians 2:14-15a NIV 1984)Now I should give a little disclaimer about Bible translations. Some translations are done in a less literal style and are more paraphrased. We call this dynamic equivalence. The more loose you get in your translation the more you are going to begin getting translator commentary as opposed to the Word of G-d. Sometimes this can be good, because an overly literal passage may be difficult to understand, but sometimes this is not so good as you are trusting the translator interpretation of the text. And no matter how pure your intentions are, you will always come with a bias. This right here is a perfect example, and the 1984 NIV is the most popular Bible translation available. So the vast majority of Christians today are reading these very words, and so when people are convinced that Torah has been abolished, I really can’t blame them when we have translations like this and no proper contextual teaching to help us understand the text.
“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances*” (Ephesians 2:14-15a NASB)Okay, so now that we’ve read an accurate translation we can see that it is in fact the enmity that has been abolished. This enmity here is being references to the Law of commandments contained in ordinances. The Greek word for ordinance here is dogma. In simplicity, what we have here is a dogmatic set of commandments that was being imposed as law and creating enmity (i.e. hostility or hatred) between Jew and Gentile.
‘When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the L-RD your G-d.” (Leviticus 19:33-34 NASB)So if Torah tells Israel to love the foreigner, then I don’t think that Torah is the cause of hatred or hostility between the Jew and the Gentile. So in trying to understand this issue we need to ask ourselves several questions,
“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of G-d’s household” (Ephesians 2:19)Now, why was this such a stumbling block? Why is it that even today, Paul is viewed as a heretic by Torah Observant Jews on the basis of these statements? Biblical scholar E.P. Sanders in his work gives good evidence that in the 1st Century there were varying opinions about the Gentiles and how they would receive a place in the world to come. Data suggests that the Rabbi's didn't see the written Torah as being clear enough on what to do with the Gentiles (although, I disagree with that because there are several places from Exodus to Deuteronomy that to me seem very clear that when a foreigner wishes to serve the G-d of Israel he is able to appear before HaShem in the exact same way as the native born Israelite). But the Jewish people have often been under persecution time and time again, and under such conditions it was only natural for the Rabbis to take an increasingly harsher stance towards outsiders.
“to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Yeshua through the Good News” (Ephesians 3:6)
“No foreigner is to enter within the forecourt and the balustrade around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his subsequent death” (Antiquities of the Jews 8:67,71)However, I don't believe that the dividing wall that Paul is speaking of in Ephesians 2 was the dividing wall within the temple, and I believe this for two reasons. The word used for the dividing wall in the temple in historical writings is always drufacto, where as Paul uses the term fragmos. Secondly, at the time Paul was writing his letter to the Ephesians, the Temple was still up and as such the wall still existed. This is why biblical scholar Markus Barth suggests that Paul's imagery is meant to be placed somewhere else, although I believe that the imagery of that literal dividing wall is still hinting at a spiritual barrier that Messiah indeed abolished in His flesh.
“For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity…” (Ephesians 2:14-15a NASB)So enmity, what is “the enmity”? The single best thing I can give you to explain what this was in the first century is from an ancient epistle written just prior to Messiah’s coming. Let’s examine the following,
‘our lawgiver… fenced us about with impenetrable palisades and with walls of iron to the end that we should mingle in no way with any of the other nations, remaining pure in body and in spirit’ and ‘so that we should be polluted by none nor be infected with perversions by associating with worthless persons, he has fenced us about on all sides with prescribed purifications in matters of food and drink and touch and hearing and sight’ (Epistle of Aristeas [2nd century BCE, quoted from “H.B. Swete, The Old Testament in Greek {KTAV, 1969} p.575”])So, enmity can mean hostility or hatred... do you think that such an attitude would promote hostility between a Jew and Gentile? I think so... and as we read in Torah, this was not actually anything which was commanded by the L-rd our G-d. Rather, once again, in Leviticus 19 it says that the foreigner shall be as a native of the land and you shall love him as yourself. But this is so critical for us to understand. I wanted to make this message today somewhat more of a lecture and provide these historical quotes for you because it is absolutely paramount that we see and understand these underlying issues that form the basis of what Paul is arguing against. Because when we don't know what Paul is arguing against, we end up making assumptions about what he's saying and get this idea that Paul is doing away with Torah when that's not the case what so ever.
The Greek term fragmos was used in the 1st Century to identify oral Torah as a “wall” or “fence” around the written Torah and the Pharisees as “builders of the wall.”(Hegg: Ephesians 2:14-15 – 9)The oral Torah was written down in what we know as Pirkei Avot, or Ethics of the Fathers. In the very first verse of this we read,
“The Men of the Great Assembly would always say these three things: Be cautious in judgement. Establish many talmidim. And build a fence of protection around Torah.” (Pirkei Avot 1:1b)Now Pirkei Avot was written in Aramaic and not Greek. But the Aramaic term here for fence is Syaga, and when we go to the Aramaic New Testament in Ephesians 2:14, guess what the word for wall is? Syaga! The exact same word! So it doesn’t matter what language you go to, there’s no doubt in regards to what this is referring to. And very interesting to note is that a synonym for syaga is ta'area, which means door or gate, and this is the very word Yeshua uses when in the Aramaic of John when He proclaims that He is the door or gate. So while some may be busy erecting a fence and keeping Gentiles out (which is what Yeshua means when He accuses some of shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven) Yeshua is pulling down this fence and allowing everyone access to the Father through Himself by one Spirit!
Then they led Yeshua from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. (John 18:28)Truly, within 1st century Judaism, the oral Torah acted in such a way so as to separate the Jew and Gentile in many ways. So we can see how radical, confusing and controversial of an idea this unity of Jew and Gentile is. Because, even though it's not the same thing at all, to a Jew in the first century this would be like eating a meatloaf that had both clean and unclean animals. So guess how our L-rd decided to reveal this to His beloved apostles? I want to take us all back to Acts 10 today; Pastor Andrew had us here just a few weeks ago, but I really want to make sure we understand the significance of what happened,
“On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; and he saw the sky opened up, and an object like a great sheet coming down, lowered by four corners to the ground, and there were in it all kinds of four-footed animals and crawling creatures of the earth and birds of the air. A voice came to him, “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” But Peter said, “By no means, L-rd, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.” Again a voice came to him a second time, “What G-d has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” This happened three times, and immediately the object was taken up into the sky. (Acts 10:9-16)What G-d has cleansed… so, what has G-d cleansed? As we keep reading,
Now while Peter was greatly perplexed in mind as to what the vision which he had seen might be, behold, the men who had been sent by Cornelius, having asked directions for Simon’s house, appeared at the gate; (Acts 10:17)So we have these Gentiles show up and ask for Peter, and normally Peter would be a little hesitant to hang out with these guys. But now he starts to understand the vision when he says in verse 28
And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet G-d has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.Ah, so we see that it is man who G-d has cleansed. Then afterwards as Cornelius explains his encounter with G-d, a light bulb goes on and suddenly Peter reeeaally gets it; his vision and all the puzzle pieces suddenly come together when he says in verse 34 and 35,
“I most certainly understand now that G-d is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”So now we have Jew and Gentile… not a native born Jew and a converted Jew, but a Jew and a Gentile coming together as one body, that is, one community… the one NEW community in Messiah!
The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days G-d made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And G-d, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:6-9 NASB)So we can see that it is the witness of the Holy Spirit that truly showed everyone the reality of G-d’s grace and saving power through Messiah. You can come up with all the silly theology in the world, but there’s no denying it when you see G-d’s spirit working within someone’s life, and this is exactly what was promised to happen upon the resurrection and ascension of Messiah. It says in John 7:39,
“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet, because Yeshua was not yet glorified.”And then later in John 12:32 Yeshua proclaims,
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”And so He did! He broke down that theological barrier, that dividing wall, and drew all men, us included, by His Spirit, which was able to be poured out in a most powerful way because of the atoning power of His blood for all nations once and for all, to make them clean. And the proof of this is the presence and working of the Spirit in our lives. The Spirit working within our lives is truly our most powerful witness just as we always emphasize around here. A witness not only to others but to ourselves, too! I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was saved when I could see the Spirit of G-d working in my life, and then I started running around hugging people joyfully and full of all this energy and then everyone decided that I’m never allowed to have coffee lest the earth implode…
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “ Uncircumcision” by the so-called “ Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Messiah, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel(Okay, so right here, we see that we are now part of the commonwealth of Israel which means, every single time it says within Torah “speak to the children of Israel” it is actually speaking to you!), and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without G-d in the world (notice how covenants is PLURAL; this means that we who are grafted in to Israel are part of more than just some new covenant). But now in Messiah Yeshua you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Messiah(How? Well…). For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances(those dogmatic oral laws that created all that cultural hostility between the two groups), so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to G-d through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity(Just as it says in the prophets right, that all flesh and all nations will come to bow down before Him). And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father(Again, it is the Spirit of the living G-d that bears witness to this reality). So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones, and are of G-d’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the L-rd, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of G-d in the Spirit (and His blood and only His blood has purified us so that we can be that temple for the Holy Spirit).Isn’t that just amazing? I could just sit there and ponder over the beauty of such statements, a beauty that is realized when we see people walking in the Spirit and manifesting the glory and righteousness of G-d in their everyday walks of life. And it is by this that we know that we are keeping the Torah or that we are walking in His ways correctly. Not according to religiosity which is full of our own fleshly pride and might and power… but no, according to His Spirit which then draws all flesh towards Him so that everyone might be saved as they are wooed by the love of G-d. Amen?
Father we thank you. We thank you for Your awesome presence, Your Spirit, which is poured out on all of us because of the redemptive work of your revealed arm, the Messiah Yeshua, our life-giver. We thank you for His atonement and we thank you for all the blessings you have bestowed upon us. The joy and peace, the happiness and love that come from Your Spirit dwelling within us! As James says, all good things come from above, and we just ask that these abundant gifts you have given us would help to draw all flesh towards you; Jew or Gentile, so that as one people we can serve you truthfully and make your righteousness known to the ends of the earth. As you have blessed us may we also bless others. And may nothing stand in the way of our sharing Your love. In Yeshua’s precious name we pray; amen v’amen.