10 or 613?
Published by Rob Skiba May 13, 2014 at 2:16 PM
When it comes to “keeping the Law” most of my posts really revolve around the 10 Commandments (and the Feasts). Still, time after time, people continue to come at me with the question/accusation, “Well, are you keeping all 613 (alleged) commandments of the Torah?” as if to try and trap me.
Look… NO ONE – not even Yeshua – could keep the so-called 613 commandments. A lot of them are ONLY applicable to the Levites (Yeshua was from Judah). Many require the physical Temple in Jerusalem (which is now gone – due to the will of YHWH I might add). A fair amount apply only to women (Yeshua was… well, a He not a she). There are those that apply only to farmers (He was a carpenter/rabbi, not a farmer). Some require a court system of Torah observant judges and others apply only to kings (the first time He came as the suffering servant/sacrificial Lamb, not as a judge or King), etc., etc..
So, in this layperson’s opinion, there really is NO valid argument for keeping ALL of the laws in Torah! It simply is not possible for ANYONE to do so. You’d have to be a circumcised female Levite king working in a stone temple in Jerusalem as a priest with a side-job of being a court judge who enjoys farming to keep “all” of the commandments of Torah!
Therefore… let’s worry less about the alleged 613 and get back to the simplicity and beauty of the 10, which were actually written by the FINGER OF YHWH HIMSELF and placed into the Ark of the Covenant, which was a picture of something eternal in Heaven. These same were then written by the hand of YHWH on our heart and mind (Heb. 8:10) and thus illustrate our love for Him through obedience (1 John 5:1-3). Anything else is sin (1 John 3:4). Even Paul says:
Romans 6:
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Folks, it’s not nearly as complicated as some are trying to make it. Do we keep the Law FOR Salvation? Absolutely not! Are any of us perfect? No. Will we fail? Yes. But praise YHWH for
1 John 2:
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
How did He walk? In obedience to and pure love for His Father. It’s not rocket-science.
– Rob Skiba
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