Obedience or Legalism?

Dear Friend,

Recently, as I was witnessing to a dear brother in Yahoshua (Jesus), “new light” shed abroad on my heart concerning the reason why most blood-bought, born-again, spirit-filled believers do not choose to follow Yahoshua (Jesus), according to the example He set before us by perfectly following the Torah, the Prophets and the rest of the TaNaKh (“The Old Testament”).

“The one who says he stays in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked.” ~ 1Yahonan (John) 2:6

It is my fervent prayer that this revelation will stir your heart and that it would break anew in repentance. May bitter tears flow down our face for our brothers and sisters in Yahoshua, who have become, (and presently remain), servants of sin unto death.

May we all heed the call of Heaven,

“Come out of her (Babylon), My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” ~ Revelations 18:4

We must come out of Babylon in all of its present expressions in this age and we must let Ruah haChodesh (“The Holy Spirit”) work all of Babylon out of us –  through obedience to the whole counsel of the Scriptures.

From Romans 6:12-16 NKJV (For proper context I highly recommend you start reading at Romans 6:5.)

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God (Elohim), as those that are alive from the dead, and your members [as] instruments of righteousness unto God (Elohim). For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace (favour). What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace (favour)? God (Elohim) forbid. 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?”

For example: If my brother in haMashiach eats pork or other forbidden foods and beverages, (forbidden; whether by the letter or by principle.), he is a servant to this sin and must serve / obey his fleshly appetite. Because he is a slave to his sinful / sin-filled appetite he always reads Brit haDashah (“The New Testament”) with the rose-colored glasses he has been provided by the enemy of his soul.

Every time he reads anything at all about diet in the New Testament he always says to himself, “see I am justified in consuming every harmful food and drink (and sometimes harmful, addictive substances) by the Scriptures! By Elohim’s (God’s) grace (favour) I shall consume that which is harmful and without any benefit to my body, and I shall enjoy killing myself.”

As a side note – (without trying to be legalistic):

Unfortunately many of us who strive to obey the Torah concerning that which is clean and unclean food ignore all together the greater principle of love. Out of a Fatherly heart toward us, Elohim (God) gave us a diet that was healthy and very beneficial to our bodies – living in the state of the world – as it was / is – post-flood judgment, (Bereshith (Genesis 6-9). When we regularly consume foods and / or  beverages that are unhealthy are we not denying our love for Him, for ourselves and for others? Let love govern our appetite, so that we should not be a servant of our appetites unto disease and death. This principle is self-evident!

It is truly amazing the lengths that we are willing to go to in order to justify the food that we consume every day. In this age of ever increasing knowledge we all know, (to a certain extent), what food and drink is good for our consumption and what is evil and death for our bodies. Why then do we presume upon the goodness of Elohim (God) to be our YAHWEH Rapha (The LORD our healer) when we do not concern ourselves with the health of His set-apart temple? Is it faith to believe that He is my healer, when I constantly pollute my body with poor diet and chemicals? There is no need to expound on this point with specifics. Ruah haChodesh (The Set-apart Spirit) has spoken!

In all reality – this teaching is not really about food or about salvation. This teaching has everything to do with righteous obedience and its rewards versus disobedience and death. My brothers and sisters will never know the blessing of YAHWEH (The LORD) in this area of their lives – as long as they are a slave to their appetite. The wages of this sin will eventually be experiential poor health, disease and even premature death. (Romans 6:23) How many times have I picked up the paper, only to read that another stupid / ignorant person died almost instantly from eating a raw shell fish? How unnecessarily tragic! The law of sowing and reaping applies to every man – saved or not.

Gal 5:13-18 ~ “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.”

If we are fulfilling the lust of our flesh, we are not being led by Ruah haChodesh (the Spirit of Yahweh) to do so. Every time we yield to our fleshly desires we are under the law once again. One meaning of “under the law” is to be criminally indictable for a specific transgression. When we break the law we become criminally indictable. When we confess and repent of our transgression, we are no longer criminally indictable. (1John 1:9)

I used the example of the food laws for this teaching, but this teaching holds equally true to every apostasy taught in the church today. They are all slaves to their apostasies. They are criminally indictable “under the law” for each transgression they commit in the name of liberty (freedom) and grace (favour). Ironically, they will call everyone a heretic / apostate who does not hold to their Roman / Babylonian traditions.

Sola Scriptora (By Scripture Alone) was the noble cry of the Protestant reformation. Unfortunately, they did never did it! Most naysayers of this teaching would accuse me of being a Pharisee or legalistic.

This is nothing new! Listen to the Words of Y’shua,

“Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.” ~ Luke 11:52

True knowledge only proceeds from the Scriptures. The key to understanding the Scriptures has always been the Scriptures. This is the key of knowledge Yahoshua (Jesus) was speaking of.

The Pharisees did exactly what the church does today and have been doing for more than a millennium. They took the Scriptures away from the people making them believe that the Pharisees were the only ones who could rightly understand the Word of Elohim (God). In addition, they added to the Word of Elohim with the Babylonian Talmud and their countless additional man made burdens found in their “oral traditions”.

Yahoshua (Jesus) defined legalism as the adding to or taking away from the Scriptures! This is the exact opposite definition of legalism that has taken hold in the churches today. If you hold to the Scriptures alone (as Yahoshua did) you will be accused of legalism and labeled a heretic or apostate.

Now you know why the church cannot help but transgress most of the Torah, the prophets and “the Old Testament” and continues to hold onto every extra-Biblical Pagan vice, tradition, holiday and belief as Christian. Our hearts should grieve for our brothers and sisters even as Ruah haChodesh (the Set-apart Spirit) grieves and is quenched. Let us not argue with them or judge them – for they have judged themselves by the Scriptures already. Rather, let us pray fervently and earnestly for them to hear the loud cry to come out of Babylon – before it’s eternally too late.

With grateful hearts let us rejoice that we have heard His voice and that we ourselves have been called out. Let us fervently examine ourselves to see if we are truly “in the faith” to see if there is any remains of Babylon within our life that we may repent with joy!

Shalom and choice Messianic blessings in the name of Yahoshua haMashiach,

Sincerely and in truth, His servant and yours, 

Robert McDuffie ~ Mizmore (Psalm) 119:142

Posted by Robert Arthur McDuffie on March 6, 2011

https://revelation1910.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/obedience-or-legalism/