(Easter Ham)In the past, when talking to other believers, I have avoided conversations that involve Messianic or Hebraic Roots topics unless they are brought up by the other person. I have found that most people who bring the subject up intend to argue, or just get hateful and nasty about it. For this reason, I have kept quiet.
Not any more.
There is an urgent need for Truth in the Christian world today. In almost every direction, my wife and I see people who profess to believe in Jesus, yet have almost no visible signs of His presence in their lives; usually because they refuse to acknowledge His instruction.
I am not saying that we have arrived, nor am I saying that we are perfect representations of what a Christian marriage should look like. We have struggles just like everyone else.
I will say however, that we are surrounded by people who say they love Jesus, and their lives are falling apart at the seams simply because they refuse to obey Him. That is where our problems differ. She and I typically disagree on the details of how to fulfill a commandment in the Torah - not whether we should acknowledge it in the first place.
I had a conversation this week with a person who told me that they actually feel sorry for my oldest child because I have taught him not to eat pork, or any of the other animals God tells us not to eat in the Torah. This person, who is a Christian, told me that there is no reason that a kid should feel guilty for "eating a big hunk of Spam if he craves it – it is sad; he should know that that is OK, and that he is covered by grace.”
Let’s look at this for a moment.
Number one, I will never apologize for agreeing with God’s word, which clearly tells us that eating swine flesh is an “abomination.” God’s food laws in the Torah are never changing, just like the rest of God’s word.
Though my son is covered by God’s grace, I believe that it would be a grave mistake to teach him that it is OK to break God’s commandments because we are “covered by grace.”
I believe that grace is a gift; not a garment used to cover my vices.
This typifies the problem with modern Christianity in
We, as believers are in no position to allocate God’s commandments to greater and lesser degrees; that is, as long as the commandment starts with “Do not” “you shall not” “don’t” or “Think not.” Jesus tells us the two most important commandments, and guess what… both are fulfilled by “obeying God and keeping His commandments.”
I say all of that to say this:
Mainstream Christians typically believe that it is silly to think that eating bacon is a sin. I submit to you today the fact that if Jesus believed that this was a silly commandment, and refused to obey it, we would all be lost in our sins, still seeking a savior. Thank God He was obedient, even unto death.
Let that sink in, Christian… if Jesus had eaten just one pork sandwich, one slice of bacon, a single shrimp, crab leg, lobster tail or alligator tail, we all would die in our sins because he would be DISQUALIFIED FROM BEING OUR SAVIOR. The Torah tells us not to eat those things, thus making it a commandment. “Do not eat” is every bit as serious as “Do not kill” – not because they are equally bad, but because they are prefaced with “Do not.”
It is NOT a silly topic, and we, as believers should never take any of God’s commandments lightly.
“Do not” still means “do not,” regardless of what is written after it.
2 comments:
Numero Uno: anyone who believes that what they do is "okay" b/c they say that God will be gracious is simply acknowledging that they themselves know what they do is sin. numero dos: In Denmark, there are twice as many pigs as people.
Good point. I had a thought today: If Yeshua would have eaten a pork roast, he would have been breaking a Torah commandment, right? After all, Torah says that eating unclean animals is an abomination.
If He had to keep that law in order to be sinless, then why on earth would it be OK for us to break that commandment now? Is it not one of the sins that He died for? Evidently it was, or He would have changed the law before He went to the cross - otherwise, why pay a penalty for it, which is the point - He had to pay the penalty for every sin, and eating pork is listed as a sin in Torah.
Pardon the pun, but any way you slice it, sin is sin.
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