Some Die Once – Many Die Twice [Part 15]
In Part 15 of our series of Blog Posts from our upcoming book titled “One Way or Another Your Eternal Destination is Guaranteed” we are going to look at: “Orthodox Jews are Under the Law and The Penalty is Death”
The Law – The Penalty
Traditional verses Nontraditional Jews
Since the majority of traditional Jewish people reject the New Testament and thereby reject the Son of God as their Savior, they are held by the Law. In other words, they must be obedient to every Commandment in order to possibly be raptured and to be saved from the Seven-year Tribulation and saved for eternal life. Many nontraditional Jews have come to receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior, but the conventional Jews do not accept Him as their long awaited for Messiah.
The Mosaic Covenant
The Mosaic covenant was made with a promise by two different sources: One from God to save the Israelites if they would obey Him, and the other, a promise by the Jewish people to be obedient. But the Jews have not been able to keep those Commandments. God spoke to Moses and told him to speak the following words to the populace:
Exodus 19:5-6a
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Exodus 19:8
Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.”
God always keeps His promises, but the Jews did not keep their side of the agreement. They began worshiping idols (the golden calf for example) and committing other sins which offended God. They were required to sacrifice animals for payment for their offenses. The animals’ blood was for forgiveness of sins.
Even today as this is being written, not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles (all nationalities other than Jewish) are displeasing God and sinning against Him.
Orthodox Jews are Under the Law and The Penalty is Death
The Penalty is Death
The penalty for breaking any one of the Ten Commandments is death, and for the Jews who insist on going only by the OT, there are many more laws that must be obeyed to avoid this consequence. But none of us humans are capable of keeping the entire Law:
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Exodus 32:33
And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.”
Revelation 20:15
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Under the Law
Jesus Christ is the only Person who has ever perfectly obeyed all of God’s Commandments. The Father sent His Son from heaven to be born in the flesh and to obey the Law for everyone who would believe that He, the Son of God, is equally God with the Father (Philippians 2:6-8). A person who is a believer in Jesus Christ is not under the Law—that is, not held to keeping the Law—because Jesus perfectly kept it for him. But in Judaism, since they do not accept the Savior, they are under the Law. They must flawlessly obey the Commandments in order to be saved.
Romans 3:19
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Romans 6:14
For sin shall not have dominion over you [believers], for you are not under the law but under grace.
2 Corinthians 4:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Isaiah 63:9; 1 Peter 2:22
[Jesus] Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.
1 John 3:5
And you know that He was manifested [revealed] to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
The New Covenant
When we repent, Jesus takes away our sin so that we will be seen by the Father as being righteous, and we are redeemed to Him. Because of God’s judgment on Adam and Eve, humans have, for the thousands of years since Adam, suffered physical death. The Law proves to us that we are sinful, which means we will suffer eternal death if the separation is not mended by God’s provision of grace. Since we all have broken at least one, not only will we have a physical death—but also we are eligible for the second death. Our only recourse is to sincerely repent, apologize, ask forgiveness, and believe that the shed blood of Christ does indeed forgive us. The good news is that God made a new covenant to make this all possible for us. An everlasting covenant!
Mark 14:24
And He [Jesus] said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.”
Hebrews 13:20
Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep [believers], through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
No Penalty of Death
The everlasting covenant is God’s contract—or agreement—of grace. It is His promise to save men on condition of their repenting and believing in Jesus Christ and their receiving Him as their Master and Savior.
One result in the believing person is that he receives the righteousness of God and forever lives a life changed in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus, by dying on the cross, took away the horrendous penalty of the second death for everyone who believes in Him. God does not allow sin in His presence. It cannot be overemphasized that man must be seen by God as being righteous like God Himself before he can be reconciled to be with God.
A person is seen as having the righteous, holy, obedience of God only by faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21-22).
Romans 10:4
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
The First and Second Commandment
But this does not mean that a believer is completely sinless: We have the Helper—the indwelling Holy Spirit—to guide us and let us know right away that we are not as powerfully obedient as was and is our Lord and Savior.
And this also does not mean that the believer is not accountable, because Jesus the Savior repeated the “first above all commandments”:
Mark 12:30
“‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’”
Mark 12:31
“And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
The Lord Jesus repeated this “first above all commandments” after having written the Commandments we read in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, and then stating the following in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 6:4-6
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.”
Even writing the Commandments twice and then making a covenant with the Jews, they still to this day have not been able to perfectly obey.
Worship the Lord
Each first day of the week, we should let our Lord know we do indeed love Him in trying to be obedient to the first above all commandments by answering His invitation to worship and remember Him, and doing so with a clear conscience and a clean heart:
1 Corinthians 11:17-29
Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself [come to the weekly meeting having asked forgiveness for any wrongdoings or immoral thoughts], and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.
Hebrews 10:24-25
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting [encouraging] one another, and so much the more as you see the Day [the Rapture] approaching.
Under the Law
Even if a person has never heard the Ten Commandments; the Law, that is; they are still held accountable, because in their conscience they know they have done that which is not righteous—that which is offensive to God.
Romans 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead [divine nature], so that they are without excuse.
Romans 2:12
For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.
Next Blog Post, on February 27, 2025: “Time is Short and Best Make the Decision Now”
Pray that people will come to the saving knowledge of the Truth before it’s too late, and love their children to teach them the Truth.
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Scripture taken from the New King James Version, unless stated otherwise. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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