Some Pondering Thoughts....

So, I'm reading a book by Lew White called "Fossilized Customs" and wow, it's very interesting and is taking a while to get through because of the huge amount of info in it!
But here is a portion of the book from page 22 and 23...
"Obeying specific "Commandments" with the thinking that this somehow "earns" salvation, or a place in the coming Kingdom, has been called "legalism". This grew out of the Reformation, when the teaching of the Protestant sects based their doctrine of salvation on the work of Y'shua and His atoning death. We are "saved" by "grace", and grace alone. Yahuchanon 3:16-21 needs to be studied carefully; one should not stop reading at verse 16:

For YHWH so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For YHWH did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Who ever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of YHWH's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and will not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the Truth comes into the Light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done in YHWH.

Obedience is EVIDENCE of salvation. What is "light", and "truth"? Proverbs 6:23 defines "light" as the Torah. The word that underlies "teaching" is Torah. The "Truth" is the "Word" of YHWH, Yahuchanon 17:17. Once again, the "Word" is the Torah, made into flesh in Y'shua; as if the Commandments, the personality of YHWH, became a man and lived a perfect life without transgressing His own teachings. He gave us the "Keys"> to the Kingdom: TORAH, which produces LOVE. What is love?

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the Truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Cor. 13. The fruit of the Spirit, and the fruit of the Torah, produces: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Folly is joy to him who lacks sense, but a man of righteousness walks straight.

Pr. 15:21. Something that is "legal" is right. The word is based on "logic", and involves "reasoning". The opposite of legalism is illegalism, and that is what separates us from our Creator! you will recognize a tree by its fruit. The 10 Commandments produce this fruit. Although the Torah is a gift and model for living, we cannot obey it in our flesh ~ we need something more: the New Covenant! What is that? When people read Galatians and other texts, they misunderstand what is being spoken of as "the Law". There is the MORAL law that defines "sin", and there is the CEREMONIAL law, that atoned for ">sin". A life lived ignoring the MORAL law ~ with murder, theft, adultery, idolatry, etc., is doomed to the second death in the Lake of Fire. But hardly anyone would call it "legalism" if they obeyed certain moral laws. The CEREMONIAL law made atonement, but it could not rescue permanently, because it involved animal deaths, in place of the individual dying for the sins. The ceremonial law that cannot "save" pointed the way to the permanent solution: the death of the perfect sacrifice, Y'shua. The blood of the New Covenant covers us permanently, ending the ceremonial law. It is the law of "sin and death" that were ordinances against us, nailed to the wood. It was not the MORAL law that was "done away", but the CEREMONIAL law. How then, can we obey the MORAL laws? This is where the New Covenant comes into play! The Old Covenant was the blood of animals ~ the New is the blood of Y'shua. It is our belief in the Resurrection, and the reality of it, that we have eternal life. We receive the Spirit of Y'shua when we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that He was raised from the dead. He comes into us, and WRITES the moral law (Torah) on our hearts and minds, enabling us to LOVE the Commandments! You will not live a life ignoring them, because this "change" inside you causes you to agree with the moral laws. The "Law of Liberty" is our freedom ~ not to sin, but rather our freedom from sin; sinning against the moral laws (and we don't have to sacrifice animals). Mashiach Y'shua really does save His people from sin, as His Name says! The deciding factor is: do you LOVE the Commandments?

If you love Me, you will obey what I command.

Yn. 14:15. When you can say "I love the Torah", He has "circumcised" your heart. Even Daniel, David, Yesha Yahu, Mosheh, Adam, etc., who lived by the moral law could not obtain eternal life by it; but because Y'shua resurrected, these captives were delivered from the ceremonial law that was against them. Stop and read Psalm 1, and Psalm 119.

Oh, how I love your Torah! I meditate on it all day long. Your Commands make me wiser than my enemies...

Ps. 119:97,98.
And, my friend, THAT is what "grace" is! It is the gift of YHWH to receive a LOVE for the Truth.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith (emunah, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of YHWH-not by works(ceremonial offerings), so that no one can boast. For we are YHWH's workmanship, created in Mashiach Y'shua to do good works, which YHWH prepared in advance for us to do.

(Those "good works" prepared in advance are the Torah.) Eph. 2:8-10. this has stood in doctrinal opposition to "James" (Ya'akob) 2:17-20, who after explaining that lawbreakers (non-legalists) will be judged, says:

...Faith, by itself, if it is not accompanied by works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have works'. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe there is one Elohim; Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

What he is saying is, obedience is not the thing that saves us, but when we are seen obeying the Torah, it is evidence of our salvation. There is only forgiveness of sins against Torah if there is repentance, the turning away from sin, and living by the Torah. Martin Luther was used to spearhead the understanding, but there was more to comprehend. The complete understanding became cut short, no doubt because the adversary saw how close to the Truth people were getting. He began his INQUISITION, murdering over 83 million people over a 600-year period. The junkpile of history should now begin to form a picture for you, if we are assembling it correctly. Love is the key! You obey your Earthly father as a child, partly out of fear; but as you mature you begin to obey because you love your father, and do not want to let him down. Our Father says, "Love Me, and keep My Commandments." We show Him we love Him when we obey. It's not "legalism", it's LOVE. And that is what worship is."

Any comments?? I'd love to hear them! What do you think about it?