Is Your God Echad?

John 5:19-20

¹⁹ Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel. 

The Messiah clearly says that He “can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…”  This would mean that He and the Father are Echad (One). 

John 14:20-21

²⁰ In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. ²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” 

He also says that “he who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me…”  So if the Messiah and the Father are Echad, then the one who keeps the Father’s commandments is keeping the Messiah’s commandments and is the one who truly loves the Messiah. 

1 Corinthians 7:18-20

¹⁸ Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but what matters is the keeping of the commandments of God. ²⁰ Each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. 

Even the man that most use to excuse themselves from the Torah, Paul, affirms that we should keep the Torah.  The Messiah and Paul both kept the Feast and Festivals as well as the Torah.  It does not do violence to being saved by grace through faith if you are keeping the Torah as a result of salvation and not for it.  It is no different than keeping the city ordinances of the city you live in.  You are a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, right?  Then why keep the Feasts and Festivals of the worldly kingdom?  If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it might be a duck. 

Titus 1:13-15

¹³ This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, ¹⁴ not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. ¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 

The commandments we are not supposed to keep are the ones of men.  Jewish myths were the oral tradition built around the Torah, not the actual Torah. 

1 John 2:4

⁴ The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;

1 John 5:2

² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 

Anybody else seeing a pattern here?  If you keep His commandments, you love the Messiah, you are focused on what matters, and you are not a liar.  Not only that, but this shows that we love the children of God.  Notice that I have used only the New Testament to show that we should keep Torah from a salvation perspective.  When you turn to the Hebrew Scriptures, you see the actual commandments you are supposed to keep from the mouth of God through Moses.  Not some made up precepts of men told to us in church because when you live only in the New Testament, you have to guess what the commandments that Messiah is talking about are.  

Matthew 5:18-20

¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

²⁰ “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 

If you choose not to keep Torah, you just end up least in the Kingdom.  Heaven and earth are still here.  The reason you will be called least in the Kingdom is because you will have the least amount of knowledge of what the Kingdom is like and what will be going on when we get there.  If you have never celebrated Sukkot, then you would naturally be confused when we celebrate it in the Kingdom with the Messiah.  It is the Feast of Ingathering or the dwelling of God among His people. 

Matthew 26:18

¹⁸ And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’” 

The Messiah kept Passover as well as the other Feasts.  Why would He say He is One with the Father and then go against the Father’s eternal, perpetual commandments? 

Romans 15:4

⁴ For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 

Paul instructs us that what was written in the Torah was for our instruction (remember Paul was writing the New Testament at the time).  Interestingly, the word Torah means “instruction” in Hebrew. 

Revelation 14:12

¹² Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. 

Perseverance is for the saints who “keep the commandments of God”.  Notice that it was not written “keep the commandments of Yeshua”.  Because God is Echad and there is no division between Father and Son.  What was given for our instruction on Sinai is the same instruction taught by Moses, the Messiah, and Paul.  Scripture even says is will be taught in Zion by the Messiah directly. 

Micah 4:2
² Many nations will come and say,
“Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths.”
For from Zion will go forth the law,
Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.