Romans 32: What Was -- What Is -- the Yoke of Bondage?

[Rebbe]

PAUL'S LETTER TO THE ROMAN CHRISTIANS (32)
Analytical Commentary on Romans

 WHAT WAS -- WHAT IS -- THE YOKE OF BONDAGE?

Copyright © BRI 2017 All Rights Reserved Worldwide by Les Aron Gosling,
Messianic Lecturer (BRI/IMCF)

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"This side is done. Turn me over and have a bite!" -- Last words of St Lawrence 3rd century deacon of the Roman church upon being roasted slowly to death on a grill of hot coals by order of emperor Valerian

"Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words when necessary" -- St Francis of Assisi

"Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly" -- G.K. Chesterson

"The glory of God is the human person fully alive" -- Irenaeus

THE TEXT
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Messiah Yeshua. For the Torah of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua has set you free from the Torah of sin and of death. For God has done what the Torah could not do by itself, because it lacked the power to make the old nature cooperate, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the Torah might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the desires that our old nature demanded but according to the desires of the Spirit. For those who identify with their old nature live according to the old nature by setting their minds on the things of the flesh that satisfied their nature, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things that satisfy the Spirit. To focus the mind on aspects of the old nature is to live in the death state, but to set the mind on the Spirit is to experience a full life and shalom. For this reason the mind that is focused on the old nature is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's Torah -- indeed it cannot, and those who are focused and activated in the old nature cannot please God. But you are not given to negativism; you are in the realm of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because God reckons you righteous. If the Spirit of him who raised Yeshua from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

"So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the old nature -- for if you live according to the old nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the practices of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of Sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

"I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for our Sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved.

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

"We know that the universe works together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

"Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Messiah Yeshua, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

"Who will separate us from the love of Messiah? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered."

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all the universe, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Messiah Yeshua our Lord" (Romans 8).

HUMAN BEINGS -- OFTEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN PREDICAMENTS
"A man comes into his company's lunchroom one day and sits down next to his friend. He opens his lunch bag, pulls out a sandwich, opens the wrapping, and peers down. "Oh, ugh," he says to his friend.

"What's the matter?" asks his friend.

"A cheese sandwich! I hate cheese sandwiches," he says and glumly starts choking it down. "They're awful. So dry."

The next day he sits down next to the same friend and opens his lunch bag. "Oh, I can't believe it," he says. "Another cheese sandwich!" His friend shakes his head sympathetically and watches his friend grimace as he eats the sandwich.

On the third day, the man once again sits down next to his friend and opens his lunch bag. "Oh, brother," he says. "Another cheese sandwich!"

His friend says, "Boy, you really hate cheese sandwiches, don't you?"

"Yes! I can't stand them!"

Finally, his friend says, "If you don't mind me asking something, why don't you just tell your wife to stop making you cheese sandwiches?"

"Oh," says the man, "I'm not married."

"Well then," said his friend, "who makes your cheese sandwiches every day?"

"I do," he said.

(James Martin, S.J., Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life, 2011, 94).

WE ARE MASTER OF OUR FATE, CAPTAIN OF OUR SOUL
In our last lecture we covered Paul's largely self-induced psychological issues. Wrong thinking, says the Bible, is the root cause of wrong outcomes pertaining to our accumulated, often devastating psychological issues and emotional anxieties (Prov 23.7). Prominent psychiatrists are at last recognising that they have been enthusiastic participants in the perpetuation of the mental illness myth, and that to change our lives we do not need drugs with their dangerous and largely unknown side-effects as much as we need to start thinking more positively and constructively in a more mature and correct manner. If our thoughts can create brain cells (and scientists are beginning to reverse the ancient outworn dogma commonly held that it is our brain cells that create thoughts) then the way we are right now in our current circumstances and situations -- HOW WE ARE NOW EXISTING -- has been the consequential outcome of our THOUGHTS and our THINKING PATTERNS.

"Thought in the mind hath made us. What we are
By thought we wrought and built. If a man's mind
Hath evil thoughts, pain comes on him as comes
The wheel the ox behind... if one endure
In purity of thought, joy follows him
As his own shadow -- sure"
(James Allen)

And, just like the fellow who was irritated over his own cheese sandwiches, Paul was largely responsible for his own predicament.

(Incidentally, for those of my students who would argue the case for mental illness and who have not as yet stretched their pure minds in an expansive way to really think about the issue, nor as yet even perused the recommended books I have mentioned previously such as Karl Menninger's Man Against Himself and the works of Thomas Szasz -- prominently The Myth of Mental Illness; The Manufacture of Madness; Coercion as Cure; Psychiatry: The Science of Lies etc., -- then take some time out and watch the short videos of some of Szasz's lectures on the subject on youtube. You might also like to read -- buy or borrow -- or just peruse Professor Peter Kinderman's The New Laws of Psychology. Peter Kinderman is no fool. He happens to be Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, has studied Natural Sciences at King's College, Cambridge and has served twice as Chair of the British Psychological Society's Division of Clinical Psychology.) He states,

"If we can understand why we think what we think, we can change what we think. We are constantly and simultaneously manipulating incalculable numbers of representations of concrete and abstract ideas (even if we can only hold somewhere between five and nine things in our memory at any one time). Wonderfully, humans are self-aware, and we know not only that we exist but also that we are thinking, which means that we can make ourselves aware of our own thoughts... although we might have to work at it. We can be mindful -- we can be uncritically aware of the content of our own thoughts, and then we can do something about it. We can decide to seek out new evidence, including (importantly) evidence that might change or even contradict our suppositions....  

"We can 'catch' our thoughts, especially disturbing or troubling thoughts. We can 'check' them -- consider where these thoughts might have come from, what they mean, what they might lead to and whether they are reasonable, rational and based on good evidence. Lastly, we can 'change' them -- we can look for new evidence, try out new ideas and experiment with new possibilities.

"We are shaped by thought. Our beliefs, emotions and behaviour -- including our mental health -- are the product of the way we think about the world, our thoughts about ourselves, other people, the world, and the future. These thoughts are, themselves, the consequence of our learning: the social circumstances, life events and experiences that we have been exposed to and how we have understood and responded to them. Our brain is a supremely efficient engine of learning, and makes sense of our experiences. The resultant framework of understanding dictates our fate... "To become the master of your fate, to become the captain of your soul, the need to become the master and captain of your thoughts, and you can change your fate, one thought at a time" (Peter Kinderman, The New Laws of Psychology, 2014, 217,218).

PAUL'S RECOVERY FROM DEPRESSIVE ILLNESS
Once more, and for the final time, let's reconsider Paul's own words in the latter portion of Romans 7.

"For we know that the Torah is spiritual: but I am a creature of the flesh, permanently sold into slavery through the control of sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would intend to accomplish, that do I not; but what I loathe, that is what I do. If then I do that which I don't really desire, I consent unto the Torah that it is good and I take sides with it. Now then it is no longer I that do the deed, but sin that has its home in me and controls me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing: for I can will to do the right thing but I lack the power to carry out that will. For I fail to carry into effect the good deeds I want to do: yet the evil which I despise, that I do. Now if I do that which I really do not desire to do it is no more I that acts, but sin fixed and operating within me that makes its home in me. I find then a natural innate human law, that, when I would desire to do something good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands. For I endorse and delight in the Torah of God in my inmost self, with my new nature: But I discern another law in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh, a different rule of action at war, confronting the law of my mind -- my reason -- and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh. O depressed, unhappy, and wretched man that I am! who shall release and deliver me from the shackles of this body of death? (GRACE.) I thank God through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord. So then with my mind and heart I myself serve the Torah of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Rom 7.14 through to the end of the chapter).

In our closely studied seventh chapter of Paul's Letter to the Roman Christians we agonised over Paul's experience of this present reality -- and his inward critical self-contemplation and evaluation. While we sorrowed with Paul over his psychological confusion and desperate need to be elevated by those in whom he trusted for friendship, we were equally (and perhaps more) gratified with Paul as the Ruach HaKodesh (the Spirit of Holiness) awakened the Jewish rabbi to the horrendous truth that he had been, in desperate futility, trying to be -- or to be'come -- holy by the rigorous observance of the Law of God.

The Spirit revealed to Paul that his misguided thinking only aggravated and deepened his already disturbing proclivity towards melancholia, acute personality insecurity, and bipolar disorder.    
    
The truth is, the internal war he waged against his personal yetzer hara (the evil inclination, the Inner Opponent) was entirely unnecessary BECAUSE he was fighting as an already defeated man: that is, he was desperately striving to create a Salvific character image by law-keeping. Psychologically, the Law was slaying Paul repeatedly – over and over and over again as he lived out his life of evangelism in his experiential knowledge of this 1% realm of earthly illusion. As Paul wrote of his inner conflicts and mental difficulties (as well as experiences involving persecution and afflictions from government authorities and divisive brethren) we can all equate to some extent with those same daily issues of the Christian life.

With Paul it took the holy Spirit (really, the Spirit of Holiness) to OPEN Paul's mind to the ONLY answer to his terrible mental situation. And so it is that Paul -- after writing to the Roman Christians in the first five "chapters" of his correspondence encouraging them that they had been freed from wrath, and the sixth "chapter" which outlined (in his view) that Christians were freed from sin -- became subject to a sudden, abrupt plunge from the heights of a virtual ecstasy in the belief of a "victorious Christian living" mythology and into a downward spiral to the depths of a horrible despair and crisis of contradiction. Paul was then enticed by his Inner Opponent to widen his sphere of commiseration in sharing his mental affliction with new believers in Rome -- believers he had yet to personally meet!

He cries out aloud: "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7.24).

Or, in other words, "Is anybody out there who can aid me in my affliction? Is there anyone in Rome who is experiencing my plight in themselves? Is there anyone who can identify with me in this issue? Anyone? Any one?"

And his answer, given immediately into his mouth by the Spirit of Holiness is: "GRACE!" "I thank God through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord" (Rom 7.24).

I think that at this point, which was most certainly exhaustive, that Paul put down his metal stylus and either prayed or at any rate thought deeply on the process of staggering spiritual education under which he had been penning his Letter to the Roman Christians. There can be little doubt in my own mind that at this juncture Paul had collided with the actively engaged, voracious, unquenchable, wild Ruach HaKodesh. Paul needed to think it all through... very carefully indeed. And this he most certainly did.

After a time, we know not how long this apostle gave contemplative thought to his present situation, Paul returned to his ms and added "So then... with the mind I myself serve the Torah of God. But with the flesh... the torah of sin" (Rom 7.25b).

And so we turn the page to a lively new chapter of creative spiritual insights, and it is to this new section that the great apostle to the Gentiles opens with a cry of Salvific acclamation! The holy Spirit has led Paul to the point of summing up ALL that has gone before in the past seven chapters of his letter. Romans 8.1 sums up Paul's argument about sin and law. It also reveals Paul's liberation out of his negative self (small letter "s") an astonishing and positive response to his depressive confessions, the holy Spirit correcting his fragile mental state and bringing him into an enlightenment in his neural brain patterns to that level concerning which God expected of him. The "therefore" that follows these previous thoughts in their entire accumulation of inventive ideas, objections and exclamations is the awesome summation of his tragic ordeal with everything that was contained therein.

"Therefore... there is now no condemnation to them that are in Messiah Yeshua" (Rom 8.1 Greek).

In this brief summation is carried forth by the pen of the apostle the awesome recognition concerning ALL that Yeshua has applied from his own guilt-free mortal life, physical termination in cruel death, and exhilarating, vivified, resurrection life to each and every one of God's "Firstfruits." Paul has come to the realisation that despite what he may or may not have been in his life, in Christ (by faith) God holds nothing against him. Nothing. Zero. Kaput. Now he truly knows with experiential certainty, as he states confidently a little later, that "it is CHRIST who justifies" and that therefore the question of "who shall bring anything against God's elect" (Rom 8.33) is to state in slightly different terms "there is now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua" (Rom 8.1).

NO CONDEMNATION
By this time we have seen, after traveling through seven entire detailed chapters of his Letter to the Roman Christians, that Paul was decidedly not against the Torah or Law of God. Paul was not in any way, shape, or form an antinomian (a person "against law"). Yet how many times have we heard the old refrain: God has liberated us from "the yoke of bondage" quoting a partial text from Galatians 5.1. I have listened to preachers claim from the pulpit that "we are liberated from the law of God" precisely because God wants us free from "that yoke of bondage." But let's take a good look at what was written in Galatians 5 from which this text is extracted (and mangled in interpretation). Paul wrote, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage..." (Gal 5.1).

QUESTION: Where in the entirety of the biblical revelation -- from Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22.21 -- does the holy Spirit ever refer to the law of God as a "yoke of bondage"?

ANSWER: Nowhere! Now I mean "no-where" not "now-here." (Take a good look at the word "nowhere.") That God's expectations of human beings (as set forth in the Torah) are a "yoke of bondage" is a loathsome myth, rotten to its core, that needs jettisoning from our thoughtforms.

QUESTION: What does the LORD God tell us about His own commandments? Does God inform us that they are a "yoke of bondage," or are "burdensome" or "difficult" to implement?

ANSWER: Quite the opposite. Consider the following:

The apostle John tells us that keeping the law is not burdensome or grievous or difficult. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not grievous (or burdensome or difficult)" (1 Jn 5.3).

Luke informs us that the parents of John the baptiser were righteous in the observance of the Torah. "(Zacharias and Elisheba) were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments, and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (Luke 1.6).

David, the Shepherd King of Israel, speaks of the Torah as "more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb" (Psalm 19.10) and that in keeping his commandments there is "enormous reward" (Ps 19.11).

James refers to the Torah as "the Royal Law" (James 2.8) and further enumerates it as "the Law of liberty" (Jam 2.12). Then he warns us all that if we break it even in one small point we are guilty of having broken all of it as far as God is concerned (Jam 2.10). Paul is in agreement with James in this matter for, as he assures us, if we are found guilty of breaking the law then we have the law as our primary accuser and we must face the consequences of our actions: "we shall be judged by the law" (Rom 2.12).

Hence we all need a Saviour from sin, do we not?

We have all seen how Paul expresses his love for the Torah of God. For, the law is good and he takes great delight in it (Rom 7.22).

But what about God Himself? What does FatherMother God say about HisHer own Torah? "This commandment that I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off" (Deuteronomy 30.11 RSV; See ASV; AMP; CSB; CEB; CJB; CEV; ERV; ESV; EXB; GW; GNT; HCSB; ICB; TLB; MSG; NOG; NASB; NCV; NET; NIRV; NIV; NLT; TLV; NRSV; NRSVA; NRSVACE; NRSVCE; RSVCE; VOICE; and the WEB, to quote just a few who are in agreement with the translation from Greek into English). So why do preachers disagree with the God who uttered these words in the first place?

QUESTION: Where does Paul write, "Those of you who obey the Law are fallen from Grace"?

ANSWER: Again, it's nowhere to be located in the pages of Paul's writings. It's totally absent. Those who espouse this nonsense are deep down inside haters of God and God calls them liars. I don't. God does. Thankfully, people such as this do not have to face me in the great Judgment. They have to face God.

QUESTION: Is there an apostle who also speaks of a negative "yoke" similar, if not the same, as that quoted in Galatians 5.1?

ANSWER: Yes, the apostle Peter. He states to the other apostles concerning the requirements of new converts to the Messianic Faith, "Now therefore why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?" (Acts 15.10).

Whatever this "yoke" was -- as we have already seen -- it could not have been the Law of God. It could not have been the commandments of God. If it were, it would outright contradict Paul, James, Luke, John, David, and even God Himself!  So what was it?

Let's go back to Romans 3.2. Paul writes "What value is there in circumcision?" He answers his own question with "MUCH."  

Now, with Romans 3.2 in mind, consider Galatians 5.2 -- that is, let's look at the rest of the context created by Galatians 5.1.

"Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again, that every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law" (Gal 5.2,3).

Whoever it was who wrote this section of Galatians, he seems to insist that there is an issue with keeping the entirety of God's law -- but is this the case? Hardly, from what we have just established. Let's read on.

"Christ has become of no effect to you, whosoever of you are JUSTIFIED by the law: you are fallen from Grace" (Gal 5.4).

So, we can see that the issue over which Paul (or the editor of Paul's notes) is agonising is one that involves the foundational premise upon which a Galatian's JUSTIFICATION is founded and established. Again, it's not the law of God that is a problem. It's not the commandments of God that is a problem. It's the understanding that one cannot keep the law, or ANY law whether of God, gods, angels or man, to be saved nor yet to maintain one's salvation! The central issue is one which afflicted Paul in Romans 7. Paul was struggling, albeit sincerely, to keep the law "to attain holiness in life" and willing within himself to "break the power of sin" by the keeping of the ten commandments and the other laws of Torah. The full horror of it all is grasped only when we come to realise that Paul was writing Romans 7 some 15 years or so AFTER his conversion.

Please take time out to really soberly think about this fact.

In other words Paul was seeking justification through the law, rather than through a recognition of what Yeshua the Nazarene King of the Jews had already accomplished for him. It's an easy error to fall into. And, in his affiliation with the Asiatic Christians in Proconsular Asia (Asia Minor or modern Turkey today) he saw them seeking to accomplish what they were being admonished to do through the agency of the proselyting Jews from Judaea (and principally from Jerusalem). Paul thundered: "You have fallen from Grace!" He was noticeably angry because he knew all too well what that effort finally costs. Derangement of mind! A penultimate step into hell. So much so, that Paul labels those who promulgate this doctrine of law for salvation, and those who accept that teaching, as involved in sorcery -- witchcraft and demonism! Notice it now:

"O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you; to whom, as before your very eyes, Jesus Christ has been portrayed, crucified [among you]?" (Gal 3.1 Darby translation).

Exactly! The Galatians, already converted, had been seduced by representatives of Christian legalists in Jerusalem to -- in actuality -- deny the works of Yeshua the Messiah on the bloodied tree of Golgoleth in preference to living out their lives according to the dictates of the law for their justification, their salvation, their eternal life!!! How shocking is this fact! And its been overlooked by so many commentators and preachers of the Gospel it sickens me to my guts. Paul stresses, Paul reminds these "foolish Galatians" that before their eyes "Yeshua the Messiah has been... crucified" and that this literal loving act of a FULL redemption on their behalf has been turned into an act of sorcery by their intentions, activities and works for salvation. By their deliberate, enthusiastic, and strenuous antics, they were denying ALL that had been accomplished on their behalf by the Saviour. THAT is the issue Paul was addressing.

LET'S NOT OVERLOOK THE ORAL TORAH
But WAIT! There is more. Do you recall in one instant why Yeshua castigated the Pharisees in their pursuit of holiness? Turn with me to Mt 15.3. The Lord Yeshua verbally attacks the rabbinic leaders with this neat little jab.

"Yeshua replied to them, Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your traditions?"

And again, in Mk 7.13: "You nullify (cancel, make void) the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And this is only one example among many others."

What were these traditions? It's called the "Oral Torah" which was supposedly handed down by Moses from Sinai through generations of the Sanhedrin for all Israel to observe -- and which by their own teachings was more imperative to regulate the lives of the Jews than the actual Torah. This oral Law is a second Torah, and I might add, it's seen as "a fence around the commandments" and by observing these rituals and traditions the people of Israel will be enabled to not break any of the rules and regulations of Moses. At least that's the theory -- that's the delusion! So much has this farce been kept up by the rabbinic authorities that their own Talmud enforces rigid obedience to their oral laws which have a major priority over the Torah of God -- even the Ten Commandments!

Those representatives from Jerusalem who so upset the Galatian Messianic believers were introducing these converts to the oral laws associated especially in relation to circumcision "after the manner of Moses" (Acts 15.1,5). But what other "manner" was there in respect to circumcision? The Torah is adamant that a Jewish baby is to be circumcised when he is eight days old. But not even a scant mention is covered as to how the circumcision was to be performed. The oral laws -- the traditions of the elders, and particularly those of the Pharisees -- concerning circumcision are very evidently set out in the Mishnah. When we read the phrase "after the manner of Moses" it is evidence that the oral law is being referenced. David Stern on page 275 of his Jewish New Testament Commentary (1992 edition) shares the Mishnah citations.

The fact was (and is) that if a Jewish man was circumcised he had to keep all of the law -- every little piece of it. No problem necessarily with that expectation. But the laws of the Pharisees were added in abundance to the already existing laws of the Torah -- and there were not just dozens of extra-biblical injunctions. There were not just hundreds of these regulations. There were thousands of them! And their observance takes precedence (even today) OVER the written Torah of Moses which God's angels gave to Israel. When there is conflict between what the Bible commands and what the rabbis purpose or propose, according to the Babylonian Talmud,

"...in the case of a Scriptural [precept] and a Rabbinical [precept], the Rabbinical [precept] comes and nullifies the Scriptural [precept]" (Pesachim 115a; see also the Jewish Encyclopedia 11, 337 which establishes beyond any doubt that the Talmud injunctions are to be observed over those of -- and in preference to -- the Mosaic biblical revelation).

Without an understanding of the mid-to-late Second Temple Jewish milieu we cannot grasp what it was that Peter so objected to in his comment on the "yoke... which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."

The Sinai Torah was never "a yoke of bondage," but the rabbinic oral Torah most assuredly was! Our Lord Yeshua said so, Peter told us so, and Paul was equally hostile to it.

THE SABBATH CODE OF JEWISH LAW
Most Christians have absolutely no idea of the depth and breadth that is covered by the oral Torah especially as it pertains to prohibitions and regulations related to the Sabbath day. I could speak for hours on just this subject. But take, for an example, cases from The Code of Maimonides (Mishneh Torah) Book Three translated from Hebrew by Solomon Gandz & Hyman Klein. This volume consists of the Yale Judaica Series Volume XIV.

CH. XIX. Article 11. "A woman may go out into a public domain wearing a plug of wool firmly stuffed in her ear, a woolen lining firmly fastened to her sandal, or a woolen menstrual pad. The latter need not be fastened on, and may even have a handle for carrying, for if the pad should fall off, its repulsive nature would deter her from carrying it home."

Article 12. "A woman may likewise go out into a public domain holding in her mouth a peppercorn, a globule of salt, or any other substance that acts as an oral deodorant; she may not, however, put it in her mouth for the first time on the Sabbath...."

Article 15. "If one has an injured foot, he may go out of doors on the Sabbath wearing only one sandal -- the one on his uninjured foot. If however, he has no foot injury at all, he may not go out of doors wearing only one sandal."

"A small man may not go out of doors wearing a large man's shoe, although he may go out wearing a large man's shirt. A woman may not go out of doors wearing a loose shoe, nor a new shoe that she has not already worn out of doors for a while during the day on Friday; nor may a one-legged man go out of doors wearing his wooden leg-stump. Wooden stilts may not be worn out of doors on the Sabbath, because they are not articles of regular apparel. If, however, one does wear them, he is exempt."

CH.XXV1. Article 16. "One may move on the Sabbath anything fit to be used as fodder for ordinary domestic and wild animals and birds. Thus one may move dry -- but not moist -- lupines, because they are goat's food; cistus, because it is gazelle food; mustard, because it is dove's food; and bones, because they are dog's food. Similarly, one may move any fruit-peel or pits that can be fed to animals. If the peel or pit cannot be fed to animals, one may eat the edible part of the fruit and then throw the peel or pit to the rear; but after this it may not be moved."

"Decayed meat may be moved, because it is food for wild animals. Raw meat, salted or unsalted, may be moved, because it is human food. The same is true of salt fish, but unsalted fish may not be moved."

Article 20. "Although it is forbidden to move a corpse on the Sabbath, one may anoint and wash it, provided that he does not move any of its limbs. One may also pull away the mattress from under it, so that it would lie on the bare sand, thus delaying decomposition. Cooling utensils or metal utensils may be brought and placed on the corpse's stomach to prevent it from swelling, and the body apertures may be plugged to keep the air out. The jaw may be tied, not to close it, but merely to prevent it from opening wider. The eyes of a corpse, however, may not be closed on the Sabbath."

Article 21. "If a corpse is lying in the sun, one may place a loaf of bread or a baby upon it and then move it out of the sun. Similarly, if a fire breaks out in a courtyard containing a corpse, one may place a loaf of bread or a baby upon the corpse and then move it out of the courtyard. If no bread or baby is available, the corpse should be rescued from the fire in any case, for otherwise one would be tempted to extinguish the fire in his anxiety to prevent his dead kinsman from being burned. The Sages' permission to move a corpse if a loaf of bread or a baby is placed upon it applies only to a corpse, and was given solely because of one's anxiety for a dead kinsman."

And on, and on, and on it goes. Myriads of regulations. Countless thousands of "do's" and "don'ts." This is what Peter was talking about, and Paul. They were not in any way shape or form speaking about the Torah of God as a yoke of bondage and those who think otherwise are ignorant indeed.

THE GRACE OF GOD -- ONLY IN MASHIACH
Salvation is all of Grace, and none of us. All of Grace or not of God. Due to his grasp of an authentic Grace, Paul perceived because it is God who initiates our salvation (as Yeshua made abundantly clear -- Jn 6.44) it is God who sustains it (1 Cor 1.8) and completes it (Phil 1.6). Mashiach is the only One who can condemn us, and He won't because He is our Saviour (Rom 8.33,34). Messiah's power initiates, sustains and completes the entire salvation process. We are therefore in a continual state of preservation.

We are preserved in the Son of God (Rom 8.1-4), preserved in the Spirit of God (Rom 8.5-13), preserved in the Family of God (Rom 8.14-23), preserved in the promises of God (Rom 8.24,25), preserved in the prayer of God (Rom 8.26,27), preserved in the providence of God (Rom 8.28), preserved in the purpose of God (Rom 8.29,30), preserved in the power of God (Rom 8.31-34), and preserved in the love of God (Rom 8.35-39).

To Paul, God had most certainly accommodated to humankind in the provision of His salvation, rooted in His Grace, his eternal preservation.

For, God preserved -- PRE-SERVED -- us in our election in Mashiach before the world began. God was serving our interests before we became flesh. This is an authentic biblical revelation and Second Temple mystery Kabbalah teaching as well.

It can only be deduced from Paul's writings on Grace, that as an attribute of God's Being (Love) Grace is a basic factor of the humility of Deity, God's Self-sacrificial Nature. Grace is especially extended, without any need, toward those of us who are not worthy of God, or for that matter, anything that pertains to the truly spiritual life. As an attribute of God's love Grace is extended as a most precious gift, but only IN Mashiach (in whom and by whom all things were created and by which they exist or subsist -- Col 1.16-20; Jn 1.3; 1 Cor 8.6; 1.4).

Apart from the Logos made flesh, in whom all creation dwells, there can be no talk of Grace as God's ACT (1 Cor 1.30f; See also Jn 1.14,16-18). But by these very definitions Grace can never ever become a quality we may possess in our own right, nor may it ever be placed naturally at our disposal. It is only IN and THROUGH the creative power of the LORD Yeshua the Mashiach that any one of us can experience the awesomeness of Grace.

Does Grace release any of us from an obligation to fulfill the laws of God? Let J. Vernon McGee answer:

"My friend, after you have been saved, God is going to talk to you about good works. Until that time, God is not even interested in your 'good works' because what you call a good work, God calls dirty laundry. The righteousness of man is filthy rags in His sight (Isaiah 64:6). He doesn't want any of that. He wants to save you."

The loving God, the gentle Creative Deity, wants to save you.

Are YOU saved by God's GRACE? Or are you still attempting to live up to the laws' demands? You see, God desires to live His life out again through the indwelling Spirit of Holiness. Such a life is not one that is regimented by rules, regulations, ordinances, statutes and commandments, but the abundant LIFE is one which -- once saved -- is HOLY by virtue of GOD factually dwelling IN each of us. Once saved, and considered HOLY and SANCTIFIED by God's very PRESENCE, Christ points us then, and only then, to heaven's expectations for us.

Its really a vital matter of perspective.

Our good works come ONLY as a consequence of the indwelling of the Spirit of Holiness and decidedly NOT by the observance of laws and regulations -- important though they may well be.

THIS CONCLUDES LECTURE 32

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