The statement that one must ‘ask ‘Jesus’ to come into their heart’ is not necessarily untrue. It is just not ALL of the truth. It is misleading. It is a short cut and misinformation that I believe has caused millions of people over the centuries to have ill-experiences with their Creator because they intellectually trusted a ‘formula’  that was more religious and traditionally based rather than the full truth (that is less popular) that can forever change their lives.

So, what is the truth? In my studies, I have found that the majority of problems in the church, especially doctrinally based, can be traced back to one simple factor: We don’t go back far enough to get the answers – period. The ‘Church Fathers’ seem to be more of a guide for doctrine than do the authors themselves. And we forget that before the Church Fathers were ‘Church Fathers’, most were pagan, cultic gentiles that hated everything about the Jews. The same Jews that wrote our Scriptures!

How is it that we believe that they had the ability to completely put away their Anti-Semitism, pagan theologies and cultic way of thinking and just so happened to be able to interpret the Scriptures from a completely non-biased point of view? All this while supposedly understanding exactly the meaning of the author himself of which they previously hated!? I do not deny that the writings of the early Christians, in that time period, certainly does have value. I believe that we just cannot give it Scriptural status.

We must go back before Protestantism, Lutheranism, Catholicism and all the way back to the Apostles themselves and THEIR background if we are going to find what we are looking for. This subject is no different. We must first understand what the Israelite authors themselves believed and where their concepts came from (the concepts that forged their writings) before we go hunting and pecking to find verses that talk about the subject and then create doctrines out of a few ambiguous scriptures that can be easily be taken out of their intended context.

The concept of salvation for the Jew of the First Century was pretty much the same concept as the Israelite 1000 years earlier. They believed they were saved because they were the ‘Chosen People’. Their concept of salvation was not that they were being saved ‘from’ something, but were saved ‘into’ something. They were ‘saved’ into His favour because they were of the line of Abraham. This is where they made their mistake. They forgot what a ‘True Jew’ really was. Sha’ul spends a considerable amount of time in the Renewed Covenant explaining this concept of ‘true Jew’ or true child of the Father. One example is in Romans where he is talking about the Gentiles that are actually keeping the Law of YHWH better than the actual Jews themselves and because of this says that the true Jew is one who is circumcised in the heart and not just of the flesh. Sha’ul drives his point home by saying that his converts were obeying YHWH out of sheer love for Him and thus received their praise from YHWH while the Jews in this context were obeying the commandments to get praise from men.

But before we go any further, let’s back up for a moment. The definition of salvation really started in the garden.

In the second chapter of Genesis we find instructions for life and instructions for death. Right here in Genesis we have YHWH laying out for us His ideas of what salvation is. And this ‘idea’ will be built upon through the rest of the Scriptures but will never leave this simple structure, which is this: ‘If man chooses to trust Me AND OBEY ME, he will be given eternal life. If he chooses to walk outside of my Covenant, he will surely die’.

This concept will be echoed throughout the rest of the Scriptures. We see here that YHWH makes a ‘deal’, a ‘covenant’ with man, that man has a responsibility to his Maker. And there are consequences in both directions.

Let’s fast forward to when the Law was written down so the people would not forget it:

Here again, the Almighty is defining what it means to be part of His Covenant. It is virtually the same instruction that was given in the garden: ‘Obey my instructions and you will live. Choose your own way, and you will die.’ Here in Deuteronomy the boundaries are crystal clear of what He required of His people if they were going to be part of His Chosen People. Even the gentiles and nations were allowed to join themselves with His people IF they abided by the Covenant.

Many people believe that He only gave His covenant to the Israelites, but in fact was offering His Covenant to the entire world using the Israelites as ‘recruiters’ to attract others, so to speak. They never did their job. Y’Shua was not making up new terminology in John 14:6 when he said he was the ‘Way, Truth and Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.’ Y’Shua WAS the Word (John 1:1) and that ‘Word’ was the very instructions (Torah) of His Father.

Y’Shua was not a ‘portion’ of The Word or another word. He was the entire Word of YHWH made flesh. He did not come to contradict Himself but to provide true meaning to The Word of YHWH and provide proper understanding and guidance. He could not destroy the Word for He Himself is The Word. He was the Torah in the flesh.

YHWH gave instructions. Man has a choice. The Israelites salvation rested in the fact that they had to PROVE that they trusted His Word THROUGH their obedience to it. Sound familiar? James makes this same argument that you are a child of YHWH by your faith and your faith is proven through your obedience to the Word. Same message. The problem with the Israelites and the Jews of the first century (and even today) is they never understood that their mission was to take His Law/Torah (His Word that brings salvation) to the rest of the world.

Yeshayahu/Isaiah 42:6 & 7

They were supposed to be a light. Y’Shua again, is not making up something new in the Sermon on the Mount when he tells them they are the light of the world. His Father had already told them that 1200 years earlier! He was just putting it back into its’ proper context. The gospel of the ‘Old Covenant (Testament)’ was ‘Follow Me and you will live’. The message of the Renewed Covenant (New Testament) is not a new message. It is the same message, ‘Follow Me and you will live’. When Y’Shua came to his soon-to-be disciples on the beach, He did not say, ‘Accept Me into your heart and you shall be saved’. He told them to ‘Follow Me’.

In Mark 10, a rich man asks Y’Shua what it takes to gain eternal life. Y’Shua tells him what he already knows: to keep the commandments. The rich man responds by saying that he already keeps them. But Y’Shua understands that he is only keeping them out of obligation. His true devotion and heart is not with His Creator, so Y’Shua tells him to go and sell everything that he has and give it to the poor with the intent of testing his allegiance. Deuteronomy 6:5 told him to ‘And you shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your being, and with all your might. This he did not do.

Again in Luke 10:25-27

 

The answer was found in the same message that was given from the beginning. Man must TRUST YHWH in what He says and this ‘trust’ is proven by what one does: In particular that we love YHWH with all of our heart, soul and strength and love our neighbor as our self.

The focus of the entire message related to having ‘The Life’ revolves around keeping covenant with Him. And keeping covenant with Him revolved around doing what He said. Y’Shua did not change this message. He simply added to it. This is why Y’Shua says in Mattityahu/Matthew 19:17:

“No one is good except One – Elohim. But if you wish to enter into life, guard the commands.”

It is why Sha’ul says in I Corinthians 7:19 that, “The circumcision is naught, and the uncircumcision is naught, but the guarding of the commands of Elohim does matter!”

It is why John says in I Yohanan/John 2:2-4,

And finally, the children of YHWH are wholly identified by John in the book of Revelation as those that keep His Covenant AND believe in Y’Shua i.e. those who follow and witness of his deeds:

Even Solomon, who was by far the wisest man that has ever lived (other than Y’Shua) boiled everything down to the same message that was given to Adam, Noach, Mosheh, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Prophets and finally to us which is:

If the entire Scriptures is used for context on this subject, it appears, to me at least, that YHWH’s overwhelming focus was His people trusting Him THROUGH their obedience. For some strange reason, we have divorced this concept from our theology and have pitted the favour that Y’Shua came to offer us when we do break His commandments against the commandments themselves. We have watered down the truth to such a degree that the only thing that we know is that ‘Jesus died for our sins’. And this is true, but we deny unknowingly the power of the rest of the truth. We DO tell them that they are sinners and because of this fact they need a Saviour and that Saviour is Y’Shua the Christ. We do tell them that if they accept ‘Jesus Christ’ as their ‘Lord’ and Saviour they will be saved. But most of us really don’t tell them what that means.

We do not tell them that the reason why we are all sinners and condemned to death is because we have all broken the Law/Torah of YHWH, and every year blood had to be shed to pay for that sin. But that blood was not good enough to forever pay for man’s sins. Only a human could pay for another human’s sins. But that human would have to be perfect and without sin himself. The book of Hebrews tells us that the Old Covenant was not perfect because it was administered by imperfect, human priests. But now we have a High Priest that is perfect. Now, for those that believe in this new ‘High Priest’, they are no longer under the PENALTY of the law (death), but are now shown ‘favour’ even when they do break it. Before Messiah, there was no favour when a commandment was broken. The Law did its’ job and condemned the lawbreaker. But now, the Law does not have the power to condemn those that are in Messiah (Rom 8:1). We now have His favour.

The gospel never changed. Man must still trust the Word of YHWH and obey it. His children are known by their fruits – acceptance and obedience of Torah. The difference in the message of ‘salvation’ in the Old Covenant verses the Renewed Covenant is this: The people in the OC were required to trust YHWH through obedience to the Covenant. The Israelites were saved from slavery in Egypt through ‘favour’ and faith – but how many did not enter the promised land, and why not. Believing YHWH was trusting him through obedience. In the Tanak (Old Testament), the Messianic part of the Covenant was hidden. They looked forward to the Messiah and from that standpoint believed in the full Word of the Father. In the Renewed Covenant, the Messianic part that was hidden before is now revealed. He did not add a new commandment to His Word to ‘believe in the Messiah’. He just revealed what had always been there. Salvation no longer came through obedience to His Word and the sacrifice offered through the earthly high priest. It now comes through obedience to His Word and the FAITH in the one who completed the sacrificial system by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice AND becoming the new High Priest. This is why Y’Shua is the ONLY way to the Father. Because the ONLY way that He chose (after Sinai) to forgive the people was through the sacrifice of the High Priest. The Scriptures declares Y’Shua to be the ONLY High Priest before the throne. Thus, there is no other way to the Father, ‘but by Him’.

 

To Believe in Y’Shua means that we understand what he accomplished through his death. He overcame the world and his flesh through obedience  and so must we. He has shown the way.

Hebrews 5:8 shows us that Y’Shua had to learn obedience through the things that he suffered:

Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 

In the same way that the Christians of the third and fourth centuries watered down the Truth to make it more palatable for the pagan world, so we today have maintained to a large degree that same form of evangelism. This type of evangelism does not ‘set apart’ those that are His and defrauds the world from the True, unchanging, eternally powerful Truth of the gospel that was preached in the first century.

YHWH told Adam, ‘Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose your way and you will die. Choose My way and you will live.’ He said the same thing when the Law was given: ‘I set before you life or death. Obey my commands and you will live, etc…’. Joshua said ‘Choose this day whom you will serve…’ Y’Shua said, ‘drop your nets and follow me’. ‘If you want to follow me, you must give up everything you have’ (Luke 14:33). When a man told Y’Shua that he wanted to follow him but he first had to bury his father, Y’Shua replied, ‘Let the dead bury the dead’ telling him that you must immediately leave all behind. He tells people to ‘pick up their cross and follow Him’, etc…Much more could be said of all the warnings that were given in front of the gospel. Y’Shua and the disciples made it clear that this road was hard and much would have to be given up in order to gain eternal life. The focus was ALWAYS on the responsibility of the individual. To be a disciple is to changeyour entire identity and will to that of our Messiah – and this is to be done at any and all cost and without question.

In Mattityahu /Matthew we read:

7:14 “Because the gate is narrow and the way is hard pressed¹ which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Footnote: ¹Or the way is afflicted.

 

This does not seem to identify with the seemingly two billion professing Christians in the world today.

Today, we submit to the public that all they have to do is ‘ask Jesus into their heart’ and they will be saved. Otherwise, they will burn in eternal fire. We are afraid to tell people that they must live by a different code of conduct and they must be willing to give up everything to follow Him because we are scared that it will ‘scare’ off potential converts – and of course new potential tithers. The reality is, that is what the gospel was designed to do, change people’s lives. The Scriptural approach to the gospel kept the body of Messiah pure and set apart. Not that it was impossible to come to the Father for it had now become easier than ever before! ‘Give up your life and follow Me and you will receive New Life in its stead.’ That is the message. That is the Truth.

 

Another point to consider is that if the Torah/Law really was nailed to the cross as per popular Christian belief today, then why would we need the atoning blood sacrifice of Messiah Yahushua. There would be no Torah/Law and therefore no sin because sin is the transgression of the Torah/Law. Hardly so. The existence of the Torah/Law, the standard of YHWH, reveals to us how in need we are of a Messiah and how awesome the gift of Messiah is.

In my opinion, it is time that we really know exactly what the Truth entails and what makes up tradition. WE are responsible for what we say and what we teach. We will be judged by every word that proceeds out of our mouth. May YHWH remain True and every one of us a liar. But, in the meantime, let every one of us do our best to ‘Do your utmost to present yourself approved to Elohim, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the Word of Truth.’ (2 Timothy 2:15).

We should hold firmly to only the Truth and putting down that which is tradition at the drop of a hat.

What does it meant to be a child of YHWH?

This belief is not an intellectual assent, but a sincere life change that requires one to leave everything behind to follow His every command. We tell our children, ‘If you want to live in my house, you will live by my rules’. But for some reason we don’t like to believe that the Creator of the universe has any rules in His house. Every covenant (contract) has clearly defined rules and guidelines. Could it be possible that our ancient forefathers started a process of erasing the boundaries and guidelines to such an extent that today it is very unclear which way is up and which way is down? Could this explain the thousands of differing denominations that we have today? I believe in part it does. If we are ever to witness the awesome power of YHWH as displayed in early Messianic times, we had better start getting back to doing Scriptural things in Scriptural ways.

We must also allow the Scripture to interpret Scripture. The Word states that there is nothing new under the sun.