Torah Restoration Ministries

Evangelist Daniel John Lee

And to the angel of the congregation in Philadelphia write -- These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the Key of David, He that opens, and no man shuts, and shuts, and no man opens.  I know your works: behold, I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept My Word, and have not denied My Name . . ."
   

Why Should Christians Keep Torah?


This is probably the most asked question of my ministry and probably the most controversial. This is why I want to deal with this issue first. One must understand, before anything else, that YahShua is literally the Torah clothed in flesh.

So many centuries of pagan, gentile christianity has tried to pit the Torah (or Law) against YahShua (Jesus). This is manifested in many, many ways. Most people believe the God of the Old Testament to be completely different from the God in the New. They believe that the Jews were justified by works of the law, but Jesus came to do it all by grace. If they have really hammered out their belief system, they will say that "the Torah was imperfect and incomplete and all it could do was point out sin but Jesus was needed to actually bring righteousness." The conclusion is that most Christians believe the Torah is bad, carnal, imperfect and, at its best, can only point toward YahShua.

While I agree that the Torah does indeed point toward YahShua, I also believe the Torah does far more. The Torah points toward YahShua because the Torah is YahShua. If the Torah was so bad...

  • Why did YahShua turn out so good when He chose to conform his life completely to it?
  • Why does Paul refer to the Torah as spiritual and good in Romans 7?
  • Why did YHVH even give the Torah to begin with?

The answer is simple. YHVH created the Torah. YahShua manifests the Torah in the flesh and, as Paul stated, the Holy Spirit helps us to obey the Torah. The Torah is good. Yah's commandments are good.

So, why should Christians keep Torah? Because YahShua kept Torah. Does I John tell us that we ought to walk as YahShua walked? Yes. Did He obey Torah, every jot and tittle required of him? Yes! So, then, should we walk in the same manner? YES!

YahShua obeying the Torah is only the first and most obvious reason why we believers IN Messiah YahShua ought to keep Torah. The Torah is good because it was created by Yah. The Torah was designed to cultivate within us the heart to love YahShua and to live in His Kingdom. Yah gave humans (the Israelites) the law so it would do its job in converting the soul. Torah points us toward YahShua and keeps us close to YahShua.

Finally, keeping Torah brings delight to Yah's heart. He is very pleased when we choose to obey Him and keep His commandments. When we obey Torah, we are saying with our actions that what He deems important, we deem important. This is why the Psalms are filled with King David declaring how he rejoiced in Yah's Law. He proudly told the world that He delighted in Yah's Law! Delighting in Yah's Law means to delight Yah Himself.

Are not these good reasons to keep Torah? The real question should be, why should we NOT keep Torah?

Here are a list of just a few of the scriptures commanding us to keep Torah: John 14:21, Romans 3:31, Matthew 5:18-20, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Deuteronomy 30:11-14 (repeated in Romans 10:6-10).