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..."saved" - rescued from drowning
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Whose Word Is It?
by haRold Smith
a citizen of the Commonwealth (Ephesians 2:19)
"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Yeshua answered him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words. And
THE WORD THAT YOU HEAR IS NOT MINE BUT THE FATHER'S.
who sent me." John 14:21-24
How many books do you read where you start at the back, at the ending, and read backwards to the front? Probably not too many. You might skip to the back to quickly see the ending, but not to gain comprehension of what the author is trying to convey - and, yet, that is exactly the way most are taught to begin with the bible. Most start with the apostle Sha'ul (the Hebrew apostle Paul) - or worse, the Book of Revelation, using those words to look back into scripture for an explanation of Yeshua and, subsequently, the Father; instead of starting at the beginning of the Book with the Initiator, the Father, to see how His Words culminated in Yeshua, the Son, who ONLY SPOKE HIS FATHER'S WORDS and, who only after His Resurrection, revealed Himself to Sha'ul, the disciple, who, because of his training in the words of the Father, was able to recognize Yeshua as the Son of the Father. There is much to be learned from Sha'ul's writings - but his words did not replace the words of Yeshua any more than Yeshua's words replaced the words of the Father. If we clear away the centuries of
men's traditions (click on highlighted words to view content)
piled upon Sha'ul's words and look at them simply for what those words say and mean, we will find that he is presenting an argument upholding the words of the Father - not repudiating them
(Romans 2:13).
If we look at scripture from the beginning of the Book to the end, instead of starting at the end and going backwards to the front, everything Sha'ul says is in complete harmony with everything anyone has written in the Book before him - and, from which, he frequently draws upon to substantiate what he is presenting. To start at the beginning of the Book - what a novel concept!
(read about Perspective).
For instance, unless you understand what that word "saved" actually means, the question, "Are you saved?" doesn't make much sense. Saved from what? To "be saved" or "to save" in the Greek is
sozo
and means to rescue, to save one suffering from disease, to make well, heal, restore to health. There is nothing in this definition concerning a place called "heaven". It is translated in
John 12:47
as "save" and Romans 10:9
as "saved". We could all answer the question if it was, "Did someone rescue you from death?" That is a yes or no question. If you were drowning and someone pulled you out of the water, you would know right away that you had been saved. Once we see that the first meaning of the word sozo is to be rescued, we can conclude that sozo means to protect, to keep alive and to deliver. The Bible tells us that, if we are going to
remain in Life,
we need to be rescued from the consequences of sin -
which is death.
Anything that
separates
us from the Source of Life is death. It is from this Hebraic understanding that Sha'ul is able to say in Romans 8:2 that, "…the law of the Spirit of Life demonstrated in Yeshua haMashiach (the Messiah) has set you free from
the law of sin and death
- and Yeshua says it is
His Father's Words
that allow us to remain in the Presence of YaHoVeH where we find rest and are saved. Salvation is not an admission ticket to a place called "heaven". If Yeshua is going to save His people from their sins, He will have to rescue them out of the
death of separation
from their rightful inheritance
and the misery that was bound to follow. Salvation has nothing to do with heaven. It is all about staying alive. If you thought you were saved in order to get a heavenly gate pass, you missed the point. To "be saved" means a rescue of people who are in deep, deep trouble. They are not just drowning but are already dead. Unless YaHoVeH shows up with Life, they will remain dead. They need salvation because they need to live again. The purpose of Yeshua was to restore the relationship of YaHoVeH's family as it was in
the beginning.
Should we balance all scripture? Absolutely, but the fulcrum of balance should be the apex of Truth. Yeshua is the fulfillment of the Truth of the Father in the flesh
(John 14:6).
Since He is the embodiment of Truth, the Life of Yeshua should be the benchmark by which everything is measured - including other scripture
(Revelation 19:10b
- see also Arrows of Famine).
What Christianity has done for centuries is to draw conclusions from what is read in the epistles through a "Greek-think" filter by starting at back of the Book and then projecting those conclusions upon the words of the Tanakh (renamed OT) - thereby changing their meaning. To approach those words, stripped of their Hebrew perspective, as though they were written for an audience 2000 years in the future is disingenuous. That is called eisegesis (reading into the text) - the opposite of exegesis (reading out of the text). Words mean things. Let the words speak for themselves and draw your conclusions from what they actually say and mean. Enthroning the words of the Hebrew Paul above and to the exclusion of the very words recorded of what Yeshua said and the Father spoke is how we have come to worship this "New Pauline Religion" called "Christianity" authored by the "greatest of all the apostles" (of which scripture does not refer to him). Instead of simply heeding the words given to us by the Creator to reveal the difference between "us" and Him, we have embraced a tradition that essentially neuters Who He says He is by portraying Him as something apart from His Character and then we wonder why we can find no Power in those words or the actions of those who claim adherence to those words - why so many professing believers "suddenly" just fall into an abyss
(2Timothy 3:5).
They fall away because they have no bearing, no compass, no standard by which to navigate this thing called "life".
Religious tradition,
ihowever it is presented, does not produce LIFE.
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"For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has Himself given me a commandment - what to say and what to speak. And I know that His commandment is eternal life;
therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me
." John 12:49-50
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So, then - what is LIFE? Yeshua says in
John 17:3
says that eternal life is in knowing the Father and the One Whom He sent. There are those who say that you cannot separate the two - that the Father IS the Son. I disagree because Yeshua did. Are they One?
Yeshua said they were
- but, yet, He was speaking to Someone Else further along in
John 17:6-12
when He prayed that they (the twelve) be One in Whoever He was speaking to
JUST AS
He (Yeshua) was One in Him - that means in like manner. Well, there goes the "Catholic Trinity Godhead" theology (this is true - a little
historical research
will reveal its origin) because now we have not One in Three - but One in Fourteen. And He didn't stop there. He went on to pray to "Whomever" that not only they (the twelve) be One in the Father just as, in like manner, He is One in the Father; but, also, that all those who would believe on their words also be One in the Father just as, in like manner, He is One in the Father. Now we have One in "Innumerable"
(John 17:20-23).
Every epistle in the Messianic Writings (renamed NT) begins with a phrase extending some sort of a greeting "from YaHoVeH, our Father, AND the Son, Yeshua haMashiach (the Messiah)". These guys knew there was a distinguishable difference between the two. Maybe our concept of what "One" means needs a little "tweaking."
Yeshua is praying to His Father, YaHoVeH, that we become
echad
(Hebrew for "one") with Spirit "just as", in similar fashion, in like manner as He is echad with Spirit "…that My Joy might abide in them and that their joy might be full". Yeshua was drawing on the imagery found in
Psalm 16:11.
He knew where His Joy was to be found - in the Presence of His Father. By being obedient to His Father's Words, He became echad with His Father and
He opened the Way
for us to become echad as well. The Hebrew letters aleph-chet-dalet are what make up the Hebrew word echad.
The images found in the
Paleo-Hebrew pictograph
these Hebrew letters represent when strung together show the Hebrew letter aleph as the head of an ox, representing a fullness of strength and power, while the chet is shown as a wall or fence and the dalet is shown as a door. This is interesting because in ancient Hebrew culture, to pass through a doorway was an act of coming into covenant with the leader of the home. So not only does dalet represent "a way in," but it is also considered a way into covenant with someone. Together, the picture they present is "behold, a door in the fence." Now we can see what the joy of Yeshua is - the gladness of providing a door in the fence to enter into covenant with His Father,
a path for coming into YaHoVeH's Presence
So, when this word, echad, was originally used it would have been defined as "the strength of someone coming into covenant". Where did Yeshua find His Joy? He found it in the keeping of His
Father's commandments
for they are what caused Him to abide in the Presence of His Father where there is
"fullness of joy".
He goes on to say the
glory
given to Him by YaHoVeH is also given to us. In
John 15:8-11
we are told the means by which to acquire that glory is the same means Yeshua acquired it -
to abide,
to make our residence in the Nature of Spirit as defined by the Words of the Father. It is in the keeping of those Words that we come into YaHoVeH's Presence, becoming
one with Him
and, thereby, finding the strength of His Joy in us.
The question then becomes, OK, if knowing Them IS eternal LIFE - HOW do I come to know Them? What is it, practically, I must DO to KNOW Them? There is a difference between meeting someone, becoming introduced to someone, and relationaly coming to know them. There are those Yeshua did not recognize because He said
He did not KNOW them.
When Yeshua was specifically asked HOW to obtain eternal life, He responded one way - to keep the commandments of the Father. He even repeated those commandments so there would not be any misunderstanding as to which ones He was speaking of
(Matthew 19:16-22,
Luke 10:25-28,
also Mark 10:17-21,
Luke 18:18-22).
This is the kind of knowing He referred us to - having to do with our behavior. Even when He healed someone, His instruction was to follow the commandments set forth by Moses
(Matthew 8:4).
How can this be if His purpose was to "do away" with the commandments of the law - as has been traditionally drummed into us for so long
(see what is the Curse of the Law)?
Apparently, Yeshua thought there is something we must actually DO to conform ourselves to, in order to obtain, to lay hold of this LIFE He spoke about. Could it be, could the correlation be made, that these things spoken of in the Ten Commandments are the things of Spirit - of LIFE?
(see how Life=Light).
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...listening to Yeshua's Words
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Listen to what He says in John 14:21-24 (in particular v24) above. He says here and again in
John 12:49-50
that He ONLY SPOKE THE FATHER'S WORDS. What words was He speaking of? Not His. There is only
one verse
in all of scripture where He gave us a NEW commandment - and that was just an expansion of
Leviticus 19:18.
I challenge you to find where scripture specifically states He gave a NEW set of commandments. As much as we have been asked to believe otherwise - they are just not there. Everything He spoke of can be referenced back to the Original Book, from the Father's Words - because He ONLY spoke of the Father.
EVERY ONE of the Beatitudes
originate in the Original Writings. The commandments He spoke of were the Father's commandments. And, if that were not enough, "the apostle of grace" said the same thing in
Acts 24:14,
Romans 2:13,
and Romans 3:31
to name but just a few. The same is being said in
1John 3:24
(reference what it means to be Under the Law for a more detailed explanation).
If there is no contradiction in the scriptures - then, what do we do with all of these verses all taken from the New Testament? Ignore them? Pretend they don't exist? Rationalize them away because we don't want to do them? Or do we try to find the commonality between them and what the rest of scripture teaches? Why is this so important? Because if we settle for anything that is less than Truth, it is not Truth anymore - it becomes less Truth. If we haven't the courage to call tradition what it is and to crucify it - we begin to suffer the side effects associated with tradition. Yeshua said a result of the embrace of traditionalism is deafness.
John 8:45-47
was spoken to some of those who
started out as believers.
>So, what does it mean
to know someone?
If asked to describe how you know your best friend and you respond with phrases such as he/she is "honest" or "kind" or "generous" or "patient" or "they love me no matter what" among others, you are describing the result of watching their behavior. You are describing the "character" of that person. The dictionary describes character as "an attribute or a quality of behavior that defines a person". Other people's perception of your displayed character, your manner of behavior, is what goes into giving you a reputation - either positively or negatively. Abraham Lincoln said, "Reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree." Our character is not just what we try to display for others to see - it is also who we are even when no one is watching. Our character is who we are. Good character is doing the right thing because it is right to do what is right. How are we supposed to know what is right? Does right-thinking just float down upon us or swell up from within us? If that were the case, then why is there so much evil perpetrated "in the name of Jesus" as the "right" thing to do? Even Hitler presented his behavior as "Christian". And who is the final authority on what is right? Most of what we have come to embrace as "right" has been taught to us by others. To look to the religious tradition of men for that answer only seems to uphold the verse in
Proverbs 21:2
saying that without some standard to measure behavior by, "every way of a man is right in his own eyes".
The Ten Commandments (not the nine commandments) are the revealed Character of this Person of the Book. They are what define His Character. They tell us Who He Is when no one else is looking. They are Truth because they are unwavering in any and all circumstances - they never change just as He never changes. They are the definition of what sets Him apart from the rest of the world. The rest of the ordinances in the Book of the Covenant are merely applications of these 10 commandments to specific situations. What they all have in common is a demonstration in behavior of the Character of LIFE - which is a giving up of life in order to bring Life out of death. It is Love that seeks the benefit of another at cost to the one who loves. This is what Yeshua exemplified with His Life
(Philippians 2:3-5).
This is why Yeshua said that it is upon these two elements of YaHoVeH's Character that all the rest of the law HANG
(Matthew 22:37-40).
He did not say they were "done away with" - He said they were "fulfilled"
(Matthew 5:17-19
- see what it means to have something Fulfilled).
The rest of the commandments draw from the core Essence of His Nature contained in these two. Yeshua KNEW the Essence of the Father because He embraced the defining elements of the Father's Character - He kept His Words, His Commandments as did Abraham
(John 8:55,
Genesis 26:4-5).
IF (a big little word) we are in a true pursuit of His Presence - we will do the same. These commandments will not be grievous to us because, by our embrace of them, they bring forth LIFE - revealing in us Who He Is
(1John 5:3). I keep His Commandments because I love Him. My manner of behavior is indicative of my love - just ask any wife if this is not so.
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...the Ten Words of the Father
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Words mean things. If we are to worship the Father in Truth, if we are to walk in the Power of
the Present Presence
as Yeshua said we would - perhaps we should give more attention to Whose Words we are heeding. Are we listening to the religious words of man's tradition cloaked in subtleties? Or, are we giving more weight to the Words coming from Yeshua's lips that point us to that Truth? What they actually say and what they actually mean - instead of dismissing them because they don't line up with someone else's theology.
"You make known to me the path of Life; in Your Presence there is fullness of joy..."
Psalm 16:11
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???Questions???
Please feel free to email me at harold@hethathasanear.com.
While not claiming to have all
the answers, it would be an honor to partake with you of what Spirit is uncovering.
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