16 May 2022
At the Last Supper, Jesus instituted the New Covenant in His blood. It was tantamount to a New Law, the Law of Messiah, not Moses. While we may distinguish between the words "covenant" and "law" in our minds, they pointed to the same thing in Hebrew. Thus, Jesus said He was instituting a new commandment (law) that we should love sacrificially in the way He loved. The Cross became the new standard, the new Law.
Among other things, it restored the ancient Hebrew mysticism, renewing it into Christian Mysticism. We should be eager to face the Cross, the end of this fallen life. The events and trappings of this life mean nothing until they point to divine glory. It's a very otherworldly gospel. This was a sharp contrast to the Jewish doctrine of pursuing this world.
Notice how this shows up in Jesus' teaching in Matthew 19-20. Jesus dealt with the Rich Young Ruler, who didn't understand the mystical nature of the Messianic Kingdom about to be born. The man didn't accept that restoration of mystical faith. Then Jesus explained His enigmatic refrain of "the first shall be last, and the last first" by telling about the vineyard owner who actively obeyed the intent of the Law of Moses. The man knew that the daily wage was the livelihood of many in his nation. Not wishing to deprive his own fellow Israelis of the Covenant promises, he was generous in paying everyone a full day's wage just for showing up, early or late.
That was the whole point of what Moses had to say about not keeping someone's wages overnight. The vineyard owner understood the intent behind the law code, and walked in faith. He was committed to shalom for all of Israel. This was contrary to the Pharisaical position that God blessed only some Israelis -- themselves -- and the rest were accursed. And they were damned if they would share it. Thus, the response of the Rich Young Ruler when told to surrender his wealth. Had he been the same kind of man as the vineyard owner in the parable, he would not have needed to ask Jesus about how to ensure he would fit into the Messianic Kingdom.
It's not the having of wealth that brought him under conviction of sin, but his failure to use it for the Father's glory. That's the core of Judaism; it's a rejection of the mysticism inherent in the Covenant of Moses, and still inherent in the Covenant of the Messiah. If the Rich Young Ruler had not swallowed Pharisaism, he probably would not have been rich or a synagogue ruler. But he also would not have been chained to his worldly possessions. He would have easily joined Jesus' band of disciples. And Matthew, who wrote this narrative for us, was likely the wealthiest of the Twelve before following his cousin, Jesus. He was the only one who offered the Parable of the Vineyard Owner.
Matthew's Gospel by itself is a strong condemnation of Pharisaism, which is what Judaism has always been. By rejecting the Messiah, they were orphaned from the Household of God. But they refused to disband. Having rejected their sole identity -- the mystical Covenant of Moses -- they acquired a new one under Satan. Satan stepped up to adopt them; this is why Judaism is referred to as the "Synagogue of Satan" in John's Revelation (2:9; 3:9). Paul had pointed out in Galatians that Israel had abandoned the faith of Abraham, and embrace the pagan religion of slaves.
If you need something to demonstrate how utterly true this is today, I recommend Ron Unz's book on Mossad and how they operate. He notes how it's not just Mossad, and that it's hard to pin it down to just Judaism, or Zionism, or neocons. None of the popular labels fit; they scoop up people who aren't the real problem. Yet, it's easy to see that withing the boundaries of those terms, we find a core group of elitists who could easily be blamed for most of what's wrong in our world today.
That is, given the nasty background of how humanity is fallen, things don't really have to be this bad. That something Unz points to in his book breeds a unique evil that surpasses the mundane evil of the rest of the world. The Gentiles simply won't go where this particular collection of Jews do.
It won't do any good to organize on a human level. You cannot do so without opening the door to Satan, and this thing Unz points to is Satan's special project. Satan has authority to infiltrate with his servants any human organization. Thus, whatever we do on this earth to represent the gospel and the glory of the Lord must raise the highest possible barriers to the Devil's work. That means we have to be very careful to walk in the Covenant and convictions.
And within that effort, we never forget that the single greatest weapon against the lie of Judaism is to point out very clearly how it is not the covenant God offered on Mount Sinai. It's a deeply perverted version of it. Hold up the standard, and it will be obvious they have never obeyed it for very long, and finally rejected that Covenant when it came among them as a man. This is the single greatest weapon we have against the Synagogue of Satan, the fake "Jews" who do not follow the Covenant God gave them.
We stand ready to welcome them back as those who belonged here first. Hostility serves no purpose. The Old Israel called themselves "children of the Law" (bar-mitzvah). We are the New Israel, the children of the Cross. That's our Law, the only Law of God.
This document is public domain; spread the message.