Quite regularly I answer emails from well-meaning souls who have become so enamored with the Jewish roots of the Christian faith that they run the risk of abandoning the liberty that Yeshua (Jesus) came to give us… This is tragic and greatly saddens me.
Just today I received an email from someone who is studying at a “Messianic Yeshiva” that apparently teaches a form of syncretism of Rabbinic Judaism with Christianity. Look, chaverim, let me say this emphatically: Rabbinical theology is different than Biblical theology, and Messianic Judaism is not some “fourth stream” of the Jewish faith with Jesus added on for good measure…
With the destruction of the Second Temple (in 70 AD) and the loss of the priesthood/ means of sacrifice, there were only a few options available to the Jewish community. One was to accept the death of Yeshua as the atonement for sin, and the other was to reconstruct Jewish theology so that the community could exist without a Temple (and to therefore find a way to forgive sin without blood sacrifice). Choices were made and polarizations occurred. The Council at Yavne represented the mainstream Jewish choice.
Yeshua surpasses Moses as the Creator surpasses His creation. The Scriptures command us to “consider Yeshua, [who] has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses — as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself” (Heb. 3:1-6). Yeshua alone is our great Kohen Gadol (High Priest) of the better covenant than Moses’ (Heb. 8:6), and Yeshua alone is the Supreme Mediator between God and man. Only Yeshua brings God and man together.
Consider, then, how the New Testament states that Yeshua was greater than:
- The first Jew, Abraham (John 8:53-58)
- Israel and his children (John 4:12-14)
- Moses and all the angels (Heb. 3:1-6; Matt. 17:1-8; John 1:17; etc.)
- Solomon, the greatest king of Israel (Luke 11:31)
- Jonah, one of the greatest Jewish prophets (Matt. 12:41)
- Elijah, one of the greatest Jewish prophets (Matt. 17:1-8)
- The Temple itself (Matt. 12:6).
Indeed, Yeshua is called the very Creator (Col. 1:18-19) who sits upon the throne of God Himself (Psalm 45:6-7; Heb. 1:8). Simply put, Moses stands in relation to Yeshua as the creature stands before the Creator and is accountable to Him.
The “Church” is a called-out group of people from among all the nations who are made partakers of the covenantal blessings and redemptive purposes of the LORD God Almighty. It is what Rav Sha’ul (Paul) termed a “mystery,” meaning that it was undisclosed before the advent of the Messiah Yeshua. The entire history of ethnic Israel was accomplished in order to “get Yeshua to Moriah” – the place of ultimate sacrifice – where He would offer up His life for the sins of the world…. and thereby break the “spell” of the kelalah (curse).
Yeshua at Moriah is the Central Point of all history. It is the Altar. All the outpouring of the wrath of God against sin was accomplished here, since it involved the torture and death of the only true Tzaddik who ever lived. Yet it was by means of Yeshua’s righteous suffering that all the families of the earth may now be blessed and escape the kelalah of HaShem. It is finished — by the hand of Yeshua — not Moses. We are called to follow Him….