"You're just trying to be Jewish"
Have you heard this criticism or maybe even used it yourself toward someone trying to point out the truth? I think if we take a step back in our minds and realize, Judaism is simply what the religious sect of Yeshua's day had come to be. Think about it. Adam and Eve were not Jews. Noah was not a Jew. Abraham was not a Jew. Moses and Aaron did not practice Judaism. It was not until King David's son Solomon died (many many generations after Moses), that the kingdom of Israel was split into. The northern tribes were called "Israel" and the southern tribes "Judah". There were still 12 tribes, each named after the sons of Jacob (with Joseph's family appearing as his sons, Ephraim and Manassah, hence trading the name "joseph" (12th) for two names, "Ephraim and "Manassah". Judah just happened to be one of the tribes and it was the one Yeshua's lineage can be traced back to. This was all done to prove who the Messiah was to be. But even then, Elijah (Tishbite) one of Israel's greatest prophets, was not a Jew.
In Yeshua's time, the term "Jew" had morphed into a term for those who kept the covenant with YHVH. But this was not a term used for the bulk of all covenant keepers. Many many tribes of Israel had already by that time, assimilated into the nations (word for gentiles) around them, ie Samaritans, Cornelius (all evidence points to him being a covenant keeper already) However, BIG PROBLEM. If you read the gospels you will notice that our Savior gets very very angry quite often and very brutal with His words many times. Who is that always directed at? Those who seek to elevate their own commands to be equal with our Father's commands. Yeshua is not establishing a religion of Judaism. Judaism "adds to" the commandments of YHVH. They follow their own book called Talmud and anyone who adds or takes away from YHVH's commands are cursed. Many denominations do this as well and should be forewarned that there will be severe consequences.
Yeshua is establishing a coming kingdom for all mankind and the way to enter that kingdom is to be ISRAEL. If you will go back and read (before there were "jews"), you will read that anyone not of the bloodline of Abraham (gentile) was always welcome into Israel. They were simply to have the exact same covenantal relationship that the bloodline Israel had and were considered adopted in.
Num 15:15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.
16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.
Paul tells us that now there are no Jews or gentiles. But he also tells us that there is one covenant and has always been one covenantal way to our Father.
Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.
Those without Torah ("law of commandments contained in ordinances") separated those in covenant with YHVH and those outside of the covenant. Yeshua abolished THE ENMITY between the two.........not the covenant. The covenant is still in place "until heaven and earth pass away". The covenant is the means by which one becomes sanctified. James tells us that the only type of faith that is "saving faith" or "faith that leads to salvation" is faith followed by works (obedience to Torah). In other words, if you believe to have been given salvation from a moment in time of sorrow, and if your experience does not lead to a hunger and thirst for righteousness and aligning yourself with the standard (Torah) in scripture, you do not have "saving faith". Instead, you have had an emotional experience that will gain you nothing.
James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
Either we are "Israel" or "grafted into Israel" or we are outside of any covenant YHVH had made with man. He did NOT make a covenant with a gentile. There is no other way to eternal life than to be a part of Israel. Yeshua said, "I came only for the lost sheep of Israel". Only through one of the 12 gates (all Israel) can one enter New Jerusalem. It is only Israel that YHVH puts His Torah in the heart of and has eternal life. It is only Israel that are the "people" of YHVH.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
