We now do not seek to establish our own self-attained
righteousness, our own self-righteousness, but rather we stand only on the
righteousness of Moshiach
Tzidkeinu. We are not to say, "Let's do enough mitzvos to merit
bringing Moshiach up from the grave." Rather, we are to say, "Baruch
Hashem, Moshiach has stood up from the grave, the Bikkurim of the Mesim,
the korban of his nefesh ACCEPTED FOR US (see Lv 23:11 and also 1C 15:20) and, Baruch
Hashem, accepted for us as our justification." Hashem accepts us. What a
gift! What an acquittal! What grace! We cannot boast. It is not OUR merit
that brings Moshiach. It is Moshiach's merit that brings us! It is not OUR
mitzvos that bring Moshiach. It is Moshiach's mitzvah (Ro 5:18 and Isaiah 53:9 and 53:11) that brings us (Isaiah 53:11), because he
bears our iniquities. Moshiach Tzidkeinu (Jer 23:4-5), that is,
Tzadik Avdi (Isaiah
53:9) is the Tzaddik who makes us tzaddikim (Isaiah 53:11) for Moshiach
Tzidkeinu is the Yom Kippur scapegoat who bears away our iniquities (Isaiah 53:11-12). Just
as one man infected the whole race
by his unrighteous act, so another man, Moshiach, introduced chayei olam into
humanity's children by his gracious mitzvah ("worthy or
righteous deed") [see Ro
5:18]. He is our righteousness and our kedushah and our chochmah and
our yeshuah and our Geulah laOlam.
When the definitive presentation
of salvation and of escaping eternal doom is presented, the
word that gets the most attention is "grace" or "unmerited favor resulting
in mercy." The need for grace or "chesed" from on High becomes evident
when we see the depravity of the
human condition, that mankind is like a sleepwalker in such a profound
stupor of ungodly darkness and blindness that it can only be that the
whole human race participates in the downward fall of a primeval
rebellion. This is Chet Kadmon, an all-pervasive human condition shared
from the Fall in the Beginning,
just as we as human beings all share the old depraved self we have from
the Beginning, an old self that is unregenerate, blind, proud, rebellious,
sin-enslaved and
subsequently doomed to an unavoidable consequence: death's eternal spiritual separation from
G-d. But even in Romans chapter 5, the subject is grace, the grace of
G-d, the abundance of grace, the free gift of grace, and G-d's gift of
righteousness in which we stand, having been declared innocent already by
the L-rd of the Last Judgment and having obtained access to this grace by
faith through the grace of the one man Moshiach Adoneinu. However, this
grace is not cheap; for repentance cannot be
discounted. Therefore, the sinner cannot continue self-seeking and
mocking a forgiving, merciful G-d, thinking, "As I sin even more, I make
His Grace abound!" Or "Let's do evil things so that G-d will make good
come of it!" Never! The reason is that grace is the kindness of G-d. And
the kindness of G-d is meant to lead the sinner from self-seeking to
repentance, a real repentance that is inward and spiritual and results in
walking in love and forgiveness and not rebelliously living for the old
depraved self. The forgiven sinner cannot therefore turn from a life of
humble faith in order to fall back into pride and boasting against
unbelievers, even Jewish unbelievers; because the forgiven sinner himself
stands before G-d only through the continuing repentance of saving faith.
And this saving faith knows itself freed from sin's enslavement only in
continuing repentance under G-d's kindness and grace.
Suppose you
were a juvenile delinquent and you were hauled into court guilty of
vandalism and destruction of city property. Now imagine also that your
older brother was a millionaire who had done all kinds of public works
philanthropy for the city. He had built a new hospital and paid for the
construction of the library and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars
for the police to be issued bullet-proof vests and for the firemen to get
new radios and equipment. Now the judge is ready to sentence you to reform
school until he finds out you are the younger brother of the One who had
done so much for the city. So he decides to drop the charges against you.
This is what G-d has done for you because of the righteousness of Moshiach
Ben Dovid. This is your imputed righteousness, credited to you as a
beneficient imputation, as a free gift, wholly undeserved by you, all the
glory to Moshiach Ben Dovid, your wisdom and your righteousness and your
justification.
But wait, you say! What does Ya'akov mean when he
says we are justified by works? (See Ya 2:21.) Ya'akov is not
arguing with Shaul about faith versus 613 mitzvot works of the law for
either Jews or non-Jews. Indeed, this epistle doesn't seem to be aware of
non-Jews in shul attendance at all. It is that early. Rather we see Jews
neglecting the widow in her distress, fawning over the rich drop-in shul
visitor, and being dismissive and rude to the poor Jew who comes into shul
hungry and ill-clan. Can such lip-service "faith" be genuine? No! Can it
justify? No! Is it real? No! The faith that justifies, the faith we see in
Abraham, was not dead lip service. His faith was not a dead faith; it went
to work. Shaul says, Faith is active in love (Gal.5:6). They are saying
the same thing. Neither Sha'ul nor Ya'akov offers the law in itself as a
means to salvation (Jas. 2:10; Gal. 3:10). Both men speak of
the "torah of freedom" (Jas. 1:25; 2:12; 1 Cor. 9:21) in a way that
implies Moshiach (Jas. 2:1; Ro. 8:2), and Ya'akov, no less than Sha'ul,
emphasizes the need for emunah (Jas. 1:3, 6; 5:15), for ahavah (agape)
toward G-d (Jas. 1:1), and being reborn from above (Jas. 1:21).
We
are justified by the grace of G-d (Ro 3:24). We are justified
by Moshiach's kaparah (Ro
5:9). Our holy G-d sees OUR OWN righteousness like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), but He has
provided khaleefatee (my
exchange), a change of clothes, from a suit of filthy rags to a robe
of righteousness (Isaiah
61:10), His righteousness, the Righteousness of Moshiach, Moshiach
Tzidkeinu (Phil 3:9; Ro 3:28). When the Savior
Yosef Ben Yaakov delivered his brothers he gave them replacement clothing
(see chalifot semalot Gen
45:22). The synonym is temurah meaning "exchange" as
in Ruth 4:7 when the
Goel is getting ready to give his sandal to Boaz to exchange and trade off
his right of redemption. Or look at Job 14:14. The same word
is found in Job 14:14
that we find here. In Job
chapter 14 it says that a tree stump has a replacement when a sprout
shoots up from the stump and the tree begins to rise again. When Moshiach
rises again (Ro 4:25)
he becomes our replacement. He
takes over our sins and we take over his righteousness.
Suppose
they made a Broadway play out of your life's story. Suppose the director
was very worried because you were only an amateur actor and the Accuser of
the Brethren would be in the audience as the opening night critic. But at
the last minute suppose they found the perfect Actor and you agreed that
he would be your replacement. You said, "He is khaleefatee (my replacement, my
exchange)." Then it was no longer
you that the Accuser had
to deal with but your replacement. What relief that would be for an
amateur actor like you!
This is the mystery of the Besuras
Hageulah. A riddle, if you will. As a child I actually had a teacher whose
real name was Mr. Riddle. I'll never forget him. Listen and you'll know
why. I was in the fourth grade. One sinful day of my life I had an
"accident" at my desk and my blue jeans were soaked with urine. Being nine
years old I was terribly embarrassed, especially when the school bell rang
and all the boys in Mr. Riddle's class gathered downstairs in the
playground to await by appearance. They were going to taunt me and
humiliate me and condemn me. But Mr. Riddle looked out the window and saw
the "Calvery mockery" awaiting me, so he showed me another way. Mr. Riddle
saved me from the door of condemnation and led me out of the building to
another exit, a door of escape. Moshiach Tzidkeinu is the door. Mr. Riddle
didn't have to do that but he did because of his mercy and grace. Moshiach
went out one door as your replacement so you could go out the other door
by his grace through faith. When the Accuser of the Brethren comes to
taunt you, say these words to him, "Talk to khaleefatee, my "replacement," my
"exchange", Satan."
If we insist on trusting in our own
righteousness, if we insist on wearing our own apparel, we will be ejected
from the Choson Moshiach's
Chasunoh. But Moshiach Tzidkeinu has been given to us as a precious
gift. His mitzvah (righteous deed) justifies us (Isaiah 53:11) for Moshiach
Tzidkeinu is Tzadik Avdi and is our vicarious, credited righteousness (Isaiah 53:8; Gen 15:6) as Scripture inerrantly declares. We are
declared "not guilty" and we are acquitted and made acceptable through
what our Goel Redeemer has done for us by the righteousness and obedience
of his mitzvah in the matter of the Etz Chayim. Moshiach with his Etz Chayim had his tests and you will have yours.
Foreglimpses
of Moshiach's Etz Chayim
are seen in places like Gen
2:9 and here (we "look up and live" in Num 21:8) in Num
21:8 and 2Sm 18:9
and Deut 27:26 combined
with Deut 21:23. This is the mercy
of Hashem. Even when
by the grace of G-d we repent, and repentance cannot be neglected (Ro 12:1-2), still even then
we have nothing to boast about because we contribute nothing to what
Hashem has given us in Moshiach Tzidkeinu (Jer 23:5-6). It is a gift
(Ro 5:17). It is
something that was done for us, something of eternal magnitude that we
couldn't do for ourselves. Therefore, we praise His Name
forever. Remember, the virtue of any supposed means to justification other
than the Etz Chayim and emunah by the chen
v'chesed Hashem is counted as
skubala
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