Hello all,

Just as there were Judaizers in the first century Church, we are still dealing with this same problem today. Those that want to keep putting old vine into new wineskin, and adding their own works to Grace. When preaching the Gospel of salvation, when was the keeping of the Law or Sabbath keeping mentioned as a condition of being saved? And, when one was saved, were they ever told by the disciples to be sure and keep the Sabbath? Is the law of the Old Covenant or Sabbath keeping ever mentioned as part of the Gospel of Christ?

Below are just a few verses from the Scriptures that deal with this issue, and there are many more. Let us not be taken in by those that want to turn back to bondage and give up our freedom that Christ lived and died for us to obtain. For this Hebrew Roots Movement is the most dangerous of all false doctrines entering the Church today.

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Galatians 2:16

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Galatians 2:4

Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Colossians 3:11

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

1 Corinthians 12:13

For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

Romans 16:17

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

Romans 10:9

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Gal. 5:14

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

The following article tells it like it is about all this. I am not trying to be in conflict with my brothers and sisters in Christ, but I do feel a need to alert others of the dangers of this movement, and show, in this regard, there is nothing new under the sun. It was happening in the first century with early Jewish Christian believers and it is definitely happening now.

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FOR FAIR USE EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION PURPOSES


Link of article or video : http://www.biblicalmissiology.org/2012/07/03/the-judaizers-when...


The Judaizers: When almost right isn’t good enough

By John Span

The true God says: “No righteousness, wisdom, or religion pleases me, but only that by which the Father is glorified through the Son. It is those who lay hold of the Son and me and my promise in him, by faith, to whom I am a God, a Father; it is they whom I accept, justify, and save. Everyone else remains under wrath, because they worship what is no god.” (Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians)

In modern times, it appears that what is demanded in many professions and areas of life is not demanded in theology. When I deposit money into my bank account, I expect that the teller will be accurate and deposit the check for $289.00 and not get it just about right with shifting the decimal only one small place and making it $28.90. Ditto for car parts which must be an exact correspondence to the part number. Yet when it comes to theology many are content to get things “just about right.” This paper will show the Apostle Paul paid very close attention to theological precision and that moderns would be wise to follow that example.

The Judaizers:

In the Apostle Paul’s day there was a group called the Judaizers who got many things right. They believed in the value of the law, the resurrection from the dead, the need for faith in Christ, that Jesus was the Messiah and that he was divine. On the surface they were as orthodox as they come. Yet, Paul had a dispute with them. It would be easy to charge Paul with being an obscurantist, a dogmatist, someone looking for a theological quarrel, and someone who was being divisive in the Body of Christ.

So what was the problem?

In his book Christianity and Liberalism Gresham Machen analyzed the theology of the Judaizers and suggested that for all their so-called orthodoxy there was something amiss in their logic of salvation. Machen showed that both Paul and the Judaizers had the same elements in what constitutes salvation, but that the application of the order of them was radically different. In his words:

Paul said that a man:

(1) first receives faith in Christ,

(2) then is justified before God,

(3) then immediately proceeds to keep God’s law.


The Judaizers said that a man:

(1) first receives faith in Christ,

(2) then keeps the law of God the best he can, and then

(3) is justified…[ii].

The consequence of what seems like a seemingly insignificant error, would lead Paul to deliver some of his strongest words to any party in his writings, namely that they should be cursed or eternally condemned [Gk.anáthema ] (Galatians 1:9).


Christ + something= nothing

At stake was the fact that the Judaizers said in effect, Christ’s work needs something else to constitute full salvation, and in their case it was circumcision. For Paul it was a working out of the adage, “addition to the work of Christ is the greatest subtraction of all” or “Christ plus something equals nothing.” Yet they pontificated that they were perfecting what Paul had started.

Machen added his observation about this activity what he called “piecing out the work of Christ”, that is to say, adding piecemeal or a bit at a time, something to the finished work of Christ: “…Such an attempt to piece out the work of Christ by our own merit, Paul saw clearly, is the very essence of unbelief; Christ will do everything or nothing, and the only hope is to throw ourselves unreservedly on His mercy and trust Him for all.” (emphasis mine)[iii]

The need for theological discernment

Paul’s thinking exemplified the fact that the line between truth and error is very small. Both Charles Spurgeon and John Murray have demonstrated that this distinction calls for spiritual discernment. Respectively they said “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather, it is the difference between right and almost right” and “the difference between truth and error is not a chasm but a razor’s edge.”

In addition, very likely the Judaizers were congenial, looked upon as upstanding models of orthodoxy in their communities, and could claim tradition as their ally. In modern day terms they might be the radical contextualizers of the day who advocate “staying inside of Islam” just as the Judaizers advocated “living out the gospel” within Judaism. It seems rather ironic, however that one of the proponents of this “staying inside of Islam,” namely, Ralph Winter, would assert in a rather anachronistic way:

“Well, everywhere Paul went “Judaizers” followed him and tried to destroy the Insider Movement he had established.”[iv]

Yet Paul saw through the Judaizer facade and sharply pointed out four areas of contention. They were:

a. Incredulity. At root Christ’s finished work was insufficient in their minds and they could not bring themselves to believe it was good enough or that the Gospel was intrinsically powerful enough to thoroughly save. Recall in Acts 15:1 they said, “Unless you are circumcised … you cannot be saved”

b. Self-justification. Since something needed to be added, the works of the law were close to their background and they seized on them. It is as Roy Ortlund observed about the human condition as a whole: “self-justification is the deepest impulse in the fallen human heart.”

c. People pleasing. A tangible demonstration of their piety through the law or imposing that on others would bring accolades from their religious friends, Christian or otherwise (Gal 6:12).

d. Persecution avoidance. The foolishness of the cross of Christ in the eyes of the local context was something to be avoided by the Judaizers (Gal 6:12). Better to appear respectable.

Modern day Judaizers

Consider the following statements:

1. “I am a fully surrendered Christian and I follow Jesus to the uttermost” or “you must be a fully surrendered Christian and follow Jesus…”

2. “I am an incarnation of Christ in this mission field” or “you must be incarnational…”

3. “I love Muslims just like Christ” or “you must love Muslims just like Christ would.”

4. “I am a great missionary because I have contextualized myself just like Christ did” or “if you want to be a great missionary you must….”

5. “In talking with Muslims about Jesus, we must learn what we call “receptor-oriented communication.”

At first blush these sound very convincing. But are we hearing some echoes from the past?

The Judaizers would have said:

“I am keeping the law to the very best of my ability.” “I am as pious as one can be”

“I am the model of righteous living in my community.” “I ….I….I…” Then they would project this on to others and deliver a “you must …” or “unless you…” set of rules to be followed. If they lived today they would use the more politically correct “we must” to soften the edges somewhat [see number 5 above].

In each system, the focus has shifted from accolades to Christ, to Him living and moving through someone by the power of the Holy Spirit to subtly drawing the attention to one’s piety through rule keeping and to imposing this on others as well.

The antidote to the Judaizers

Paul knew that he shared with every human, the tendency to boast in his own abilities and his own “results.” Thus he preached to himself: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ” (Galatians 6:14).

He also knew that he would have to call out the Judaizers for promoting what he determined was “really no gospel at all” (Gal. 1:6) and risk the fact that he would be charged with trying to “win approval” (Gal 1:10) for himself while exposing their dark side.

Paul labels the trajectory of their actions as “enslaving” as they are “turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” (Gal. 4:9). That is to say, although they had been given complete freedom in Christ, they were looking in the rear-view mirror with some adulation for what had been rendered of no real consequence by the cross. The wording is strong and communicates the message that what you are yearning for is impotent, and will only serve to enslave you. Little wonder he had called them “foolish Galatians” (3:1) earlier on.

The so-called zeal of the Judaizers is misguided and Paul correctly observes that it carries an undercurrent of drawing the Galatian audience away from commitment to the true Gospel and by default its messenger Paul (4:17). That it to say, for all its superficial commitments, this zeal is actually divisive at the core as it is ultimately self-serving for the Judaizers whose motivation as Paul saw it was simply to “boast about your flesh” (6:13). With something of a knock-out blow, Paul then suggests that if the Judaizers would truly be zealous, let them go all the way and instead of circumcision, let them “emasculate themselves” (5:12).

Finally, Paul puts the Judaizing campaign in perspective by suggesting that what really counts is a “new creation” (6:15). That is to say, only a supernatural intervention by God in Christ can count for anything and Judaizing religion is only cosmetic.


Summary:

“The gift of spiritual discernment", is one of the most needed spiritual gifts in this day and age. When “almost right” is subtly pushed as the new gospel of respect and tolerance, it is actually “completely wrong.” Paul risked his reputation to call out the anti-Gospel campaign of the Judaizers with all their semblances of orthodoxy, and the clarion call at this time is for those who like Spurgeon see the difference between “right and almost right” to declare it boldly. For in the final analysis, the question “by whose power and for whose glory?” must be asked of every Judaizer whether modern or ancient, and any tendency to accomplish or add to salvation by human power will always draw glory to itself, instead of to the cross of Christ must be exposed for what it is.

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It's a fine line...it is a very fine line between this falsehood and the Truth. Judaizers want you to believe that you must be perform the works of law and Sabbath keeping to be justified before God. This is not the Gospel!! We are justified to God by Christ and Him only! It's only having Christ in us that we are able to do good works, as we rest in Him and yoke ourselves to Him and He does the work. This seems so obvious and simple to understand, yet still so many are being deceived, and woe to those that add to this deception.

It really helps to understand that the Old Covenant was between God and man, thus required man to perform rituals and keep special days etc. But, the New Covenant is between God and Jesus and requires no works of man whatsoever other than surrender, and belief in Jesus and what He did for us, and worship in Spirit and in Truth. Jesus is Truth and Jesus is Spirit via the Holy Spirit.

If we are truly in Christ and rest in Him everyday we no longer need a special day set aside for our rest, other than physical rest. The New Covenant Sabbath is Spiritual and we find complete rest only in our Lord and Savior.

As to the Saturday/Sunday debate, this has been twisted way out of proportion with all manner of different opinions. Worshiping on Sunday is more about the eighth day than the 1st day, as the eighth day being the symbol of a new creation and a New Covenant. But that is another study.

Jesus is our Sabbath rest, and all those that have the luxury of not having to work on Saturday to support themselves or their families, can enjoy resting on this day. But, for anyone to tell you that if you do not rest on this day, you are not saved, or justified, or not God's elect, do not believe them for they are modern day Judaizers. Pray for them to come to the fullness of the Truth in Christ.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.

Hello sister,

KJV

James 2:14..........What doth it profit, my brothren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?


15....If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,


16...And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warm and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?


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 alter?


22...Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?


23...And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.


24...Ye see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.


25...Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?


26...For the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.


PATTI,

We are changed after we are saved. We are free to worship in spirit and strive to keep the commandments without guilt. No more fear of death by not being able to keep the law. Remember, this is the law of the book written by Moses; not the 10 commandments, written in stone by the finger of GOD!
These are FOREVER! They are written on our HEARTS and most people know them like they do their children. They know right from wrong without having to be told because it is subconsciously put in our minds. If we have FAITH then we must change our ways and act as though we are changed, or what good have we done. We must not be lazy because we are saved, but useful, because we have the power of God to help change others lives, and hopefully bring them to Christ. In other words, one should have a desire to please God by keeping his commandments. This requires an active EFFORT on our part.

FAITH without works is DEAD!

YBIC
Michael

Hi Patty. First of all, you are a very thorough and good writer. I see that you have been blessed in this area!

I wanted to ask you something. You often reference those who say that there are things they must do in order to be saved and that grace is not enough in their eyes. Can you tell me what you are talking about? I haven't seen that yet on this site, and I can't help from thinking you may be referring to those who observe the Sabbath and keep and honor the Father's holy feast days. Is that correct?

I am one who chooses to observe the feast days over the pagan holidays, and I choose to observe the Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday, but I am solely saved by the sacrifice of Christ for the remission of my sins and nothing else. I do these things because that that is what the word of God says and not because I must do them in order to be saved. There is big difference there, and I want to make sure the other readers can see this.

The Old Testament is such a large part of the book where the Father took many opportunities to tell us what these days meant to Him. He used terms like "everlasting" and "forever" when describing how they were to be observed. These commandments continued into the New Testament, with Christ himself honoring them. He never told us not to continue these, so it seems best to assume that they are "forever" just as He stated. It is also important too that when a believer comes to this point in their walk where the Father shows them He wishes for them to honor His word in this way, then it is critical to obey, for we know that obedience is better than sacrifice.

I am not wanting to debate with you here and don't want to start a long thread of back and forth (that's the part I don't like and don't do very well). I just felt the need to clarify that many of us simply want to honor what the Father said rather than doing these things in order to be saved. It just doesn't seem fair to over-categorize this thought process and way of doing things as legalism or a saved-by-works philosophy, if that is what you are saying. Maybe I am reading you wrong, but I wanted to make sure.

Thank you Patty, and may you be blessed this day!

Stacy

Michael wrote:


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PATTI

We are changed after we are saved. We are free to worship in spirit and strive to keep the commandments without guilt. No more fear of death by not being able to keep the law. Remember, this is the law of the book written by Moses; not the 10 commandments, written in stone by the finger of GOD!

These are FOREVER! They are written on our HEARTS and most people know them like they do their children. They know right from wrong without having to be told because it is subconsciously put in our minds. If we have FAITH then we must change our ways and act as though we are changed, or what good have we done. We must not be lazy because we are saved, but useful, because we have the power of God to help change others lives, and hopefully bring them to Christ. In other words, one should have a desire to please God by keeping his commandments. This requires an active EFFORT on our part.

FAITH without works is DEAD!

YBIC

Michael
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Dear Michael,

Thank you for bringing this up, as I do want to address this.

"Faith without works is dead"

I just knew someone was going to bring this up, and almost addressed this in the above post, but did not want to make it too long. It is a standard quote that everyone who is a Sabbath keeper always uses. Believe me I know, as the Lord put it on my heart to confront a whole church gathering of SDAs a few years ago! I was not pleased as who would be brave enough or foolish enough to do that? But, having many friends who went to this church, the Lord put it on my heart to search the Bible, pray and study and go do this. He gave me the strength, because personally I was terrified, but I obeyed, and people listened and what happened after that was in His hands.

What I find very interesting when someone brings up this quote, is they are admitting that they see Sabbath keeping as works. And, I respect that as it is being honest, even if they do not want to admit it. Okay, lets take a good look at this.

First, let's look at what our own works produce without having Christ, and from the Old Covenant.

Isaiah 64:6
" But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

Now, let's look at some Scripture verses that speak about what kind of works our faith is to produce, and who is doing the work in us under the New Covenant.

Roman 15:18
"For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me."

Ephesians 2:10
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

1 Corinthians 6:17
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Yet, the most telling of all verses is about Jesus being the vine and we being the branches:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” – John 15:1,5

We must understand that works are considered fruit! And who produces fruit in our lives? Is fruit a product of the vine or the branches? Well, the vine of course! Branches may hold the fruit,but the vine produces it! That is what James is talking about, that faith without producing fruit (works) is not really true faith. Because if one truly has faith they will be followed by good works!

There is an interesting addendum. Because of our faith, the spirit will fill us and when the spirit will fill us, the works are the fruit of the spirit...Thus our faith leads into works (James 2:14-26).

Here James reminds us that the kind of “faith” which is required for salvation will produce actions. Therefore a faith that does not produce fruit is dead, and the only way to produce fruit is to have one's branch connected to the Vine!!

Everything of lasting value is the result of the work of Christ but this is what is truly amazing: Christ does his work through us. This is the privilege that is ours, to be the voice, hands and feet of Christ as he accomplishes his purposes. And, in order to do this we must rest in Christ everyday.

The carnal one day a week Sabbath rest of the Old Covenant, that was written in stone, becomes the spiritual continual rest in Jesus under the New Covenant. What do you think is more precious to God? His Commandments written in stone? Or His commandments now written on every believers heart? He may have written the Old Covenant commandments with His finger in stone, but He wrote His New Covenant commandments in His own blood via the death of His only begotten Son.


Lastly, I would like to address these statements you made Michael:
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"If we have FAITH then we must change our ways and act as though we are changed, or what good have we done."
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Do you see. here. in this statement you are making this all about you. and what you must do and how you must act. When we are born again and become a new creation, Jesus is Lord of our lives, and He works through us. We don't need to worry about our own efforts as we are yoked with Him and He carries the load. The only work we do is to make sure that we stay close to Him and rest in His work in us. And if you think this makes one lazy, think again, because Jesus was always working and being about His Father's business and when He lives inside of us so are we!!

And this statement that you made:
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"We must not be lazy because we are saved, but useful, because we have the power of God to help change others lives, and hopefully bring them to Christ."
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The only useful being to God is Jesus! The only being that changes lives is Jesus! The only being that brings people to Himself is Jesus!
It is not up to you at all!! The only way you are useful to Him is if you let Him work through you, otherwise you are just a branch without fruit.

That is why I object so much to the returning to laws that require our works!! It is not about us and what we can or cannot do, it is always all about Jesus.

I hope I addressed what you wrote in a way that clarifies where I am coming from on this issue. Sabbath keeping is a personal choice for those who have the luxury of not having to work for a living on Saturdays. The New Covenant Sabbath is resting everyday in Christ, the shadow has ended as the real is come. My objection is when others try and tell those who are not keeping this Old Covenant law, that it is important in any way to their personal walk with Jesus, and acting like they have more truth by turning back to this shadow, and encouraging others to do so, also.

Bless you brother, I appreciate you and I am grateful for you questions and comments.

JESUS IS ALL AND EVERYTHING!!

Patti C.


P.S. Michael, I think your comments are valid and need to be addressed therefore am posting part of your letter and my response on a separate thread.Hope that is okay with you.

Dear Stacy,

Sorry it has taken me a while to respond. I have written so very much on this subject that I think I have said all that I can say. I know you are new here,so if you have the time and are interested you could search the archives of this site and see all the articles and studies I have written about this.

Most importantly, I am NOT against anyone who wants to keep Saturday as a Sabbath Day, as that is a personal choice and totally up to each person. It is nice to have that luxury in a world that seems to be busy 24/7! What I object to is anyone telling others that Sabbath keeping is better or is in any way required for a Christian under the New Covenant to do. Or, how commandments written in stone are superior to the commandments written on our hearts.

Jesus kept the Sabbath, although he worked many miracles on that day, because until His death he was still under the Old Covenant law, the law He fulfilled every jot and tittle of. Do we hear of any instance when Jesus kept the Sabbath and went to the Temple during the 40 days after His resurrection?

Please also understand that I am greatly outnumbered in regards to those who write on this site, as almost all of them are Sabbath keepers,so you are in good company. But, I have to do what the Lord shows me to do, and that is to present the other side of that, as I see it as returning to the Old when the New has come. Hopefully we have many readers who come here who can benefit from both sides of issues being presented and discussed so that they can find out for themselves.

It's all about loving the Lord and each other, as that is what matters the most.

YSIC

Patti C.

I agree with you Patty. I've stated several times now too how much the disagreement pains my heart; I pray for us to all be on one accord. I respect your position and wish not to debate. I think we are all following where we feel the Lord is leading us, and that is really all we can do.

Blessings to you sister.

Stacy

Dear Stacy,

Ah yes, peace be with you. Amen to what you said. When it all comes down to it, we are on the same side, and that is what counts. We can respect the differences and rejoice in our common ground in Christ. We are family after all!

Agape sister!

Patti C.

Bump