We receive the Tikkun Ministries Newsletter and I have found this sort of message from Daniel Juster many times over the years.  Enjoy.

Discipleship: Embracing The Most Foundational Commandments

Dr Daniel Juster, Director

To understand the most foundational commandments is the first and most important rung of the ladder of discipleship. Those Messianic Jews - and Gentiles who have joined them - who do not have an ambivalent attitude to commandments are poised on that rung - we know that we are a commanded people!

We understand that Yeshua defined the process of discipleship - making disciples - as teaching others to observe all that He commanded (Matthew 28:19,20). Because Yeshua exhorted us to teach and apply the commandments given through Moses (Matthew 5:17,18) and also ordained the authority of the apostolic writers of the New Covenant Scriptures, all of the commandments of the Bible need to be taken seriously and applied. We understand that commandments have to be applied according to their intended purpose in context. This is a tall order: where can we even begin?

The Big Two

There are two commandments that are so important, so foundational, that if we can attain to them, all of the rest will eventually be attained. Yeshua told us from the Torah that the greatest of all commandments is first to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and, second, to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Mark 12:30,31) It is amazing to think of how encompassing this is. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan and the injured Jew are neighbors! Husbands and wives are neighbors in the same house and even in the same bed. If we can learn this way of love, everything else will come together. Yeshua taught that if we love Him, we will keep his commandments (John 14:21). But that is the rub: How can we achieve this kind of love?

Enabling Commands

God has given us a few commandments that are the keys to establishing these two most important commandments in our lives. The first of these enabling commands is obeying the call to be immersed in water, with all that it implies.

What is implied? Through water immersion, the believer is making a full commitment to be a disciple. Many miss this important step. We are to teach the person to fully identify in immersion with the death and resurrection of Yeshua and to be filled with the Spirit. This will help us to understand the significance of the act. Immersion is a deep commitment to die to self and live for the Messiah by his power in us. The call to discipleship expressed in immersion means submitting to those who will mentor and hold the new believer accountable as they learn to live out the commandments of Yeshua. All this should be settled in immersion! Of course, this process only works safely if the mentors are themselves disciples in submission either to other mentors or to a peer group who hold them accountable, not only for their own lives but for their discipling of others.

The second of these is obeying Yeshua's command to abide in the Vine; for He is the vine. New believers soon discover that they cannot love God as commanded. They also cannot love their neighbors as commanded. The answer to this dilemma comes through abiding in the Vine. John 14-16 provides the most important material in the Bible on how to grow into this love. This is the way to build faith. We spend time in the Word, meditating upon Yeshua, praying to Him, listening to Him and receiving anew His Holy Spirit power. Without this, the practice of the commandments will be an external effort, full of frustration and failure. This means that believers need to be discipled into a deep and fruitful devotional life. As they read through the Word, they are to be discipled into asking questions of the text so they can accurately understand and apply what is written. As with immersion, this process will only work if those discipling others themselves have a rich devotional life that they can model and teach by example.

We love Him because He first loved us. Therefore, we are mandated to spend time simply opening ourselves to Him, seeking to perceive and embrace the love God has for us which is manifest in Yeshua. Paul explained in Romans 6 and Galatians 2:20, that we are to constantly renew ourselves to that place of death to self and resurrection life that lives for others. Our faith is centered on Yeshua Himself.

The Rest Will Follow

A person who truly pursues God in this way, with the help and encouragement of his disciple mentor(s), and in openness and accountability in a small group of believers that meet for mutual edification and prayer, will be on the way to full discipleship.

This love for God and others also leads to the walk of forgiveness. As one walks in forgiveness, one will learn to forgive others; not only in those situations where a person truly repents and we forgive them, but even on those occasions where a person does not repent and we - like Yeshua - must say, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they do." (Luke 23:34) This does not mean that justice is destroyed, but rather that our heart's desire is for the person to repent that they might be blessed of God. Our heart is not for vengeance but for restoration. Most problems in community life are due to selfishness and the lack of walking in forgiveness.

As people grow in these most basic lessons, they will learn, for example, how to control their tongue thereby reducing gossip among the believers. For love's sake, they will be open to mutual correction in their walk in community.

Our love for God and hatred of sin will lead to moral purity in our lives and in the lives of our children. Children will be brought up in the fear of the Lord, our teens will be raised to live in moral purity and so much more. The key is in the first critical steps of laying the foundation, "the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Messiah Yeshua Himself being the corner stone." (Ephesians 2:20) My prayer is that we will become communities that practice this life of discipleship.

When God first created man, the intention of the Creator was that mankind should emulate Him and conform to His “likeness.” Adam was, after all, a “son of God” (Lk. 3:38). Unfortunately, Adam departed from that goal when he disregarded the command concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and, in so doing, began to emulate the serpent (Gen. 3:1). I say this because the word that describes the serpent as “cunning or subtle” (arum ערום) and the word used to describe the man’s condition after partaking of the forbidden fruit – that is, “naked” (eirom עירם) – both come from the same Hebrew root word (aram ערם).

 In other words, after his disobedience, man began to act like the serpent and, beginning with Seth, was no longer made in God’s image but in the image and likeness of Adam (Gen. 5:3) – a fallen Adam sentenced to die (Gen. 3:19). It was necessary, then, that man return to the ideal and purpose first established by the Creator, meaning that God would have to provide the way for mankind to, once again, conform to His likeness and be “sons of the living God” (Hos. 1:10). Consequently He, the only Righteous One, would have to become their salvation – their yeshuah.

“He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.” (Isaiah 59:16)

The eighteenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, tzade צ, expresses the concept of righteousness and is thus called “the righteous one.” In part, this is based on the fact that the Hebrew word “righteousness” tzadik צדיק begins with the letter tzade צ. Righteousness, put simply, is doing what is right as defined by the Creator. Righteousness, according to Proverbs 10:25, is the foundation of the world and so tzade צ is considered the Hebrew letter upon which Creation depends and rests. Ultimately, it is understood that God alone is righteous and, therefore, it is He who is the foundation of the world and, consequently, its salvation. Hence, the Scripture above tells us that “His own righteousness” sustained Him and “His own arm brought salvation.” In other words, no man was able to render salvation and so, if Creation was to endure, His righteousness (tzadik) must become our salvation (yeshua). 

The Righteous Shall Live By Faith 

 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

While the letter tzade צ speaks of the only true “Righteous One,” it also alludes to those who desire to live by His righteous standards. The “righteous” are those who strive to emulate and faithfully represent the Creator here on earth, by being conformed to His image as they walk in obedience to His instructions. Paul tells us that those who are led by the Spirit – that is, walking according to truth of God’s Word – are “sons of God” (Rom. 8:14). Rabbinic literature teaches that the tzade צ is considered to be the “form mate” of the letter alef א. In other words, tzade צ is the one letter that most closely resembles the “likeness” of alef א. This is an interesting concept because the letter alef א is considered to be the Master of the Universe. So then, the tzade צ also represents the “righteous,” that is those who most closely resemble the character and “likeness” of the Creator.

Still, something needs to be interjected here: Scripture has already expressed to us that no man has ever been capable of obtaining the level of righteousness required to accomplish our salvation. As it is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10). According to Scripture, our “righteousness” will not be able to deliver us in the day of our transgression (Eze. 33:12). Our righteousness is as “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). With his own good works proving insufficient, something beyond his capability “to do” would be necessary if man was to be delivered from his fallen state. In the Scripture above, Paul addressed this when, quoting Habakkuk 2:4 he said, “the just shall live by faith.” The Hebrew word Habakkuk used to express “the just” is tzadik צדיק - righteous - and so, Paul actually said, “the righteous shall live by faith.” If we are to truly resemble the Creator, genuinely conform to His likeness and walk according to His standards, then we must first exhibit faith. James wrote:

 “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ And he was called the friend of God.” (James 2:23)

Exactly how did Abraham believe God? Was it merely because he heard and acknowledged in his heart that God had spoken to him? No. Rather it was that, when hearing God’s instruction to him, he began to act upon that instruction. In other words, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17), but “faith without works is dead” (Jam. 2:20). When Abraham heard the Word of God, he responded by doing what the Word of God instructed him to do. God told him to leave the land of his fathers and travel to a land that he didn’t know (Gen. 12:1-2). The writer of Hebrews tell us that Abraham obeyed because he was waiting for “a city . . . whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). Ask yourself, did he see it? I submit to you that he didn’t and yet he did. Here is why: “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1) and without this “faith” there is no hope of pleasing God (Heb. 11:6) – there is no hope of being deemed “righteous.”

When Habakkuk and then Paul wrote that “the righteous shall live by faith,” it was to suggest that “the righteous” will, at times, be compelled to believe something they cannot see, touch, or explain. Sometimes, if not most of the time, it will transcend our human ability to define it but, even if it does, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Here is the point. If the “righteous” are defined by righteous acts, then the primary and initial righteous act is to believe what God says - even when you can’t explain it – and then act upon it. Subsequent righteous actions (works) are predicated solely on the understanding that the only one who is truly “righteous” has become our salvation. In other words, there is no logical way to explain, in human terms at least, how God became flesh and saved us from our sin – you can’t define the indefinable. Yet Scripture makes it clear – “His own arm brought salvation.” Because I believe that, I act upon it and am motivated to do what He has asked me to do. What did He ask me to do?

“If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

In the verse prior to the one containing the quote taken from Habakkuk (where the righteous live by faith), Paul says that:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16)

For everyone who acts upon this belief – the good news of the Messiah Y’shua - there is the promise of salvation. Furthermore, Paul explains that by acting upon this belief, a person is truly considered righteous in God’s eyes.

 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

When we believe that the “Righteous One” has saved us and we act upon this belief, we are considered “righteous.” Moreover, if we truly believe then we will strive to live according to His righteous standards. So then, the “righteous” desire to emulate and conform to the image of the Messiah by doing what He has commanded us to do. Faith, then, is the impetus that provokes the “righteous” to faithfully represent and mirror the character of the Creator in a chaotic world.

 Abundant Life

 Rabbinic literature considers tzade צ to be the female counterpart – that is, “bride” - of the letter alef א, the Master of the Universe. Thus, tzade צ is also referred to as the “righteous bride.” A righteous bride, of course, seeks to do what pleases her husband. When united with him, she becomes one with him and is to be a reflection of him. Likewise, our bridegroom Y’shua calls us to do what pleases Him and to be a reflection of His character. He illustrates this for us when He referred to Himself as the “light of the world” (Jn. 19:5), and yet called His followers – those who emulate Him – “the light of the world” (Mt 5:14). We are the “light” if we are in the “light” and He in us. There must be this intimacy. So then, the “righteous” not only desire to emulate and conform to the likeness of the Creator, but also want to be one with the Creator – to be His bride.

Finally, through this union of “master” and “bride,” certain rabbinic literature sees that, ultimately, tzade צ is the letter that represents “life.” The logic behind this is that, life is possible only when a man and woman, a husband and wife come together and produce offspring – life. In fact, the passion to run to God and take shelter in Him and be with Him is the “life force” of the tzadik, the righteous (see Pro. 18:10). Interestingly, tzade צ is the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alef-bet. Eighteen happens to be the numerical value of the Hebrew word chai חי or “life.” So in the end, righteousness is equivalent to life. That means the Righteous One is the source of life and those who desire to emulate Him and conform to His image (by following His instructions) seek to have life “and have it more abundantly” (Jn. 10:10). Consequently, the only way to truly live is to be willing to give up my life as a “son of Adam” (which carries a death sentence) and be born again as a “son of God” because He, the Righteous One, has become my salvation – my Y’shua!  Blessings.