*Download article in PDF Format	*Watch YouTube video

 
Many in these end times who preach lawlessness often cite various verses from the Apostle Paul to justify their faith. Some of these verses, on the surface, may seem to suggest that God’s eternal laws (Torah) were bondage that Yeshua (Jesus) came to free us from. This article will examine and analyze some of these verses and reveal the proper viewpoint on them.

MATTHEW 5:17-18:
“DO NOT THINK that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle WILL BY NO MEANS PASS FROM THE LAW…”

LUKE 16:17:
“It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.”

In spite of what Yeshua (Jesus) clearly commanded concerning the law, many lawless advocates want believers to think that He came to destroy the law and free us from it. They proclaim that the law itself was a terrible yoke of bondage that He gave to us, and then He freed us from it.

WHAT IS THE YOKE OF BONDAGE?

GALATIANS 4:8-10:
But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again TO BE IN BONDAGE? You closely observe days and months and seasons and years.

GALATIANS 5:1-6:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Messiah (Christ) has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a YOKE OF BONDAGE. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Messiah (Christ) will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
You have become estranged from Messiah (Christ), YOU WHO ATTEMPT TO BE JUSTIFIED BY LAW; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

Paul, in Galatians 4:8-10 and 5:1-6, addresses law-keeping Messianic Jews, who were not regarding the righteousness of Messiah (Christ), which is righteousness by faith, and were solely seeking to establish (justify) their own righteousness through Sabbath observance, annual calendar festivals, circumcision, and through various law-keeping. Paul was addressing the point that these observances of the law do not make one justified before God and that we are justified by the righteous blood of Yeshua (Jesus).

ROMANS 10:1-3:
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, HAVE NOT SUBMITTED TO THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.

Paul knew that circumcision was an everlasting covenant (Genesis 17:13) and he circumcised Timothy who opted to be circumcised as an adult…

ACTS 16:1,3:
And behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted to have him go on with him. AND HE TOOK HIM AND CIRCUMCISED HIM…

The ‘yoke of bondage,’ spoken of by Paul in Galatians 5:1 is further shown NOT to be the ‘yoke of the law,’ when continuing to read through Galatians 5 to verses 19-21. . .

GALATIANS 5:19-21:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, drug sorcery, hatred, quarrels, jealousies, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the reign of Elohim (kingdom of God).

The yoke of bondage that Messiah (Christ) freed us from is the bondage of corruption and sin, which we were once slaves to, but now He has called upon us to be slaves of righteousness and His laws.

2 PETER 2:18-22:
For when they [LAW-IS-DONE-AWAY-WITH LAWLESS PREACHERS] speak arrogant words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error [SIN]. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are SLAVES OF CORRUPTION; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah (Jesus Christ), they are again entangled in them and overcome [BY SIN], the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness [GOD’S LAWS], than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb:
“A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

ROMANS 6:15-23:
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, WHETHER OF SIN LEADING TO DEATH, OR OF OBEDIENCE LEADING TO RIGHTEOUSNESS? But God be thanked that though you were SLAVES OF SIN yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been SET FREE FROM SIN, you became SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as SLAVES OF UNCLEANNESS AND OF LAWLESSNESS leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as SLAVES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HOLINESS. For when you were SLAVES OF SIN, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been SET FREE FROM SIN, and having become SLAVES OF GOD, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) our Lord.

ROMANS 8:20-21:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the BONDAGE OF CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Yeshua’s (Jesus’) yoke is not a yoke of bondage, His yoke is a yoke of righteousness and His yoke is light.

MATTHEW 11:30:
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

1 JOHN 2:3-6:
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

MATTHEW 22:37-40; MARK 12:29-31:
Yeshua (Jesus) said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang ALL THE LAW and the Prophets.”

JOHN 13:34:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”

Yeshua’s (Jesus’) law of love sums up all of His law (Torah), which is good, was given in love, is eternal, and is righteous.

JOHN 7:16-19:
Yeshua (Jesus) answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. DID NOT MOSES GIVE YOU THE LAW, YET NONE OF YOU KEEPS THE LAW?

Yeshua’s (Jesus’) ‘law of love’ did not free us from His law (Torah), or the laws of Moses, as He rebuked some of the wicked Jews of His time for not obeying the law.