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According
to Judaism man has two inclinations, one good (yetzer tov) and the other evil (yetzer hara), which are both created by God (Berakoth 61a).
However, while the evil inclination is in the human being since his birth,
the good inclination begins to manifest itself when the human being is
thirteen years old. The good inclination prompts man to do good,
while the evil inclination prompts man to do evil. Therefore the reason why a
man keeps the commandments which God gave to Israel on Mount
Sinai is that he follows the good inclination which
is in him, while the reason why man transgresses the law of God is that the
evil inclination deceives him into doing evil things (Sukkah 52b). Judaism
recognizes that often the evil inclination prevails over the good inclination, however man is able to master the evil
inclination, for he is able to choose whether to follow the evil inclination
or the good inclination. Jewish rabbis quote the following Talmudic saying:
‘Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except the fear of Heaven’ (Berakoth
33b), in order to show that it is man who chooses whether to fear God or not.
So, according to Judaism, man is not born inherently evil or sinful or in
need of a personal Saviour who may deliver him from the bondage of sin. Man
is born sinless (Joma 22b), and even though during his life he often does
evil things, he is still able to master the evil inclination which is within
him. At this point, you may ask, ‘How can a man obtain the forgiveness of
sins, according to Judaism?’ Well, Judaism teaches that a man can be forgiven
through repentance – called theshuvah
- (which must be sincere and followed by good works for the Talmud says: ‘And
these are man's advocates: repentance and good deeds’ Shabbath 32a), for
repentance makes atonement for his sins. Repentance – as a means to expiate
one’s sins – has replaced the atoning sacrifices which were offered according
to the law of Moses to make atonement for one’s sins, for after the
destruction of the second temple (which took place in 70 A. D.) they could
not be offered any longer. The Talmud says about repentance: ‘Great is
Teshuvah, for it enables a person to reach the throne of God,’ as it says
'Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God’ (Masechet Yoma: 86a).
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However,
it must be said that repentance alone does not suffice to expiate certain
sins, for the Talmud says: ‘There are four different modes of Atonement. If a
man fails to fulfil the duty incumbent upon him in case of a sin of omission,
for him repentance suffices, as Jeremiah (iii. 22) says, 'Return, ye
backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.' If he has
transgressed a prohibitory law - a sin of commission - the Day of Atonement
atones: of him the Law says, 'On this day He shall atone for your sins to
cleanse you' (Lev. xvi. 30). If he be guilty of crimes such as entail the
death penalty and the like, repentance and the Day of Atonement cannot
expiate them unless suffering works as a purifying factor: to this the
Psalmist refers when he says, 'I will visit their transgressions with the rod
and their iniquities with stripes' (Ps. lxxxix. 33 [A. V. 32]). And if the
crime amount to a desecration of the name of God and the doing of great harm
to the people at large, nothing but death can be the penalty; as Isaiah
(xxii. 14) says, 'Surely this iniquity shall not be atoned for you [A. V.
"purged from you"] till ye die, saith the Lord God of Hosts'"
(Talmud, Yoma, 86a; compare Mishnah Shebu. i. 1-6). As you can see, in order
to obtain the forgiveness of certain sins repentance is not sufficient, for a
Jew must wait for the Day of Atonement (on which the Jews humble themselves
before God, fasting and confessing their sins to God) which atones for all
the sins of commission the Jews have committed (sins against God);
furthermore there are certain sins – crimes such as entail the death penalty
and the like - which are expiated through suffering, and there is a
particular sin, that is, the profanation of God’s name, which is expiated
only through death. That’s why Jews when dying or in peril are called to say:
‘Let my death make atonement for all my sins," (Berachoth 60a; Sanh. vi.
2).
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Confutation
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The Holy
Scriptures teaches that man is born evil, for David said: “Behold, I was
shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” (Psalm 51:5 – The
NIV reads: “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my
mother conceived me”), and God, after He punished the ancient world through
the flood, said about man that “every inclination of his heart is evil from
childhood” (Genesis 8:21
– NIV). Therefore, man’s nature is evil and sinful, that is, corrupt, from
his birth. That’s why it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that
seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an
open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps
is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their
feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And
the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their
eyes” (Romans 3:10-18). The reason why men are born evil or sinful is that
Adam, the first man, sinned and through him all his descendants were made
sinners (cf. Romans 5:19).
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Man is a
slave of sin, as it is written: “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John
8:34
– NKJV). Sin masters man for it is stronger than man, as it is written: “The
evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast”
(Proverbs 5:22
– NIV), so man needs a Saviour, that is, someone who is able to deliver him
from the bondage of sin. Since man is a slave of sin he is not able to do all
the things prescribed by the law which God gave to Israel on Mount Sinai,
therefore he is under the curse of the law, for the law of Moses says:
“Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in
the book of the law, to do them” (Galatians 3:10 – cf. Deuteronomy 27:26 – NKJV).
So he needs to be redeemed from the curse of the law.
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Man is a
transgressor of the law, for he breaks continually the law of God, and the
transgressions of the law he commits repays him with death, for “the wages of
sin is death” (Romans 6:23); therefore man is dead in trespasses and sins and
he can’t have fellowship with God, for the sins he commits separate him from
God, as Isaiah said to the Israelites: “But your iniquities have separated
you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will
not hear” (Isaiah 59:2 - NIV). So a man needs to be made alive in order to be
able to have fellowship with God.
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Man is
deeply in debt, for every transgression of the law he commits is a debt. He
is unjust in the sight of God, that is to say, he is an enemy of God.. Therefore he needs to be justified so that he might be
reconciled to God.
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That’s the
spiritual condition of man in the sight of God. Now, how can a man be saved
from his sins, redeemed from the curse of the law, made alive, and justified?
The answer is this: by faith in Jesus of Nazareth, for He is the Messiah
(that is, the Anointed One), whom God sent into the world in the fullness of
the time (about two thousand years ago) to save us from our sins, to redeem
us from the curse of the law, to make us alive, and to justify us. How did
Jesus accomplish all these things? Through the offering of His body, that is,
through His atoning death He tasted for all of us on the cross.
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Here is
what God said through the prophet Isaiah about the atoning death of the
Messiah: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root
out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness;
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He
is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for
our transgressions, he was bruised for our
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one
to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he
openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who
shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out
of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he
stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and
with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him
to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper
in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear
their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and
he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his
soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:2-12).
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The above
mentioned words of Isaiah were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. For those who
dwelt in Jerusalem and their rulers condemned Him (even though He had gone
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was
with Him) and asked Pilate, governor of Judea, that He should be put to
death. Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested, even though
he had found no reason for death in Jesus. So Jesus was brought to the place called
Golgotha, which
was outside Jerusalem,
and there He was crucified with two robbers, one on His right and the other
on His left. After He breathed His last, He was laid in a tomb which belonged
to Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple of Jesus who was a rich man. But the story
of Jesus of Nazareth did not end with His death, for on the third day God
raised Him from the dead, that it might be fulfilled
what was spoken by David, saying: “My flesh also will rest in hope. For You
will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see
corruption” (Acts 2:26-27: Psalm 16:9-10 - NKJV). After He rose again He was seen
for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem; and
after those days He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand
of God, so that it might be fulfilled what David said by the Spirit: “The LORD
said to my Lord, ‘Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your
footstool’ ” (Matthew 22:44; Psalm 110:1 – NKJV).
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Now let me
explain to you how Jesus, through His death, has saved us from our sins,
redeemed us from the curse of the law, made us alive, and justified us, who
were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating and hateful one another,
children of wrath just as the others.
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Jesus has
saved us from our sins because through His death on the cross He nailed to
the cross the law of commandments contained in ordinances which was against
us (cf. Colossians 2:14; Ephesians 2:15), that is to say, He nailed to the
cross the strength of sin, for it is written that “the strength of sin is the
law” (1 Corinthians 15:56 – NKJV). Jesus was able to nail to the cross the
handwriting of requirements which was against us because He was born sinless
and lived a sinless life. Jesus, having borne our sins (all the transgressions
of the law we committed) in his body on the cross, put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself, and we by faith in Him were freed from the power of
sin. The apostle Paul said to the Romans that ‘our old man was crucified with
Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer
be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin” (Romans 6:6-7
– NKJV). That’s why the angel of the Lord who appeared to Joseph, Mary’s
husband, said to him: “…. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His
people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21
– NKJV), for Jesus is the Saviour. Therefore those who want to be saved must
put their trust in Jesus Christ.
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Jesus has
redeemed us from the curse of the law because He became a curse for us, as it
is written: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13; cf.
Deuteronomy 21:23
– NKJV). By faith in Him we have been delivered from the curse of the law and
blessed with believing Abraham, for just as Abraham was justified through his
faith when he believed that God would multiply his descendants as the stars
of the heaven, so we also were justified when we believed in Jesus, that is,
when we believed that Jesus died for our sins and rose again for our
justification (cf. Romans 4:24-25). We are blessed along with Abraham, for
the Scripture says: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and
whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute
sin” (Romans 4:7-8 – NKJV). Therefore all those who cease relying on the
works of the law and put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ receive the
blessing of Abraham.
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Jesus has
made us alive through His death because the result of His death was
justification that brings life for all men. The apostle Paul wrote to the
Romans: “Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation
for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness [His death] was
justification that brings life for all men” (Romans 5:18 – NIV). So, in the
light of this, our spirit is alive because of the death tasted by Jesus Christ.
We were once dead in our trespasses and sins, but now we are alive, and thus
we can have fellowship with God. So just as the fellowship between God and
Adam was broken through one trespass, so the fellowship between God and men was
restored through one act of righteousness, that is, the death of Jesus
Christ.
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Jesus has
justified us through His death because – as we saw before – He bore our
iniquities in His body on the cross, and consequently the result of His death
was justification. So when we believed that He died on the cross for our sins
and rose again for our justification, our faith was accounted to us for
righteousness. So it was fulfilled in us the Scripture which says: “The just
shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 – NKJV). You, being a Jew by birth,
may ask me now: ‘Did God not say in the law: “You shall therefore keep My
statutes and My judgements, which if a man does, he shall live by them”
(Leviticus 18:5 – NKJV)?’ Yes, He did say those words. However, the point is
that no one keeps the things written in the law, for David says: “All have
turned aside, they have together become corrupt, there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalm 14:3 – NIV). Therefore, all are
under the curse of the law, for God said: “Cursed is everyone who does not
continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them”
(Galatians 3:10
– cf. Deuteronomy 27:26 – NKJV). The law – according to the apostle Paul –
“entered that the offense might abound” (Romans 5:20 – NKJV),
therefore the purpose of the law was not to justify man. The law entered also
that we might become conscious of sin, as Paul says: “By the law is the
knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20),
and also: “I would not have known sin except through the law” (Romans 7:7 –
NKJV). That’s why no one can be justified in the sight of God by observing
the law. However “now the righteousness of God apart from the law is
revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus Christ …” (Romans 3:21-22 – NKJV). So all those
who believe in Jesus are justified from all things from which they could not
be justified by the law of Moses (cf. Acts 13:39). So, you
who are Jews by birth, know this, that by repenting
of your sins, by confessing them on the Day of atonement, and by doing good
deeds to expiate your sins, you can’t be justified before God. What you must
do in order to be justified is to repent of your sins and to believe that
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, who died on the cross for our sins and rose
again for our justification. The mistake you are making is this: you seek the
law of righteousness not by faith, but as if it were by the works of the law.
So, I say to you, stop seeking to establish your own righteousness – which is
like filthy rags in the sight of God –, and submit yourselves to the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus, the promised Messiah, who is
“the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4
– NKJV). You are attempting to expiate your sins through your good deeds, not
knowing that Jesus, the Messiah, atoned for our sins by the offering of His
own body when He was crucified. So what you must do in order to obtain the
forgiveness of your sins is to repent of them and to put your trust in the
atoning sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth and in His resurrection. Only then
will you be able to affirm in full assurance of faith: ‘We are forgiven!’
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I know
very well that you say that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Messiah,
however you are greatly mistaken because you don’t know the Scriptures.
Examine carefully the prophetic Scriptures of the Old Testament which speak
of the Messiah, and the Scriptures of the New Testament which speak of Jesus
of Nazareth, His life, His ministry, His death, His resurrection, His ascension
to heaven, and you will realize that Jesus is really the Messiah. Read my
teaching on the Messiahship of Jesus of
Nazareth, which shows that the prophetic biblical passages
written in the Old Testament, which speak of the Messiah, were fulfilled in Jesus
of Nazareth.
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The sin
offerings offered on the Day of Atonement
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The
atoning death of the Messiah was not only foretold by God through the
prophets but also foreshadowed by the law through the sin offerings which
were to be offered on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest. Here is what
the law says: “And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons
of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died; And the LORD said unto
Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the
holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that
he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall
Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on
the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and
shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be
attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water,
and so put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids
of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron
shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself,
and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the
two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for
the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the LORD's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the
goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive
before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and
to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the
bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an
atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the
sin offering which is for himself: And he shall take a censer full of burning
coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet
incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the
incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover
the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take
of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with
his finger seven times. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that
is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that
blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy
seat, and before the mercy seat: And he shall make an atonement for the holy
place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of
their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle
of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth
in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made
an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation
of Israel. And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and
make an atonement for it; and shall take of the
blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns
of the altar round about. And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his
finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the
children of Israel.
And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the
tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and
confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and
shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the
goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and
he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. And Aaron shall come into the
tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which
he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there: And
he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his
garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt
offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the
people. And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar. And he
that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his
flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. And the bullock for the sin
offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to
make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and
they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung. And
he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water,
and afterward he shall come into the camp. And this shall be a statute for
ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye
shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your
own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: For on that day shall
the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean
from all your sins before the LORD. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you,
and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. And the priest, whom
he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's
office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the
linen clothes, even the holy garments: And he shall make an atonement for the
holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the
congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the
priests, and for all the people of the congregation. And this shall be an
everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement
for the children of Israel
for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.”
(Leviticus 16:1-34).
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As you can
see, on the Day of Atonement the high priest had to kill a bull for his sins
and for his house, and a goat for the sins of the people. Then he had to
enter the Most Holy Place
with the blood of those animals – which were offered as a sin offering - and
sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. In that way he made
atonement for his sins, for the sins of his house and for those of the
people. However, since the law has a shadow of the good things to come and
not the very image of the things (for God had said to Moses when he was about
to make the tabernacle: “See that you make all things according to the
pattern shown you on the mountain” Hebrews 8:5; Exodus 25:40 - NKJV), those sacrifices
which were offered continually year by year could not make the worshipers
perfect in regard to the conscience. Do you not think that if those
sacrifices had been able to cleanse the conscience of the worshippers, they
would have ceased to be offered, for the worshippers, once purified, would
have had no more consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there was a
reminder of sins every year, for it was impossible that the blood of bulls
and goats could take away sins. So God sent the Messiah into the world – that
is, Jesus of Nazareth, who was born of a virgin and thus sinless - so that He
might offer His own blood for our sins once for all, and through His blood we
might be made perfect in regard to the conscience. Yes, for His blood
cleanses the conscience of those who believe (in Him) from dead works.
Therefore, while under the Old Testament in the atoning sacrifices which were
offered continually for the people’s sins there was a reminder of sins every
year, now under the New Testament God remembers no longer the sins of those
who have been sanctified through the blood of Jesus Christ, for their sins
have been blotted out from their conscience.
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So, you
who are Jews by birth, I exhort you to repent of your sins and to put your
trust in the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, which He shed on the
cross for the remission of our sins, so that you may obtain the remission of
sins. Do not rely on the works of the law, for the works of the law cannot
atone for your sins nor cleanse your conscience from your iniquities, but put
your trust in the precious blood of Jesus for it can cleanse your conscience
from all your dead works.
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