Sin is Bondage

What can we say about sin? It seems so much lately that everything is a sin and there is really nothing anyone can do that isn’t sinful. I have lately been called a sinner for simply preaching the keeping of God’s law. I have a problem with all of these ideas, simply because it essentially because they are not Biblical arguments. Sure much of what is taking place in the world can be sinful, I agree with this, but when church goers state outright that judging another member of the body of Christ by the Word of God is a sinful act, I take issue with this.

John 7:24

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

1 Corinthians 5: 11-12

But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

According to this we can clearly conclude that judging someone that is a Brother IS a biblical concept and Paul condoned this action. He also quoted from several chapters of the Torah to support this idea. So again, we see that the things Paul taught were in direct agreement with the Law of God.

Deuteronomy 17:7, 19:18-19, 24:7

The hands of the witnesses shall be the first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put away the evil from among you.

And the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you shall put away the evil from among you.

“If a man is found kidnapping any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and mistreats him or sells him, then that kidnapper shall die; and you shall put away the evil from among you.

The evil people among the Believers are those that are breaking God’s Law. This should be quite evident. These evil people are sinners, and to be a sinner one can only break the commands of God. This is what the Pharisees did when they added to the law. That was a command God gave in order to keep people accountable to His Law.

To take this a step further, is keeping God’s law considered bondage as so many in the church claim today? I believe this is in complete error of the New Testament teaching. If we are to say that Paul taught against the Torah, we must conclude that he was a false prophet according to the Torah itself.

Deuteronomy 13: 1-5

“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 13 is the test that every prophet must pass in order to even be considered as someone YHWH would approve. Therefore, a prophet must preach keeping the commands of YHWH, and continual belief in and obedience of YHWH. If this isn’t being done, according to God’s own Word, the prophet is not sent by YHWH but is a false prophet. How this is so often overlooked is beyond me. When we decide to follow the Word of God, we need no teacher, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. That being said, we need to take into consideration the entire Word of God, and not just the New Testament.

Sin is bondage, not the Law of God. Too many times has the argument arises that claims keeping the “law of Moses” is keeping ourselves in bondage. The first problem I have with that is the fact that the Law of Moses is one and the same as the Law of God. Secondly, we are told that God removed His people out of the bondage of Egypt. If this argument is correct then we must conclude that God took His people out of the bondage of one country in order to place them right back in bondage in another city. Sounds kinda stupid, huh?

Acts 8:22-23

Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

1 John 5:17

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Wickedness requires repentance. Furthermore, we can see that the man in question is bound by iniquity. The Greek word here for iniquity is adikia and this same Greek word is used in the second passage for the word unrighteousness. Therefore we can conclude that iniquity is sin and having concluded that we can clearly understand that sin is bondage. The man in Acts was bound by sin.

Romans 6:6, 16, 19

knowing this, 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

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?

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.

Deuteronomy 6:25

Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us.’

As we can see from these several examples found in the book of Romans, sin is what Paul was always referencing in terms of bondage. Being a slave to sin, or a slave to lawlessness. He even asks a question concerning the difference between sin and righteousness. This should be a nail in the coffin of the idea that Paul teaches against the Torah. Obeying YHWH’s commands is our righteousness. That is what brings us closer to Him. Disobeying His commands is sin and continuing to sin is what leads us away from Him. It is really a simple concept that has been turned into something completely contrary to His intended will for all of us.

What I would like you to take away from this is that fact that sin is bondage, not the Law of God.

Understanding Paul

Who was Paul? What was the purpose given to Paul after he became a believer in Christ?

Let’s start first with who he was. Paul was a Pharisee, he crucified believers in Yeshua all the way up to the point when he saw Yeshua in a vision. Paul was known as Saul before this vision and we read that he was in attendance at the stoning of Stephen. This is our first introduction to this man.

Acts 7:58-59

and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Acts 8:3

As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.

Acts 9:1-2

Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

Paul absolutely hated everyone that followed Yeshua’s words over the pharisaical traditions. So, what would cause this man to completely turn his life around and change everything that he ever believed? Even more, why would this particular person be chosen to be the lead apostle for gentiles?

The first thing to address is the what would cause him to preach against the Pharisees. It is obvious that the visions he saw of Christ on the road to Demascus is the main reason he would now preach Christ is the son of God. But, does this mean he would have to completely throw out the entire Torah laws?

Now, why was he chosen? First we see that Barnabus was sent to find Paul and go to Antioch. Lets first check this certain part out.

Acts 11:19, 25-26

Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only.

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

It seems that Peter was given the vision of the unclean animals and was later told that the animals represented the gentiles because the apostles were only preaching to the Jews. This was a problem and not something that YHWH, the Father, wanted to happen. This is the whole reason Paul’s story is interrupted by Peter’s vision. If you look at it from this point of view it makes sense in a chronological order as well.

It is Acts chapter 13 when Saul is first called Paul and is continually referred to that way from there on.

Acts 13:13-14

Now when Paul and his party set sail from Paphos, they came to Perga…But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. 15 And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, …

Notice that Paul rested in the Synagogue on the Sabbath and read the Law and the Prophets. I find this quite interesting considering the majority of church goers’ today claim Paul taught against the Law. Now, what is even more interesting about Paul is what he says in this same chapter. This too seems to contradict what the modern Church claims about the Savior and goes hand in hand with what Yeshua said about coming only for the lost sheep of Israel.

Acts 13: 23

From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior—Jesus—

Acts 22:3

I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today.

Galatians 1: 13-14

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

You see, Paul was the best Torah and prophets scholar in the world. Sure, he was extremely passionate about the traditions of the Pharisees, but that was the only part of his teaching that needed to be given up. He knew the law of God better than anyone. To even be taught by Gamaliel one had to be a scholar. So, why would YHWH choose this legalistic Judaizer to preach to the gentiles if he had to contradict everything he knew? That doesn’t make any logical sense. He was chosen because he knew the word so well that he could teach it to others and plant churches throughout the gentile nations. In order to plant a church he had to teach a few elders well enough that they could be trusted to continue teaching new converts the word. This is why he had to send letters to people about falling away from what he had taught them. These people were allowing their friends and family to mock and ridicule them so much that they were reverting back to the pagan roots that they grew up learning. Paul taught them God’s ways. He taught them the torah. That is why we repeatedly see Paul, as well as the other prophets stopping in the synagogues and reading the Torah. That is also exactly what Yeshua meant when he said to do as the Pharisees say, but not as they do.

Matthew 23: 1-3

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do

It seems that this verse is regularly overlooked. Basically, the point of this entire blog is to simply state that Paul taught the word, as in the Torah. He preached it and set up churches throughout the Gentile nations to preach it as well. The Pharisee law was adding to God’s law, and that violated his law.

Deuteronomy 4:2

You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you

Unfortunately, the church today has done the complete opposite of Judaism in the first century. Today the church has taken away nearly all of the Word of God. We need to get our stuff together and really take a good look at the Word for ourselves and stop only listening to preachers, and authors. The Bible can stand alone without anyone telling us what we are supposed to believe. If we do this, we can get back to where the Father has always wanted us to be.