Surely we all agree that the law versus grace arguments have long been a cause for division among the children of Abraham. So we should not be surprised that it has been difficult for us to try to settle this weighty matter on this little forum.

To address this issue, I would like to say the following.

Please forgive me if I sound like I am preaching, but I do feel compelled to write this.

The Father has been using the two houses of Israel to uphold two immutable truths: law and grace. Both are absolutes. He has a law, and He offers grace to the lawbreaker.

Judah has preserved the knowledge of the law, of which Paul writes, "where there is no law, there is no transgression" (Rom 4:15).

This means the law has to be in place in order for us to understand that we have transgressed. If there is no standard we would never know when we transgressed that standard.

The Father’s law presents a high standard, one that man cannot attain to. Mortal man always falls short in one way or another.

The Father’s ever-present, eternal law points out our transgressions. It shows our need for Messiah's sacrifice, for mercy and grace.

When we believe in the Messiah, believe that He died in our place, we find forgiveness, we find Salvation.

“By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

We are saved by grace alone, and not on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:6).

Because the fact that we are saved by grace alone is such an absolute truth, some want to say that a Believer in the Messiah does not have to do anything but believe in the Messiah.

But then comes the rub:

“We are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Eph 2:10).

We are called to walk in good works.

James says, “Faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

“You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:17-24).

Once we see that man was created for good works, the question becomes: how can we know what are good works?

We cannot know apart from the Instruction manual that is the Torah.

Our Father says of these Instructions:

“Keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'” And, "You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it” (Deu 4:6; 11:8).

Because we want to be a strong and wise people, we look to the Torah for truth. There we find the promise of a coming Prophet, one likened unto Moses, one who will speak all that the Father commands Him (Deu 18:18-19). There we find Yeshua.

Scripture foretold that Messiah Yeshua would come to redeem His people, and that He would bring them into a new and better covenant. He would improve the covenants made with Abraham and his heirs, He would add to those covenants the most glorious promise of all, that of eternal life.

Part and parcel of this glorious covenant is the following promise:

"’Behold, days are coming,’ declares YHVH, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares YHVH. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares YHVH, ‘I will put My Torah within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

When we fully enter into this covenant, when we fully enter into our Messiah’s Kingdom, then it will be said of us: "They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know YHVH,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ declares YHVH, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’ (Jer 31:31-33; also seed Heb 8:8,13; 9:15; 12:24).

In and through our Messiah, we have been made “adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:6). As His bond-servants, during our sojourn on this earth we are in the process of having the Father’s Torah written on our hearts, for that is the essence of the New Covenant.

Bond-servants stay with their masters out of love for them.

We are not in our Master’s house because we have a debt to pay, but because we do not want to live anywhere else. We are like the returning prodigal: it is better to be a servant in the Father’s house than to be a king outside of it.

Our Father is looking for people who want to be with Him because of their great love for Him. He is not looking for puppets who obey Him out of fear, nor for those who supposedly obey that they might appear to be as lords over others.

He just wants people who will love Him.

He can give Himself everything else. But the one thing the Creator cannot create, is free will love. Only we can give that to Him.

The Father wants us to want Him even as He wants us.

If we do not understand that it all boils down to love, then we do not understand Torah, which is in truth a love story. Our God is the Living Torah, and He is Love.

He so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to die in our place, to pay the price for our sins. We in turn love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).

It is a love story.

If we treat one of the Father’s children as though they can be badgered into this type of love, we do not understand the fullness of His love.

If we live in a way that does not give evidence to the world that we are returning this great love to our Master, we do not fully know His love. For to know Him is to love Him. And, if you love Him, you will keep His commandments, the greatest of which is to love Him and to love one another.

To walk in that love in this last day, as we seek to reunite the whole house of Israel, we must realize that the twin truths of law and grace are immutable.

Both are eternal truths. Both must be approached looking through the lens of love.