Part 3: Are the Law and Grace mutually exclusive?

continuing in this theme, i want to ask a few questions related to what exactly in Torah would be applicable to us today if we were indeed intended to obey Torah…

what is Torah? the generic response by all is the first five books in the Old Testament. often Tanakh (the entire Old Testament) is included in that. and often the Oral Torah (Talmud, etc) will be included by contemporary Jews. so a better question might be, what WAS Torah in the 1st century context? Jesus seems to differentiate between “Law” and “Prophets” as does Paul. does this mean that the Torah was considered the first five books alone? even if the entire Tanakh was included, what exactly would be considered Torah in the Tanakh? clearly, God wasnt giving a “law” to the Jewish people when King David slept with Bathsheva. so not all of Tanakh is part of Torah, right? Torah means “teaching” most directly. so is it only the teachings of God in the Scriptures? or is it the teachings of man as well? as Jesus and Paul seem to point out, the Torah can be summarized in the commandments Love the LORD God with all your heart mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. so is this alone the Torah? or can we include the Ten Words (or commandments) which are according to Jewish tradition, the structure for the entire rest of the 613 commandments? if we include the Ten Commandments, do we include the rest of the 613 commandments as well? some of these commandments no longer are possible, even for orthodox Jews, so which are applicable? did God ever intend all of these commandments to be universal? or were they to be merely for the Jewish people?

more directly to the question of law and grace, however, would keeping the 10 commandments be “keeping Torah”? if so, did Jesus expect gentiles to keep them? did Jesus only intend us to keep the greatest commandment? or did Jesus intend us to keep all 613 (that applied)? or did Jesus intend us to keep the 613 of the Tanakh and the 800 of the New Testament? how can we really know? can we?

one final question, what does this verse in the NEW TESTAMENT mean: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 Jn 5:1-5???????