When we are called by the father to receive the gift of faith, in the redemptive work of our Rabbi Yeshua the Messiah (His death and resurrection), upon acceptance we are instantly a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation- the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new!”. So what exactly is a new creation? God gives us some very insightful lessons from the Torah and the Good News scriptures that paint a picture to deepen our understanding of what it means. In the book of Bereshit / Geneses there is a picture God gives us of the process of creation, which can be used to show us our life with and without Yeshua as our Messiah.
Without our Rabbi Yeshua in our life, we are separated from God and His Torah (teachings) as well as His love, which Rabbi Shaul teaches that we are nothing without it. So what does it mean to be nothing? (Bereshit / Geneses 1:2) “The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep”. The dictionary defines the word void as; empty, useless, vain, and gives us synonyms to the word such as; fruitless, and meaningless. Do these definitions look familiar? If we look back into our previous studies about love and our life as a believer, there is a definite connection to be considered. Without love, we are not truly united with the Messiah and living in darkness , and no better than a non-believer, because even Yeshua said (Mattityahu / Matthew 7:21) “Not everyone who says to me ‘Mori (teacher), Mori!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, only those who do what my Father in Heaven wants”. So what does our father in heaven want? To follow the commandments of course and Yeshua even simplified it so we can never forget, (Mattityahu / Matthew 22:36-40) “Rabbi, which of the mitzvot in the Torah is the most important?” He told them, “’ You are to love HaShem your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength.” This is the greatest and most important mitzvah. And a second is similar to it, ‘You are love your neighbour as yourself.’ All of the Torah and the prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot”. Our Rabbi, Maran Yeshua clearly shows us the way to true Emuna and it’s deeply rooted with a foundation of love towards God and our neighbours. Please understand however that this does not annul or cancel out the other commandments, it just shows us how essential love is in the fulfillment of mitzvot in our relationship with God and with our neighbours.
As believers in Yeshua, we don’t desire what is darkness because it separates us from the presence of God and makes us false witnesses of the light of the Messiah in us. The light of Yeshua is what sustains us as believers, (Yochanan / John 1:4-5) “In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not suppressed it”. Yeshua is the light from the beginning of creation; (Bereshit / Geneses 1:3) “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from darkness”. As we can see from the scripture (Yochanan / John 1:2) “He was in the beginning with God”. Another insightful scripture to further our understanding is (Yochanan / John 8:12) “Yeshua spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light which gives life”.
Yeshua gives us another teaching about the light in our lives; (Mattityahu / Matthew 5:14-17) “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Likewise, when people light a lamp, they don’t cover it with a bowl but put it on a lamp stand, so that it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they may see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven”. The essence of the light are the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things.” All these elements are of the light and part of us a new creations, we are not to conceal our light with a bowl of arrogance which means an offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride, but rather we are to be humble and child like because we are Gods children and radiate the world with the fullness of the Torah, Gods love. So each time we put on our Tzitzis and look at the cords of blue in remembrance of the commandments of Torah, remember first the love which the Torah represents so that the commandments will be truly fulfilled and our light will cast away all darkness and bare the fruits of the Spirit.
With the light of our Rabbi, Maran Yeshua in our lives, we change from a dark, void and empty existence, to a beautiful garden of love and Emuna as a new creation and part of the glorious Kingdom of God. In this world of darkness and confusion that we are in, Yeshua has made our paths straight with the true revelation of Torah written on our hearts and the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit) to guide us. As God said in (Yechezk’el / Ezekiel 36:26-27) “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit inside of you; I will take the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit inside of you and cause you to live by my laws, respect my rulings and obey them”.
Baruch Atah HaShem, Elohenu Melech ha olam, asher kid’shanu bid’varo, v’natan lanu et Yeshua M’she’chay’nu, v’tzi’vanu l’ki’ot or la olam.
Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by your Word, given us Yeshua our Messiah and has commanded us to be a light to the world.