A Messianic congregation is not only God’s gracious commitment, not only His good communication, but it is essential in His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Yeshua has “all the authority in heaven and on earth,” and with that authority He has commanded us to make disciples (Matthew 28:18). If we are convinced of His Lordship, we must therefore be committed to His discipleship, for He said, “Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). This means raising new believers in the faith so that they will live out God’s faithfulness in their circumstances.

It starts with immersion, which testifies publicly to what the Spirit did at salvation: identifying the new believer with the Lord (Matthew 28:20). However, discipleship is not only the one time act, but it is the ongoing activity of growing as believers in all that Yeshua has commanded. We are to teach the truth, not merely transfer information, so that believers will observe, or do, all that Yeshua commanded.

The primary function of any congregation is as a disciple-making center, even as the Lord’s faithfulness is fully seen in a discipled believer. Remember the minister in NY who thought his congregation’s outreach efforts were a total failure because no one was “saved”? What this evaluation failed to consider was that the habit of having his congregants sharing their faith should be a part of their healthy growth as disciples. It is healthy disciples, not larger numbers, which is the goal of the congregation.
What does this have to do with a Messianic congregation? Well, the undiscipled believer is an unfaithful believer. Our faithfulness is to demonstrate the faithfulness of God in Messiah, since we are to reflect Him (1 Peter 1:15; Leviticus 19:2). Just as God is committed to keep the Jewish people as a people, so every believer is to have this same commitment. When the child of a Jewish believer does not say, “I am a Jew” (Acts 22:3), but instead proclaims through his words or actions, “I think my dad or mom was Jewish,” this does not just reflect a poor testimony of the body of Messiah, but also reflects poor discipleship. This in turn only gives Messiah a bad name in the Jewish community, but the real failure was the breach in following Yeshua.
If a new believer understands his or her Jewish identity in Messiah, then this same God who promised that He would not “leave nor forsake our people” is seen in the eyes of the Jewish community, and to all who are looking, as the same faithful Lord who said, “I am with you always to the end of the age” (Joshua 1:9; Matthew 28:20).

From the Messianic Times, 2011 January-February issue. Review by Julia Blum

You don’t expect much passion when you open a theological book. However, Messianic Foundations is not only a wonderful exploration and clarification of many theological principles, but indeed a book of passion—God’s love. Author Sam Nadler says he sees the whole purpose of Messianic theology as expressing the faithfulness of God. “God’s hands are outstretched to His people all day long,” Nadler explains, asking, “Where are His hands today? They are yours and mine.” What an awesome challenge —to be God’s hands outstretched to Israel! This book is written in order to help to embrace this calling.

First, Nadler considers God’s plan for Jewish believers. He speaks about the necessity and prophetic significance of Messianic congregations. Traditional Jewish concepts, such as Tikkun Olam and Kiddush HaShem, are infused with a Messianic meaning. Following this line, we can sum up the first part of the book with Nadler’s version of the well-known Hebrew words Am Yisrael Chai b’Shem Yeshua! (The people of Israel live, in the name of Yeshua!) According to the book, Messianic believers and Messianic congregations are the greatest testimony of God’s faithfulness. The Messianic remnant is the guarantee not only of the future national revival, but of the national survival as well. If Yeshua is indeed the Jewish Messiah, the preservation of Israel can’t happen apart from Him. Only faith in Yeshua saves. God’s mercy is offered in the Messiah alone to all who believe—to the Jew first, but also to the Gentiles.

Thus, Nadler moves on to discussing God’s role for Gentiles within Messianic movement. How do they fit into God’s plan of redemption? The book presents a clear and well-grounded understanding of this issue. Gentiles who believe in Yeshua are still Gentiles; they must embrace their mission as Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. While never replacing Israel, they are to identify with the Jews in devotion and service, as part of God’s family. To support this, Nadler goes to Romans 11, offering new and non-traditional interpretations of the Apostle Paul’s masterpiece. Concepts such as “the fullness of the Gentiles” and “the olive tree” are then seen in a new light.

Finally, the book turns to the subject of New Covenant Messianic faith. Taking a close look at differences and continuities between the covenants, Nadler presents a new view on “New Covenant Torah.” This section provides many interesting points for those seeking an answer to the controversial question of Messianic believers in relation to the Torah.

Not many books simultaneously satisfy your heart and your mind, but Messianic Foundations is one that does. Whether Jewish or Gentile, you are required to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to Israel—and this book will definitely deepen your understanding of this calling.

Casey Stengel, legendary manager of the Yankees and later the Mets, said: “It’s easy to get good players. Getting them to play together, that’s the hard part.” It’s not easy to accept and serve with others. As in baseball, we may be recruited individually but if we actually play it’s as part of a team. You are saved by personal faith, but you live out your salvation as part of a fellowship. As part of just how the Gentiles relate to the Messianic testimony, we will be considering the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in Messiah.

Even as God’s triune nature is the basis for all reality, so is life about relationships: friendships, marriages, families, and so on. In context, Paul had been teaching that Jewish and Gentile believers are to accept one another. That is, we are not to judge one another (Romans 14:1-12), and we’re not to stumble one another (14:13-23), but rather we’re to bear one another’s weaknesses (15:1-6).

Our new life by faith in Messiah is the example of acceptance. “Therefore, accept one another just as Messiah has accepted you to the glory of God” (15:7). As He accepted us in heaven, so we are to accept one another on earth. His example of service is our example for living. But how is that possible? Note the word “therefore” (Romans 15:7). As the saying goes, when you see a “therefore” you should see what it’s there for! It points us to the context, where we are to accept God’s word (15:3-4), His will (15:5-6) and His work for us in Messiah (15:8-12), in order to accept one another—in that order, because His word expresses His will and explains His work for us.

We have unity when we accept that His will for us is in Messiah. In 15:7, the word “accept” is a command. We’re commanded to welcome one another. Why? A fragmented ekklessia (congregation) isn’t any help to a fragmented world. Just as Messiah accepted you, so we also accept one another to God’s glory. The history of this relationship has tended towards pressuring Jews to give up their Jewish identity. The pressure (and at times persecution) to remove Jewish expression within the body of Messiah is tragic for a number of biblical reasons, as we have seen. However, this passage of Romans 14-15:7 shows another reason: it reflects a lack of love between Gentiles and Jews and thus a poor testimony. God is glorified in our unity if we accept each other as Messiah did.

What does grace look like when it’s at work? Romans 15:8-13 pictures this working grace, God’s establishing work for Jew and Gentile alike through Messiah.

For I say that Messiah has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers (Romans 15:8).

“For I say” opens an emphatic clarification regarding how Messiah accepted us. If you do not accept one another “to the glory of God,” you are working against Messiah!

Paul first notes that Messiah has become a servant to the circumcision. The concept of circumcision speaks of the Abrahamic covenant, which confirmed the promises of world redemption through Abraham’s seed:

And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. (Genesis 12:2-3; 17:5-9)

Redemptive covenants were made by God only with the Jewish people. Thus, the Lord Yeshua was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel alone (Matthew 15:24). Why did Messiah come as Israel’s servant? For the truth of God (Messiah) is to confirm the promises given to the fathers, fulfilling and confirming Israel’s calling.

The call upon Israel was to bless the world. That call could not be fulfilled apart from Messiah—it all spoke of Him! There was one ministry of Messiah. He came as a Jew to fulfill the prophecies and confirm the promises to Israel. When Paul writes that it was on behalf of the truth of God, he means that Messiah’s work was to vindicate the character of God. This ministry to His own people was in the interest of “God’s truth” in the sense of God’s fidelity to His word, more specifically, His promises made to the patriarchs (Romans 9:4-5; 11:28-29). Messiah’s ministry to Israel vindicated God’s faithfulness.

In the Greek, the phrase “has become” is in the perfect tense. This means it has a past action with a continuing and present result; He became and continues to be a servant of the circumcision; this is Messiah’s ongoing service to Israel. All present service and ministry to the Jewish people demonstrates God’s eternal faithfulness to Israel.

Yeshua’s ministry was not to conclude the promises, let alone cancel them, but rather to confirm them. Paul’s point is that the people of Israel, the Jewish people are not less secure by Messiah’s coming and service but even more secure in Him (Jeremiah 31:35-37).

Remember, the promises in Genesis 12:2-3 are that Israel would be a blessing to the world. The promise was that through Messiah, Abraham’s seed would bless the world. As Paul wrote in Galatians 3:14, “Messiah redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Messiah Yeshua.” Thinking globally, God acted locally.

And for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy as it is written, “therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name.” Again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.” Again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles hope.” (Romans 15:9-12)

The quotations here are from various portions of Tanakh (through the Greek Septuagint).

• Verse 9 is taken from 2 Samuel 22:50 in the former prophets, as well as Psalm 18:49 from the writings.
• The verse quoted in 15:10 is from Deuteronomy 32:43 in the Pentateuch.
• In verse 11, the quotation is from Psalm 117:1.
• Finally, verse 12 quotes Isaiah, one of the latter prophets (Isaiah 11:1, 10).

There is a point in these selections. They show how the Hebrew Bible as a whole—Torah, Nevi’im (prophets), and Ketuvim (writings)—testifies that the Gentiles were to be ministering alongside the Jewish people. God wants Israel to preach His mercy to the Gentiles so that we all praise His name together, eventually under His literal reign (Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 11:10; Romans 15:12).

Paul’s calling to minister to the Gentiles represented Israel’s calling from the Abrahamic covenant to bless the nations. His only ministry to Gentiles was through God’s promises to Israel. In confirming the promises to Israel, Messiah made salvation available for Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy. It is the confirmed promises that continue to validate ministry to the Gentiles. When God’s calling to Israel ceases, then His mercy to the Gentiles ceases. His ministry to Israel was and is God’s way of reaching the world, because if the promises to Israel were canceled, ministry to the world would be as well.

Our unique unity thus makes demands on both Jews and Gentiles: Jewish believers accept the confirmed promises to reach out to the Gentiles, and as Gentile believers accept the confirmed promises to Israel, they then minister mercy back to them (Romans 11:11, 31). This was a further “to the Jew first” reminder to the Gentile believers that God had given priority to Israel, so that the Gentiles might have mercy and hope in Yeshua.

Our work is to be modeled on God’s work; all authentic spiritual work is incarnational. Yeshua sends us into the world, as the Father sent Him into the world (John 20:21). We trust Him for unity, and experience that unity in Messiah.

Gentile believers, minister to our people as Messiah did, confirming and not canceling the promises to the fathers. How? By becoming a servant to the circumcised (Romans 15:8). All promises were for the unifying of peoples in Messiah, a unity not experienced since Adam, since Babel, and since the Law revealed our failures. As Gentile believers heed the call and follow Messiah, they are confirmed in ministry to Israel.

Yet again, God called and uses Israel to minister His mercy in Messiah to Gentiles. God also uses saved Gentiles to serve and make Israel jealous, through the mercy they had received through Israel. To God be the glory!

Once after Shabbat classes, an 11-year-old boy was asked by his mom what he had learned that morning.

"Well," Josh said, "our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy line to rescue the Israelis from the Egyptians. Moses led them to the Red Sea and then ordered his engineers to build a bridge. After they all crossed, they saw the Egyptian tanks coming, so Moses radioed the Israeli Air Force and they sent jet fighters, who bombed the bridge and saved the Jews."

Josh’s mother looked at him sideways and said, "Josh, is that really the way that your teacher told the story?"

"Not really," Josh admitted. "But if I told it her way, you’d never believe it."

Regarding salvation, Yeshua Himself explained to His own mystified disciples, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible"(Matthew 19:26). So it was with Abraham. Though Abraham believed God, he was confused about God’s promise of a seed, so he cried out to God and told Him that his only heir was his servant, Eliezer (Genesis 15).

In the midst of this narrative we find a profound theological statement regarding Abraham: "and he believed the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). If Abraham was struggling, then it seems that having struggles with God is not a sign of unbelief. Yet, what about the fear and disappointment? How can we be sure that God is with us and has a plan for us? How can we have assurance of being right with God? Is it through our own heroic deeds? No, but if I told you what the Scripture does say, you might never believe it! The assurance that we are made right with God is the same assurance that Abraham had.

... A covenant (or brit in Hebrew) is a binding agreement among two or more parties. To accomplish His plan of redemption, God promised to establish a new covenant with His people Israel. The New Covenant demonstrates itself to be the fulfillment of what the Tanakh had promised, and as such establishes our faith in Messiah.

We see hints, even foreshadows, of the New Covenant in the second covenant given through Moses to Israel. This covenant was given “in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he made with them in Horeb [Mt. Sinai]” (Deuteronomy 29-30). There we read the promise of a future “circumcision of the heart,” given so that we could truly “love God” and fulfill our calling as His people (Deuteronomy 30:6).

The prophets who succeeded Moses did not see themselves as contradicting or replacing him. Rather they understood their ministries as building upon what Moses had written, applying the torah of Mt. Sinai to their time. So, reflecting back on Deuteronomy, Ezekiel saw a “new heart and new spirit,” given that we might be able to live out God’s truth (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The prophet Jeremiah further developed this into the most direct statement on the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34). God’s culminating work for humanity would provide a better relationship through a better agreement.

Some have implied since we now have a New Covenant, the Mosaic covenant (and its torah) is irrelevant. Others have downplayed the notion of a New Covenant at all, viewing it rather as a “renewed” covenant, which simply enables us to better follow Moses. In the following chapters we will look closely at Jeremiah 31:31-34, in the process setting out some guidelines for a New Covenant orientation and its provisions.

Jeremiah has a startling announcement, “Behold! I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). “New covenant” in Hebrew is brit chadasha. Some have raised the question, “Is it a new or renewed covenant?” and others have argued for translating it as “renewed covenant.” It should be noted that there really is not a word for the adjective “renewed” in Greek or Hebrew. While the Hebrew verb chadesh can mean either “to make new” or “to renew,” the adjective means “new." Thus, we would need very good overriding evidence to consider it as something besides “new.” In the absence of that, we should go with the clear sense of Hebrew and in the Greek Septuagint (chadash, kainos), where “new” simply means new. 

The New Covenant Scriptures pick up this Greek term for “new,” for example, “this cup… is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:8, 13; 9:15). The Greek verb “renewed” was also normally used (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Ephesians 4:23, and so on), but never to refer to the New Covenant.

Perhaps more striking is that all modern Jewish translations translate brit chadasha in Jeremiah 31:31 as “new covenant.” In light of its usage today by followers of Yeshua, translating it “renewed covenant” would have apologetic value for traditional Judaism, but it is not translated as such because that would not be accurate to the text in context. Therefore, brit chadasha is properly translated “new covenant.”

Some have argued that the New Covenant must be in some sense a renewal, since the Mosaic covenant is brit olam, an Everlasting Covenant (Exodus 31:16). Though olam can be understood as “indefinite,” the Mosaic covenant is everlasting, but we must not miss the broader point: All covenants from God are everlasting, or eternal. We see this in the following: 

• Noahic covenant (Genesis 9:16; Isaiah 24:5);
• Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 17:7; 1 Chronicles 16:17; Psalm 105:10);
• Mosaic covenant (also Sinai, Horeb, and First, since it was the first made with Israel; Exodus 31:16; Leviticus 24:8);
• Davidic covenant (2 Samuel 23:5);
• New Covenant (Isaiah 55:3; 61:8; Jeremiah 32:40; 50:5; Ezekiel 16:60; 37:26; Hebrews 9:15; 13:20; Revelation 14:6).

Covenants are olam, or everlasting, because of the eternal and everlasting values they reveal; the Eternal One can only do that which reflects and reveals eternal truth. Hence all Scripture is not only inspired, but is always profitable, applicable, and generally helpful in living our lives as God meant them to be lived—for His glory. The values contained in all Scripture are eternal values, for the Scriptures themselves are eternally inspired (2 Timothy 3:15-17). However, while God is eternal, we are not; He does not change, but we do. Thus, our relationship to these covenants may change as well.

In traditional Judaism, the application of torah is authoritatively found in the Talmud, Midrash, and other rabbinical literature. The “oral law” is meant to fulfill a need in the community, providing authoritative application of the Written Law. Thus, tradition recognizes the necessity for authoritative application of the Scriptures, called halacha (or “walk”).

As followers of Messiah, our halacha is found in the teaching of Messiah and His shlichim (Apostles). New Covenant halacha helps us understand how Yeshua “came not to destroy but to fulfill the Law and Prophets” (Matthew 5:17-18). In Messiah the righteous goal of the Mosaic torah is fulfilled (Romans 10:4). ...