(Adopted from Asher Intrater, Revive Israel)
Yeshua (Jesus) took our punishment on the cross and then rose from the dead to provide eternal life. This is the highest expression of the grace of God, and this truth is more important than anything else. We are beings created by a loving and holy God. We have sinned. All righteousness comes from Him. Without trusting in His righteousness, no human being can hope to become righteous on his own. That is a central theme of the book of Romans. Our salvation in Yeshua is by grace.
For that reason, salvation by grace is more important than the moral Law. Yet moral standards are essential. Who establishes what those standards are? Only a person who himself is perfectly righteous. Therefore moral standards must come from God alone. God’s moral standards are absolute and valid for all human beings. They are written in the Bible. The most succinct list of His moral code is the Ten Commandments. (See Exodus 20:1-17, Deuteronomy 5:6-21. See also Matthew 19:17.)
Within the Law are commandments of greater importance and those of lesser importance. Yeshua exhorted us to not “…forsake the weightier matters of the Law – justice, mercy, and faith” (Matthew 23:23). In order to obey God’s commandments, we have to understand which aspects are more important and which less important.
We can appeal to the grace of God and, by His righteousness welling up inside of us, live a life that reflects the moral character of the Messiah (Ephesians 4:13).
