It seems there is also a general lack of understanding of the fact that there are two Torah’s described in Scriptures. One is called the “Torah of Trust” and the other is the “Torah of Moses.”
It is vital to recognize that keeping the correct Torah leads to eternal life and attempting to keep the wrong one would only reward a person with eternal death at the end of the Judgment Day.
Torah of Moses Created Due to Transgressions
Saul (Paul) of the New Testament states that the Torah of Moses was created due to transgression of the Abrahamic Covenants of Promise.
For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise; but the deity gave it to Abraham by a promise. WHY THEN THE LAW? IT WAS AN AUGMENTATION BECAUSE OF TRANSGRESSIONS. (Galatians 3:18-19)
Saul also states:
For where there is no Torah (Law) there is no transgression. (Romans 4:15)
What Torah then did the Israelites transgress that brought about the creation of the Torah at Mount Sinai?
To begin with, a covenant is a legally binding agreement, and therefore a Torah (Law). As with any covenant agreement (marriage, contractual, last will and testament, and so forth), it can be enforced in a court of law.
In Scriptures the handwritten covenant at Mount Sinai is referred to as the Torah (Gal. 3:15-21; Rom. 5:12-21). The New Covenant, meanwhile, is described as having the torath (laws) of Yahweh written within our innermost self (Jer. 31:33-34; Isa. 51:7; Heb. 8:8-13).
The term Torah (Law) is applied to the Old Covenant at Mount Sinai by Scriptures to distinguish it from the Abrahamic Covenants of Promise and the New Covenant, which are also by definition legal contracts.
Verbal Torah of Trust
The difference is that the Torah at Mount Sinai was a handwritten agreement, while the Covenants of Promise were a verbal contract.
That the covenants previous to Mount Sinai are also a Torah is verified by the words of Saul. Saul clearly separates the written Torah, containing works of the Torah, from the verbal Torah that Abraham was under when he writes:
Where then is the boasting? It was excluded. Through what Torah? of works? No, but through a Torah of Trust. We reckon therefore a man to be justified by trust, apart from works of the Torah. (Rom. 3:27-28)
Abraham was made an heir, as we are made heirs, “through the justification of trust (Rom. 4:13-25).” Therefore, Abraham was under the Torah of Trust. Saul also refers to the Covenants of Promise as “the Torah of the ruach of life in the messiah Yahushua” and “the Torah of the messiah (Rom. 8:2; Gal. 6:2).”
James calls it, “the perfect Torah, that of freedom (James 1:25).” This Torah of Trust was the verbal agreement secured by an oath sworn to by Yahweh’s own name.
Torah of Moses A Written Augmentation With Works
The Israelites, on the other hand, with their marriage covenant at Mount Sinai, found themselves under a handwritten augmentation to the Torah of Trust that had been given to Abraham. This covenant was later expanded to provide further augmentations which included the works of the Torah. Saul writes:
What then shall we say? That the nations that follow not after justification (righteousness), attained justification, but justification that is out of trust. But Israel, following after a Torah of justification, TO A TORAH OF JUSTIFICATION DID NOT ATTAIN. WHY? BECAUSE IT WAS NOT OUT OF TRUST, BUT WAS OUT OF WORKS OF THE TORAH. (Romans 9:31-32)
It is important to recognize the fact that the Israelites had transgressed a covenant that existed prior to the marriage covenant given at Mount Sinai indicating that sin (the transgression of a Torah) was committed prior to the Old Covenant given at Mount Sinai. Indeed, sin has existed for mankind since the time of Adam, as demonstrated by Saul:
On this account, as by one man (i.e., Adam) sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and thus death passed to all men, for that all have sinned: For until the Torah (of Moses) sin was in the world. But sin is not put into account, there not being the (handwritten) Torah (of Moses); yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even upon those who had not sinned in the same kind of transgression of Adam, who is a figure of the coming one (the messiah, the second Adam). (Romans 5:12-14)
Sin Existed Under Eternal Adamic Covenant
Sin was from the beginning. The sin of disobedience against the voice of Yahweh was the first commandment transgressed. Not only did Adam sin but so did Eve when she disobeyed Yahweh and then led Adam into sin.
Cain was warned of sin before he killed Abel; the people of Sodom and Gommorah, who practiced thievery, homosexuality, and rape, committed grievous sins in the days of Abraham and Lot before they were destroyed. Abimelech and Joseph both feared the evil sin of adultery. Also, Jacob acknowledged that stealing was a sin.
All of these crimes were labeled as sin long before the covenant given at Mount Sinai. This fact means that Adam and Eve were also under a Torah covenant with Yahweh. This covenant is proven to be eternal, offering the promise of eternal life, since it gave Adam access to the tree whose fruit was eternal life.
When Adam sinned he lost access to this tree. Since all mankind was within Adam, they fell under this same covenant, sinned with him, and also lost their access to the tree of life. When he sinned, we all sinned. (For this principle see Deut. 5:1-4, 29:14-15; Heb. 7:9-10.)
For example, if a man fails to make some of his payments as required in a contract to buy a piece of property, he has sinned against that covenant (legal agreement). If the property is thereby repossessed, the buyer has not only lost his right, title, and interest to the property but his heirs have lost their rights as well.
In the case of Yahweh’s covenant with Adam, which offered access to eternal life, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:7, 23). For this reason, “by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin (came) death, and thus death passed to all mankind (Rom. 5:12).”Therefore, it is “apportioned to men to die once, after this, judgment (Heb. 9:27).”
World Never Under Torah of Moses
Yahweh cannot supplement conditions to his covenants. He can only expand or restrict those conditions already allowed for (Gal. 3:15-17). Therefore, the conditions found in the Adamic Covenant must be the same as those found in the Abrahamic Covenants, and these in turn must be adhered to by the handwritten Torah of Moses.
This detail means that the entire human family is under the same covenant and the same rules of sin. In Isaiah we read of this covenant:
The land mourns, languishes, droops and languishes the world; the proud of the people of the land droop; and the land is profaned under its inhabitants, for they transgress laws, violate a statute, and break THE ETERNAL COVENANT. (Isaiah 24:4-5)
Since the world was never under the handwritten Torah of Moses, as the Israelites were, the only way by which the rest of the world can all be part of the same Eternal Covenant is through Adam. The Eternal Covenant made with Adam is also know as the Adamic Covenant. The particular time period for the Adamic Covenant is elsewhere described as ad olam (a perpetual or eternal world-age) (Ps. 48:8, 89:4, 103:17).
That world-age only occurs after the completion of our present limited world-age at the end of the Judgment Day, at which time we shall have residence with father Yahweh for eternity. The handwritten Torah, on the other hand, is limited in its world-age in that the handwritten Torah shall be dispensed with when heaven and earth pass away.
Israelites Broke the Eternal Covenant
Hosea goes even further when he writes:
For I desired trustworthiness and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of eloahim more than burnt offerings. And they (the Israelites), LIKE ADAM, THEY HAVE BROKEN THE COVENANT; they have acted like traitors against me. (Hosea 6:6-7)
This passage points out that the Israelites broke the same Eternal Covenant as Adam. Yet, the Torah the Israelites were under was an augmentation to the Covenants of Promise given to Abraham. These facts demonstrate that the Abrahamic Covenants of Promise, also being eternal and promising eternal life, were themselves an augmentation to the Eternal Covenant given to Adam.
Under the Adamic Covenant, Adam and Eve had access to the Tree of Life, the fruit of which gave “life for olam,” i.e., for the eternal world-age (Gen. 3:22). Under the Abrahamic Covenants of Promise we also gain access to the Tree of Life (Yahushua the messiah). Both represent the Torah of Trust.
Torah of Trust and Torah of Moses
By now one should be able to recognize the distinction between the verbal Torah of Trust (Adamic and Abrahamic Covenants) and the handwritten Torah of Moses containing the works of the law (Old Covenant). One should also keep in mind the connection of the Torah of Trust with the eternal inheritance.
Then the king (Yahu Yahweh, Yahushua) shall say to those (sheep) on his right hand, Come, the blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Matthew 25:31-34)
Notice that this inheritance has been prepared for us from the beginning of the world. It is the same one we shall receive by grace under the Torah of Trust.
Since the wages of sin is death and not eternal life, and sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, preventing them from receiving eternal life, it is clear that the covenant leaving an inheritance was from the beginning and sin prevents us from receiving the inheritance of eternal life.
Therefore, as with the death of the messiah, the eternal inheritance by grace is part of the original plan of Yahweh for the salvation of mankind. In turn, this fact proves that the Adamic and Abrahamic covenants are connected, being Torahs of Trust, and are two stages in this original plan of inheritance.
Summary
Simply put, the Torah of Trust is the way to obtain salvation and eternal life. On the other hand, the message from Scriptures to those who would attempt to be justified under the Torah of Moses, along with its works of the flesh, in order to receive the eternal inheritance is best stated by Saul:
You are severed from messiah, you who would be justified by the Law (Torah of Moses); you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
For an in-depth discussion concerning the Torah of Trust and the Torah of Moses please see: