God has been VERY specific about how He wants to be worshipped. The Altar is God’s Table, and He has instructed, “I want meat, wine and bread on My Table so that when men come to do business with Me I can show hospitality when I receive them.†To change anything concerning His instructions on this subject, one only needs to look at Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu who wanted to “enhance†their worship by offering strange fire. See Lev 10.
Leviticus 10 NKJV
10 Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.
Nadab and Abihu did not have the
authority to offer fire at that particular time before the Lord. This is why they were killed.
Not
everything regarding worship is written in Scripture.
Written history leaves out many details. The important things regarding the worship practices were made known in detail to the persons who were in charge of this worship so that they could fulfill them correctly. Only some of these important things were included in the written historical accounts of this People of God.
Leviticus 9:22-23 NKJV
Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. 23 And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people.
We do not know what words Aaron was commanded to say for the blessing. We do not know what gestures he was required to use when making the blessing. We do not know if he held something in his hand when he blessed the people. Scripture is silent on these important things.
Except the traditions of men have fouled that one up, too. Everybody knows the story of how the oil miraculously lasted 8 days, right? WRONG! The book of Maccabees documents the entire event with absolutely NO mention of the oil. Even here, the enemy is doing everything he can to get our attention away from the most important thing: God’s ownership mark of the whole earth… His Altar. Hanukkah is a celebration of the victory of the rebellion that occurred in response to the following decrees ordered by Antiochus Epiphanes IV:
Don’t follow the Torah
Don’t circumcise your children
Don’t celebrate the Sabbath
Don’t observe the Festivals
Don’t consider the Temple, and don’t do anything with it (The book of Hebrews does the same thing)
Eat pig!
What is truly amazing is that traditional Christianity says that following these evil decrees is how we express our faith in the Messiah!
1 Maccabees 4 DRA
1 Maccabees 4:50 DRA
50And they put incense upon the altar, and lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick, and they gave light in the temple.
.....56And they kept the dedication of the altar eight days, and they offered holocausts with joy, and sacrifices of salvation, and of praise.
.....59And Judas, and his brethren, and all the church of Israel decreed, that the day of the dedication of the altar should be kept in its season from year to year for eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu, with joy and gladness.
They lighted up the lamps that were upon the candlestick is a reference to the oil. Oil was the fuel used to light the lamps upon the candlestick.
You believe that everything must be documented in Scripture in order to be worthy of belief, but Scripture does not say this. Many important things were passed down throughout the ages and some of these were not written down. The
oral traditions of the Jews are valuable for us to learn in order to know the
rest of the story about their history.
As you can see, this Hanukkah tradition did not begin until Judas instituted it and all Jews still celebrate it today. I think that Jesus most likely celebrated it since it was part of His Jewish tradition. There is no reference in Scripture that states that He despised this so-called man-made tradition and consequently refused to celebrate it. Jews today know the oral history/tradition about Hanukkah and they joyfully celebrate its significance every year.
That’s getting very close to the Jewish (yes, Jewish!) theology of “obedience equals righteousness†and that is simply not the case. This is what Paul had so much trouble trying to explain in his epistles. All I can say is to remember the words of Messiah in Matt 5:19… “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them,he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. He says that one who is disobedient will be the LEAST in the Kingdom. They'll make it in, but they'll be "low on the totem pole" so to speak. But is He talking about those who disobey in ignorance or those who disobey knowingly? I can't answer that nor do I want to. That's between them and God. But I will emphatically state that being obedient to the Lord in ALL that He has instructed (meaning not stopping at the 10th commandment) is ALWAYS a wise move, as the wisest of the wise (King Solomon) goes to such great lenghts to convey to us in his book of Proverbs. Every time you come across the word "wisdom" in his first 9 chapters substitute it for "God's Laws" and you will find true wisdom.
Matt 5:19… “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Let's look at the Scripture verses which include your quote:
Matthew 5:17-20 NKJV
17 “Don’t even begin to think that I have come to do away with the Law and the Prophets. I haven’t come to do away with them but to fulfill them. 18 I say to you very seriously that as long as heaven and earth exist, neither the smallest letter nor even the smallest stroke of a pen will be erased from the Law until everything there becomes a reality. 19 Therefore, whoever ignores one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called the lowest in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever keeps these commands and teaches people to keep them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 I say to you that unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the legal experts and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
A person's faith plus his obedience to God's commandments which includes doing the good works which God had prepared for him to do before the world was created does continue his righteousness after he has been redeemed and this continuation in righteousness until his death approves him to enter into eternal life when he dies.
Peter gives us more light on this subject:
Acts 10:34-36 (NKJV)
34 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all—
Jesus reconciled us to God by His sacrificial death on the cross. None of us deserved His gift of grace which He gave to us. None of us could earn this gift of grace which He gave to us. However, we each individually receive this gift of reconciliation with God when we are
born again spiritually.
This reconciliation makes us "right" with God. We have been justified/absolved of our sins and made righteous in the sight of God. This righteousness/justification now makes it
possible for us to enter into eternal life. This reconciliation gives us
hope that we will be approved to enter into eternal life after we die.
However, entering into eternal life is
conditional upon whether we continue in our justification/righteousness which Jesus gave us until we die. If we obey God's commandments until we die, we will inherit eternal life. If we believe for awhile, but then
deny Him by our sinful
deeds/works and do not repent of them before we die, we will not inherit eternal life.
Jesus explains this to us:
Luke 8:11-15 NKJV
11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Luke 8:13 (NKJV)
13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
The people who believe/obey for a while and then fall away do not inherit eternal life.
Luke 8:14 NKJV
Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
These believers
do not produce good fruit/good works and so they do not inherit eternal life.
Matthew 13:38-43 (NKJV)
38 The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. 39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, 42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!
Matthew 7:13-25 (NKJV)
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Christians who do not produce good fruit/do good works will be condemned to hell fire.
Who will inherit eternal life?
Mark 4:20-21 (NKJV)
20 But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.â€
Bearing good fruit is
faith working through love of God and of neighbor.
James 2:20-24 (NKJV)
20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.†And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
The born again people who choose to continue to obey God's commandments which include doing good works/producing good fruit until they die will be approved to inherit eternal life when they die.
Born gain people who do not choose to continue to obey God's commandments and/or who do not choose to do the good works He has assigned to them will not be approved to enter into eternal life after they die.