“Do this, and you will live.”
Luke 10:28
Few teachings of Yeshua have been more distorted than His view of the Torah. Modern Christianity often claims that Jesus came to do away with the Law, yet the plain words of Scripture reveal the opposite. Over and over again, Yeshua taught obedience to the commandments of God as the path of life.
The Lawyer’s Question: “What Must I Do to Inherit Eternal Life?”
Luke records,
“And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, ‘Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’
Luke 10:25–28
He said to him, ‘What is written in the Law? How do you read it?’
And he answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.’
And He said to him, ‘You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.’”
The man asks the most important question of all: How do I inherit eternal life? Yeshua’s response is simple, What does the Torah say?
Yeshua doesn’t come teaching a new Law, He simply comes to live and represent the Law of Moses, the Law his father shouted down from Heaven, and then recorded in the written word for our benefit. The lawyer comes asking and Yeshua answers with something older than the world, the Word of God: What does the Torah say?
The man correctly summarizes the entire Torah into two great commands: love God and love your neighbor. Yeshua affirms his answer. He does not say, “You misunderstand, the Law no longer applies.” He says, “Do this, and you will live.”
In other words, Yeshua tells him, You understand the Torah rightly. Now go obey it, and you will live. This moment is not an isolated exchange but a reflection of Yeshua’s entire ministry. From beginning to end, His message, and that of John the Baptist, was a call to repentance.
Neither John nor Yeshua came to introduce a new law or abolish the Law of Moses. They came to call Israel back to obedience. Their mission was to turn the hearts of the people from sin and hypocrisy back to obedience, to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts so they could walk once again in covenant faithfulness. It was a ministry of repentance from dead works, a return to living faith expressed through obedience to God’s commandments. That is how the Torah defines love, obedience to God.
The Rich Ruler: “You Know the Commandments”
In another account, a wealthy ruler asks the same question:
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luke 18:18–20
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’”
Yeshua again directs the man to the Torah. He began to recite the Ten Commandments from the Torah, God’s moral standard. The ruler replies that he has kept these from his youth, and Yeshua does not dispute it. Instead, He ask him to follow not only the written word, but the Living Word, Yeshua himself, Word made flesh.
“One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Luke 18:22 (ESV)
He had followed the “written Torah” since his youth, yet when faced with the living embodiment of the Torah, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), Yeshua says sell everything and come follow me. But he could not take the next step.
Yeshua had affirmed his obedience to the written Torah, but now invited him to fulfill it completely by following the Living Torah Himself. To follow Yeshua is to follow the Torah in its truest and most personal form, for He is the very Word of God revealed in human flesh. Yeshua’s example is perfect obedience to Torah. We are to follow it. How many today reject this command also?
The command, “Sell all that you have and follow Me,” was not a rejection of the Torah but its highest expression. The Torah teaches us to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Yeshua simply brought that command to its ultimate test, would this man love God more than his possessions? Would he give everything up and follow the Torah made flesh.
But the man could not. His wealth had become his master. His devotion to the commandments ended where his comfort began. And so, standing face to face with the Torah made flesh, he turned away.
This story is not about money alone, it is about allegiance. Yeshua shows that true obedience to Torah requires surrender of everything that competes for the throne of our heart. The man claimed to keep the commandments, and Yeshua didn’t dispute it, but when the Author of the commandments called him to follow, he chose his treasure instead.
To reject Messiah is to Reject the Word of God, the Torah, and to reject Torah is to Reject the Messiah. Paul explains this in detail in the book of Hebrews, but we will return to that later. Consider another gospel account.
The Greatest Commandment
When asked again which commandment is the greatest, Yeshua’s response was consistent:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Matthew 22:37–40
This is the great and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Here, Yeshua makes it unmistakably clear: the entire Torah and the Prophets hang on these two pillars. The Torah teaches us how to love God and how to love our neighbor. It is not a burden; it is the very definition of love.
Yeshua’s answer is is a direct quote from the Shema and V’ahavta (Deuteronomy 6:4–9), the most foundational confession of faith in all of Israel:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Deuteronomy 6:4–7
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house,
and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
“These words which I command you Today”
When Moses said, “These words which I command you today,” he was referring to the Torah itself. Before his death, Moses gathered the entire nation and in one day read the Law aloud to all Israel, reaffirming the covenant. This is why the Greek title Deuteronomy comes from deutero (second) and nomos (law), literally “the second hearing of the Law.”
In Hebrew tradition, the books of the Torah are named after the opening words of their first sentence. In this case, Deuteronomy begins with the phrase, “Eleh ha’devarim asher diber Moshe,” or in English, “These are the words which Moses spoke” (Deuteronomy 1:1).
These words, unmistakably refers to the whole Law
So the phrase “These words which I command you today” from the passage Yeshua calls the greatest commandment refers not to a single verse or idea, but to the entire sum of God’s commandments, the Torah.
When Moses spoke these words, he was referring to all the instructions God had given Israel: the covenant law that defines how to love God and how to love our neighbor. Yeshua’s citation of this very passage is therefore deeply significant. By quoting the V’ahavta, He was affirming that the greatest commandment is to love God by keeping all the words, Devarim, of His Torah, teaching them, and walking in them daily.
In other words, when Yeshua is asked what is the greatest commandment, He answers calling His followers back to the heart of the Torah itself. The greatest commandment, is the one that tells you to follow all the other commandments and why:
Yeshua never spoke against the Torah. Every word He taught and every action He took was not only in harmony with it, but drawn directly from it. Those who know the Torah recognize that His entire ministry is the living expression of its commandments and prophecies. Yeshua is the Torah made flesh, the Word of God walking among men.
For those who are unlearned or unstable in the Torah, He left no room for misunderstanding. His warning was explicit:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17–19
To fulfill (Greek plēroō) means to bring to fullness or completeness, not to abolish. Yeshua’s life embodied perfect obedience to the Torah. He showed us how to live it out from the heart, not merely in outward form.
Greatness in the Kingdom, according to Yeshua, is measured by obedience to and teaching others to obey Torah.
Yeshua Taught That Obedience to the Torah Leads to Life Eternal
Yeshua’s words remove all doubt. He did not come to erase the Torah but to embody it perfectly and to call His followers to follow his example and do the same.
Why Do So Many Christians Reject the Torah?
One answer is found in the story of the rich ruler. When told to give up his wealth and follow Yeshua, he went away sorrowful. He was happy to follow the written Torah, but couldn’t sell it all and follow the Torah made flesh.
Obedience requires surrender. It requires repentance. Its requires humility, admitting you were wrong and correcting your actions. The Torah demands that we give God our time, our priorities, our hearts.
The rich young ruler couldn’t obey Yeshua because he wasn’t willing to pay the price. His time and his money were simply more important. He could not prioritize the Kingdom in his life.
The Sabbath is a perfect example. It is a simple command, to rest one day a week, to meet with God in the sacred time He appointed.
Yet it is the most despised command among Christian’s today, with nearly the whole of Christianity unanimous in their rejection of obedience to it.
Think of the Sabbath as a divine date night. If you are happily married you probably have a date night with your wife. She gets some of you all to herself one evening a week. The creator wants that too. The Creator chose the day, set the appointment, and invited you to commune with Him. Yet many stand Him up week after week. Why? Because wealth, work, sports, and worldly pursuits take priority.
Yeshua warned, “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). To love God means to set Him, Torah, Kingdom above all else. Sabbath is not a burden; it is a test of love. So few are even willing to try.
New Testament is Full of Warnings Not to Disregard Torah
Paul warned that “Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy” (Hebrews 10:28).
Peter likewise cautioned that the “ignorant and unstable” twist Paul’s writings “to their own destruction” and urged believers to “take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people” (2 Peter 3:16–17).
Not only is the “New Testament” full of warnings for those who disregard Torah, but full of teachings from the Torah, Examples of Messiah, the Disciples, and Apostles following the Torah.
Yeshua Is the Torah Made Flesh – The Torah Is a Tree of Life
“She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed.”
Proverbs 3:18
From the beginning, the Torah has been called a tree of life to those who take hold of it. Its commandments are not chains, but roots of blessing and fruitfulness. It is the path that leads to wisdom, peace, and life.
And just as the Torah is the tree of life, Yeshua is the Word of God made flesh:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
The Torah is the written revelation of God’s will, and Yeshua is that same Word living and breathing among men. The two cannot be separated. To know Yeshua is to know the Torah; to reject the Torah is to reject Him.
“Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes;
Psalm 119:33
and I will keep it to the end.”
“Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,
Psalm 119:142
and your law is truth.”
“You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules;
Leviticus 18:5
if a person does them, he shall live by them.”
Together these verses reveal that the Torah itself is described as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
So when Yeshua says:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life”
John 14:6
He is identifying Himself as the living Torah, the Word of God made flesh, the embodiment of everything God commanded and revealed from the beginning, the Way of Life
True path of life
The Torah is the way, the truth, and the life written in words.
Yeshua is the Way, the Truth, and the Life revealed in flesh.
The two are one and the same.
Grace, Faith, and Obedience
You cannot earn your salvation by obeying the Torah. Salvation is the free gift of grace, and justification is by faith, this is what the Torah itself teaches. Yet, after you have been saved, like Abraham, your faith will produce obedience.
Faith without obedience is dead, for genuine faith expresses itself through works of righteousness. Salvation is by grace, but reward is by merit, and merit is measured by one’s obedience to the commandments of Torah. Yeshua himself teaches that in Matt 5:17-19.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth… but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
Matthew 6:19–20
Yeshua calls His followers to invest in obedience, to store up treasure in heaven through righteousness, generosity, and faithfulness.
To choose life is to walk in His commandments.
The Covenant of Love
Obedience has always been the expression of faith. The Torah was never a means of earning salvation, but a covenant of love, teaching us how to walk rightly before our Creator.
Those who claim to follow Yeshua yet reject the Torah are rejecting His very teaching, for to walk as He walked is to obey as He obeyed.
Final Call
Yeshua taught us to obey the Torah because it defines love. He did not come to erase the commandments but to write them on our hearts.
The question remains the same today as it was two thousand years ago:
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Yeshua’s answer has never changed:
“What is written in the Law? How do you read it?… Do this, and you will live.”
Luke 10:26, 28
