The Messiah Our Redeemer: Part 2 of 12

II. Man’s Freewill and God’s Judgment: Therefore, Seek The LORD And Live

A fundamental principal of Judaism is the free determination (free will) of mankind. Each man and woman has the ability to chose to seek after a knowledge of God and to be obedient to His commandments or to chose a life of self interest apart from God, as it is written, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve” (Josh 24:5). The consequences of freewill are the opportunity to receive praise and honor from the LORD or to be punished in judgement for our actions committed against the LORD.

After the fall of Adam in the Garden, the separation between man and God increased until man’s wickedness on the earth became great and “every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Gen 6:5). In those days, the LORD judged and destroyed the world saving only the righteous Noah, his three sons, and their wives. In total, eight people were saved out of the myriads that were living on the earth at the time of the flood.

The LORD then set His rainbow in the clouds as a sign of His promise to never flood the earth again (Gen 9:13-16). The rainbow not only stands as a sign of the LORD’S promise, but as a testimony to the fact that God judged the world once and we are worthy of the same fate when we choose to live apart from the plan of God, as Solomon has written...

“God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.” (Eccel 3:17)

The certainty of God’s judgment is considered one of thirteen principles of faith given by Maimonides, the Middle Ages codifier of Jewish law. As he has written,

“I believe with complete faith that the Creator, blessed be His name, rewards those who observe His commandments, and punishes those who transgress His commandments.”

It is in the Jewish Text (“The Tanakh” in Hebrew) that Daniel clearly establishes a future time of judgment when “multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). Therefore, we are called in this life to “Seek the LORD”, as the prophets have written,

“Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near” (Isa 55:6) and “Seek the LORD and live” (Amos 5:6).

“Seek the LORD and live” is a call for all men to know the LORD and obey His commandments in order to restore the relationship that existed between man and God in the days of Adam before the fall. Knowing God is the highest calling in life because people were created to have a relationship with God.

In addition to death, the consequences of Adam’s sin in the Garden created a daily barrier to our relationship with God. Anyone who doubts the consequences of Adam’s sin in the Garden need look no farther than the struggle within our own human nature. Most people recognize that there is a seemingly invisible force within us that seeks to exercise control over us. The Jewish Sages referred to this force as the “evil inclination”. Most people simply call this controlling force “sin”, just as the LORD warned Cain, “sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it" (Gen 4:7)..

The first century Rabbis referred to this force in our lives as “the flesh” because they believed the controlling sin nature resided within our flesh. “The flesh” was the rabbinical answer to the daily question of why men often do not do good, but rather act in a manner they later despise. The Rabbis even saw the process of death, the physical decaying and removal of flesh from the bones, as a picture of the final and permanent removal of sin from our bodies. Although this was thought to be a painful process felt by the soul even after death, the end result would be an eternal person worshipping the LORD in a sinless state.

The prophet Daniel spoke of the future resurrection and judgment of all men when he wrote, “multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). But why must men be resurrected to be judged? Following the reasoning of the Rabbis, all men must be resurrected in the flesh to be judged for sins committed in the flesh. Otherwise, men could say, “Why am I being judged for the flesh that caused me to sin when I no longer exist in the flesh? Judge my flesh, but do not judge me”. For this reason, God must resurrect all men and women to be judged in the condition that their sins were committed.

Therefore, the resurrection of any man in history would stand as proof that God will resurrect and judge all men, as the apostolic writers have declared in reference to Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ in English)…

“He (God) has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him (Yeshua) from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

If all men are to be resurrected, all men will be judged, but only the righteous will be able to stand in the judgement, as the Psalmist has written…

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Ps 1:5-6)

We must acknowledge that all men and women, both Jew and Gentile have sinned and God has appointed a day when He will resurrect to reward and judge His creation. Therefore, we are called to “Seek the LORD” to save us from the judgment to come and to free us from the evil inclination, which corrupts our actions in this present life.