One Torah For All

One Torah shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.
Exodus 12:49

What Is Your Hope?
The Person of Mashiach

Ephesians 1:18
[I pray that] the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the set-apart ones,

There are many things in this world for which a person can hope. He can hope for a new house. He can hope for a raise at his place of employment, or even for a new job or new boss. He can hope for a new car, a new big-screen TV or new clothes. He can hope that his sports team wins the game. Whatever a person could imagine he could want, he has the capacity to hope for that very thing.

Whatever it is in which a person places his hope, except for that which is Scriptural (which we will get to later in this article), is all misplaced hope. It is misplaced because it cannot bring eternal life, and that is what true hope brings -- life.

One thing in which many Christians today place their hope is their religious experience (experience of salvation?). This truth can be difficult to understand when a person’s hope is misplaced.

Please let me illustrate this concept with two incidents.

A person related to me one time that they had recently been to a big revival meeting with a big name Christian personality. While at this meeting (at which there were thousands of people in attendance) this person said that they saw a vision of “Jesus” on a throne above the person preaching.

What immediately came to my mind was the passage of Scripture concerning the testing of the spirits in Yochanan Aleph 4:1-6.

Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 4:1-6
1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from Elohim, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of YHWH: every spirit that confesses that Yeshua Mashiach has come in the flesh is from YHWH;
3 and every spirit that does not confess Yeshua is not from YHWH; this is the spirit of the anti-Messiah, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
4 You are from YHWH, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from YHWH; he who knows YHWH listens to us; he who is not from YHWH does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

So I just simply asked this person if they had tested the spirit of the vision.

They exploded!

This person tried to lay hands on me in an unkind way, and if there would not have been a table between us at that moment, this person would have succeeded in laying their hands upon my throat.

We got them calmed down after a bit. But try as I might, I could not get them to see the need to submit to this command found in Scripture.

I tried to explain that if this vision was from YHWH, then when they tested the spirit of the vision, and found that it was from YHWH, they would be able to keep the vision.

However, if the vision was not from YHWH, why would they want to keep it anyway?

This person insisted that this was their vision and that they did not care where it was from; they were not going to give it up.

This was a strong indication of exactly where the vision was from and I said as much. But they had closed their mind to His Word.

The second incident was very similar. This person had had a visitation from a malak (angel) one night when they were young. They based their salvation upon this visitation (which I had discerned earlier in the conversation).

Again, I asked this person if they had tested this vision according to Scripture (Yochanan Aleph 4:1-6).

They asked how they should do this. I then led them in testing the vision. The final outcome was that they rejected the vision and asked Yeshua to forgive them of their sins and be their Savior.

These two incidents illustrate two vastly different attitudes toward Scripture.

Tesalonqyah Bet (2nd Thessalonians) 2:10
and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

The first had an attitude of pride and rebellion and was not interested in any Scripture that went contrary to anything they believed or held as dear.

The second had an attitude of having a love of the truth and was willing to submit to the truth of Scripture no matter what the cost. Also, in the first they were not willing to submit their personal experience to the truth of Scripture; whereas, the second did submit their experience to Scripture and allowed it to be judged by Scripture, and then changed what was found to be lacking.

The first had placed their hope in the vision, and when shown that this might be a misplaced hope, became violent. The second, when shown their hope was misplaced, immediately corrected it so that their hope would not be misplaced.

If your hope is misplaced, are you willing to correct it? Your eternal wellbeing is at stake.

If you have spent any time at all in the church system, then you probably have heard someone testify to being saved, in which he specifically stated when and where he received salvation, even to the point of the date, time, and place. It is not wrong to know this information or to testify to this information.

However, is that person really saved? In what is he placing his hope? Is he not placing his hope in that particular experience?

To be sure, a person who places his hope in the experience of salvation will not remain saved (provided he was saved in the first place).

Again, where is your hope?

 

Being Enlightened

Ephesians 1:18
[I pray that] the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the set-apart ones,

I truly pray that your eyes of understanding would be opened to this truth: the importance of having your hope in the right place.

The condition prayed for in the above verse is so they might know the hope in which they are called, by the enlightenment of their heart. This enlightenment comes from and through the Holy Spirit in their lives. The implication of this verse is that, without the enlightenment spoken of, it is not possible to know what the “hope of His calling” is.

Have you been enlightened? Do you know what your hope is?

Yochanan (John) 1:9
There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.

Upon further examination of the enlightenment spoken of above, the apostle Yochanan records that Yeshua, the true light, “enlightens every man.” The difference between those who have and know this Hope, and those who don't, is the acceptance or rejection of Yeshua as Master and Savior.

Who is Master of your life? Is it Yeshua Mashiach? Or are you the Master of your own life? Is your hope in yourself or Mashiach?

Colossians 1:26, 27
The mystery which has been hidden from the ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His set-apart ones, to whom YHWH would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations; which is Mashiach in you, the hope of glory.

It is YHWH who has chosen to make this hope known to those who believe in Mashiach. He has made known this mystery. It is the indwelling, abiding presence of the Spirit of Mashiach (the Holy Spirit), which gives the believer his hope. One’s hope consists of Mashiach living in him. This clearly shows that the believer’s hope is present tense, not future tense.

The Hope of the body of Mashiach is the same Person who died for their sins. He is the One who gives hope, because He is the embodiment of Hope. Yeshua is the one who insures life with Him in the world to come (eternity). Without this Person there can be and is no hope. It is by placing one’s life in His hands that he can and does obtain hope.

1 Timothy 1:1
Shaul, an apostle of Yeshua Mashiach by the commandment of YHWH our Savior, and the Master Yeshua Mashiach, who is our hope.

The apostle Shaul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that it is Yeshua Mashiach who is our Hope! This should be comforting to the believer.

Since one’s Hope is also his Savior, and He is YHWH incarnate, certainly his Hope must then be sure. It can be found wherever Yeshua is. He is also, in a very real sense, if a person believes in Him, in his heart, or with him.

Ivrim (Hebrews) 6:18b-20a
We might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Yeshua.

As is shown in this passage of Scripture, one's Hope is both sure and steadfast. Why? Simply because one’s Hope is the Person of Yeshua Mashiach. Would a person’s Hope be sure and steadfast if it were anything other than this Person? It could not be.

He is eternal. He is the only One Who is truly eternal.

Also it can be seen that this Hope has gone into the veil. This is where Yeshua is. The Hope of all believers is there and they may enter the veil by faith, without fear of condemnation. YHWH will accept them, not on their merits, but because of Who their Hope is.

When you had the experience of repenting of your sins, did that experience enter into the veil in Heaven? Surely you can see that it was not your experience of salvation that entered into the veil, but rather it was Yeshua Mashiach Who entered into the veil as our Hope. It was the Person who saved you, Who entered into the veil, not the experience of salvation.

This then brings one again to the reality of who Yeshua is. As the Incarnate YHWH (Isaiah 9:6), He is Elohim. Yeshua is YHWH. Here is the sureness of our Hope. YHWH is always faithful. Yeshua is always faithful.

Kepha Aleph (1 Peter) 1:21
Who by him do believe in Yeshua, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in Yeshua.

Is your hope in the Person of Yeshua Mashiach? Or has your hope been in the experience of when you repented of your sins? If your hope has been misplaced in the past, then please, right this moment, pause in your reading and repent of this wrongness and place your hope in Him.

Yochanan Aleph (1 John) 3:3
And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure.

A person who has accepted the sin offering of Yeshua in his life must then remain true to the Hope which he now has been given.

And finally, here is the one verse in all the Scripture that refers to the “blessed hope.”

 

The Blessed Hope

Titus 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great Master and our Savior Yeshua Mashiach;

The common teaching in the church today is that Messiah can return at any moment. One of the verses that is used to teach this false doctrine is the above passage. They wrongly claim that the hope of the believer is the appearing of Messiah. But is this actually what this passage says or teaches? Let us examine it closely.

This verse clearly states that the true followers of Yeshua are to be looking for two separate things: 1) their blessed hope, and 2) the appearing of Yeshua Messiah, Who is their Hope. These two items are so closely related that it is difficult to distinguish between the two. But we must be able to distinguish between them. Why? Not to understand the truth of this passage is to travel the road of false doctrine, which if followed too far, will lead one into eternal damnation. This hope is not the event of His appearing. As we have already shown, a person’s Hope should be the Person of Yeshua Mashiach.

If the hope of the body of Mashiach is His appearing, then all those who died before His appearing have not seen this hope; they have all died in vain. However, if the hope of the body of Mashiach is Yeshua Himself, and it is, then they have not died in vain, nor without hope. But in hope, they have died in Mashiach.

So the question has been presented to you: what is your hope? Do you hope for things? Do you hope for more of something? Do you place your hope in a past work of Mashiach in your life? If you had misplaced your hope before you read this article, hopefully you have now sought to remedy this and have placed your hope in Him, as He is our Hope.

Heavenly Father, help us all to have our hope properly placed in the Person of Mashiach so that we might all have eternal life in Him. Amein!

Shabbat Shalom
Zerubbabel ben Emunah
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