Friday, March 2, 2012

Learning from Levertoff - "The Law and Love" (Part 2)

Here is Part 2 of Yahnatan discussing "The Law and Love" from "Love and the Messianic Age" by Paul Phillip Levertoff.


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3 comments:

Yahnatan said...

A few thoughts:

1) I might have misrepresented Levertoff a little bit when I said that he was referring to "us followers of Yeshua," since Love and the Messianic Age is not a work of NT theology but a work describing Chasidic theology with reference to the apostolic writings.

2) I also realized that what I'm saying suggests that

keeping the Law -> union with God -> God's grace moving through us.

While that may accurately reflect Hasidic theology, I'm not convinced that it accurately reflects NT theology, which I might sum up rather as:

faith (in Messiah) -> union with God -> God's Spirit working in us and through us AND keeping the Law

3) I think the analogy of Shechinah to the apostolic understanding of Ruach Hakodesh bears further examination.

March 4, 2012 at 7:39 AM
Anonymous said...

One initial thought with respect to your clarification:

"2) I also realized that what I'm saying suggests that

keeping the Law -> union with God -> God's grace moving through us.

While that may accurately reflect Hasidic theology, I'm not convinced that it accurately reflects NT theology, which I might sum up rather as:

faith (in Messiah) -> union with God -> God's Spirit working in us and through us AND keeping the Law"

I think this is a necessary distinction to make, but perhaps there is also a sense in which that they may be related (if not harmonized). I mean that "faith (in Messiah)" is also obedience to the hearing of the Good News of Messiah, and that true keeping of Torah is motivated by God's redeeming love. Perhaps faith and obedience are threads which are woven together in the life of chasidei Yeshua.

March 12, 2012 at 1:53 PM
Yahnatan said...

Good point, jewvsgodzilla...perhaps my correction overemphasizes the discontinuity between faith and keeping the Law (as the response that is manifested by faith) and between the two and union with God. I wouldn't besurprised if Levertoff would have it this way too...

March 12, 2012 at 6:57 PM

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