How Abandoning God’s Torah Leads to a Faith Without Love, Vision, or Truth
The Crisis of Lost Vision
Something is deeply off in the Body of Messiah. The symptoms are familiar: disorientation, confusion, spiritual drift. Scripture points us to the cause with startling clarity. “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18). The loss of revelation is not accidental—it follows the rejection of Torah, God’s own instruction for life.
Yeshua’s Warning:Works Cannot Replace Obedience
Yeshua warns that this blindness can reach even those who call Him “Lord.” Many will stand before Him claiming, “Have we not prophesied in Your name… and done many wonders in Your name?” Yet He will answer, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:22–23). Many who claim His name, even those who perform great works, will be revealed as strangers to Him because they lived as if His Father’s Torah did not matter. The issue is not enthusiasm, gifting, or outward success. It is the quiet, deadly assumption that life with God requires no submission to His ways.
This same pattern marks our own moment. A faith that celebrates grace while rejecting God’s instruction inevitably drifts toward self-exaltation, deception, and coldness of heart. Scripture calls this condition “lawlessness”—not simply breaking rules, but abandoning the very framework of life that once guarded us, shaped us, and revealed God’s heart.
Lawlessness Defined
As the Complete Jewish Study Bible notes, lawlessness—anomia—means “absence of Torah.” And where Torah is absent, love itself begins to erode. Yeshua foresaw this too: “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). When God’s instruction is set aside, the spiritual structure that shapes our identity, our love, and our discernment collapses. The result is not freedom, but a slow decline into the very lawlessness Scripture warns us to resist.
Grace and Torah:Understanding Their Harmony
In our previous discussion about "good works" and Torah, we explored how salvation by grace naturally leads to walking in God's ways. This understanding takes on even greater urgency when we examine Scripture's warnings about lawlessness (Greek: anomia - literally "without Torah").
Paul's sobering description of the "man of lawlessness" (without "good works"; without Torah) in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 is particularly revealing. This figure is called the "son of destruction" who "opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship." The connection between rejecting Torah and self-exaltation is significant – it suggests that dismissing God's instructions naturally leads to elevating our own wisdom above His.
This theme echoes throughout the New Testament. In Matthew 7:23, Yeshua delivers perhaps one of the most chilling warnings in Scripture: "And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness (Torahlessness).'" Notice that these are people who called Him "Lord" and even performed mighty works in His name (v.22). Yet their practice of lawlessness (Torahlessness) revealed they never truly knew Him. They exalted themselves and dd not bear the image of God.
Less Torah, Less Love
This connects directly to Yeshua's words in Matthew 24:12: "And because lawlessness (Torahlessness) will be increased, the love of many will grow cold." The Greek word for "love" here is agape – the divine love that characterizes God's nature. There's a direct correlation between rejecting Torah and the diminishing of genuine, godly love. This perfectly aligns with John's teaching that love for God is demonstrated through keeping His commandments (1 John 5:3). John further states, "and His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3, NASB 95)
Paul warned Timothy that in the last days, people would "not endure sound teaching" (2 Timothy 4:3). The Greek word for "endure" (anechomai) implies a resistance or refusal to bear something. This matches Peter's warning about those who twist Paul's teachings about grace into a license for lawlessness (Torahlessness) (2 Peter 3:15-17).
The pattern becomes clear: resistance to Torah isn't just about rejecting certain practices – it reflects a deeper spiritual condition. John makes this explicit in 1 John 3:4: "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness (Torahlessness); and sin is lawlessness (Torahlessness)." In other words, sin and lawlessness are essentially the same thing.
Perverted Grace
But here's where our previous discussion about grace and "good works" becomes crucial. The solution isn't a return to legalistic observance, but rather allowing our salvation by grace to produce its intended fruit. As Jude writes, certain people "pervert the grace of our God into sensuality" (Jude 1:4). The antidote isn't abandoning grace, but understanding its true purpose – transforming us into people who naturally walk in God's ways.
Redeemed Zeal - Law Written on Our Hearts
This brings us full circle to Titus 2:14, where redemption from lawless deeds produces zeal for "good works."
“who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:14, NASB 95)
The goal isn't mere external compliance but a transformed heart that delights in God's instruction (Torah), fulfilling Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant where God's law would be written on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
““But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33, NASB 95)
Returning to God’s First Design
In an age where lawlessness is celebrated and sound teaching is increasingly rejected, understanding these connections becomes vital. The "man of lawlessness" represents the ultimate expression of humanity exalting its wisdom above God's instructions. In contrast, genuine faith produces a love for God's ways, recognizing them as the beautiful design they were always meant to be; the design that reflects the purpose and order of the First-Sentence Perspective, "In the beginning God..."
