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New Testament Abolishes LAW:
In the Old Testament, God instituted several other memorials and
feasts. These are not in effect today (Heb. 10:9,10; Gal.
3:23,24; 5:1-4; Col. 2:14,16;
OLD LAW removed: Hebrews 10:1-10; 7:11-14; 8:6-13; 9:1-4
Hebrews 10
10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are
coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can
never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year,
make perfect those who draw near to worship.
2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the
worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no
longer have felt guilty for their sins.
3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins,
4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to
take away sins.
5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you
prepared for me;
6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.
7 Then I said, 'Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll--
I have come to do your will, O God.'"
8 First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings
and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with
them" (although the law required them to be made).
9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your
will." He sets aside the first to establish the second.
10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 7
11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical
priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the
people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one
in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
12 For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also
be a change of the law.
13 He of whom these things are said belonged to a different
tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar.
14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in
regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.
Hebrew 8
6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as
the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one,
and it is founded on better promises.
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
no place would have been sought for another.
8 But God found fault with the people and said : "The time
is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because
they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away
from them, declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their
minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and
they will be my people.
11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother,
saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the
least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their
sins no more."
13 By calling this covenant "new," he has made the
first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon
disappear.
Hebrews 9
9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also
an earthly sanctuary.
2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand,
the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy
Place.
3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy
Place,
4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark
of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna,
Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the
covenant.
2 Corinthians 3:6-11; Galatians 3:24,25; 5:1-6
2 Corinthians 3
6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant--not of
the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life.
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in
letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could
not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory,
fading though it was,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
9 If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more
glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the
surpassing glory.
11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater
is the glory of that which lasts!
Galatians 3
24 So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we
might be justified by faith.
25 Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the
supervision of the law.
Galatians 5
5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm,
then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of
slavery.
2 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be
circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised
that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
4 You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated
from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the
righteousness for which we hope.
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has
any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself
through love.
; Romans 7:1-7; Ephesians 2:11-16
Romans 7
7:1 Do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to men who know
the law--that the law has authority over a man only as long as he
lives?
2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as
long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released
from the law of marriage.
3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still
alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she
is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though
she marries another man.
4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of
Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised
from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful
passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that
we bore fruit for death.
6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released
from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and
not in the old way of the written code.
7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed
I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I
would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not
said, "Do not covet."
Ephesians 2
11 Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by
birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call
themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by
the hands of men)--
12 remember that at that time you were separate from Christ,
excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the
covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the
world.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been
brought near through the blood of Christ.
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has
destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,
15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and
regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out
of the two, thus making peace,
16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through
the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
Colossians 2:13-17
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of
your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us
all our sins,
14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that
was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away,
nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a
public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or
drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon
celebration or a Sabbath day.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the
reality, however, is found in Christ.
1 Timothy 4:1-5
1 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon
the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by
demons.
2 Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose
consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
3 They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from
certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving
by those who believe and who know the truth.
4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be
rejected if it is received with thanksgiving,
5 because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
As to your question regarding the day you worship: Again, email
me and I will give you a more indepth explanation of this (which
is something I strongly researched and believe God has given me
the answer). As a synopsis, the Sabbath day was a day of rest,
which was Saturday in the OT. On the seventh day God rested.
Well, under the new covenant, Jesus said that we are to rest in
Him. In other words, doesn’t matter what day you
worship-actually we should worship Him every day! But, it doesn’t
matter what day you “congregate” just as long you
“don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together.”
This is based upon a study in the book of Hebrews. You can
worship any day of the week, but most churches are open Sunday,
with a few exceptions, of course, so, therefore, I myself am in
church on Sunday.
Hi Phil,
Just going by our current calendar, Saturday would be
the Sabbath day. Basic info about that is this: The
Sabbath was the day made holy by God in Genesis 2
because on that day He rested from his work. This was
carried over into the Law of Moses where the Children
of Israel were to work six days but rest on the
seventh. In fact, it was one of the Ten Commandments,
Exodus 20:8-11. Having the law done away with under
the New Covenant of Christ is argued by most that it
is no longer a requirement to observe the Sabbath. I
am still a little shaky on this point and need to
develop a better understanding. Saying “since the law
is done away with I don’t need to keep the Sabbath” is
like saying “since the law is done away with I can
steal”. I have heard it said that we’re to observe all
days as holy to God, but again I’m a little shaky on
this.
In the New Testament there are a few places that
suggest the church met on Sunday, i.e. the first day
of the week: Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2. I believe
this is to symbolize the day Christ was raised from
the dead: Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2, Luke 24:1, John
20:1. I also believe this typifies the act of
circumcision which was to be done on the eight day.
The Sabbath, however, would still be on Saturday.
Another interesting twist to the days is that a Jewish
day doesn’t start at the stroke of midnight like ours
would. I think, but I’m not sure, their day begins
around 6:00 PM.
There are other verses where Paul speaks of observing
days. I give them to you but I don’t yet have an
understanding of exactly what he means: Romans 14:5,
Colossians 2:16,17, Galatians 4:10.
Hope that helps some.
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Okay, I have a short answer for you and a long answer. The short
answer gives you the relevant texts, while the long answer
addresses some of the apparent contradictions upon which various
churches become confused.
Concerning food:
"Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the
outside can make him 'unclean'? For it doesn't go into his heart
but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying
this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")" (Mark
7:18-19)
Concerning the Sabbath:
"One man considers one day more sacred than another; another
man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced
in his own mind." (Rom 14:5)
(In other words, there is no intrinsic value in selecting any
particular day as 'special'. The important thing is whether you
honor God in what you do, be it the selection of a day as
'special' or the consideration that all days are alike).
Okay, that's your short answer. However, concerning food your
friends will pull up the following text:
"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden
you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to
abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat
of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well
to avoid these things. Farewell." (Acts 15:28-29)
First of all, it is bizarre to me that a church can pull out one
teaching while completely ignoring another. If Christ declares
all food to be clean, then the Council of Jerusalem restricts
food, where is the rationale? The answer is explained elsewhere
in Scripture. Something which is not inherently bad can
nonetheless become a bad thing. For example, to the Gentiles who
had just come from idolatry (where food sacrificed to idols had a
particular pagan religious significance) the council was
concerned that eating such food might cause them to stumble...
that they would continue to place a religious connotation upon
the food instead of just treating it as food, and so become
guilty of idolatrous practices. This is explained at length in
1st Corinthians 8:4-13, which I will not quote here because of
the length of the passage. The gist of it is that idols are
nothing, and that the food sacrificed to them is just food... but
to those who are still struggling with a history of idolatry such
food can become a stumbling block.
Now concerning the Sabbath, there is quite a bit of disagreement
among the churches. The passage which I quoted above (and the
verses around it... read it in context) essentially restores
every day to equal status unless one decides to honor God by
setting apart a day. It is a matter of choice rather than
obligation.
What happened, then, to the Sabbath? The meaning of Sabbath to
the Christian has changed. It is redefined for us in Hebrews 3
and 4, which refers to the Sabbath rest of the people belonging
to God. When we enter into a relationship with God through Jesus
Christ, we find a Sabbath rest for our souls. It is along the
lines of what Jesus says in Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all
you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
The Sabbath as laid out in the Mosaic Law was a temporary rest,
which would always be followed by more work, then more rest...
but it is only a temporary symbol of the fulfillment of a
permanent rest for our souls. Hebrews actually presents a similar
interpretation of sacrifice... that the Mosaic sacrifices were
practiced over and over, without any real power to take away sin.
They were a symbol of the one sacrifice (of Christ)which would
end all sacrifices.
The thing that concerns me with churches who try to lay down
rigid rules about food, holy days, etc. is not so much the
nitpicky argument about which food and which days, but rather the
fact that they completely miss the point. If you carefully read
Romans and what it says about the Law, you see that we no longer
operate under Law, but under grace. We have been set free... free
from sin, and free from the Law, whose only real point was to
show up our sin and our need for forgiveness. Now we have
obtained that forgiveness, and live under the grace of God.
Mankind does not seem to be simple with that simple message,
though... we are not satisfied to accept the free gift of Christ´s
sacrifice. We still want to 'earn' heaven by means of various
forms of legalism. Paul tackes this aggressively not only in
Romans but also in Galatians. It would take me forever to write
it all down here, but these are the two books you should go to in
order to understand the issues of grace versus rules... or as
Paul writes in Colossians:
"Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this
world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to
its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not
touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because
they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations
indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed
worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the
body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on
things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you
died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When
Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with
him in glory." (Col 2:20-3:4)
The message is clear. Set your eyes and your heart upon God, and
the value of worldly rules and regulations becomes nonexistent.
Blessings, in the name of the One who set us free...
-Gregg-
Article:
Also
"But now after you have known God, or rather are known by
God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly
elements, to which you desire to be in bondage? You observe
*days* and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you,
lest I have laboured in vain" Gal 4:9-11.
I believe the "days" can only be referring to sabbath
days. If months and seasons and years refer to the other feasts
that are kept under the law. Also Romans chapter 14.
If you are concerned about the Sabbath, I understand. It is the
only commandment out of the 10 that we are no longer required to
keep. Jesus *is* our sabbath, our rest. He is the "Lord of
the sabbath".The sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27-28
& Mathew 12:1-8) Now that we have our rest in the Lord we
have sabbath every day.By this I mean doing good every day to the
Lord.
If you want more detailed info, I can get hold of more - just
dont have it on me right now.
Read 1 Timothy 4 Read the hole Chapter. You can eat meat!
Paul was talking about the last days, Verse 3 Forbidding to
marry, and adstain from meats, which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth: V 4 For every creature of God is good , and nothing to be
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. Eat all the meat
you want and thank God for it.
Hebrews 10 Read the whole Chapter. Verse 25 Not forsaking the
assembling of ourseleves together, as the mammer of some is: but
exhorting one another; as ye see the day approaching.
We are to assemble together and worship our creator.
Phil: Scriptures that I've read on food in the New Testament are
outlined as follows with a brief explanation. Please read the
passages as I have not actually quoted them fully in this email.
Acts 10:1-35 Peter's Vision. This does not have to do with
actually food. God is using food as an example only, in that the
Gentiles are not unclean.
"You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to
associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that
I should not call any man impure or unclean."
"Then Peter began to speak: ' I now realize how true it is
that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every
nation who fear Him and do what is right.'"
The above passages reveal that God was welcoming the Gentiles
into the family of God.
Mark 7:5-23: In this passage did Jesus *really* say that all
foods are clean? My answer is no. Jesus was identifying the
hypocrisy of the Jews who were so concerned abut Jesus's
disciples following Jewish tradition that they missed the point
and intention of God's Word. Also, if you go to the parallel
passage in Matthew 15:1-20, the words at the end in the
parenthetical statement is not there. The incident isn't
addressed in Luke or John. But in Mark, the interpreters included
the parenthetical at the end of verse 19 ("In saying this,
Jesus declared all foods 'clean')." If you research the
original Greek test, the parenthetical is not there. It is only
an interpretation from the person who interpreted the passage,
which is why it is in parenthesis.
Colossians 2:16-23: When Paul wrote this letter to the
Colossians, there was a great deal of heresy arising in the young
church. Certain groups were adding requirements and distorting
the simple message of salvation through faith. They said: Yes,
you need faith in Jesus Christ, but you also still need to be
circumcised. Yes, you need faith in Jesus Christ, but you also
are required to observe special ceremonies or avoid certain
foods. Their faith had become a religion; a list of things to do
and not do. People were judging others on whether or not they
were following the rules, and Paul wanted to end this heresy.
1 Timothy 4:3-5: Once again, Paul addresses this issue, this time
to Timothy. Paul felt obligated to identify and correct this
deception of "salvation with conditions" before it had
any further impact on the young Christian church. This Scripture
also brings up another interesting idea. Were unclean foods -
those foods that were not to be consumed as God revealed through
Moses - created to be received with thanksgiving? Was the pig to
be received with thanksgiving? It's true that all things created
are good, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they were all
created to be eaten. The pig and the vulture were both created
for a good purpose, but not necessarily human consumption. I
believe Paul is warning Timothy against people who are telling
others that formerly *clean* foods are now to be avoided. Paul
also says that the Word of God and prayer consecrate foods. If he
was indeed talking about the clean foods as revealed through
God's Word, then that makes sense. If you pray over high-fat pork
and other foods that are not healthy, does that change the
quality and content of the food? No.
Romans 14:14: - "I am fully convinced that no food is
unclean in itself," Paul wrote. I fully agree. From a
spiritual standpoint, no food is unclean. Did Paul have any idea
that food could have a direct effect on our health? No, he simply
knew that you had to eat. 2,000 years ago, there was no concept
that the quality of the food you ate affected the quality of the
life that you lived. When people got hungry, they ate something
to fill their stomach. It didn't matter whether it was bread,
rice, meat, milk, fruits, or vegetables. Also, there was no such
thing as *processed foods* or drive-thrus, hydrogenated oils,
etc....
Bottom line: As a Christian you are spiritually free to eat
whatever you want. Your salvation is not threatened just because
you eat pig - but there may be negative consequences from a
physical standpoint. Just because you are free to eat whatever
you want, however, doesn't mean you should.
"Everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial.
Everything is permissible but not everything is
constructive." (I Corin. 10:23) Also, our body is His
temple. (2 Corin. 6:16) Today many people take better care of
their cars than they do this temple of the Holy Spirit.
FINALLY: I know I'm probably too wordy for you, but this is
something that has changed my life. There are Scriptures that
refer to food in the NT, which are above, but they *DO NOT*
abolish the OT principles of avoiding certain foods. Jesus came
to fulfill the Law not to abolish the Law. Also, did you know
that Jesus followed all points of the OT Law? He was under the
same law of the OT!!! He followed it in *every* point, because if
He didn't then He would be found in violation of the entire Law!
The NT or new covenant does not take place until Jesus died and
rose again. Then the new covenant (or testament) came into being,
which the only real thing that changed was the sacrifice of Jesus
instead of bulls and goats, and the age of Grace - which is A
LOT, but it didn't change the Law. Jesus fulfilled the Law.