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Christians and the Jewish Law
Open the
Bible Question Form to send your own question.
Q:
Why do Christians not keep the
Jewish laws? There are people in our
community who believe that salvation is of grace through Christ's
blood, but
also believe Christ meant us to keep the law.
A : If the emails we receive are any indication,
Christians who attempt to
keep the Jewish laws are on the increase. We have the Messianic
Jews, the
seventh-Day Adventists, and other various groups who are sure that
we are
still under the law of Moses to some degree or another. Anytime
I
question this bondage, I get angry emails from people who seem
to think
that I have attacked God.
I remember wondering when I was younger why the New Testament deals
so
much with the liberty we have from the Old Testament law. Much
of Romans,
practically the entire book of Galatians, and other portions of
scripture, deal clearly with this. Now I know why God gave so much
text
on this. Man has a tendency to reduce living Christianity to a
set of
laws. This seems even more valid if we use the laws God gave to
the Jews.
Even in the book of Revelation, John speaks of
"the blasphemy of them
which say they are Jews, and are not" (Revelation
2:9). This has been a
problem area for the last 2,000 years.
However, the Bible is very clear when it comes to the authority
of the
law in this age. We can learn from it, for it teaches us many things.
However, we are free from the rules and regulations of this law.
Let us
look at some of the proofs for this teaching in scripture.
- The Bible clearly states that we are not under the
law. Romans 6:14
says, "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are
not under the
law, but under grace." Since we are under grace, we are not
under the
law. The two are mutually exclusive.
- Jesus Christ has delivered us from the curse of the
law (Galatians
3:10-13). Those who "are of the works of the law are
under the curse"
(v.10) But
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law" (v.13).
We come to God by faith and "the law is not of faith" (v.12).
- Before faith came (clear faith in the person of
Jesus Christ), we
were kept under the law (Galatians 3:23).
The "law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ" (v.24).
"But after that faith is come, we are no
longer under a schoolmaster" (v.25).
How much clearer could it be? We are
no longer under the Mosaic law as a rule of practice.
- In Galatians, Paul goes even further. The very
desire to be under the
law is a carnal desire. He calls the Galatians
"foolish" for trying to
return to the practices of the law as a way to please God (Galatians
3:1-3). In Galatians 4:21-31,
he tells an allegory to those "that desire
to be under the law" (v.21).
He concludes that those who follow the law
are "children of the bondwoman" (v.31),
but those who follow faith are
"free." Paul is not dealing here with the law as a plan
for salvation. He
is dealing with those who have trusted in Christ and then desire
to
return to the law in order to please God.
- The council in Jerusalem in Acts 15 plainly
stated that the
requirements of the law were not to be exacted from Gentile believers.
It
also clearly states that Jews must come to Christ in the same way
that
Gentiles get saved--"But we believe that through the grace
of the Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they" (v.11).
The problem came
when certain of the Pharisees decided that the Gentiles who had
believed
must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (v.5).
The men at the
conference (including Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James the brother
of
Jesus) agreed that this was not to be required of the Gentiles.
Peter
even accused the Pharisees of tempting God, "to put a yoke
upon the neck
of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to
bear"
(v.10). Evidently, it is tempting
God to require grace age believers to
keep the Jewish regulations of the law.
- Paul specifically excludes circumcision as a
requirement for New
Testament believers. See Galatians 5:1-6; 6:15.
- We are not subject to the particular restrictions of
the law.
Colossians 2:16-17 states, "Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the
Sabbath
days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
Christ."
the Jewish laws were shadows of things to come. That is, they pointed
to
Christ. But now that Jesus Christ has come, there is no need to
hold on
to the shadow.
I have not dealt here with the present value of the law and do
not have
time to do so now. Suffice it to say, the Mosaic law proceeds from
the
higher law of God and reflects much of God's holiness. We learn
from the
law but we are not under the law. We seek to fulfill the righteousness
of
the law through the power of the Spirit in us (Romans
8:4) and not by the
keeping of 613 rules and regulations of the Mosaic law. God bless.
Till He comes,
Pastor David Reagan
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