Think about this for a minute. How many of us have been taught that the way the Pharisees understood things is the way God intended the old covenant to be? The truth is, Christ’s discussions with the Pharisees were to show them that their understanding was flawed, not the covenant. If we allow ourselves to listen to what Christ is telling the Pharisees we come to understand what He was telling them is simply “you aren’t getting this”. If we want to understand God, Christ, and the New Covenant we must listen to what Christ told the Pharisees and apply what He told them to OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE OLD COVENANT and bring that understanding into our foundation of the New Covenant.
Forgiveness, repentance, and acknowledgement of sin were always a perpetual and ongoing aspect of a defined relationship with God. The Day of Atonement only carried special considerations as far as worship...not physical function. The animal sacrifice only carried special considerations as far as worship…not physical function. The roll of the high priest only carried special considerations as far as worship….not physical function. If the law included a day of forgiveness and a sacrifice for forgiveness, and the law required that these events be honored than the truth is, in honoring these aspects of the law, the entire law has been honored. In other words, the law included the requirement to let God forgive us of any transgressions committed in the prior year (time period). In other words, the foundation of the law and the Old Covenant was grace, accepting God's forgiveness, repentance, and acknowledgement of sin. Does this sound familiar?
The function of salvation relative to forgiveness was, and still is, addressed in the ongoing moment by moment relationship between God and His people. The law provided everything offered through Christ except the strength of the Holy Spirit, the person of the High priest (the one that goes before God as a cover for our sins), and a much more substantial sacrifice opposed to animal sacrifices that did not impose the conviction required to bring true repentance into the heart of the sinner. Contrary to teachings...salvation was never through works (except that the Pharisees did teach this during the time just prior to and during Christ’s time and as such Christ addressed this view in His discussion with them). The reality is that what they understood was not representative of what God provided or how He wanted it understood. This is the very point Christ was attempting to make.
This understanding helps us understand Why Paul and every other author of our scriptures including Christ himself continued to honor every aspect of the law to the best of their ability and why they continued to honor the traditional holidays. It also helps us understand how important it would be for Satan to confuse us over these things and to get us to reject what God provided.
The law...better referred to as the tutor....reveals to us the nature of our flesh filter, and provides a foundation that God uses to reveal the nature of a life that will grow toward being more and more in harmony with our God nature. It is for this reason we prosper in the fruit of the spirit as we are led by the spirit....toward AND BEYOND the letter of the law.
The holidays are used to connect us to our heritage, history, and God’s plan in general. God uses the nature of the holidays to speak to us in many ways. It is through the observation of the holidays that we remember our past, remain focused on the future, and become aware of deeper levels of revelation as His plan unfolds in harmony with the sequencing of things established in the beginning.
Yes, Christ replaced the high priest and the sacrifice; one time for all time. But.... how does this change:
- The foundation of what He GAVE US to use to help us understand the essence of who He is,
- What He GAVE US to make it easier for Him to communicate with us, and
- How we should be thankful to Him for being so kind as to give us these things to make the journey easier?
Yes, we can grow in our relationship with God without the law and without the holidays. A simple example would be someone totally sold by the world systems. Let’s use the example of someone who doesn’t honor any laws (even laws of the state) and who celebrates only pagan holidays. Is it still possible for God to reveal Himself to these people? Is it possible for God to show these people that life “Satan’s way” doesn’t work, and that life “His way” does? Of course it is. We see it every day. These are the most hurt, lost, and destructive in society. The pain they feel and the pain they impose are beyond what most of can understand or relate to. God speaks to them in and through this pain. Some are fortunate enough to come to understand that the pain is associated with the lies they are living and as such they come to seek truth. They turn to God and He leads them into the light. In this example we come to see that we learn one of three ways:
- We learn by reading, hearing, or being taught,
- We learn by watching others fail and/or succeed, and
- We learn through our own failures and successes.
What I see is that by eliminating the law and replacing the holidays we have left ourselves without the tutor. We have found ourselves attempting to establish a relationship with God based on only trivial differences between our view of ultimate truth and the world’s view of ultimate truth. In other words, our foundation is only marginally different than the worlds. As such, the pain and suffering God uses to open our eyes looks basically the same as the pain and suffering He uses to open “their” eyes. At the end of the day we find ourselves asking God to show us why we are suffering like we are while at the same time arguing that we “don’t need…..” for our salvation. The truth is, the mindset that utters these words misses the reality of the gospel and is found on a works based salvation. If the mind thinks “I don’t have to do that”, it must have a counter part that thinks “this is what I must do/can’t do”. Until we approach the law and the holidays as a GIFT, embrace them as what God gave us to HELP us we will never understand the gospel, the love of God, or what it is to be in relationship with Him.
The truth is, without the law and holidays as a foundation we are left looking no different than the world...we are left with relative truth within the church with the illusion that each of our views of that truth is the same as Gods. That opens the door for exactly where we are today. The reality of the current state of the church is that it has thousands of views, no harmony, marginal leadership, little to no love, and expresses very little of the holiness of God. In short..very little pure fruit...mostly cheap imitations. My proof of this view is summarized in the prophecy of our pending failure, the current condition of the church, and our inability to even allow ourselves to be comfortable standing in the presence of Gods light. If we won’t embrace it...how can we lead anyone into it? The truth is we try to push them into the light as we hide in their shadows claiming we want to save them from the wrath God will bring on them for what they have done. When will we come to realize that God gave us the responsibility to lead them to Him, their failure is the evidence of our failure, and our failure is the evidence of our pride.
I pray that you have a God filled week and that this blog will in some way drive you deeper into the arms of the one who created you, help free you from whatever bondage you are in, and be a part of the foundation of a deep and meaningful life.
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