We Gentile believers, who have not been under the bonds of the law and have the NT Scriptures, should consider how great is our privilege above the believing Jews in the early days of Christianity. They had only Moses and the prophets; and these did not know the great and wonderful change which would take place after the cutting off of the Messiah—the parenthesis between the sixty-ninth and the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy (9:25-27). There was the exception of a few passing hints which only shone out after the True Light came—when the Spirit led beyond what they could previously bear.
That system ceased which had been ordained of God for Israel and had existed for fifteen centuries: “carnal ordinances” (Heb 9:10; Eph 2:15—NC), which men could see with their natural eyes, and in which every soul of Israel might take part. All that was now set aside (until the Millennial Kingdom - Jer 31:31-33; Eze 36:25-27—NC) by spiritual sacrifice and by the priesthood of every believer having become a priest (it’s been said that Jews have a priesthood, but Christians are a priesthood - 1Pe 2:5, 9; Rev 1:6; 5:10—NC), the Lord Jesus Himself being their great High Priest (Heb 4:14). It was no longer sights and sounds acting on the senses, but now eternal and unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith based upon the Word of God (2Co 4:18).
Hitherto Jerusalem had been the place where God had chosen to put His name (2Ch 6:6; Jhn 4:20); thither they were to bring their sacrifices and offerings, and there at the altar where He recorded His name He was to come and bless them (Ex 20:24). But under the new order of things how great the change! Jerusalem is no longer the place where men worship truly. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:21-23).
It is well for us to remember that these believers did not see this written till more than fifty years after Pentecost. Neither James, nor Peter, nor Paul when at first coming on the scene, unfolds as yet such a truth, so far as we now know. The time had not arrived till a later day for Paul to tell them, “Let us go forth outside the camp (the Jewish system) bearing His reproach” (Heb 13:13). This they were not yet prepared to do. Neither were they told till then, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb 13:10). This last thing the saints in Jerusalem had all been doing, and continued to do till the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, more than thirty years after Pentecost.
If we take these things into serious consideration, we shall the better understand how these saints could continue to follow Moses, “all zealous of the law” (out of ignorance, but saved– Act 21:20—NC), for so many years after the Cross. How many believers think that from the moment of the utterance of the Messiah’s dying words, “It is finished,” when “the vail of the temple was rent in twain,” there was an end, not merely in principle before God but in fact, of Judaism, material sacrifices, priest, temple, with all other legal ordinances?
In Acts 6:7 we read of a great crowd of priests obeying the faith; and believers who read it now jump to the conclusion that they then gave up all sacerdotal functions, because the Lord added them to the Church. But this is premature: there is no ground to believe it, but that they continued their service in the sanctuary. How slow most of us find it to apply a principle so new, strange and deep!
If we pay attention to Hebrews 8:13, we see that the first covenant which had “ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary” (Heb 9:1) was becoming old and growing aged, hence “ready to vanish away” (Heb 8:13). Thus the Levitical regime had not yet disappeared; and it was made known to the Christian Jews only at the close, before the city and temple fell under public and divine judgement. A little later (A.D. 70), Jerusalem was destroyed and not one stone left on anther of the temple. Then Judaism finally passed away. Its death-blow had been given at the crucifixion.
That system ceased which had been ordained of God for Israel and had existed for fifteen centuries: “carnal ordinances” (Heb 9:10; Eph 2:15—NC), which men could see with their natural eyes, and in which every soul of Israel might take part. All that was now set aside (until the Millennial Kingdom - Jer 31:31-33; Eze 36:25-27—NC) by spiritual sacrifice and by the priesthood of every believer having become a priest (it’s been said that Jews have a priesthood, but Christians are a priesthood - 1Pe 2:5, 9; Rev 1:6; 5:10—NC), the Lord Jesus Himself being their great High Priest (Heb 4:14). It was no longer sights and sounds acting on the senses, but now eternal and unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith based upon the Word of God (2Co 4:18).
Hitherto Jerusalem had been the place where God had chosen to put His name (2Ch 6:6; Jhn 4:20); thither they were to bring their sacrifices and offerings, and there at the altar where He recorded His name He was to come and bless them (Ex 20:24). But under the new order of things how great the change! Jerusalem is no longer the place where men worship truly. “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:21-23).
It is well for us to remember that these believers did not see this written till more than fifty years after Pentecost. Neither James, nor Peter, nor Paul when at first coming on the scene, unfolds as yet such a truth, so far as we now know. The time had not arrived till a later day for Paul to tell them, “Let us go forth outside the camp (the Jewish system) bearing His reproach” (Heb 13:13). This they were not yet prepared to do. Neither were they told till then, “We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb 13:10). This last thing the saints in Jerusalem had all been doing, and continued to do till the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, more than thirty years after Pentecost.
If we take these things into serious consideration, we shall the better understand how these saints could continue to follow Moses, “all zealous of the law” (out of ignorance, but saved– Act 21:20—NC), for so many years after the Cross. How many believers think that from the moment of the utterance of the Messiah’s dying words, “It is finished,” when “the vail of the temple was rent in twain,” there was an end, not merely in principle before God but in fact, of Judaism, material sacrifices, priest, temple, with all other legal ordinances?
In Acts 6:7 we read of a great crowd of priests obeying the faith; and believers who read it now jump to the conclusion that they then gave up all sacerdotal functions, because the Lord added them to the Church. But this is premature: there is no ground to believe it, but that they continued their service in the sanctuary. How slow most of us find it to apply a principle so new, strange and deep!
If we pay attention to Hebrews 8:13, we see that the first covenant which had “ordinances of divine service and a worldly sanctuary” (Heb 9:1) was becoming old and growing aged, hence “ready to vanish away” (Heb 8:13). Thus the Levitical regime had not yet disappeared; and it was made known to the Christian Jews only at the close, before the city and temple fell under public and divine judgement. A little later (A.D. 70), Jerusalem was destroyed and not one stone left on anther of the temple. Then Judaism finally passed away. Its death-blow had been given at the crucifixion.
