Paul said the feasts "are shadows of things to come". Therefore, when Paul wrote that the feasts had not been fulfilled yet.
As I pointed out in the previous note, you are using a verse to make a rule that is obviously not true. Paul also spoke of the priestly ministry in the temple in the present tense because the sacrifices and offerings were still being offered in the temple day and night: “there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example, and shadow of heavenly things.” Hebrews 8:4-5
So if what you are suggesting is true, that if an earthly shadow still existed it could not have been fulfilled yet, that would mean that Jesus’ death did not fulfill the sacrifices because they still existed for 40 years after his death.
Just because the people were still observing the feasts does not mean they had not been fulfilled. They were still observing Passover but I know you would not argue that means Jesus had not fulfilled it by his sacrificial death.
Now I am not arguing that at the time the New Testament was written that everything had been fulfilled. It hadn’t. There was still more to be fulfilled. As I have stated repeatedly, Jesus himself said not one jot or tittle could pass away until ALL was fulfilled. The last jots and tittles that had to be fulfilled was the last of the harvest at the end of the civil year … the vintage.
The Sabbath, Passover, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread all existed prior to the Old Covenant, yet you include them as having passed away.
Yes, because the Scripture teaches that everything that happened in the lives of the people through whom the Promise was to come was a type and a shadow, going all the way back to the first Adam of the old creation who was made a living soul being a type of the last Adam (Jesus) of the new creation who is a quickening spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45-49
From the very beginning God foreshadowed the person and the work of Jesus, even before there was a nation of Israel or a Law Covenant between them and God.
Even the very founding of the nation of Israel was a type and shadow of the founding of the church, first with the birth of Abraham’s firstborn son (Ishmael was a type of the Old Covenant Jews – children of the bondwoman) being cast out and the younger son (Isaac was a type of the New Covenant Jews – children of the freewoman) became the heirs. Galatians 4:21-31
And then God again foreshadowed the election of his church through Jacob and Esau. If you remember Esau was the firstborn and by law was the heir, but Jacob “supplanted” Esau and received the blessing, but even more, although Esau retained the inheritance, he sold it to Jacob for a mess of pottage. Again, this was a type and shadow of the firstborn son (Old Covenant Jews) being supplanted by the younger son (New Covenant Jews) and the firstborn son selling their birthright (the inheritance of the Promise) to the younger son.
All of this was done by God to teach us and instruct us about the beginning of the church, the body of Christ, that it was those Jews who entered into the New Covenant who would be counted as the Israel of God and would be the foundation of the church, with Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone.
And historically this is precisely what happened in the days of Jesus’ coming. Those Jews who refused the Gospel and remained under the Old Covenant were disinherited and cast out while those Jews who entered into the New Covenant received the inheritance. This “remnant” of the nation are the “firstfruits” of the soul harvest of the Gospel of Salvation and the very foundation upon which the church of God is built.
No, that is what you are saying that I am saying. It is a FACT that if I do not steal, then I avoid the sin of stealing. The same holds true for any other commandment. We avoid sin by obeying the law. I said NOTHING about me being righteous because I obey the law. Nor did I say I was innocent of sin. If I break the law, I have sinned for sin is the transgression of the law (
1 John 3:4).
I don’t believe God sets the bar quite that low. ANYBODY, even the most morally bankrupt sinner, can avoid the sin of stealing by not stealing. But we are talking about how we believers are justified before God and what makes us righteous. You are insisting that it’s a combination of faith in Jesus on the one hand for those commandments that cannot be observed, and on the other hand avoiding sin by doing the works of the law. And that’s what obedience to the Law is, works.
And speaking of “avoiding sin,” the death and resurrection of Jesus doesn’t only save us from the wages of sin. Certainly it does save us from the guilt and penalty of sin. But it does more than that. It actually saves us from sin itself.
The letter to the Hebrews, I know some say it wasn’t written by the Apostle Paul but I believe it had to have been. This was the inspired work of a brilliant legal mind who understood the depth and richness of symbolism in the Law in the light of the Gospel and what the Law teaches us Jesus’ death actually means for us.
Look what Paul teaches us in Hebrews 9:13-14, it is so beautiful and so very, very instructive.
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh…”
Notice that Paul is teaching that the sacrifices of the Law only went skin deep, they only sanctified, purified, the flesh, the outward man and the actual deeds and actions of the body, and the defilements that came from physically touching dead things and physically eating unclean things. The blood of the sacrifices of the Law could only cleanse the body from bodily sins and defilement. But all those things were shadows and lessons that have something to teach us.
Then look at what Paul teaches:
“How much more shall the blood of Christ …
purge your conscience from dead works to serve a living God.”
That’s where our “avoidance of sin” comes from. The blood of Jesus doesn’t just save us from the wages of sin, the blood of Jesus saves us from sin itself, from the power of sin, by reaching down into our soul and it purges and purifies our conscience (suneidesis 4893– moral consciousness or awareness, from suneido 4894 - to see completely, to understand, to become aware of and become conscious of, informed of). Because that’s where sin starts, long before it ever becomes a deed that violates the Law, sin begins in our hearts (“out of the heart flow the issues of life”-Jesus).
And the purpose of the blood of Jesus cleansing our conscience is so that we can serve a Living God, a God who is alive, and because of the blood of Jesus cleanses our innermost being, God, who is spirit, can dwell in us and we can have “communion” (communication) with God, He can speak to us and say do this and do that, go here and go there, a living God who can prick our conscience and make us aware that something is wrong, long before desires and promptings can become sinful acts.
The blood of Jesus
purges our conscience, purges our awareness and understanding of sin and righteousness, something the blood of bulls and goats could never do. Those old earthly things, including that old earthly Law with it’s earthly tabernacle and earthly priests and earthly sacrifices and earthly commandments about sins of the flesh and earthly blood that could only cleanse the flesh, those were all types and shadows given to teach us about spiritual things, about blood that delivers us from the power of sin by sanctifying our conscience so that God can dwell in us and speak to us. There is power in that blood, and it’s not just skin deep, it goes to our very heart and soul where sin begins and delivers us from sin long before it becomes an outward deed.
This is so false. Yeshua fulfilled the whole law by obeying the whole law. His obedience does NOT mean we no longer have to obey.
But what are you obeying? Did God stop speaking after Mt. Sinai? Is the Law the final word of God? Did the voice of God stop with Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets? Or did God stop speaking when Jesus ascended? Or was it when the last of the New Testament canon was written? What exactly are we supposed to obey?
God is a living God. And God is speaking right now. “Today, if you will hear his voice. Don’t harden your heart.” The Law being written on our hearts means God speaks to us through His Law, and through His Law teaches us about things that we cannot even begin to think or imagine.
We obey the voice of God. Not as He spoke to Israel when he made covenant with them at Mt. Sinai, which covenant they broke. We obey the voice of the living God who through the New Covenant has sprinkled us with the blood of His own Son to cleanse us so that He might come into our hearts and dwell with us and speak to us, in person.
This is why we must be born again. This is why the Spirit of God must reach deep down into our inner being and raise up our dead spirit. Because God is spirit and a dead spirit cannot hear God speak.
We are entering the busy holiday season so I may be a bit slow at times to respond to your posts, but please know that while I would love to spend all my time sitting and talking about Jesus like Mary did, I must also do Martha and serve my loved ones, especially at this special season when all around me the world is celebrating the birth of the Savior.
In Christ,
Pilgrimer