Is the Law Abolished, or is Part of the Law Abolished? (continued from 1 John study)

Why would Jesus say these things if He did not want us to abide by His law to the best of our ability.

Recently, a friend in love shared with me two passages that she believed made it clear that I should not try and keep the Biblical feasts in the book of Leviticus 23.

Here are the two passages.

Ephesians 2:15

by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

and

Colossians 2;14

having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Before I dig deep into these verses, let me say again I am just a sinner saved by grace, I do not claim to have all the answers.  Like you, I am on a journey and seeking Truth with all my heart.  So, as you read my conclusions please, take out your Bible and seek the Holy Spirit and allow God to lead you to His Truth.  May we all continue to grow and learn in His Word.

Let’s start by looking at the Ephesians 2 verse.  I like to read the letters of the Apostles from start to finish as if it were a letter written to me.  So, let’s do that first.  Ephesians

Once you have read the whole letter from beginning to end lets go back and just look closely at the verse in question.

 Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the enmity,  the Law of commandments in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. ¹⁷ And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near;¹⁸ for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, ²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

So, here is a good place to remind ourselves what Peter says about Paul.  In 2 Peter 3:15-17

“…and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness…”

Paul the writer of Ephesians and Colossians is a very well educated Jew.  His understanding of Jewish customs and the Law of God is very advanced.  So, even in his own time the early church had a hard time following his teaching.  So, we too of course, many hundreds of years later are going to find it difficult.  But we can always trust that God’s Word will not contradict itself.

So let’s ask ourselves what is Paul writing about in this letter.  Paul is writing about the fact that all who call on the name of Jesus now belong to the family of God.  He is talking about the fact that we all can come together in worship of God, he is talking about not being separated from God and each other any more.

Now let’s look at the verse in question closely.

When we look closely at this verse we see it is a part of a long sentence about the barrier wall being broken down.  The barrier wall was a wall in the temple building that separated the Jews from the Gentiles.  The Israelites often forgot to obey God’s laws and after the Jews returned to the Promised land they  never wanted to forget again.  So, the leaders of the church, made lots of rules to go with God’s law to help them not accidentally disobey or fall into sin again.  One of these fence laws was to remain separate from non-Jews even if they wanted to follow YHVH.  These are the laws Paul is talking about.

Now let’s look at the Colossians verse. Here is the passage in context.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.

What was nailed to the cross?  The certificate of debt.  Jesus paid our debt for all the mistakes we will make against His Law.  We are made free from the penalty of death, does that mean we should go on sinning?  That would be like paying a speeding ticket, and then continuing to speed, and whenever you get pulled over, you say to the officer, oh, I already paid the ticket, I can speed all I want now.  That would be foolish, and no one would think that it how it works.  Knowing that Christ paid the debt, is all the more reason we should choose to turn and walk in obedience.

So, my conclusion is this, and I want to say again I am no authority, that neither, Messiah or Paul preached a Gospel that included disobedience to the Torah.

In my next post, I will address why I think the feast laws are for us today.

Until then Shalom.

Written by ktmom15