Christians and the Law

(Torah) Part 2

by Charles Hunting

Which Days Do We Keep Unholy?

Paul writes about some persistent points of division and disagreement in the Christian church in Romans 14. His inspiration is “the law of concern” for fellow man. The issue is special days of worship and what we may or may not eat. On the question of varying opinions as to food he concludes, “Let us therefore cease judging one another, but rather make up our minds to place no stumbling block in a fellow Christian's way. All that I know of the Lord Jesus convinces me that nothing is impure in itself; only, if anyone considers something impure, then for him it is impure. If your fellow Christian is outraged by what you eat, then you are no longer guided by love. Do not let your eating be the ruin of one for whom Christ died. You must not let what you think good be brought into dispute; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but justice, peace and love, inspired by the Holy Sprit” (Rom. 14:13-17).

When Paul makes the statement in verse 20, “Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. Everything is pure in itself,” one must assume that the writer's use of the word everything refers to food, not arsenic or barbed wire! In Paul's statement we find no support for enforcing Mosaic food laws. The Apostle recognized that a major problem is created if we require converts to Christ from the Gentile world to alter their diet by submitting to Moses. This would be to miss the point of the new international faith, “for the kingdom of God is not in eating and drinking.”

Paul in Romans 14:14, 20 was certainly not affirming the food laws of Leviticus 11. In that chapter a precise list of animals, clean and unclean, is presented. To eat what is not prescribed is an abomination. Paul, however, in a chapter which mentions eatingand food some 20 times, uses the very opposite adjective from the one found in Leviticus 11.

There, under the law of Moses, foods are clean (katharos) or unclean (akathartos). For Paul, dealing expressly with eating and food, all things are katharos — clean. Curiously, Herbert Armstrong, in his booklet on this subject, stated the exact opposite in regard to Paul's language. Armstrong asserted that Paul had not used the opposite term from Leviticus 11.

Samuele Bacchiocchi (The Sabbath in the NT, p. 134) evades the unwanted information by a similar misstatement of fact in regard to Paul's words: “That the Mosaic law is not at stake in Romans 14 is also indicated by the term ‘koinos' — common, which is used in verse 14 to designate ‘unclean' food. This term is radically different from the word ‘akathartos' — impure, used in Leviticus 11 (LXX) to designate unlawful foods.”

What he does not tell us, however, is that Paul expressly reverses the Mosaic taboos when, in verse 20, he uses the exact opposite of “akathartos,” unclean or impure, with his bold, liberating claim, “All things are pure.” Paul here uses the term katharos, which is the opposite of akathartos. The Apostles had very clearly waived the temporary restrictions given to Israel under the law. For Paul the law (torah) which alone has value is the “law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2; I Cor. 9:21). Paul, after all, had written a whole book — Galatians — to explain that the law given to Israel through Moses was a temporary custodial guide valid only until the coming of Christ. Paul was horrified that believers should want to move back under the Old Covenant, when Christ has invited them to the freedom of the New Covenant brought by him as Messiah.

Hebrews 13:9 reinforces our lesson: “Do not be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings; it is good that we should gain inner strength from the grace of God, and not from rules about food which have never benefited those who have observed them.” This statement points to the existence in the first century of Christians whose scruples over food were nothing but a burden to themselves and to others — and a potential cause of division and unrest in the church.

A leading commentary on Romans reads Paul with accuracy when it notes, “‘Nothing is unclean of itself': This remarkable statement undercuts the whole distinction between clean and unclean foods on which Paul, like all other observant Jews, had been brought up” (John Ziezler, Paul's Letter to the Romans).

The same freedom of choice pertains to the selection of a day for worship:

“Again, some make a distinction between this day and that; others regard all days alike. Everyone must act on his own convictions” (Rom. 14:5).

The Sabbath

When God the Creator and Father of mankind completed His six days of creation, He rested on the seventh day and declared it holy. It is not called the Sabbath but the “seventh day.” The word shabbat is not used. To force the word shabbat on this particular seventh day adds to the text. There is no mention at this stage of a weekly Sabbath for mankind. No ordinance with a set of rules and regulations is given. Nor is there any scriptural support to show Sabbatical laws were imposed on Adam or his descendants until the time of the Exodus. That the Sabbath ordinance was mandated for all humanity is not stated in Genesis — a fact recognized by Jewish commentary.

The first seventh day has its own uniqueness. When the first six days are mentioned, each ends with the identifying phrase, “Evening came, and morning came.” Then the particular day is noted. This is not the case with the seventh day on which God rested. There is no biblical record of any instruction given to Adam on how to conduct himself on subsequent seventh days. The word Sabbath appears nowhere in the Bible until Exodus 16:23 where, along with circumcision (Gen. 17:9-14), it becomes the divine sign for Israel under the terms of the old Covenant (Exod. 12:43-49).

Exodus 16:23: “Tomorrow is a Sabbath observance [not the Sabbath], a holy Sabbath to the Lord.” 31:16, 17: “The Israelites must keep the Sabbath, observing it in every generation as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the Israelites, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh He ceased work and refreshed Himself.” The Sabbath originates in this instruction through Moses (Neh. 9:13, 14; 10:29-33). The Sabbath was included in the summary of the law, the ten commandments: “When He finished speaking with Moses on Mt. Sinai, the Lord gave him two tablets of the Testimony, stone tablets written with the finger of God” (Exod. 31:18).

It should be noted that the word forever, olam in Hebrew, does not always contain the sense of permanence which it has for us. It is limited to a certain period of time, or as long as circumstances remain the same. The Sabbath finds its limitation as the sign along with circumcision in the Old Covenant, not the New Covenant. Physical circumcision was likewise commanded “forever” (Gen. 17:13, olam), but Christians in the New Testament did not insist on it.

The framework of obedience in which Christians must live is not that of the covenant given to Moses, Hebrews 12:18-29 speaks of New Covenant believers: We have not come to Mt. Sinai. 2 Corinthians 3:3-18 contrasts the killing effect of the letter of the law with the liberating power of the spirit. Blindness results from adherence to Moses. It is cured in Christ: “Whenever he turns to the Lord the veil is removed.”[1]

The Two Covenants

Psalm 110:4 says, “God has sworn an oath and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever, a Melchizedek in my service.'”

Repeated in Hebrews 7:17, this forms a crucial link between Jesus as a priest of the order of Melchizedek and the covenant with Abraham. This permitted the writer of Hebrews to assert categorically that the old priesthood and the law have been replaced by a new arrangement. “The Levitical priesthood and the law associated with it have been superseded by the new and ‘better hope' based on the superior quality of the new priest…God announced His intention to set aside the whole Levitical system because it had proved to be ineffective in achieving its purpose. Its ‘weakness' is not in the law or its purpose, but in the people upon whom it depends for its accomplishment. Its ‘uselessness' derives from the fact that the law…was able to cleanse only externally.[2]

We appeal to Hebrews 7:28 for instructions on the difference between the two priesthoods: “The high priests appointed by law [the Levitical system] are men in all their weaknesses, but the priest appointed by words of the oath which supersedes the law is the Son, who has been made perfect forever.”

The writer of Hebrews shows the contrast between the new priesthood, whose appointment was validated by God's solemn oath, and the Levitical priesthood, which was based on the law without the benefit of a divine oath. This makes Jesus the priest of the new age. It states categorically that the new priesthood is a divine institution unconditionally guaranteed by God's solemn oath. The hopes of the Christian community are anchored in the absolute reliability of the New Covenant arrangements.

The promise to Abraham, the father of the faithful, was also confirmed by a divine oath (Heb. 6:13-18). This oath, not given to the Levitical priesthood, “is the impregnable guarantee that excludes all doubt and gives to faith assurance of the promise…It is final, eternal, and unchangeable.”[3]This is not the case with the Levitical priesthood.

Entering God's Rest

We have noted the uniqueness of the seventh day of creation — the day of God's rest. This becomes a symbolic act for all humanity. It denotes a time when Christians cease from all our own work and its limited aims in our present mortal existence. God's rest points to a totally different set of goals and purposes by which to direct our lives. But it is not an effortless stroll towards a future position of authority promised in 1 Corinthians 6:2: “It is God's people who are to manage the world.”

Israel under the Levitical priesthood sometimes kept the Sabbath, the Holy Days and new moons but too often strayed from the faith and obedience which would have led to the rest God designed for them. The writer of Hebrews provides the road back to success by quoting Psalm 95:

“Today [this is for now!] if you hear his voice do not grow stubborn. If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest still awaits the people of God; anyone who enters God's rest, rests from his own work, as God did from His. Let us then make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the old example of unbelief” (Heb. 4:7-11).

We are not promised a relaxing walk in the park. We are, however, given the absolute assurance, the peace of mind and confidence that God has bound Himself, by an immutable oath through His Son, to carry us forward to the goal. How? By grasping our status as Hebrews 3:1-6 says, “Therefore, brothers of the family of God, partners in a heavenly calling, think of Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of the faith we profess; he was faithful to God who appointed him…Jesus has been counted worthy of greater honor than Moses…Christ is faithful as a son, set over the household. And we are that household, if only we are fearless and keep our hope high.”

The third and fourth chapters of Hebrews define the complete outline of what is required of us “now,” “today,” in order to enter the “rest” God offers. God is now working through His Son, the High Priest at His right hand. Success does not come through observing a semi-Mosaic system. We “have become partners with Christ if only we keep our initial confidence firm to the end” (3:14).

What does this partnership with God's risen Son entail? 4:1-3:“What we must fear therefore, is that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, anyone of you should be found to have missed his opportunity, for indeed we have had the good news preached to us, just as they had. But the message they heard did them no good, for it was not combined with faith in those who heard it. Because we have faith, it is we who enter that rest.” How then do we enter the rest which God designed for all humanity?

What is required is faith in the saving partnership with Jesus in proclaiming the Good News of a coming Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus said it was for this cause that his Father sent him. “I must give the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, for that is what I was sent to do” (Luke 4:43). When Jesus carried out this task he entered into his “rest” by doing not his own work but the work of his Father. We can enter into that same “rest” and partnership with Jesus when we cease doing our own work and concentrate on collaboration with Jesus in doing God's work (Luke 4:43).

The field is the world. The seed is the Gospel message of the Kingdom (Matt. 13:19). In performing the work of sowing, Jesus assured his followers that they would one day occupy executive positions in the kingdom: “You have stayed with me through my trials; and just as my Father has covenanted to me the right to rule, so I will covenant to you the same right. You will eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to rule over the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28-30). The task was to proclaim that Kingdom message to the world. The seed planted in the mind of peoples regardless of their circumstances did not demand adherence to the temporary laws of the Old Covenant, required for the discipline of the nation of Israel.

The change from Old Covenant requirements to the New Covenant is radical and dramatic. “Thou shalt not kill” is heightened to “love your enemies.” And we are to set out on the ultimate quest for eternal life in the age to come: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33).

The New Testament shifts to an emphasis on sharing the Gospel message of hope with anyone who will listen. It demands a love toward God the Creator and His Son Jesus who gave his life in sacrifice for our sins under a New Covenant. Jesus said, “If you love me keep my commandments.” We enter rest (not a weekly Sabbath observance) by faith and obedience — a “sabbatism” (Heb. 4:9), not a single Sabbath day.

The writer of Hebrews is quite clear about the two different time frames. In chapters one and two he points to the exalted position given to Jesus now and in the age to come. Hebrews 2:5: “For it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come [the coming New Age] which is our theme.” And the subjection of this earth to man is yet future: “You put everything in subjection beneath his feet. For in subjecting everything to him, God left nothing that is made to be subject. But in fact we do not yet see everything in subjection to man” (2:8).

We are then invited to see in Chapter 3 the superiority of Jesus to Moses and that “today [now] if you will hear his [Jesus'] voice” we become partners with him (not Moses). The New Covenant is not a mixture of the Old Covenant and the New. Paul sweeps away the Old Covenant and its relevance for today when he says in Colossians 2:9-17:

“For it is in Christ the Godhead in all its fullness dwells embodied; it is in him you have been brought to fulfillment. Every power and authority in the universe is subject to him as head. In him you were circumcised, not in a physical sense, but by stripping away of the old nature, which is Christ's way of circumcision…And although you were dead because of your sins…he has brought you to life with Christ. For he has forgiven us all our sins: he has cancelled the bond which was outstanding against us with its legal demands; he has set it aside, nailing it to the cross…

“Therefore, allow no one to take you to task about what you eat or drink, or over the observance of a festival, new moon, or sabbath. These are no more than a shadow of what was to come; the reality is Christ's.”

With this “trio” of Jewish sacred days Paul refers to a unit of observances to which Christians are not to feel obligated. No less than 12 times in the Old Testament this description of the weekly, monthly and annual observances appears as one package. Paul sees all three as a single shadow. Sabbaths — annual, monthly and weekly — are plainly and equally “types” of the one who is our Passover, our Sabbath and our Atonement, our rest. Moses is dead. Christ lives!

This is what I see is a fundamental issue: God gave the world through His Son a commission to bring a message of hope to the entire world. We are invited to join His Son in that commission. Mosaic barriers to getting that message to the world have been eliminated. We are now free to move around the world. I may well be in Malawi during the days of Unleavened Bread. Breadcrumbs in the houses will not be an issue. They will be lucky to have had any bread to produce crumbs!

It is an enormous blessing to possess the knowledge of the unique God of Israel. The same belief is held by millions of Jews. Over a billion Muslims also believe there is One God. Unfortunately for the Jews they look to Moses. They have rejected the Messiah who came. The Muslims look to Mohammed. Some believers in Jesus still look partly to Moses and not fully to the Messiah who came not to abolish the Torah but to complete it. Paul insists that compromising the Old with the New is a way to blindness. 2 Corinthians 3:14-16:

“In any case their minds had become closed. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

[2]. Word Biblical Commentary, Hebrews, p. 185.

[3].Ibid., p. 187.

Top of Page