It is important to listen to the "now" word of God. We can take an Old Covenant scripture and try to "apply it" in the New Covenant and as Jesus said we end up ruining both. He gave us the example of new wine in old wine skins.
Take the popular scripture in Matt. 4:4 "Man shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God."
The Greek word here for "word" is rhema - which is the spoken revealed word of God to us at the time.
When Jesus used this "rhema word" in Matt. 4:4 - He spoke it to the devil who said to Him - "If you are the Son of God...."
Notice that the devil left out what the Father had said to Jesus after He came out of the water. "This is My beloved Son." The enemy doesn't want us to be established in God's love for us.
The "now" word for Jesus was "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased". Jesus lived from that word from the Father and didn't need to "prove" it to the devil. Jesus' life came from what the Father said and believed about Him ( So, we too live by this very same principle )
God in the Old testament spoke to us in many ways but has "now" in these last days spoken to us through His Son - the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the "now" word.
Hebrews 1:1-2 (NASB)
[SUP]1 [/SUP] God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
[SUP]2[/SUP] in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
I can guarantee that Isaac was happy that his dad - Abraham listened to the "now" word of God when he was laying on that altar. Some people would have killed Isaac because God said to do it.
They would say things like "God is the same today, yesterday and forever". We must "do" every word that proceeds from God and thus totally miss the "now" word of God.
These are those that try to live by the Old Covenant and the 10 commandments which are a goner and yet totally miss the "now" word of God as revealed in the finished work of Christ.
They are still trying to "do the word of God" from the Old Testament when now we live by the life of Christ in the New Covenant.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB)
[SUP]17 [/SUP] Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
The life of the new creation in Christ "now" is to "behold" what these new things are and when we behold Christ Himself - we will see Him for who He actually is and we are transformed by the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:17-18
This is one of the dynamics of the ways of God for transformation while we are in these flesh bodies.
This is why the things of the Old Testament are mere shadows of the reality which is Christ Himself. All scripture speaks of Him and His work on the cross and resurrection and of the true love and grace our loving Father and Lord have for us "now".
The huge mistake the church makes is to automatically and categorically make any and all law keeping equivalent to trying to be made righteous (justified) by the law.
If it was true that any and all attempts to keep the law of Moses automatically condemned you as trying to justify yourself by your works then Paul himself was most certainly condemned, for he is recorded in the book of Acts as observing the law of Moses. He proves that you are not automatically condemning yourself for choosing to observe various things in the law. The
reason you are keeping the law determines whether or not your law keeping condemns you. The church does not know this.
Some Christians choose to observe the literal Sabbath or a Festival for the same reason the rest of us don't murder, or steal. The church seems to only be capable of understanding works as 'trying to justify yourself' and seem oblivious to the fact that Christians can in fact keep a law of God
because they love him and want to please him. And that's certainly not a reason for keeping the law that condemns a person.
Few in the church know that it is actually the early Catholic church that outlawed the law and made it a crime to keep the law for any reason whatsoever. God is not the one who indoctrinated us against law keeping by saying any and all law keeping is the attempt to justify oneself. The Catholic church is responsible for that indoctrination. It's interesting to see Christians refer to Sunday as the Sabbath when the truth is the Catholics are the ones who changed the law and made Sunday the new Sabbath.
Don't get me wrong. I personally am convinced that Christians do not HAVE to keep the ceremonial law of Moses as we have to keep the law of murder and theft, for example. But to insist that no one can keep the ceremonial laws because that automatically means you're trying to justify yourself is just plain misguided at best, down right judgmental at worse. Who are we to judge the heart and intent and motivations of someone who keeps the law because he loves God, and not in order to be justified?