=graceNpeace;3517670]I apologise for incorrectly labelling you an SDA, if you are not!
Nonetheless, your comment about the Jesus Christ being your High Priest, yet claiming that the law is still operational just means that you are completely mixed up as to what covenant you are part of!
The New covenant is not the Sinaitic covenant!
The Sinaitic covenant cannot be separated from the Torah. The Sinaitic covenant is abrogated in the institution of the New covenant - all of it, lock, stock, and barrel!
I don't believe in the Catholic version of the "New Covenant". I believe in the Word which became Flesh. He teaches a different "new covenant" than the Pope, or you.
No offence intended, but your preaching that there is no difference between the Instructions the Word which became Flesh gave specifically to the Levites for the remission of sins, and the Instructions the Word which became Flesh gave to the rest of the people is simply untrue.
If you are placing yourself under a redundant covenant the least you could do is to fully observe its statutes!
Considering the Sinaitic covenant was a covenant between God and Israelites, and the only way to distinguish an Israelite from anyone else was physical circumcision, then perhaps you had better get yourself circumcised...
Then you need to consider how you are going to obey the sacrificial laws...
And so it goes, all told to 613 separate laws!
According to your preaching maybe circumcision was the outward sign. I don't think the Jews walked around showing the proof of their circumcision. But you are free to preach whatever your heart tells you. The Word which became Flesh says this;
Ex. 20:
12 Moreover also I (The Word which became Flesh) gave them
my sabbaths,
to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I (The word which became Flesh)
am the LORD that sanctify them.
So you preach Christ's Sign between Him and the Israelites was circumcision, but He teaches that His outward sing was the Sabbath He created for man. Since I believe in Him, I will go with His version over yours.
The Word which became Flesh said;
Jer. 31:
33 But this
shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I (The Word which became Flesh) will put
my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
But you preach this "law" only condemns us and has been removed by this same Christ. If it has been removed because it is so bad, why does the Word which became Flesh need to write them on our hearts?
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I (The Word which became Flesh) will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
You preach that if the Christ writes His Laws on my heart, I must also continue to rely on the blood of goats for remission of sins. Yet the Word which became Flesh in the person of Jesus says there will come a time when the Priesthood has changed. That no longer do we go to the Levite Priest with a turtle dove, for the Christ Himself will forgive our sins with His own Blood.
This is confirmed in the New Testament.
Heb. 7:
11 If therefore perfection were by the
Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need
was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.
You preach the Word which became Flesh changed the definition of sin or changed the instructions He gave to Abraham and Moses. But the Bible teaches the only thing that changed was the Priesthood. It's in your Bible.
13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to
another tribe, of
which no man gave attendance at the altar.
14 For
it is evident that our Lord
sprang out of Juda; of
which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
So yes, there is a New Covenant that changed 2 things.
#1. How the instructions of the Word which became Flesh are administered. No more Levite Priests to go to in order to hear the Word, the Christ shall write them on the hearts of his People.
#2. How sins are forgiven. No more Levitical Priesthood sacrificial "Works of the Law" that the Jews "bewitched" the Galatians with. Jesus forgives us with His own Blood.
For this to happen the Law needed to change so as to let someone other than a Levite perform the duties of the Priesthood. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. It is was against the Law for any one other than a Levite to hold the "Priesthood" position. And the Word which became Flesh foretold of this in Jer. 31.
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I (The Word which became Flesh) will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the
house of Judah: "of
which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood"
As it stands you are following a syncretic mess from two different and mutually exclusive covenants....
The Sinaitic covenant demands obedience to the laws of the Torah!
The New covenant offers justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ - nothing more and nothing less!
Any legal demands of the Torah are done away with through the cross....
The Priesthood has changed, yes, no more sacrificial Levitical Priesthood "works of the Law" for justification of sins. The word which became Flesh takes away our past sins with His own Blood, nothing more, nothing less. But then you add to His Covenant by saying not only did the Priesthood change, but the so did everything else. This is a flase teaching if one uses the bible as a guide.
The Word which became Flesh teaches just the opposite.
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
He hasn't come back yet so "all" has obviously not been fulfilled.
There is no doubt that the New covenant has ethical demands, nine of the ten commandments (with the exception of the Sabbath) for example are confirmed as part of the New covenant. However, a much higher ethic is actually demanded, which is actually a law of love summed up in Rom 13:10 and Gal 5:13-14, but spelled out in no uncertain terms in Gal 5:16-23.
Gal 5:23 even says this: "Against such there is no law."!
You are following the law that can only have one effect for you - condemn you utterly and irrevocably...
Yet in Jesus Christ there is justification by grace through faith, salvation, and liberty!
The message you promote is the same message the serpent gave to Eve. That by rejecting the Instructions of the Word which became Flesh I will be freed from a God that wants to hold me back, imprison me and burden me with 613 laws. A God that doesn't have my best interest at heart. But the serpent does?
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,(disobey His Instructions)
then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Religious tradition is a powerful force. Through it the Mainstream Preachers of Christ's time murdered the most perfect human being ever. By the Grace of God I have escaped the deceit that is mainstream preaching. But I still remember how difficult it was 25 years ago. There is a cost to following the Word which became Flesh. But it is worth it. My hope is that you might privately consider the warning of the Jesus of the Bible and examine, not just the verses you can use to justify your religious traditions, but ALL the Word's of the Word which became Flesh.