Suiting your purposes

[ChristineES]

I certainly hope that this does not cause a fire storm, but I am telling you, it is a frustrating thing.

I belong to several Christian BBs. I, for the most part, find them interesting. But there is one thing that is beginning to bother me.
As a Christian, I believe that Jesus fulfilled The Torah(aka The Law), by offering Himself as a sacrifice in place of a sacrificial Lamb. He then (after He rose) started a new Covenant between God and His people.
So if this is so, then why do so many people still quote things from the Torah as if we are still bound by the law? They do it to prove their points.
I believe we still need to follow the Ten Commandments, and that there are things that are mentioned in The Law that would still be considered sinful, but we are not bound by The Law. I don't think it is right for people to say you have to follow one part of The Law, and ignore another. If we have to follow part of The Law, then we are bound by all of it.
I don't see it at this particular board, but I see it all the time at others.
Have any of you noticed this? Does anyone know how I should address without causing offense? Should I just ignore it? How do you all deal with this?
It is a very complicated issue.

 

[thessalonian]

You do understand that there is a sacrificial law and the moral law, i.e. commandments, don't you? Yes, Jesus fullfilled the sacrificial law and it no longer applies. We follow the law of love now by God's grace through the Holy Spirit. The commandments are still in effect but Jesus gave us the power to overcome the slavery of sin and by that power we struggle against sin until we prevail. As long as we continue to trust in him and his grace we will prevail.

 

[ChristineES]

There are a lot of things in The Torah that are not sacrificial. Such as not eating pork or shrimp, not touching dead bodies, about women's menstruating and the men who touch them, and many more. Do you believe that we are still bound by these laws? Does a husband make his wife sleep in the back yard when she has a period? (sorry men). Am I not supposed to eat pork chops and lobster? I thought Jesus fulfilled the WHOLE LAW, not just some of it.
And yes, I mentioned in my first post that there are things in the law that would still be considered sinful to us.

 

[gingercat]

Christine,

You bring out good point. Jesus abolished the many OT laws. Jesus' teachings are much more highter standard than OT laws though. We can hardly keep up the NT Jesus' teachings. If we concentrate on His and His apostles teachings, we cannot be far off IMHO.

 

[reznwerks]

So if this is so, then why do so many people still quote things from the Torah as if we are still bound by the law?
It is a very complicated issue.

It's not complicated. Jesus was a practicing Jew and this is what he said.

Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
That should settle it.

 

[belovedwolfofgod]

Luke 16:17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to become void.

Matt 5:18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Peter had a dream in the book of acts. He dreamed of hooved animals and being able to eat them. All things that are blessed by the Lord are clean. But wasnt that sacrificial law to some extent? Well, it didnt seem like moral law, more of a cleanliness issue. Couldnt eat ham cause they dont sweat and their meat can be toxic if not cooked correctly. Menstrual blood, well, blood in general shouldnt be touched cause it carries pathogens. Seems like those laws have to deal with cleanliness... not so much morality.

 

[Klee shay]

Christine, I think the important thing to remember is that God loves you and he loves every believer. We're always going to come to heated discussions when it comes to how we portray our faith. So long as we don't void the rule of loving each other as Jesus loved us, then we can discuss differences in interpretion as much as we like.

Salvation is for the individual and God to work out between themselves. I personally have had some fruitful discussions with people I never thought I'd see eye to eye on, but you'd be amazed at how much you can agree on if you look for the unity in Christ's body, which Jesus told us about.

I still don't believe we need to follow the law but I still love the Jew who believes they are doing the right thing by following the essentials of Torah. The object of the enemy during discussions of God's rule is to divide the Body of Christ. He not only wants us to disagree on what God wants from our faith, but he also aims to guide us into defiling the second greatest commandment Jesus gave us before he died.

Questioning what is contained in the scriptures is not about questioning one's salvation - or the salvation of others. Concern yourself with working out your salvation with God and pray for the wisdom to represent him as God would wish to others. By choosing His will instead of your own, he wears the brunt of such heated discussions because only he is capable of defeating the enemy at his own game.

By the enemy I don't mean anyone who is of a different religious understanding to you. I mean the enemy which seeks to divide the body of Christ through our human weakness. We all have a weakness and that is where the enemy will hit us all the hardest. One piece of armour we can use to defend our weakness, is to abide by the second greatest commandment of loving each other as Jesus loved us. When we forget that, we expose our weakness of pride and self-righteousness for the enemy to manipulate.

Jesus took no pride for himself but gave all glory to God and it was difficult to be self-righteous when he was busy doing his father's will. :D What a shining example hey?

 

[belovedwolfofgod]

hear hear klee shay.