“I say it again. Every man who has the religious act of becoming a Jew done on him must obey every Law. If you expect to be made right with God by obeying the Law, then you have turned away from Christ and His loving-favor. We are waiting for the hope of being made right with God. This will come through the Holy Spirit and by faith. If we belong to Jesus Christ, it means nothing to have or not to have gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. But faith working through love is important.” Galatians 5:3-6. And then “But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the Law of Moses.” Galatians 5:18.
As a believer of the Holy Spirit, this suggests that I should follow the word of just the New Testament. But alas, although I know that we should follow Jesus’ message, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament at every opportunity. The Old Testament is a great way to build the foundation of our knowledge and to ensure that we can promote this way of life in a confident way. We shouldn’t neglect the Old Testament because it might be ‘heavy going’. Nobody ever said life would be easy and without doubt nobody ever said being a Christian would be easy!
To me as a new Christian, this kind of scripture allows me to answer many questions. I remember in the early days discussing this kind of thing with Teresa, is circumcision a requirement or not and how certain parts of Numbers is quite hard hitting and surely goes against modern day beliefs, such as genocide. Thankfully the answer lies with the Holy Spirit!
“Their tongues sting like a snake; the venom of a viper drips from their lips”. Psalm 140:3
John3 V13 (NLT) – “No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man”. How true this is!
Recent Comments by you, the readers