A Survey of the Old Testament Law--Numbers 3 (Part 3)

Numbers 3:11-13—11 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 12 "Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, 13 because all the firstborn are Mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the LORD." If God says something belongs to Him, does it belong to Him? So when He says He has taken the Levites to Himself, do they then belong to God? Well, yes. But these were His people, His tribe, rather than all the firstborn of Israel. For one very important reason: that they may act as a go-between between God and Man. Were they better than the others? By no means. We have already shown, from the book of Judges, that they could be just as dastardly as anyone. He does it for one reason and one reason only: because He can. Because that’s what He decided He wanted to do.

Don’t think you are any different. He chose who would be His from before the foundation of the world. Why? Are we better than those He didn’t choose? Oh goodness, no. We are far worse than we could ever think, far worse than we could ever be accused of being. And likewise, these Levites were no better than the others. But the others were set apart for His armies, and the Levites for His service in the Tabernacle. This was done to maintain order in this crowd of over 600,000 people. Ever take part in putting something together or tearing it down? It can be frustrating. People milling about, moving stuff in no particular order, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. Then one person puts something where it doesn't belong, and everything gets out of whack, and… Now, suppose instead of setting up a stage for a production, we’re talking about the place where God has decided to put His name. And instead of a dozen or so workers, we have over a half million. So God says, Okay, before we get started, we are only going to have the sons of the tribe of Levi handling this. They are going to put stuff up, they alone are going to take it down and put all the stuff where it’s supposed to be, and do everything else. Now, that’s settled.

Now, suppose one of these Levites said “Nah, I’d rather not”. Could they have just walked away from this calling? No. “The Levites shall be MINE”. They belonged to God. If you are in Christ, you belong to God. And that should make us the most humble of all people. That we have been bought with the price of the blood of the Son of God. Not because we were good enough or smart enough or holy enough or righteous enough to accept that payment. But that we were chosen, based on nothing, by God, redeemed with His blood, and we are now set apart to Him. There are some who say “Yes, but you can always walk away. You can say ‘I don’t want to do this anymore’”. Seriously? You think that once you are in Christ, saved from the wrath to come, that God thinks so little of you that He would let you waltz off into Hell? 1st Corinthians 3:23—and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. Ephesians 1:13-14—13 having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. See that word “guarantee” in verse 14? In the KJV it is translated “earnest”. It is defined as “money which in purchases is given as a pledge or down payment that the full amount will subsequently be paid.” God gives us His Holy Spirit as a pledge. And God does not go back on His word.  The Holy Spirit is our guarantee, our earnest. If God guarantees something, will it happen?

Verses 14-39 detail which duty each division of the Levites was to carry out, so we will skip on down to Numbers 3:40-51—40 Then the LORD said to Moses: "Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and above, and take the number of their names. 41 And you shall take the Levites for Me—I am the LORD—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel." 42 So Moses numbered all the firstborn among the children of Israel, as the LORD commanded him. 43 And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names from a month old and above, of those who were numbered of them, were twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three. 44 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 45 "Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of their livestock. The Levites shall be Mine: I am the LORD. 46 And for the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels for each one individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. 48 And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons." 49 So Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites. 50 From the firstborn of the children of Israel he took the money, one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. 51 And Moses gave their redemption money to Aaron and his sons, according to the word of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Here we see a picture of redemption. The Old Covenant is often referred to as a “Covenant of Works”, and the New Covenant is referred to as a “Covenant of Grace”. I would argue they are both a Covenant of Grace. Adam’s sin plunged all humans into death and sin. God would have been perfectly justified in wiping us all out and starting all over again. But He didn’t. Even before He began the work of Creation, He knew Man would sin. So He planned to redeem some with the blood of His Son, Whom He would send at an appointed time. Until that time, He would chose for Himself a people He would call Israel. And He would give them types and shadows to serve as guideposts so that when that Son came into the world, they would know it was Him. One of those guideposts was this concept of redemption.

First, He says in verse 45 that He shall take the tribe of Levi instead of all the firstborn of all Israel. There were 22,000 males in the tribe of Levi, there were 22,273 firstborn males in all of Israel. That meant there were 273 more firstborn males than there were males in the tribe of Levi. So how would these additional 273 souls be redeemed? Well, in verses 46-48, we see that God told Moses that there was a price to be paid for them. They couldn’t just say “eh, close enough”. The first 22,000 firstborn had to be redeemed with a Levite, the remaining 273 had to be redeemed with something. God determined that that price was five shekels. This would be the price of anything devoted to the service of God, as it says in Numbers 18:16— And those redeemed of the devoted things you shall redeem when one month old, according to your valuation, for five shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs. God could have said “that one is Mine, and I shall have it”, but He didn’t.  He said “give five shekels to the Levites, that they might minister on My behalf, and intercede for you”. So the principle of redemption was established.

This principle would find its way into the New Covenant, but instead of paying five shekels to redeem a soul to God, it was now a price God paid to redeem a particular people. In 1st Corinthians 6:20 it says you were bought with a price. That price was not five shekels, but rather the blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish. As John the Baptist said, “the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). In order for your sins to be taken away and forgotten, something had to be given in its place. God cannot just forget about the times you have disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him. Under the Law, that something was the blood of bulls and goats. But as we saw earlier, Hebrews 10:4—It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. We had to be redeemed. We had to have someone go into the Holy of Holies in Heaven with blood from a perfect sacrifice in order for God to forgive our sins. Hebrews 9:12—Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. F.B. Meyer in his commentary, wrote—

We are led to consider Christ’s high-priestly work. The scene for it is no edifice made with hands in this transitory world, but eternal and divine. His stay in the Holiest is not brief, hurried, and repeated year by year, but once for all He enters by virtue of His own blood. That blood cleanses not only from ceremonial guilt, but from moral and spiritual pollution. A will or testament comes into force when the testator dies; so the will of the eternal Father toward us has been made valid through the blood of Jesus.

I’ll end with the words of the Apostle Peter, in 1st Peter 1:17-19—17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. If you are in Christ, it cost more than five shekels to redeem you from the curse of sin. You were bought and paid for with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Amen.

A Survey of the Old Testment Law--Leviticus 17 (Part 1)

 

Leviticus 17. We have now finished up with all the offerings and sacrifices. And now we move into some of the areas of the Law that deal with the everyday lives of the people. And in the following chapters, we will find commands and rules and statutes and ordinances and regulations and prohibitions and precepts that really don’t fall under the umbrella of the Ten Commandments. And as we move through these areas, we will see the problems that arise when we try to isolate the various parts of the Law from one another, and we try to say “Well, there are three separate laws. There is the moral law (the Ten Commandments) and the civil law and the ceremonial law. Christ fulfilled the ceremonial law, and the civil law was done away with. But we are still under the moral law, the Ten Commandments.” For example, in chapter 18 we will find all the commands pertaining to sexual conduct—the commands against incest and bestiality and homosexuality and so forth. And when we try to say that only the Ten Commandments apply today, then the homosexual can argue back, “Well, where does it say in the Ten Commandments that homosexuality is a sin?” And if one continues to hold to the position that the civil law was done away with, then the homosexual has won the argument, because the forbidding of homosexuality does not fall under the ceremonial, nor is it contained in the Ten Commandments.

So what is the answer? Actually, we already covered this at the outset of our study of the Law, way back in the introduction to Exodus. The truth of the matter is, the Law was meant to point to Christ—and it was fulfilled in Christ. However, Christ only fulfilled the Law on behalf of those who would believe in Him. The elect of God are no longer under the Law, no longer subject to its rules and penalties, because Christ fulfilled it for us. Romans 8:1-4—1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. In other words, if you are in Christ, the Law has no power over you. Paul tells us much the same thing again in Romans, this time in Romans 7:1-4—1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

And in his strongest statement concerning the Christian’s relationship to the Law, he says in Romans 6:14—Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What does Paul mean when he says we are not under law? Well, allow me to take a moment to explain it. What Paul means when he says we are not under law is this—we, as Christians, are not under the Law. That’s it. That’s all the explanation there is. When Paul says we Christians are not bound by the Law, he means that we Christians are not bound by the Law. Consider all the requirements of the Law. Six hundred some-odd rules, regulations, commands, ordinances, statutes, rituals, washings, burnings, sacrifices, and so on and so forth. And if you transgressed the least of them you were in violation of God’s Law and in you may have found yourself in danger of being “cut off from your people”—that is, in danger of God Himself ending your very life. But we are no longer bound by this Law—we need not live every day of our lives in fear of breaking the least requirement. Psalm 130:3—If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

Now, does this mean we can live our lives as the pagans? As the heathens, the infidels who know not God? Since we are not under Law, does that mean that God will not hold people accountable for breaking—not only the least commands, but the greatest? That’s what it sounds like I'm saying, isn't it? Well, if that is your response to the knowledge that we are not under Law but under grace, do not think yourself wise. You are simply the latest in a line of such thinkers—a line that stretches back over the nearly 2000 years since Paul told us we are not under Law. In fact, Paul has already responded to you. Romans 6:15-18—15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. That is, if you want to love Christ with your lips, while serving your real master—sin—with your mind and body, then you will be paid the wages of sin. Notice Paul draws a very distinct line. There are two masters—sin, and righteousness. You can either serve sin, and receive the wages it pays, which is death (Romans 6:23). Or, you can serve obedience, which pays dividends that none other than God Himself can pay—that is, to be paid the wages of righteousness, and of holiness, without which no one can see God (Hebrews 12:14).

Consider God’s servant Job. Now listen, Job was a man who knew that no man was righteous before God, and that all men were sinners, and he had almost as much to say about that as any writer of Scripture

 Job 9:2-3—“2 Truly I know it is so, But how can a man be righteous before God? 3 If one wished to contend with Him, He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.”

Job 9:14-21—“14 How then can I answer Him, and choose my words to reason with Him? 15 For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him; I would beg mercy of my Judge. 16 If I called and He answered me, I would not believe that He was listening to my voice. 17 For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause. 18 He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 19 If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong; and if of justice, who will appoint my day in court? 20 Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me; though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse. 21 I am blameless, yet I do not know myself; I despise my life.”

Job 10:14-19—“14 If I sin, then You mark me, and will not acquit me of my iniquity. 15 If I am wicked, woe to me; even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head. I am full of disgrace; see my misery! 16 If my head is exalted, You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again You show Yourself awesome against me. 17 You renew Your witnesses against me, and increase Your indignation toward me; changes and war are ever with me. 18 Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me! 19 I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.”

Eventually, Job allowed his friends to talk him into thinking he was an awful man, who deserved what he had received, not understanding that God was testing him. Then, after God tells him to “gird up your loins like a man” (Job 38:3), and asks him nearly 90 questions about the creation of the universe, and asks Job if he can “draw out Leviathan with a hook” or if he can put a yoke on a monoceros and make him plow a valley, then Job sees himself for who he really is. And what is his response? Does he say, “Well, I must be pretty special if God talks to me!” No. Job 42:5-6—“5 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. 6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

And just to show that this is not simply an Old Testament principle, the apostle Paul takes up Job’s attitude concerning the greatness of God and the depravity of man. For example, he tells the Philippians, that 4 If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless (Philippians 3:4-6). But did he stop there? Did he list these achievements and accolades and birthrights as though they were how he identified himself? Not hardly. He goes on to say, in the very next breath, 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:7-8). He uses nearly the same language when addressing his young protégé Timothy, and teaches his young charge that Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am chief (1^st Timothy 1:15). And, in what may have been his most heartfelt anguish over his inability to escape the dreadful plague which he carried about all of his days—even after meeting the risen Christ and devoting his life to his Master’s calling—he pours his heart out to the saints in Rome, and echoes Job’s repentance, in Romans 7:18-24 (NET)—18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me. 21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Now, just imagine, if we were still under the Law, and having the knowledge of sin that we now have—knowing that sin is not simply performing outward acts of rebellion against God, but that sin comes from within, seeing as how hatred is murder and lust is adultery—which of us could ever pour out enough blood from bulls and goats; how many of us could sprinkle enough ashes from red heifers; how many of us could ever meet the righteous requirements of the Law, since we would have to spend nearly every waking moment standing in line waiting for the priest to accept our sacrifice, if that animal was indeed good enough? Therefore, we who are in Christ Jesus are not under Law, but under grace. We do not see the Law as a cloud over our heads; we do not see the Law as an outward duty we must perform day after day after day. We see the Law as our guide to living a life that pleases God. Not in the killing of animals and sprinkling their blood—for Christ has shed His blood, fulfilling all the sacrifices. But rather, now, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).

With all that being said, what does the Law mean to those who do not know Christ? Are those people still under Law? Well, yes, they are. Not only those who have heard the gospel of God, but even those who have never heard the name Jesus will be judged by that Law. Why? Because it is that Law that shows us the righteousness of God. Psalm 119:142—Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth. Isaiah 42:21—“The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law and make it honorable.” And when those who have never even heard the words “Thou shalt not kill” know that killing another human being in cold blood is wrong; when those who have never heard the words “Thou shalt not steal” know they should leave their hands off their neighbor’s goods; when those who never hear the words “Thou shalt not commit adultery” know that they should remain faithful to their spouse; when these people know these things, they are proving that although they have never heard the Law of God, they do indeed know the Law of God. Romans 2:11-16—11 For there is no partiality with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law 13 (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; 14 for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) 16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Notice how Paul starts this section. He tells us there is no partiality with God. That is, God will not sit on His throne and say, “Well, I know you sinned, and you rebelled against My righteous requirements. But you didn’t have My Law, so I’ll let it slide. Come on in.” Among those who do not know Christ, the Gentile who does not hear the Law will be judged by the same Law as the Jew who does hear the Law, and the Gentile who does hear the Law. That same Law will judge all who die apart from Christ. Paul finishes up this argument in Romans 3:19-20—19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law—that is, all who do not know Christ and must, therefore, fulfill every single jot and tittle of that Law perfectly every single second of their lives, never transgressing that Law ever, even once—whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The Law makes no one righteous. The Law simply tells us what is sinful, and shows us the ugliness and depravity of the human heart. This is accomplished by not only the Ten Commandments, but the whole of the Law.

Because every aspect of the Law shows us that God is holy and just and righteous, and in His mercy He has offered us a way to atone for our sins. And it is only by accepting and obeying His rules for atoning that our sins can be atoned for. We can make up all the silly things we want to, thinking that we are pleasing Him by creating our own righteousness. The greatest commandments in the Law—are they found in the Decalogue? No. they are found near the end of the Torah, in Deuteronomy. Under these two commands fall not only the Ten Commandments, but also the sacrifices and the civil code. Because all these show us what God expects, and they show us that God expects His people to be obedient. And disobedience has its consequences—we saw that when God struck down Nadab and Abihu for simply offering unapproved incense on the Altar of Incense. We would see that if we studied the life of King Saul, and how God took his kingdom away from him for offering sacrifices that were in clear violation of god’s commands. When God gives us commands, it is not up to us to question them. We are not under Law, but when we treat His Law as a trifling thing, we will fall under heavy punishment. Hebrews 10:26-29—26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

I say all that to set up the section of the Law we are about to deal with. This section of Law that contains statutes and ordinances not contained in the Ten Commandments. Because in these commands we find sinful conduct that God still considers sinful. And many of these commands do not fall under the Ten Commandments that many of us so brazenly hold up as the only standard by which a man is to live. Besides, if we make it to Deuteronomy, we will find the Ten Commandments repeated, mingled with many of the civil commands, and with many of the ceremonial requirements. So to try and extricate the Ten Commandments from the rest of the Law is folly, since neither God, nor Christ, nor Paul, nor any other writer of Scripture, ever separated the Law into three separate laws. It is one Law, not three.

A Survey of the Old Testament Law--The First Covenant (Part 3)

Two weeks ago we saw God make a covenant with the people that He brought out of Egypt. The physical descendants of Abraham, through his son Isaac, through the twelve sons of Isaac’s son Jacob. God has brought these descendants of Abraham into the land He promised them and has made a covenant with these people that He would be their God. He also promised that He would appoint priests to mediate on their behalf so their sins could be covered over. And that covenant was made only with Israel—if you were not a Jew, you had to become a Jew in order to enter into the “covenant of works,” as it was called, if you wanted to enjoy the privilege of worshipping the one true and living God. God also promised His people Israel that one day He would send the last Mediator of the new and better covenant. But we saw last week that the people, even after seeing the mighty works of God and entering into those promises, they did not slack in breaking them. In fact they broke their covenant with God so frequently that God told them through the prophet Hosea that because of their spiritual adultery He would “You are not My people and I will not be your God” and that all the privileges that He had given Israel would be offered to all nations, both Jew and Gentile.

Fast forward to the NT, the apostle Paul refers to himself as “a Hebrews of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5), “of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1)—but also as “the apostle to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:3; Ephesians 3:8). And being a Jew who was called as the apostle to the Gentiles, what he did most often was to take the OT Scriptures—the writing of those Scriptures being entrusted to the Jews—and he shows the Gentiles that the promises once made only to ethnic Israel were now available to both Jew and Gentile. For example, Romans 1:16—I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. And in his letter to the Ephesians, he expands on that promise. Ephesians 2:11-18—11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands—12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

Under the Old Covenant, Gentiles were “far off”; we—us—would have been strangers, foreigners, and aliens. In fact, the only part of the temple we would have been allowed into was called “The Court of the Gentiles”—an area in the outermost part of the temple, and in fact the place where the moneychangers and those who bought and sold did their business when Jesus came and cleansed the temple. One of the most horrendous displays of blasphemy that is recorded even in secular histories was the Greek general Antiochus Epiphanes entering into the Most Holy Place of the temple in 186 BC and commanding swine to be offered on the altar. In the time leading up to the Advent of Christ, there was a rabbinic tradition that said if a Jew went into the house of a Gentile the Jew was ceremonially unclean. In Acts 21:27-30, the apostle Paul was accused of bringing a Gentile into the inner part of the temple.

BUT—but now, in Christ, both Jew and Gentile are allowed access to the Father. We are not separated by genetics. We don’t have to go through various rituals to be allowed entrance into the saving grace of God—He pours out His grace on whomever He will. Under the covenant made on Mt. Sinai, God promised the people of Israel that if they sinned, they could bring an offering, and that offering would cover over their sin. And we have to be real careful here not to say that the offering would pay for their sin, or take away their sin. Because the OT offerings and sacrifices were never intended to pay for or take away sins. They simply covered them over until the time when God would take them away, as God promised in Jeremiah 31:34—“I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Now, this promise, to “forgive their iniquity” and to “remember their sin no more” was not fulfilled by the OT offerings and sacrifices. Hebrews 10:4—It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. So, for God to completely and utterly forgive sins, take them away, and remember them no more, He would have to make a new covenant, because the old covenant—the Covenant of Law, Covenant of Works—could not do that. Hebrews 8:7—For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

And the reason that the Covenant of Law could not take away sins was because it was built upon the strength of the human flesh. It would be like taking a door made of 2 ½” thick steel, bulletproof, able to withstand a rocket-propelled grenade—and mounting that door on a frame made of papier-mâché. Romans 8:3—For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. The Law is the 2” thick steel door, the flesh is the papier-mâché frame. The first covenant was not faultless—not because God could not fulfill it, but because we sinful humans could not fulfill it. And because we humans, through the weakness of our flesh, are not able to fulfill all the conditions and commands contained in the Law, there had to come a new covenant.

And Jesus came and preached that new covenant—not only to Jews but also to Gentiles. Ephesians 2:17-18—17 And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. 18 For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Jews in Jesus’ day thought that this promised “new covenant” was to come to them and them alone. They read what Jeremiah said in that passage, where God said He would “make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31). They thought that God was finally getting ready to do away with Gentiles once and for all and establish His throne upon the earth. And there were many who thought that Jesus was the one who would usher in that earthly kingdom. Even some of Jesus’ apostles thought that. And not only when He walked the earth, but even after His resurrection, some of His apostles were thinking that the Kingdom was about to come. Listen to Acts 1:4-6—4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" But Jesus let it be known, many times, that He did not come to establish an earthly kingdom. John 18:33-36—33 Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, "Are You the King of the Jews?"…36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here."

And even though many Jews were believing in Christ, there were some believing Jews who were teaching that outward, physical circumcision was necessary in order to be saved. Romans 9:6-8—6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, 7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, "In Isaac your seed shall be called." 8 That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. Romans 2:25-29—25 For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26 Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? 27 And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? 28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; 29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Even after Paul had preached salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the churches in Galatia, he was forced to ask them, Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? (Galatians 3:1). It’s almost like there was this spirit of jealousy among the ethnic Jewish Christians—and we could almost say Jewish “Christians”—it’s like they were saying “Hey now wait a minute! Our fathers had to go through all this trouble of building the tabernacle, carrying it around through the desert, making all the priestly garments, spending years learning how to cut up the animals for the sacrifice, standing knee-deep in the blood of bulls and goats day after day, year after year. And all Gentiles have to do is believe in Christ and turn away from their sins? We need to at least make them get circumcised!”

What they didn’t understand was that the gospel for the Gentile was the same gospel for the Jew. That is the point of the Parable of the Workers in Matthew 20:1-16. Salvation for Gentiles comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone—salvation for the Jew comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Listen to Romans 3:21-23, 28-31—21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed…22 the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. 29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, 30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

The goal of the Law, the consequence God intended to produce, was not having people bring bulls and goats to the priest to have them killed, cut up and burned. That was not what God wanted. The goal of the Law was to produce in His people a conviction of their own sinfulness. Psalm 51:16-17—16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise. Isaiah 1:1-23 catalogs the crimes of Israel against God. And all they ever offered to God was the blood of bulls and goats with a pinch of incense. Isaiah 1:11-14—“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats…13 Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me…14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.” Proverbs 21:27—The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with wicked intent! God did not want their dead animals. He had become sickened by the constant smell of the incense that the wicked were burning, hoping to purchase His pardon. They did not want to stop sinning; they wanted to have their cake and eat it too—they wanted to keep sinning but still have God overlook their sins. God said, basically, “I don’t want your sacrifice—I want your heart.” Joel 2:18—So rend your heart, and not your garments. That was the goal of the Law; that is the goal of the gospel—to bring about the death of sin and to bring about life in Christ.

So the Jews who either rejected Christ or preached Christ plus circumcision were missing the point. No one was ever saved because they had a priest kill an innocent animal. Men are saved because they trust in God, they desire His righteousness, and they understand that their righteousness doesn’t count for anything. They are saved because they believe that God allowed His Son to die and that that blood—and now we can use these phrases—the blood Christ shed is what paid for and took away their sins. John 1:29—“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” And it is by the blood of Christ that we who were once Gentiles in the flesh have now been brought near—along with all the OT saints who had to become Jews and go through all the rituals contained in the Law—and we are now one body, both Jew and Gentile, in Christ. Ephesians 2:19-20—19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. One of the things we hear a lot when we share the gospel is people will use other people as the standard by which we judge whether we’re saved or not. “Well, I'm not as bad as that guy over there.” Well, that may be true, but what’s the problem with that statement? We could probably find 100 people who are “better” than them. That was the problem for the Pharisees. They thought they were better than the common man because they had devoted their lives to memorizing Scripture. They thought that their outward appearance made them “holier than thou.”

But Jesus told a parable that quenched that fire, Luke 18:9-14—9 Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: “10 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.' 13 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” And I think in this passage, when Jesus uses the phrase “He who exalts himself” I think He may be calling to the minds of the Pharisees the words of Lucifer, in Isaiah 14:12-15—“12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God’…15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.” Under the “old covenant”—what is called by some the “Covenant of Works”—it was not the works themselves that were the goal the people were to aim for. The goal was to aim for the righteousness of God—all the while knowing one could never attain it. Now that may seem like a contradiction and that God is setting us up to fail, but that’s not what is really going on.

When we understand that we cannot keep His Law perfectly; when we understand that, as Paul says, nothing good dwells within me (Romans 7:18); when we realize that our sins are exceedingly sinful; when we see that we deserve nothing less than the perfect justice of Almighty God—then the Law has done its work, and we ask God to be merciful to us and to give us His righteousness and lead us in His ways, and as Paul says in Romans 7:21-24—21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! What he’s saying in this passage is that until God flips on the light and we see the perfection of God’s Law, we do not understand that we are sinful creatures. But when that switch is flipped, we see that we are now in a struggle between what the Spirit calls us to do and what our flesh desires. Galatians 5:17—For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another.

And that war goes on inside every believer. And it is not a war that can be won by using physical means. However, the physical actions of a believer are dictated by how one responds to the prompting of the Spirit. The Law is good, in that it shows us what is required by God. But it cannot make us do what He commands—that has to be purposed in each person’s heart. To illustrate, suppose you're heading home, and you see a stop sign. Can that stops sign make you stop? No, its purpose is to tell you that you must come to a complete stop before you proceed through this intersection. But it cannot make you stop. You must, before you arrive at that intersection, purpose in your heart that when you see an octagon-shaped piece of red sheet metal with the letters “S-T-O-P” that you will stop. In much the same way, the commands in the Law cannot make a person stop sinning. The person who reads “Thou shalt not steal” must purpose in his heart that when he sees something that does not belong to him he will leave it alone—but that command cannot make the person keep their paws off of what is not theirs.

So to use other human beings as the rod by which we measure our own righteousness is really foolishness. 2^nd Corinthians 10:12—But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. That’s why Paul refers to Christ as the chief cornerstone. Because the cornerstone of a building is much more than a commemorative piece of architecture. It is the most important part of the building. It is by the cornerstone that every other angle in the building is measured. And if every angle of that cornerstone is not a perfect 90º, then nearly every angle in the building will be off, and the building will not stand. And if we are measuring our own righteousness against that of people who are just as far off of 90º as we are, then we will not realize that our house is, “up to code” so to speak. BUT—if we measure ourselves against Christ—who is the perfect cornerstone—then we will see where we come short of perfection, we trust in Him to be our righteousness, and as he says in Ephesians 2:20-22—20 Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Law and He is the cornerstone of the gospel. He is the one the Law pointed to as our perfect sacrifice, the mediator of the new covenant that included not only Jew but also Gentile. And He is the one we will be measured against when God brings about the judgment of the world.

Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen.