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Question 72.
Dear Father Christopher
Why after Christ wasn't any of the Jewish religion followed e.g.
circumcision, the Jewish Passover and other requirements of the Law?
Many Thanks Nicky.
Answer to Question 72.
Dear Nicky.
Firstly we must understand that circumcision is not righteousness?
Abraham was accounted as righteous before the covenant of circumcision
was given. He was accounted as righteous because of his faith in God.
(Gen. 15: 6) God promised Abraham that through him would descend a great
nation and he would be their God. As an outward sign of this promise
every male belonging to Abraham's household whether family or servant
had to be circumcised. Circumcision was therefore the visible and
outward sign that a person belonged to the tribes that came forth from
Abraham and who inherited the promise God made with him: these being the
12 tribes of Israel who descended from Abraham's son Isaac and the Arab
tribes who descended from his son Ishmael.
During the first years after Christ, the first Christians were converts
from the Jewish faith, but very soon the new Christian faith came to the
Gentiles, in other words the Greeks who were not circumcised. Some at
the time insisted that unless the Greeks be circumcised after the manner
of Moses, they could not be saved. (Acts 15:1) This proved a great
burden on the Greeks and a dispute arose among the apostles whether it
was actually a necessity. The subject was a big issue and it was decided
to call together the first Apostolic Council to deal with the problem.
Some time before the council, Peter, on one of his journeys was hungry
and while waiting for the food to be prepared, he fell into a trance and
saw a vessel come down from heaven full of wild beasts, and creeping
things, and fowls of the air. And the Lord said to him, Peter, arise
kill and eat. But Peter refused and said: "Not so, Lord; for I have
never eaten any thing that is common or unclean." Then the Lord said to
him: "What God has cleansed, that call not thou common." Peter didn't
understand the vision until he was called to go with three men to the
house of a gentile named Cornelius. As a Jew, it was forbidden to enter
the house of a gentile, but the Holy Spirit told Peter to go with the
men doubting nothing: for I have sent them. At Cornelius' house Peter
was received by Cornelius, together with his kinsmen and close friends.
God had called him to preach the Gospel to these people. Then Peter
realized the meaning of the vision he had, that God had shown him not to
call any man common or unclean. While Peter preached to them, the Holy
Spirit fell on everyone that heard the word. The Jews who were with
Peter were astonished that the gentiles could receive the Holy Spirit
while still uncircumcised. Peter then said: "Can any man forbid water,
that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as
well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the
Lord."
At the Apostolic Council, Peter testified what had happened at
Cornelius' house and said: "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no
difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now
therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the
disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we
believe that through the grace of the LORD Jesus Christ we shall be
saved, even as they."
Barnabas and Paul also testified that the Gentiles had received the Holy
Spirit.
After much discussion it was decided that as God had put no difference
between the Gentiles and themselves and had given them the gift of the
Holy Spirit, then circumcision was not a necessity for salvation, but
all who believe will be saved through the grace of the LORD Jesus
Christ.
In his teachings, St Paul said to the Romans: "For he is not a Jew,
which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision
is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise
is not of men, but of God." (Romans 2: 28-29) Circumcision of the flesh
was an outward sign, but the Jews should have also been circumcised in
the heart, of which Israel failed miserably. Paul says: "Circumcision is
nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the
commandments of God."
In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul makes it clear that Abraham
was accounted as righteous not because of his circumcision, but because
of his faith. The promise from God that he should be the heir of the
world was not given to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith.
The Covenant that God made with Abraham was that he would be a father to
many nations. This promise was made to Abraham and his seed. St. Paul
points out that seed is in the singular and does not mean seeds as of
many and to all his descendants in general, but to a particular seed,
which is Christ. Christ therefore is the fulfilment of this covenant and
when he came he made a New Covenant. The sign of this new covenant is
Baptism and the old sign was no longer required.
Anyone who is baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity is joined to
Christ through this new covenant and receives spiritual circumcision.
This spiritual circumcision is of the heart and no longer of the flesh.
For as Paul says again: "For ye are all the children of God by faith in
Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have
put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ
Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise." (Galatians 3: 26-29)
In the same way that the first covenant was fulfilled in Christ and a
new covenant began, so also the celebration of the Jewish Passover
prefigured the true Passover of Christ from death to eternal life.
The Jewish Passover was celebrated in remembrance of the deliverance of
Israel from slavery to the Egyptians. As we read in Exodus, God told
Moses to tell the people of Israel to prepare for that last night in
Egypt. Each household was to kill an unblemished lamb and take from the
blood and strike it on the two side posts of their doors. The lamb was
to be roasted with fire in other words barbequed and was to be eaten on
that night with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They had to eat it
quickly and be dressed and ready to go because it’s was the Lord’s
Passover. The Passover had two meanings, the first was that that night
the Lord passed through the land of Egypt and smote all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt. As he went, he passed over all the houses that had
the blood on the doorposts and the firstborn of the Israelites were
saved. The second meaning is the crossing over of the Red sea which
symbolized the crossing over from slavery to freedom, of deliverance
from evil and the travelling from death to a new life.
The event as seen in the light of the New Testament prefigured the true
Passover which was fulfilled in Christ. The word Passover in Greek is
Pascha. It means the passing over of Christ’s body from death to the
Resurrection: The passing over of man from this life of bondage to the
devil to the heavenly land of milk and honey; to Paradise. This for us
is the New Passover, Pascha or Easter, the feast of all feasts where man
is delivered from the evil that had him in bondage until Christ set us
free through his death on the Cross and his Resurrection. The Jews had
to kill an unblemished lamb and put the blood on the doorposts. For us
the unblemished lamb that is sacrificed is Christ himself and his blood
is not painted externally on our doorposts but within us who are
according to St. Paul the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our mouth is the
door of this temple as is expressed in a prayer before Holy Communion:
“I am not worthy, Lord and Master, that Thou shouldest come under the
roof of my soul; But for that Thou desirest, O Lover of mankind, to
dwell in me, I make bold to draw near. Thou biddest me to open the doors
that Thou, my Creator, mayest enter in with mercy proper to Thee, and
bring light to my darkened mind.”
The Mosaic Law, the Law of the Old Testament and all the Jewish
festivals like the Jewish Passover were given to Israel for one purpose
only; to prepare them spiritually for the coming of the Messiah. Christ
the Messiah is the same God of the Old Testament that gave them the Law,
thus when he came as a man he didn't come to destroy the law which he
had given, but came to fulfil it and renew it. Christ said: "Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil. As already said, the purpose of the Old
Testament Law was to prepare Israel for the coming of Christ, but the
laws and observances were not perfect. The people were still in an age
of darkness without the grace and light of the Holy Spirit to enlighten
them and show them a different and superior code of conduct. Let’s not
imagine for one second that the nations of the Old Testament understood
everything we have been taught in the New Testament. From Adam and the
fall people lived distant from God, living in their transgressions
without laws. This lawlessness led the people to such wickedness that we
are told God repented that he created man. “God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the
Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his
heart.” (Gen. 6: 5-6)
As preparation for the coming of Christ, the Law of the Old Testament
was given to teach the people right from wrong. Without the Law there
was no definition of what was pleasing to God for as St. Paul says “I
would not have known sin except through the Law. For I would not have
known covetousness unless the Law had said ‘you shall not covet’”.
(Romans 7:7)
The law then defined what sin was and without it the people were unaware
of its existence. But even with the law, the people were not ready to
accept spiritual laws like turning the other cheek and loving their
enemies. They needed to be educated slowly and in a way they could
understand. An eye for an eye was, for that period of time before grace,
the most effective law, because in the majority of cases the fear in
breaking the law held them bound to keeping the law.
Our best teacher to help us understand the Old Law and how things
changed with the coming of Christ is St. Paul. He said: “But the
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came,
we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring
us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that
faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 22:26.)
“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish
things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11).
The Old law can then be likened as laws for children who are not ready
to think like adults, but by this I mean they are like children in the
spirit who have not grown spiritually. We can explain this using an
image of our modern day educational system. The Old Testament is like
the education we are given in infant and junior schools and the New
Testament like the education we are given in senior school. University,
which is optional, can be likened to those who have put into practice
the teaching of the New Testament and have received a master’s degree in
the spiritual life.
With the coming of Christ a new covenant was given and with the new
covenant a new law. That is why St. Paul says: “we are not under the
law, but under grace” (Rom. 6: 14), and that “the letter killeth, but
the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3: 6).
Paul also tells us the Old Law and its ordinances acted like a middle
wall of partition, a barrier that separated and kept apart the Jew from
the Gentiles. (Ephesians 2: 14-16) It encouraged discrimination and
hatred of the Gentiles to the point where any contact of a Jew with a
Gentile was considered unclean and contaminating. At that time this
barrier and separation was necessary to protect the Jews from the idol
worshipping Greeks. But Christ brought down this wall of partition in
his flesh. With his death on the Cross, Christ abolished and put to
death the enmity that existed before and brought about the
reconciliation of both Jew and Gentile with themselves and with God.
By destroying the middle wall of partition and abolishing the
commandments of the Old Law, Christ proceeds to the making of a new
creation. Christ is the new man and the true image of God, the prototype
and the first-fruit of the new mankind. In his person Christ creates a
new man, the new humanity which without any discrimination consists of
both Jews and Gentiles. The Old Law which separated the Jew from the
Gentile had no place in the new humanity, it had to be abolished for a
new law in Christ, a new law teaching peace and reconciliation, a new
law of love for all people.
With love in Christ
Fr. Christopher
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