Something Better

"Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and the fruit of thy vineyard, be defiled… Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together" (Deut. 22:9,11). Hopefully we all realize that we no longer are bound by these laws that were in the old covenant for Israel. I don’t know about you, but the garden at my house has a BUNCH of different kinds of good stuff in it during the spring and summer months. And a lot of the clothes I wear are blends, like cotton-poly, etc. And I’m sure the same could be said for all of us. But in all reality, had we been of Israel under the old covenant law, we could NOT have done things the way we do now in regard to these kinds of things. But it’s the WHY that is so important, and SO relevant to us as new covenant believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s this simple: Those were ceremonial laws, and the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in and by the holy Ghost, since Jesus sent it back from heaven. That is the main cog of the special revelation of truth that was given by the Lord to the apostle Paul, the man that he chose to teach the Gentile believers the truth of God. Paul was given the revelation of the fulfillment of the law because the Gentiles had NEVER been under the old covenant to begin with. The ceremonial law or laws, ALL had three main elements in common, which were these: 1.) They all pertained to carnal, or natural ordinances. 2.) They were ALL symbolic in nature. 3.) They all represented something that Jesus was going to make available after a SPIRITUAL manner, and in fact that is WHAT they were all symbolic of. Actually we could put 2 and 3 together as one element if we like. But let me give a couple of for instances of how this works: All of the animals that were sacrificed during old testament times represented Jesus: "And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered ONE sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God" (Heb. 10:11,12). Let’s use one of our text scriptures as well: The commandment to "not wear a garment of divers sorts" simply means that if we’ve been baptized with the holy Ghost, we need to keep our hearts pure through and by the power of the holy Ghost: "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have PUT ON Christ" (Gal. 3:27). And, "But PUT ye ON the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom. 13:14). And again, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren…" (I Pet. 1:22). One more time; "Now the Lord IS that SPIRIT" (II Cor. 3:17).

The REASON that these laws are no longer in effect is because Jesus suffered, died, and rose again to give us something BETTER; namely the spiritual fulfillment OF those ceremonial laws and ordinances (Col. 2:16,17; Heb. 10:1). The fact that NONE of the ceremonial laws of the old covenant are still in effect today is what the following verses are clearly stating: “Having ABOLISHED in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph. 2:15). And, “BLOTTING OUT the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Col. 2:14). And finally; “For Christ is the END of the LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS to every one that believeth” (Rom. 10:4). Now PLEASE, hold the four capitalized words in that last verse in your mind as we proceed. They will be VERY important shortly. So it is evident that Jesus “took it [the ceremonial law] OUT OF THE WAY, [and] nailed IT to his cross.” As Romans 10:4 says, the ceremonial law for righteousness is ENDED. In reality, it died on the cross with Jesus, even as Colossians 2:14 states. But the thing that REALLY needs to be understood is that it wasn’t just certain ceremonial laws, like the ones I’ve mentioned, that died; but rather it was the WHOLE ceremonial law that ended. Paul explains in Galatians that the ceremonial law only served to point Israel to Christ, and that it no longer had any purpose after Christ was manifest, and had become the fulfillment of it (Gal. 3:23-25). It is actually more serious than the fact that we just don’t HAVE to keep these ordinances under the new covenant. Because there were Jewish men, who were in fact in the body of Christ, that were telling Gentile believers that they DID have to keep certain ceremonial laws; Paul made clear the following: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace” (Gal. 5:4). Now that IS serious, especially seeing that the Bible informs us, “For BY grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). He continued this statement, saying, “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). The ‘works’ he was referring to in this verse are the ceremonial works or ordinances of the law, as he continues on to explain in a scripture I have already quoted above (Eph. 2:15). The reason that Christ, meaning the Spirit, becomes of “no effect” in the lives of those who trust in the ceremonial works of the law; is because when we are made to believe that we must keep ANY of those things in order to be right with God fully, we are being made to go BACKWARD from the leading of God’s Spirit: “But IF ye be led of the Spirit, ye are NOT under the law” (Gal. 5:18).

Now the dilemma we have among God’s people today is the crusading zeal for water baptism. In Paul’s day it was mostly about circumcision and certain holy days and such. But the principal of the whole thing is EXACTLY the same. Water baptism was clearly an ordinance of the law, even though it was given at the end of that dispensation. Remember those four capitalized words I said to remember? “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him [John]. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so NOW: for thus it becometh us to FULFIL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Mat. 3:13-15). Here is what I asked you to remember: “For Christ is the END of the LAW FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS to every one that believeth.” Water baptism in fact was a summarizing ordinance which in effect represented the entire ceremonial law, even momentarily replacing the sacrifices for sin that were offered under the law (Mk. 1:5). It was given that way to John for the sake of introducing the one that the entire ceremonial law had symbolized, and to show EXACTLY what Jesus was going to provide after a SPIRITUAL order. John explained that what he was doing was ALL ABOUT Jesus and the baptism that JESUS was going to make the way to baptize with (Mk. 1:7,8; Jn. 3:30). The fact that the baptism in water was continued well after Pentecost when the Spirit came, has NOTHING to do with the damage that has been caused today by religious zealots commanding people that they have to be baptized in water in order to “be in obedience” to Jesus. In fact Paul even baptized in water for a season, until he fully realized that it was fulfilled like the rest of the ceremonial law (I Cor. 1:17; Eph. 4:5). In any event, the fact of the matter is that requiring someone to be baptized in water today is the exact same spirit of error that troubled the Gentile congregations of Paul’s day about circumcision and the like. When someone who has been baptized with the holy Ghost by Jesus, is told that they still have to be baptized in water to be in full obedience, they are still being made to go backward from the leading of God’s Spirit; and Christ is STILL being made “of none effect” to them thereby. My friend, I am telling you by the authority of the holy Ghost, that the inclusion and respect for ANY carnal ordinances in our worship and service under this covenant, is simply an invite to death. “For the letter [carnal format of the law] killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (II Cor. 3:6). And that was the significance of these words of absolution from Jesus: “God is a Spirit [Spiritual being]: and they that worship him MUST worship him in spirit [not in carnal] and in truth [not in pretense]” (Jn. 4:24). Paul also confirmed this commandment of Jesus: “For we are the circumcision [and the baptized], which worship God in THE SPIRIT, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh [carnal ordinances]” (Philip. 3:3). And I say, Amen!