Hebrews Chapter 8:

Hebrews Chapter 8:

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

In short what the apostle Paul was saying here is that Jesus, by means of his death, his resurrection, and his resulting heavenly priesthood, is everything. That is in fact what most of Paul's writings were about because he was the apostle to the Gentiles, who had never been under the old covenant law, and were never intended to be. Everything that was implemented by God before Jesus died at Calvary was old covenant, and is no longer in effect. We're talking about things pertaining to the worship and service of God, not the moral statutes that showed us how to live among one another. Those things are still the same, even as they were before the old covenant. What Paul was saying that was 'decayed and ready to vanish away,' was all of the ceremonial law. In another place he said it like this: "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). In yet another place he said again; "Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace" (Eph. 2:15). Still yet in another place he put it even more simplistically and to the point: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). POW!!

Jesus fulfilled and BECAME every carnal, symbolic ordinance that was before him. All of them! Jesus really is everything! The reason Paul had to write so many things like this was because false apostles were trying to subvert the Gentile congregations that Paul had established, to believe they had to keep the ceremonial laws of the old covenant in order to be saved (Acts 15:1; Gal. 4:9-11; Gal. 5:2-4; etc.). Paul taught that faith in the finished works of Christ is the only thing could justify and save anyone (Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:7,11,12). He also clearly taught that the observance of, and godly regard for any of the ceremonial law was a major hindrance for Gentile believers (Gal. 5:2-4). The reason for this is that the law served only to bring the Jews to Christ, but since Christ was manifested, and fulfilled the law; the law's purpose had run its course. Jesus did what it took to fulfil the entire law, and to literally BECOME the new covenant. For those who are in Christ, all of the law is fulfilled unto them, as Paul clarified again: "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:4).

What we need to consider is that whatever is fulfilled is no longer in effect. That means any and all of the natural, symbolic ordinances that preceded the death and resurrection of Christ no longer have any place in the worship and service of God. This is the significance of a widely known saying of Jesus: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). God is a spiritual being, and be cannot be truly worshipped by any natural means. The worship and service of the old covenant was only carnal because men's spirits were separated from God by the presence of sin, and they COULDN'T worship him in spirit. But Jesus has made the way for us to literally be joined in spirit to both he and the Father, by means of us receiving God's Spirit and having our sins washed away (Jn. 14:23; Jn. 17:21-23; I Cor. 6:11,17). The 'in spirit' part of John 4:24 is directly referring to the exclusion of every natural ordinance, and the 'in truth' part of the statement simply means 'in sincerity,' as opposed to 'in pretense.' So then, how are we supposed to worship God? By and through Jesus of course! And how is that accomplished? "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17)

Those who keep their hearts purified by the power of the Spirit are at liberty from the bondage of sin, and praise and worship comes naturally, spontaneously, and freely; anytime and anywhere. To mix anything natural, symbolic, and ceremonial with that freedom, only serves to quench the Spirit and subtract from our liberty. And as the scripture says, "Quench not the Spirit" (I Thess. 5:19). If the body of Christ would drop all of its ceremonies that are carried over from the old covenant, and put all of the focus and regard on just Christ himself, we would see an enormous boost of unity, love, and power in the holy Ghost among us. The truth of the matter is that God's Spirit is not and has not led anyone to include any ceremonial ordinances in their worship and service of God. In fact to do so is to actually move backward from the leading of the Spirit, as Paul declared to the Galatians, who were more bedeviled by these things than anyone else he wrote to: "But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18). I think we all want to move forward into more of Jesus, not backward into less of him. May the Lord give good understanding to all who read this. God bless.