Today we observe a fashion where more and more Christians want to convince other Christians that they would have to observe the entire law of the Old Testament. This is not necessarily a good development for good reasons. The dogma that Jesus would have ended the law of the old covenant on the cross is disputable. When we read in the New Testament, we see that the apostles were all Torah-observant Jews. How strictly someone like Paul was following the Torah remains a question, but we must see his role as apostle for the gentiles under a special light. He had to bring the message of the Jewish Messiah - as the followers of Jesus have seen him - to a completely new audience. Of course his followers were not merely gentiles, and so he had to avoid the establishment of two classes in his communities. For him the gentile had the absolute same value as a circumcised Jew. From now on every Christian believer was regarded as a priest in the holy celestial temple. From a more mystical perspective, we could say that this spiritual priesthood was the destination of the spiritual ascent.
How later the church reasoned the invention of a physical priesthood is its own topic, but when we follow scripture itself, we can see the division of humanity only into two groups: the believer and the unbeliever. Some may also add the 144,000 of the book of Revelation, but it becomes clear that those elected from Israel are completely becoming one with the big crowd from the nations. As we learned in the last article, day and night became one, as well as man and woman. Although they're separate timings or individual beings, they become one unity in spirit. Jesus and his father, as mentioned, became one. Although they're two separate beings, they are one in spirit.
As books like Acts or Galatians make clear, it is from now on not necessary anymore to take on Jewish identity to become one with God. Although the law remained the standard of how to set up the life of the Jewish follower of Jesus, it's not binding for the gentile, except for keeping the Mitzvot (precepts) that the apostles gave to the gentile believers in Acts 15. The apostle Paul made clear that the law is from now on circumcised in our hearts (Romans 2:15). The great danger for a Christian of becoming Torah observant is that the next step would be Jewish conversion, after which most of them will forsake Jesus completely. From now on we will bind ourselves with a system of reward and punishment according to the actions of the law that we obey or not obey. To die with Jesus on the cross means to leave this calculation. This does not mean that the believer couldn't become a victim of divine judgment, because the Bible tells us that those who draw closer to God are the first who get disciplined (1 Peter 4:17), but we should not submit ourselves under a system that promises us rewards according to the observance of special timings and seasons. With the cross, we go beyond the cause and effect chain of physical reality. This means that when we practice repentance for our misdeeds, we can prevent divine judgment from coming over us.
This topic is theologically and spiritually very complex, and we will dig deeper in the next postings...
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