Subject: Confused? |
Bible Note: Jesus did not change the "letter" of the law because if he did he couldn't be the Messiah. Deut. 13 warns of a prophet that would come even doing miracles but if that prophet tried to take Israel away from the commands of Moses, then that was a false prophet. Too many Christians turn Jesus into someone he was not. Jesus also did not "spiritualize" the commands. What he did do, however, (to help you with your argument) was to correctly interpret the commands in both how they were originally intended to be understood and how they ought to be applied in their current situation. The Pharisees (not all of them) were heaping on mounds of oral tradition (oral law) and put all of the focus on those laws, most of which had to do with "holiness" commands (ie. clean and unclean) and neglected the mercy and justice laws that Jesus (and some other 1st century Rabbis) taught were "greater." Nowhere do we see Jesus ending any laws (like the food laws) or adding to the laws (like the Law to Love each other.) Until Christians see Jesus in his own context and among His own people they will continue to miss his point and teaching (or at least many of them...most Christians do get the heart of the teaching). But even the teaching on the "Kingdom of God/Heaven" that He spent most of his time on is still misunderstood by us today as if it has to do with "going to Heaven." It is very important, however, to understand the Living Walking in the Flesh Torah Logos of God did not change, end, nor supplant the very Word that He was. Everything in the Torah and the Prophets and the New Testament tells us this. MJH |