Jeremiah didn’t know the Sabbaths would be canceled
Question:
You cite Jeremiah 31, indicating that Sabbath feasts and kosher diets are no longer connected to sin in the New Covenant. I don’t think Jeremiah knew that when he referred to “my laws.”
The law anticipated that circumcision would be of the heart, and the sacrifice presented to God was our own bodies in a living sacrifice acceptable to God. So, not sacrificing animals cannot be a New Testament cancellation of the law but obedience to the law itself because the priesthood is now in heaven with Christ as the priest, and He is the sacrifice.
No jot or title has passed, but the law applies in principle to the new circumstances. Abraham kept God’s laws and statutes also, the same laws, though not as they were later kept in the desert, and neither do we; it is expected. Laws that concerned the keeping of the ark can not apply now, but the spiritual principles are still valid, and the violation is sin.
The New Covenant is also with Israel, to which we are grafted. It is impossible that they were told that some commandments were removed; eating pork or working on the Sabbath is not a sin now, and they need to go to synagogue on Sunday.
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Answer:
" "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more" " (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Jeremiah recorded the words of God. It did not matter if Jeremiah understood all the implications of what he recorded. God knew what He was saying. "My covenant" and "My law" refer to the Law of Moses since God said it was made when God brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt. What you think doesn't matter either. We are studying what God said. God said the new covenant was not like the Law of Moses, which the Israelites repeatedly broke.
The Law of Moses was merely a shadow of the reality that is found in Christ. "For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near" (Hebrews 10:1). It is true that you can find some of the principles taught in the New Testament in the Old Testament. God did tell the Israelites to circumcise their hearts (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4) but the circumcision of the flesh was still required in the Old Covenant and is not a part of the New Covenant. "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:1-4).
The Old Law did not discuss that followers of God were to offer their own bodies as living sacrifices to God. What you refer to was discussed by Paul in Romans 12:1. The Hebrews writer discusses that there is no longer a need for daily animal sacrifices because Christ's sacrifice did what they could not. "By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right and of God" (Hebrews 10:10-12). Contrary to your claim, the sacrifices of the Old Law were canceled because they were inadequate. Under the New Law, the sacrifice of Christ is the one and only sacrifice.
Yes, Jesus is our High Priest and is in heaven, but you skipped over the fact that under the Old Law, Jesus could not be a priest.
"For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is clearer still, if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of Him, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, "The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, 'You are a priest forever'"); so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant" (Hebrews 7:12-22).
The writer of Hebrews argues that if there is a change in the priesthood, which you agree took place, it could only occur by a change in the covenant because Moses' Law did not allow for priests from the tribe of Judah or any other tribe but Levi. Jeremiah prophesied this: a replacement of the old covenant that was not like it. This contradicts your claim that not a jot or title of the Law has changed. You can't claim there was a change and no change simultaneously (at least, you can't claim it and be taken seriously). Jesus said, "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished" (Matthew 5:18). The implication is that all was accomplished. The Law's purpose was fulfilled, and it is no longer needed. "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Galatians 3:24-25).
If there can be changes in circumcision, sacrifice, and the priesthood, then it isn't surprising that other aspects of the law also changed when we went from the Old Law to the New Law.
"When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day -- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:13-17).
"Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "Uncircumcision" by the so-called "Circumcision," which is performed in the flesh by human hands -- remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:11-16).
I found it interesting how heavily you used phrases from Paul's writings while attempting to apply them in ways that contradict what Paul recorded.
"Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen" (II Peter 3: 14-18).
