Jewish holidays. Should believers partake in them?
What's Rosh Hashanah. It's the Jewish New Year. It means "Head of the Year."
Then there's "Yom Teruah" or "date of shouting/blasting."
This is found in Leviticus 23:23-25.
There's Yom Kippur (means Day of Atonement).
It's a day to afflict the soul, you're not allowed to do any customary work. It's a sabbath and solemn day of rest.
It's interesting to note that it's the traditional day when Adam and Eve were created. Now we don't have definitive proof, but nonetheless, it's very interesting.
If you're in Christ, whether you're Jew or Gentile (ethnos-a race)......Galatians 2:16 (NKJV) "....knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified," there's no NT requirement to participate in any Jewish holidays.
Rosh Hashanah, Feast of Trumpets, Feast of Tabernacles.
In Leviticus 23, there's a list of the feasts that the Lord commanded Israel to keep.
But Christ fulfilled the law.
Matthew 5:17-18 (NKJV) “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Romans 10:4 (NKJV) "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
Colossians 2:11-23 (NKJV) "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism,
in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.
And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body,
nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”
which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Galatians 3:10-14 (NKJV) "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written,
“Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law,
having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
The promise of the Spirit through faith is being born again (see Titus 3:4-6).
Ephesians 1:13-14 (NKJV) "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."
2 Corinthians 5:5 (NKJV) "Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee."
These Scriptures answers and settle the issue.
The things of the OT is to no profit because the Lord Jesus is the end of the law. The Lord Jesus fulfilled the law having died on the cross. He satisfied the righteous requirements of the law by living a perfect life. After living a perfect life, His body was offered as a sacrifice for the sin of the whole world.
John 1:29-30 (NKJV) "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Isaiah 53 clearly articulates the suffering that the Lord went through.
1 John 2:2 (NKJV) "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world."
The word "propitiation" simply means g2434. ἱλασμός hilasmos; atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator: — propitiation.
AV (2) - propitiation 2;
an appeasing, propitiating, the means of appeasing, a propitiation.
The Lord appeased or satisfied the righteous requirements of the law.
Why a lamb without blemish?
The lamb had done nothing wrong. It's the perfect example of Christ. Sinless and innocent.
Romans 3:23-26 (NKJV) "...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith,
to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
Therefore, the Jewish High Holy Days serves as a "type and shadow" of the very work of Christ, completed on the cross.
The law, as Paul has said, serves as a schoolmaster until Christ came the first time.
Galatians 3:22-25 (NKJV) "But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law,
kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor."
So those of us that's in Christ, we're no longer under a tutor. To the Jews, the law did its job of bringing those that believe to Christ.
We now have eternal life through the finished work of Christ on the cross. The debt that we owe and cannot repaid, was paid in full by Christ. When we repent (turn from sin), and place faith on Christ alone, we're released from this debt.
John 19:30. "It is finished."
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong's Dictionary) g5055. τελέω teleō; from 5056; to end, i.e. complete, execute, conclude, discharge (a debt): — accomplish, make an end, expire, fill up, finish, go over, pay, perform.
(Olive Tree Enhanced Strong's Dictionary) to payof tribute - "It is finished or paid" John 19:30 Christ satisfied God's justice by dying for all to pay for the sins of the elect. These sins can never be punished again since that would violate God's justice. Sins can only be punished once, either by a substitute or by yourself.
The grace and mercy of the Lord replaced establishing one's own righteousness by the law.
When we place faith on Christ, His righteousness comes upon us.
Romans 3:21-22 (NKJV) "But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe."
"For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
So we don't have to do Rosh Hashanah or any of the other Jewish feast.
Comentários