Saturday, July 28, 2018

A New Covenant, A New Law


“This cup is the blood of the new covenant; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Luke 22.19; 1Cor 11.25



After Jesus had his last Passover we read in Luke 22.29:

“I covenant to you a kingdom, as my Father covenanted one to me.”



While this is a more precise rendering of the Greek, it’s made awkward by the fact that most of your translations don’t have it.



Messianic Torah

Some Rabbis, based on OT Jer. 31, taught that among the many things the Messiah [the Moses redivivus] would bring was a new Torah, i.e., revised, renewed or a spiritualized form of the current one.

Ezekiel 36 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

24 “I will take you out of those nations, bring you back to your own land.

25 I will wash away all your filth, the filth from those nasty idols.

26-27 I will also put a new spirit in you. [So] that you will obey my laws and carefully obey my commands.

28 Then you will live in the land. You will be my people, and I will be your God.

29-30 Land of “food and honey.”



Genesis: Sermon Mount

Jesus, “Moses reborn,” does away with some of the Old Law by spiritualizing things like marriage and lethal violence in general (“holy wars,” lethal self-defense).



Later the Apostles at the Jerusalem council stop enforcing Torah on new converts/proselytes via circumcision (acc. Gen 17; cp. Paul in Gal 2-5; Phil 3 etc.).

·       Circumcision focused because = “the whole Torah,” i.e., pars pro toto [a part of the whole], “a package deal”!



The When and Who of Passover changed:

·       When? Sunday [11x[1] in the NT; cp. Hos 6.2]. The Sabbath has become “a shadow,” [Col 2.16-17] i.e., ineffective! Communion not once a year!

Luke 22.19

“You shall be doing this to commemorate me.”

1Cor 5.8

“Let us be celebrating (the continuous sense of the present tense Greek verb)”

1Cor 11:18, 20, 33

Whenever you meet together in church…”



·       Who? Anyone! Under the Old Covenant you must be circumcised to eat the Passover meal: Ex 12.48! Jew & Gentiles at a food laws free fellowship table.

Wrong? “This is true for the Temple.” And Gentiles can only participate if they eat the unleavened bread, herbs, etc.



The point: The New Covenant is intimately tied to Jesus’ words, i.e., new laws regarding the Gospel about the coming KOG on earth.



NOTE the contrast:

Mat 5.18

“Until heaven and earth pass away, not one stroke of a letter of Torah will pass away until all is fulfilled.”



Mat 24.35

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”



So if you’re holding on to OC laws “you ain’t getting’ in!”



Ask someone to close with prayer after…



Communion Service: the bread

1Cor 11.23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;

24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”



The wine:

1Cor 11. 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.



[1] Matt.  16:21;  17:23; 20:19;  27:64;  Luke  9:22;  18:33;  24:7,  21,  46;  Acts  10:40; 1 Cor. 15:4.

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