Scriptures:
- Gen 17; 1Cor 7:17-24; Gal 5:1-12 Circumcision is nothing;
- 1Cor 9:1-23 Christian freedom, you are not under the Law;
- Rom 14; 1Cor 8; Rom 15:1-6 Addendum, on food laws;
- Acts 15; 21, Summary.
MOTIVE: Circumcision party alive and going strong!
https://jesuskingdomgospel.com/the-one-god-unitarian-view-is-not-the-gospel/
- Circumcision is nothing!
READ Gen 17:1-14.
- The reason Paul focused so many of his letters on circumcision is because he knew you cannot do the Law of Moses without getting circumcised.
- It's a package deal.
- Similarly, the Law of Moses was a set Menu and not to be treated like a buffet line, as so many Sabbattarians tend to do.
- In other words, for Paul circumcision was the gateway to Torah observance.
- That's why some from the party of the Pharisees, who came to accept Jesus as their Messiah, demanded that us Gentiles be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses (as we will read in Acts 15).
- It was clear to them, as it should be to us, that Torah observance had at its center the Jewish covenant responsibility and commandment of circumcision, the sign of God's original covenant with Abraham. And the hallmark for the Abrahamic faith itself, according to Gen 17.
READ 1Cor 7:17-24
Paul further undermines Torah observance.
- v.18 Paul here clearly says that a man should not be circumcised!
- v.19 because Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts;
- For Paul circumcision is no longer part of the commandments of God, as we read later in 1Cor 9:21 Paul equates the Law of God = the Law of Messiah; which is notthe Law of Moses!
READ Gal 5:1-12
Paul reiterates the point, this time with a staunch warning!
- Paul here reverses the circumcision commandment given to Abram, READ Gen 17:1-14;
- God had commanded all males wanting to partake of His land promise to be circumcised.
- And if they did not they would be cut off from his people because, God says, he has broken my covenant.
- Yet, Paul in Gal 5:4 now says if you get circumcised you will sever or cut yourself off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
- Also NOTE circumcision was a salvation issue and not just something to be vaguely observed or honored because you love God! Vs for obedience not salvation.
- Christian Freedom: not under the Law
READ 1Cor 9:1-23
- vv. 9:20-21 Paul clearly contrasts two laws: the Law of Moses Vs the Law of Messiah.
- OT prophecies like Jeremiah 31.31-32 foretold of this difference when describing the NC.
- That's why Paul sometimes qualifies the phrase under the law with a negative adverb (e.g., not or never) in order to warn Christians not to observe the Law of Moses.
Rom 6.14: You are not under law but under grace.
Gal 5.18: If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
1Cor 9.20: I myself am not under the law.
- Paul also frequently includes himself by saying “We are not under the Law but under grace.” Rom 6.15; cp. Gal 3.23; 4.5.
- The point here is that Paul was not some dispensationalist, writing letters applicable only to one set of Christians, i.e., Jews.
BUT WHAT ABOUT?
Paul was born under the Law.
We also know that Paul, like Jesus himself, was born under the Law of Moses but that did not mean Paul had to continue to live and die observing the Torah. That would be like saying that I had to keep observing the laws of my birth country of Nicaragua here in the USA.
- Food laws: nothing is unclean.
Rom 14:14-15:6
- v. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in
itself. Again in v. 20b “Everything is indeed clean”
- The annulment of this law was part of the new order brought by Jesus
- Goes back to some of the things said by Jesus pointing to the abolition of the Jewish distinction between things clean and unclean:
Mk. 7:19c
Jesus declared all foods clean.
Rom 14:14a
"I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself."
- AB Mar 7:19
Paul used the word katharos, “clean,” which is the precise opposite of those foods listed in Lev. 11 as akathartos, “unclean,” forbidden foods under the Torah of Moses. Paul spoke as a Jew and a Christian.
- In Juaism, koinos often means ritually defiled or impure, equivalent to "unclean" in the sense of violating purity laws (e.g., eating forbidden foods).
- It contrasts with katharos (clean/pure) in Hellenistic Jewish texts (e.g., Maccabees, Philo).
- Usage elsewhere: Koinos used in Acts 10:14, Peter’s vision of unclean animals.
WARNINGS: 1Cor 8
- Paul also warns this type of new "knowledge" (gnosis) comes with a greater level of responsibility, as Paul repeatedly warns throughout his letters.
1Cor 8.1
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
1Cor 8:7
However, not all have this knowledge for some, being accustomed [throughout their lives thinking of idols as real and living], still eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and because their conscience is weak, it is defiled (i.e., they feel guilty, ashamed).
1Cor 8:9
Be careful, however, that your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.
1Cor 8:10
For example, suppose someone with a weak conscience sees you, who have this knowledge, eating in a pagan temple.
READ Rom 15:1-6
- NOTE Church tolerance and love should not do away with these NC commandments and always seek to make the weak Christian strong in Messiah.
- Therefore, if you're a strong Christian you should put up with the weak Christian so as not to please yourself. Rom 15.1
- But always with the goal that eventually all Christians must come to be like-minded in Christ Jesus.
- So that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15.5-6
For the church is one body in the one Spirit, just as we all have been called to the
one glorious hope for the future.
MORE WARNINGS: Col 2.16a
"So don’t let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink."
Hebrews 13.9
“Don’t be swept off your course by all sorts of outlandish teachings.
It is good that we should gain inner strength from the grace of God and not from rules about food, which have never benefited those who observed them.”
SUMMARY: Apostolic Church Council
- 8 God, who knows everyone’s thoughts, gave His approval to them by giving them the holy spirit just as He did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, by purifying their hearts by faith. 10 So now why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?
- The NC law re: food was recognized by the Jerusalem council church when it concluded that we Gentiles should not be circumcised and required to obey the Law of Moses, Acts 15:19
"Therefore [says James speaking for the whole church] I conclude that we should not cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to God."
- And almost 10 years later James ratified this same conclusion.
- I like this paraphrase from God's Word Translation at Acts 21:25a
"[To clarify this matter,] we have written non-Jewish believers a letter with our decision.
- Paul was right to say imitate me as I imitate Messiah (1Cor 11.1) because Jesus himself practiced what he preached, his own NC law and not the OC Law of Moses!
- Hence, Jesus is called the mediator of a new covenant in Heb. 9.15; 12.24. And likewise his followers ministers of that same new covenant! 2Cor 3:6f.
