What is the relationship between The Old Testament Law and the Grace Given Us In Jesus Christ?
The Grace of Christ and the Law of Moses
The Apostle John wrote, "The Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn 1:17). The grace of Christ and the Law of Moses are complementary and not contradictory. The following helps explain both.
Friendship Between Christ and MosesChrist and Moses were friends and conversed as friends. The pre-incarnate Christ gave Moses the Law; in turn, Moses gave it to Israel (Ex- 20:1-26). As the Lawgiver, Christ, not Moses, was the Author of the Law. Moses was His servant.
In the New Testament , Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they conversed with Him as friend with friend (Mat 17:1-8). The presence of Moses shows Christ as the fulfillment of the Law. The presence of Elijah shows Christ as the fulfillment of the Prophets.
Contrast Between Christ and Moses
Christ is incomparably greater than Moses, for Christ, the Son of God, who brought all creation into existence from nonexistence, is building His Body, The Church. When Christ gave Moses and Israel the Law, He spoke as the Lord their God. Moses, however, spoke to Israel "in the name of the Lord their God," not in his own name (Ex 20:22). When the son of God became incarnate, He continued to speak to Israel, but now directly and not through a prophet. Although during His three-year ministry in Israel, He did works and spoke words in His almighty power, Israel refused to believe Him, their own Lord God. But to those Jews who did believe, He gave authority to become His children (Jn 1:11,12)
Christ also gave authority to believing Gentiles to become His children. In the Old Testament, He made it clear that through Moses and His prophets the Gentiles would be included in the promises to Israel (for example, Gn 12:1-3; Is 49:5,6). Both would be in His Body, The Church. Race is not the issue, but rather faith in Christ. His Body, The Church is ONE composed of every nation, tongue and tribe (Rev 5:9).
Harmony Between Law and Grace:
Christ is the Lawgiver in both Old and New Testaments. Therefore, there is no opposition or contradiction between the old and new laws. In His Incarnation, the Lawgiver Himself fulfilled the old Law, making it obsolete (Heb 8:13 - In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.)
Christ gave His written Law through Moses to make sin known (Rom 3:20; 7:7). Man's God-given natural law, written in the conscience, was dulled through disobedience in the years between Adam and Moses. The Mosaic Law helped renew this knowledge of sin to lead man to repentance. After His ascension, Christ sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to convict the world of sin (Jn 16:8), to renew the natural law in man's conscience (Heb 8:10) to lead us into all truth (Jn 16:13), and to make it possible for us to become partakers of the divine nature (2Pt 1:4).
GRACE FROM THE LAWGIVER:
Christ is the Incarnate Lawgiver who offers us remission of sins through His Holy Cross, HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD. The old Law could never remit sins (Heb 10:1-4). Christ not only forgives sins, but also heals the damage done through sinning. This is the unspeakable grace of the lawgiver.
(The Myth of D.N.A. Slavery - the Struggle for our Healing)
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
"Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: neither you, nor your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, your cattle, nor your stranger who sojourns with you. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath Day and hallowed it.
"honor your father and mother that is may be well with you, and your days may be long upon the good land the Lord your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
"You shall not cover your neighbor's wife, or his house, and neither shall you covet his field, nor his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, any of his cattle, or whatever belongs to your neighbor."
THE SABBATH DAY, SUNDAY, AND THE EIGHTH DAY
The Sabbath Day:
When the Lord commanded the Hebrews, in the fourth of the Ten Commandments, to "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," He also gave them the reason: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hollowed it" (Ex 20:8, 11; cf. Gn 2:1-3). When Moses restated the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5, he added another reason: "Remember, you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore, the Lord your God ordered you to guard the Sabbath day and to sanctify it: (5:15).
The Hebrews were called to "remember" (Ex 20:8), to "keep" (Lv 19:3, 30), and to "hallow" or "sanctify" (Jer 17:19-27; Ezk 20:19,20; Neh 13:15-22) the Sabbath by resting from almost every kind of work. God provided them this sacred time each week to help them contemplate His awesome work in creation and there miraculour deliverance from Egypt. Stipulating the faithful observance of the Sabbath was one of the main ways God ordained to reinforce the people's covenant with Him Ex 31: 12-17: cf. Lv 24:8). Originally, communal worship was not linked with Sabbath observances; but with the development of the synagogue, probably during the Hebrews' exile in Babylon (sixth century BC), the Sabbath naturally became the day for synagogue worship, as it is for the Jews today.
SUNDAY, THE DAY OF WORSHIP
At first, early Jewish Christians continued to observe Sabbath regulations and to worship on the Sabbath (Acts 13:13-15, 42-44; 18:1-4). But they also met for the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday (Acts 20:7; 1Co 16:1-2), called "the Lord's Day" (Rev 1:10), since Jesus rose on the Sunday. Saint Ignatius of Antioch, in about AD 107, confirms that Sunday was the main day of worship for the early Church: "They have given up keeping the Sabbath, and now order their lives by the Lord's Day instead - the Day when life first dawned for us, thanks to Him and His death."
The Roman Emperor Constantine before he was baptized and became a member of the Body of Christ, in a mercy to Christians honored the Church's practice of celebrating the Lord's Resurrection every Sunday by decreeing, in AD 321, that every Sunday would be a holy day. For Orthodox Christians, Saturday is still the Sabbath, the day on which the church especially remembers the departed, since Christ rested in the tomb on Great and Holy Saturday.
SUNDAY, THE EIGHT DAY
As the day after the seventh day (when God rested from His six days of creation) and as the day of Christ's Resurrection, Sunday early on came to be understood in a mystical way among Christians as the "Eighth Day." It was the day "beyond nature and time", "the beginning of another world". "Whether you call it day, or whether you call it eternity, you express the same idea" said Saint Basil.
Fittingly, during the week after Pascha (Easter), called Bright Week, the church celebrates Pascha for eight days, almost as though it were one continuous day. By tradition, babies are named on the eighth day after birth. And from ancient times, Christian baptisteries and fonts have been built with eight sides, indicating the newly baptized are entering the realm of the Eight Day, the day of eternal rest (Heb 4:1-11) in Christ's Heavenly Kingdom.
The only true worship is from the heart.
No matter how sacred the appearance of the worship, no matter the texts of scripture supporting any legalistic belief, the only true worship is in "Spirit and Truth" by the power of the Holy Spirit magnifying the one TRUTH, the person Jesus Christ who walked among us. "Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity in the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates." Isa 1:13,14. One must remember that when a spirit other than a sincere heart chose to worship God, God has condemned it from the start. He didn't accept the sacrifice of Cain, and when those not appointed tried to worship God in rebellion, having a form of worship, he destroyed them. ( Lev 10:1,2 - And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD."
FAKE WORSHIPERS:
In New Testament times it didn't take long before the "fake worshipers" arrived, trying to turn the Celtic Community (gentile) back to Levitical Law - we see the same heretics present today. To these Judaizers Saint Paul said, "How is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months, and seasons and years." Gal 4:9-11.
And as to keeping the Levitical Law, and the other Traditions that had come to be through the Hebrew Priesthood Saint Paul said, ". . . having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances." Eph 2:15 - he was not speaking of the "natural law" confirmed in the Ten Commandments, but the layer upon layer of other "ordinances" given force of law. And again he Saint Paul says, " . . . having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us . . . Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths. Col. 2:14,16.
And as we have already stated this is the confirmed teaching of the Apostles and held by their immediate successors, " . . . no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day." - Saint Ignatius 105, AD.)
"Their scrupulosity concerning meats, and their superstition as respects the Sabbaths, and their boasting about circumcision, and their fancies about fasting and the new moons . . are utterly ridiculous and unworthy of notice . . And to speak falsely of God, as if He forbade us to do what is good on the Sabbath-days - how is this not ungodly? Letter to Diognetus ( early second century.)
And the Saint Justin Martyr - "Is there any other matter, my (Jewish) friends, in which we Christians are blamed, than this: that we do not live after the Law . . and do not observe Sabbaths, as you do?
Again:
You (a Jew) now have need of a second circumcision, although you glory greatly in the flesh. The new law requires you to keep a perpetual Sabbath. However, you, because you are idle for one day, supposed you are godly . . The Lord our God does not take pleasure in such observances. If there is any perjured person or a thief among you, let him cease to be so . . then he has kept the sweet and true Sabbaths of God.
Again: All those righteous men already mentioned, though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God. (Ante Nicene Fathers volume 1 page 204 for context.)
Again: There was no need of circumcision before Abraham, nor was there need of the observance of Sabbaths, or of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses. Accordingly, there is no more need of them now. +++
What Justin Martyr was explaining saying, "The new law requires you to keep a perpetual Sabbath" - this is what some later describe as "the Liturgy of Living" - in harmony with Saint Paul's admonitions to "pray without ceasing" "to do ALL - the everyday mundane things - as unto the Lord." Where the life itself becomes a living worship of God in word and deed.
Saint Irenaeus takes up this theme saying:
"You will observe My Sabbaths; for it will be a sign between Me and you for your generations." These things, then, were given for sign . . . the Sabbaths taught that we should continue day by day in God's service . . abstaining from all avarice and not acquiring or possessing treasures upon earth . . However, man was not justified by these things. Rather, they were given as a sign to the people. This fact is evident, for Abraham himself - without circumcision and without observance of Sabbaths - "believed in God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness." (Ante Nicene Fathers vol 1 page 481.)
"Let the one who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed as a balm of salvation . . prove to us that in times past righteous men kept the Sabbath, or practiced circumcision and were thereby made "friends of God." God created Adam uncircumcised and non-observant of the Sabbath . . Also, God freed from the deluge Noah, who was uncircumcised and did not observe the Sabbath. Enoch, too, He transported from this world, even though that most righteous man was uncircumcised and did not observe the Sabbath . . . Melchizedek also, 'the priest of the most high God,' although uncircumcised and not observing the Sabbath, was chosen to be the priesthood of God. " Tertullian (ante-Nicene Fathers vol 3 page 153.
THE EIGHTH DAY - IN THE ANCIENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Saint Barnabas - Saint Paul's missionary companion. "I will make a beginning of the eighth day, that is, a beginning of another world. For that reason, also, we keep the eight day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. (A.N. Fathers - vol 1 page 147)
Justin Martyr - "Our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath. Although the first day after the Sabbath remains the first of ALL the days, it is nevertheless called the eighth.
Saint Cyprian: "Concerning the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given before hand in shadow and in usage. But when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For the eighth day (that is the first day after the Sabbath) was to be the day on which the Lord would rise again, enliven us, and give us the circumcision of the spirit. The eight day(that is, the first day after the Sabbath), The lord's day, was foreshadowed."
The mythology that The Church somehow isn't "correct enough" because it worships on Sunday and calls Sunday "The Lord's Day" and that it was somehow introduced to the Church through a pagan source is seen clearly by the Historical Record to be a lie told by heretics and repeated by ignorant men. As this record above clearly shows, The Eighth Day worship (that is Sunday - the celebration of the resurrection) was from earliest times the norm, the practice of the earliest Christians, as I have demonstrated in their own words above. And as already stated, the Emperor Constantine "recognized" the practice "already in place among Christians" and declared it a national holy day. Sunday - The Eighth Day celebration was the normal practice for Christians for at least 250 years prior to it becoming "official" by the secular government.
References The Orthodox Study Bible - available from Thomas Nelson Publishing Company
The Ante-Nicene Fathers - available from several printed sources and on line from several sources.
