Ceremonial Defilement and Ceremonial Cleansing
A. Ceremonial Laws are part of the Old Covenant, also known as the Mosaic Covenant. Find them in the Bible books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. There is a list of all the 613 Laws of Moses at https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/matthew5 The list includes civil laws and moral laws as well. But there are more ceremonial laws than the others.
1. Under the rules of the Law of Moses the mediator between God and Israel was Moses (Numbers 9:1; Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 9:15).
a. Numbers 9:1 says, “And the LORD spoke unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the first month of the second year after they were come out of the land of Egypt, saying,”
b. Notice that when God spoke to Israel, He did so through Moses the mediator between God and Israel. But God spoke specifically to the people of faith in the Old Testament by the Holy Spirit through His Word.
c. Galatians 3:19 says, “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the descendant [Christ] should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” Brackets mine.
d. God kept Israel at arms-length distance from Him in the Old Testament. Most Israelites were sinners. God had adopted the nation of Israel corporately. There were many people in the nation who did not know God by faith. These Israelites were God’s enemies. They were very sinful. So, He did not befriend them all, like He friended Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all of whom honored Him by trusting Him.
e. God adopted Christians individually, not corporately. God chose Christians individually to be in Christ. He gave Christians a new covenant.
1) The Old Covenant, also know as the Mosaic Covenant is a conditional covenant. Under the rules of the Old Covenant God blesses those who obey Him and curses those who disobey Him. Under those rules, one earns his blessing from God. But because man is such an incurable sinner, no one receives an eternal blessing from God by obeying those rules.
2) The New Covenant is an unconditional covenant. God guarantees the spiritual blessing for the one under the covenant. Jesus Christ, the Son of God died for our sins and lived the righteous life, which He gives to us by the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our Christian life success. We come under the terms of the New Covenant by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are responsible to persevere in the faith to the end. We must do it, but God guarantees perseverance by covenant as ratified by the blood of His only begotten Son. Since the Son of God rose from the dead, and since He blesses us in Him, God treats us as righteous and spires the life of His Son in us. Thus, the unconditional covenant guarantees eternal life for us.
3) A contrast between the Old and New Covenants is in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and there is a commentary on Jeremiah 31:31-34 in Hebrews 8:6-13. Hebrews explains Jeremiah’s writing about the new covenant.
4) God treated national Israel as His son nation. But He treated each Christian as His own son.
5) It was national Israel to whom He enjoined the ceremonial laws.
f. Hebrews 9:15 says, “For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.”
g. When God spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He went to them personally. But with the nation of Israel, He spoke to the representatives of the people, mainly to Moses. Then they relayed the message on to the people.
h. But when God gave salvation to individuals during the time of the Patriarchs, He visited each one, one at a time.
i. Esau and Ishmael were not in the covenant of Grace. So, Ishmael persecuted Isaac by mocking him. And Esau was even going to kill Jacob because God’s blessing was not upon Esau. Neither Ishmael nor Esau had the fruits of salvation.
j. So, God treated Ishmael and Esau different than Isaac and Jacob. When He gave them covenants, they were not grace covenants. That is, the covenants did not convey grace to the sinner.
k. Notice how God remains aloof from those not cleansed by the blood of Christ. He gave the Law through His messenger angels.
l. Hebrews 2:2-3 says, “For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment, 3how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?”
m. Our greater privilege of having Jesus Christ visit us, save us, and give us the Holy Spirit, gives us greater responsibility than the Old Testament people.
2. The death of Christ is the New Testament fulfillment of the Feast of Passover. (Numbers 9:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 5:7) (Brackets mine.)
a. Numbers 9:4-5 says, “So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, 5and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses.”
b. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:”
c. Foremost in God’s mind before He created the world was that He would send His only begotten Son to save sinners. Then, in the Old Testament, Yahweh gave many illustrations of sin, of His Son, and of salvation from sin.
d. So, He providentially ordained the event of the Passover Lamb and the Exodus from Egypt, as illustrations of His only begotten Son. The Passover Lamb and its ceremonies were types of Messiah in some way.
e. The Old Testament laws were like an artist’s sketch, while the New Testament realities were the finished product of art. God first purposed to send His Son to save sinners. Then He illustrated it all in the events of the Old Testament. Finally, He brought the reality to pass in the New Testament. There are hundreds of shadows of Christ in the Old Testament.
3. Touching a dead body caused a person to become ceremonially unclean under the Law of Moses (Numbers 9:6). It did not necessarily cause a person to carry germs, or to become a moral sinner, or be physically sick. It was a ceremonial uncleanness only.
a. Numbers 9:6 says, “And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the Passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:”
b. These men physically touched a dead body. So, they were ceremonially unclean. They were not sinfully unclean, just ceremonially unclean.
c. Perhaps you understand baby talk and baby toys. By giving laws requiring ceremonially cleanliness, God was accommodating Himself to the children of Israel as if they were children. He was teaching them great spiritual and moral truths on their own level. The ceremonial laws had spiritual meaning in them.
4. Being ceremonially unclean did not mean that the person literally became a sinner. It meant that he became a ceremonial picture of a sinner.
5. The ashes of a red heifer could purify the ceremonial uncleanness of which the Law spoke. (Numbers 19:9; Hebrews 9:13).
a. Numbers 19:9 says, “A man who is [ceremonially] clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They shall be kept by the Israelite community for use in the water of cleansing; it is for purification from [ceremonial] sin.” NIV Brackets mine.
b. Hebrews 9:13 says, “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.” NIV
6. The following are examples of how an Israelite could become ceremonially impure:
a. By touching any creeping thing that flies (Leviticus 22:5).
1) Leviticus 22:5 says, “Or whosoever touches any creeping thing, by which he may be made unclean, or a man by whom he may be made unclean, whatsoever his uncleanness may be” (becomes unclean). Parentheses mine.
2) Leviticus 11:20-23 says, “All flying insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you. 21However, you may eat the following kinds of flying insects that walk on all fours: those having jointed legs above their feet for hopping on the ground. 22Of these you may eat any kind of locust, katydid, cricket, or grasshopper. 23All other flying insects that have four legs are detestable to you.”
3) The nation of Israel was God’s “sign people.” They must obey these ceremonial laws. These laws were not only laws but also signs. God wanted Israelites to learn from the ceremonial must’s and must not’s about real spiritual sin and real spiritual salvation in His Son. Yahweh was evangelizing the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
b. Touching any unclean man (Leviticus 22:5).
1) Leviticus 22:5 again says, “or whoever touches a crawling creature or a person that makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be—"
c. Eating an unclean animal makes one ceremonially unclean (Leviticus 11:4).
1) Leviticus 11:4 says, “Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.”
2) For the rest of the unclean animals please read Leviticus chapter 11.
d. Eating what dies of itself (Leviticus 22:8) makes one ceremonially unclean.
1) Leviticus 22:8 says, “He shall not eat what dies of itself or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it: I am the LORD.”
2) So, under the law of Moses, roadkill would be ceremonially unclean for an Israelite. He must not eat it. Others could but Israelites could not.
e. Touching a grave (Numbers 19:16)
1) Numbers 19:16 says, “Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be [ceremonially] unclean seven days.”
f. Entering a tent where someone died, causes the one entering to become ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:14)
1) This is the law when a person dies in a tent: Everyone who enters the tent and everyone already in the tent will be unclean for seven days,”
2) Note once more that this is ceremonial sin, which is not real moral or spiritual sin. They had laws to keep unlike those of any other nation on earth (Esther 3:8). It was a hardship for the Jews to attempt to obey all these ceremonial laws. But it is what God told them to do.
3) Acts 15:10 referring to the ceremonial law of circumcision and other laws says, “Now then, why do you test God by placing on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we [Jews] nor our fathers have been able to bear? (Acts 15:10). Brackets mine.
4) God called the nation of Israel to be an outwardly separate people. God intended the outward separation from ceremonially unclean entities to be a training aid to teach the Israelites about separation from real sin. Israel was God’s mission field in the world.
5) When an Israelite disobeyed one of these ceremonial laws, he sinned against God by disobeying it. He became guilty of spiritual sin. God said to obey it and he did not. He sinned against God by disobeying, But he also became ceremonially impure by disobeying a ceremonial law. The unclean status one received from unclean things shows us that sin is not simply something that we do; it is also something that we become.
6) The great number of these laws and ceremonial impurities reveals to us that we sin constantly. Thus, we cannot cease from sin completely. This reveals our need for the Savior to cleanse us from sin.
7) There is a list of the 613 laws of Moses in my blog under the heading, “The Sermon on the Mount.” Please follow the link at https://www.williamrandolphpublishing.com/matthew5
g. Contracting leprosy (Leviticus 13:3) made an Israelite to be ceremonially defiled.
1) Leviticus 13:3 says, “and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body. And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease. When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean.”
2) Leprosy in Bible times was a malignant disease. Thus, this law illustrates the malignancy of sin. When we practice sin, we become sin. When we hang out with sinners, we can become like they are.
3) Learning this reveals to us what a wonderful Savior we have. The Lord Jesus Christ had to do the impossible. He lived a perfect life.
7. Jesus said you could eat anything you want and not be unclean (Matthew 15:11).
a. Matthew 15:11 says, “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
b. This is because the Lord Jesus does not put people under Moses’ Covenant. He is the Lord of the New Covenant, and He ratifies it by His own blood.
c. There are two Mediators and two Covenants, Moses for the first one, and the Lord Jesus for the New Covenant. If we are disciples of Moses, we are under his covenant. The rules of Moses’ covenant are that we must do everything in Moses’ law in order to gain eternal life after we die.
d. James 2:10 says, “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” If we intend for God to accept us because we keep the law, He will never accept us. We are too sinful.
e. 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
f. So, the cleansing from ceremonial sin points to the New Testament cleansing from all sin. Just walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood counts for you. It pleases God for you to turn away from your sin and become Jesus’ disciple.
8. Jesus dealt with spiritual defilement of the heart while the ceremonial law spoke of external and ceremonial defilement (Matthew 15:17-20).
a. Matthew 15:17-20 says, “Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. 20These are what defile a man but eating with unwashed hands does not defile him.”
b. The above are real moral and spiritual sins. They are not ceremonial sins. They originate in our hearts.
c. From those sins we need God Himself to forgive us.
9. Jesus touched a leper and did not become unclean (Matthew 8:3).
a. Matthew 8:3 says, “Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
b. Spiritual cleanliness goes from the Lord Jesus Christ to the sinner. No kind of sin or uncleanness travels from us to the Lord Jesus. However, God does transfer the guilt of our sins to His only begotten Son on the cross. Please read the verse below:
c. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
d. Will you now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him as your Lord? If you do that, God will transfer your sin to Him and curse His Son in your place.
10. Jesus touched a dead person and did not become unclean (Mark 5:40-42).
a. Mark 5:40-42 says, “After He had put them all outside, He took the child’s father and mother and His own companions and went in to see the child. 41Taking her by the hand, Jesus said, “Talitha koum!” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” 42Immediately the girl got up and began to walk around. She was twelve years old, and at once they were utterly astounded.”
b. This was a dead little girl. She had no life in her. And virtue went out of the Lord Jesus to her and gave her life. No one can be any weaker than dead. Suppose you say that you would follow Jesus but do not have the strength to do so. I tell you that if Jesus could raise that girl from the dead, he can give you spiritual life also. Do you believe He can do it? If you do, then act on it.
11. If a person was ceremonially unclean, he could not eat the Passover. And eating the Passover would not cleanse him (Numbers 9:6).
a. Numbers 9:6 says, “But some of them could not celebrate the Passover on that day because they were ceremonially unclean on account of a dead body. So, they came to Moses and Aaron that same day.”
b. This sin must be ceremonial sin because a person cannot become a real sinner by touching a dead body.
c. But coming into contact with spiritually dead people can deaden us.
d. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” A word to the wise should be sufficient.
12. The Pharisees’ interpretation of the laws of uncleanness was that man is good and external sins make him unclean (Matthew 15:18-20; 23:27-28). But the Lord Jesus taught the truth about it.
a. Matthew 15:18-20 says, “But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”
b. So, the sinful heart creates sin.
c. Matthew 23:27-28 says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to be righteous, but on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
d. So, ceremonial sins picture sin but they are not, in themselves sin.
13. Israelites had to eat the Passover on the 14th day of Abib (the first month) unless they were ceremonially unclean on that day. In this case they must eat the Passover on the 14th day of the second month instead of the first month.”
a. Numbers 9:10-11 says, “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a journey, he may still observe the Passover to the LORD. 11Such people are to observe it at twilight on the fourteenth day of the second month. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;”
b. There are times in which we are more receptive to Jesus Christ becoming our personal Lord and Savior. In this case, one could miss the Passover by being unclean. Sin can keep us from the Savior from sin. But there are acceptable times to receive Him. There are days of visitation, days in which the Lord Christ comes to us in special power. Learn from the many who sin away their day of grace and never follow Jesus. Be one who follows Him on the narrow road.
14. All the regulations for observing the Passover came from God. (Numbers 9:8)
a. Numbers 9:8 says, “Wait here until I find out what the LORD commands concerning you,” Moses replied.”
b. It is God Almighty who set up this way of salvation. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son who is the mediator of the New Covenant. This matter of being a Christian is a very big thing. It is larger than creation itself. If God is in it, I want to be in it. How about you, dear friend?
15. The congregation of Israel moved their camp after they were led by the Shekinah Glory to do so. (Numbers 9:17-19)
a. Numbers 9:17-19 says, “Whenever the cloud was lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites would set out, and wherever the cloud settled, there the Israelites would camp. 18At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at the LORD’s command they camped. As long as the cloud remained over the tabernacle, they remained encamped. 19Even when the cloud lingered over the tabernacle for many days, the Israelites kept the LORD’s charge and did not set out.”
b. But the child of God has the glory in his heart. And God leads us every step of the way through the Holy Spirit.
16. Learn the differences between the New Testament and Old Testament leading of God below:
a. The Spirit of God leads each individual child of God today while the Shekinah Glory led the nation of Israel. (Romans 8:14).
1) Romans 8:14 says, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
2) God leads all His Sons and Daughters all the time, like the Shechinah Glory led the Israelites in the wilderness all the time.
3) Sometimes it seemed like the cloud was doing nothing. But even when the cloud did not move, it was leading them where God wanted them to be. He wanted them to stay put for that time.
b. The average Israelite knew Moses, who knew God. But the child of God knows Jesus who is God. So, Christians know God and do not only know about God.
c. The ceremonial law dealt mainly with external and ceremonial sin while the law of Christ deals mainly with matters of the heart.
1) John 13:34-35 says, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.”
2) Galatians 6:2 says, “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
d. God wrote the Ten Commandments (the moral and spiritual laws) on tablets of stone while under the New Covenant, He writes His laws upon believers’ hearts.
1) 2 Corinthians 3:3 says, “You are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
2) 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 says, “Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory, 8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? 9For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness! 10Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it. 11For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!”
17. New Testament believers are responsible to keep the ceremonial law, but we are not disciples of the Law. We are disciples of Christ, who tells us how to obey the Law of Moses. We keep the ceremonial laws spiritually by being separate from the world. We are responsible to obey the ceremonial laws as Jesus interprets them. This means that we must cleanse ourselves from sin and confess our sins to God. By that, God forgives us.
a. 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 says, “What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
1) When God tells us to “touch no unclean thing,” He does not mean to refrain from touching ceremonially unclean things.
2) God does mean that we must not connect ourselves to sinful things.
b. We do not obey all the ceremonial laws literally. But, as illustrated in 2 Corinthians 6:16-18, we obey them spiritually. Notice our spiritual obedience:
1) The Law of Moses says an Israelite becomes ceremonially unclean by, for example, touching or eating something that is ceremonially unclean.
2) We, as followers of Christ, must obey this spiritually. So, we practice separation from spiritual sin, not ceremonial sin. Ceremonial sin pictures real sin. So, by separating from real sin, we obey God’s ceremonial command not to touch unclean things. The ultimate purpose of ceremonial laws is to teach us to obey spiritual laws.
3) We obey the law because it is something that God says to do. But we, as the Lord Jesus taught us, obey the spiritual intent of the law. And by that, we obey the ceremonial law.
B. Ceremonial sacrifices have no power to put away real spiritual sin. But they do have power to cancel ceremonial sin.
1. Ceremonial sacrifices are mainly animal sacrifices (Hebrews 9:22).
2. Hebrews 9:22 says, “According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
3. The blood of the animal sacrifices points to the sacrificial blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:13-14).
4. Hebrews 9:13-14 says, “For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!”
5. The real power to cancel sin comes from God, since sin is against God and His law.
6. Since God is just, He cannot simply forgive sin. He must be both just and justifier to forgive sin.
7. Deuteronomy 25:1 says, “When people have a dispute, they are to take it to court and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty.”
8. So a judge sins if he does not condemn the guilty. God is the judge of the whole earth. And, as such, He cannot do wrong by forgiving someone without some way to punish the sin.
9. His method of forgiving while still being just, is atonement for sin (Romans 3:25-26).
10. Romans 3:25-26 says, “God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. 26He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.”
a. So, Jesus’ death on the cross atones for the sins of those who have faith.
b. And God can justify (forgive) the worst of sinners because of His Son’s death. Jesus died instead of the sinner. He atones for the sin of those who have faith.
c. So, the blood of God’s Son does have power to change God’s verdict in the case of a sinner.
d. In the Old Testament times God “passed over the sins” committed by people of faith.” He forgave peoples’ sins in the Old Testament times, but He did it on a credit plan. The atoning sacrifice that made it possible was the death of His Son many years later.
e. The animal sacrifices offered to God under the law to atone for the sins of the people, were not sufficient for God to forgive sinners.
f. Those animal sacrifices had no power to change God’s judicial verdict toward a sinner.
g. But the blood of Christ changes His Father’s judgment of the sinner from guilty to not guilty.
11. Hebrews 10:1-4 says, “For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins. 3Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
a. So the sacrifices of the law merely foreshadow the real sacrifice of Christ.
b. The sacrifices of the law had no power to make a person perfect in God’s eyes.
c. The sacrifices of the law could not cleanse the sinner’s conscience. But the blood of Christ does.
d. The sacrifices of the law only reminded the sinner that he needed the Savior. So, they testified to the fact that the sinner has no real sacrifice in the Law of Moses.
e. If the sacrifices of the law could have covered over sin, God’s word says that the priest would only have to offer them one time – like the Lord Jesus offered Himself once. See above in Hebrews 10:1-4. The worshippers would have been cleansed once for all.
f. The unbeliever is afraid of God. But the blood of Christ cleanses the fear from the conscience. So, those for whom His blood avails are no longer afraid of God. Rather, we love Him for saving us.
g. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to remove true sins. That blood has no power. But the blood of Christ even scrubs the sinner’s conscience clean.
h. The animal sacrifices of the Day of Atonement were annual offerings. So, each year, the worshipper could ask himself, “Why did the goat I offered last year not still work for this year?” The answer to that is that the ceremonial offerings only cover the ceremonial sins, and even then, they only work until a person is ceremonially impure again.
i. But the blood of Christ works forever.
j. The sacrificial system was a huge picture of sin and of what the Lord Jesus did in cleansing us from our sins.
k. A sacrifice is only powerful if God offers it to God, and if the sacrifice itself is God and man in one Person. As the Son of God, Jesus is God. He is of the same substance as His Father, but is a different Person than His Father.
C. Since the Lord Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law, the New Testament believer is not responsible for the literal part of it.
1. 1 Timothy 4:3-5 says, “They [false teachers] will prohibit marriage and require abstinence from certain foods that God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For every creation of God is good, and nothing that is received with thanksgiving should be rejected, 5because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”
a. It is not that there is one law in the Old Testament and a different law in the New Testament.
b. Since the Ceremonial Law was only a picture of the truth, its literal prohibitions and necessities do not carry the weight of moral and spiritual laws like the Ten Commandments do.
c. The Lord Jesus explained the Ceremonial Law as a prophecy that points to Him (Matthew 11:13).
d. Matthew 11:13 says, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John.”
e. Since the Lord Jesus says that the entire law prophesied, we understand that every one of the Laws of Moses prophesies in some manner. Each law is also a sign of things to come.
2. How then can Christians apply this truth to their lives?
b. Romans 14:1-4 says, “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on his opinions 2For one person has faith to eat all things, while another, who is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The one who eats everything must not belittle the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted him. 4Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” This Scripture says the following:
a. Local Churches in the New Testament times usually were mixed congregations. That is, some of the people in the same local Church were Jews and some were Gentiles.
b. You have no obligation to receive a person into your Church if he wants to argue about Ceremonial sins and Ceremonial forgiveness. (1 Corinthians 14:1)
c. There was a time in which God prohibited eating things forbidden in ceremonial laws. But that time is not now.
d. The basis for Church membership is not what anyone thinks about Ceremonial Laws, whether he is right or wrong. (Romans 14:2 ).
e. If a person believes he must abstain from certain foods, that is between him and God. Justification is not by the law. It is about salvation in Christ.
f. By faith in Christ and His death/resurrection, God has accepted every person. (Romans 14:3). Side issues are not important.
g. The one who believes that he can eat everything that God created is correct. But in matters like this, it is not vital that we try to argue others into believing like we do if they do not want to hear it.
1) The Christian with the strong conscience must not tell the one with the weak conscience that he is dumb.
2) The Christian with the weak conscience must not pass judgment on the one who has the strong conscience. God is the judge, and He will sort out everything at the judgment seat of Christ.
3) God wants us to love one-another. And if we do love the other person, we defer to them on trivial matters.
4) If the person who believes that God says not to eat some foods, teaches that Jesus has not saved a true Christian who eats pork, he is on thin ice with God.
h. So, there should be no arguments in a Church about Ceremonial Issues. 2 Timothy 2:24 says, “And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.”
i. So, the Jewish Christians had a background that prohibited eating Ceremonial Foods. They thought they could only eat Kosher Foods.
j. The Gentiles in the same local Churches had no such background of prohibited foods. So, to a Gentile, eating pork was perfectly normal.
k. Jesus and His Apostles taught that God cleansed all the ceremonial foods. They existed only from the times of the Exodus until the Lord Jesus explained the subject.
l. Paul explained that we should love these Jewish brothers by refraining from judging them and by not eating Kosher foods in the presence of weak conscience believers. They might copy what we eat without learning the Biblical teaching on the subject. If they imitate Gentile believers without learning the full Bible truth of Ceremonial Sins, they may still develop a guilty conscience after eating Kosher foods.
m. A Christian with a guilty conscience is both a mess and a contradiction.
n. The Apostle Paul put most of the responsibility for unity in the Church squarely on the shoulders of the strong conscience believers (Romans 15:1)
o. Romans 15:1 says, “We who are strong ought to bear with the shortcomings of the weak and not to please ourselves.”
p. Romans 15:2 addresses both Jews and Gentiles as follows: “Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”
q. But both Jews and Gentiles have responsibility for unity in the Church. In Romans 15:7-9 Paul says:
r. “Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring glory to God. 8For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs, 9so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy.” (Romans 15:7-9)
