Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: levy@ttbcad.att.com (Daniel R Levy) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: To Fulfill the Law Message-ID: Date: 24 Nov 89 03:24:31 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Skokie IL Lines: 51 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , firth@sei.cmu.edu writes: > [The Christian and the Law] > > Please permit me to offer a personal perspective on the > relationship between a Christian and the Law as we find > it in the Old Testament. Previous discussion has wondered > whether Jesus repealed, fulfilled, or somehow changed the > Law, and others have asked why Christians don't feel bound > by all the detailed regulations in Leviticus and elsewhere. (see below) > Let me offer an analogy. [U.S. abolition of slavery::antebellum slave statutes == \ Jesus' atonement through crucifixion/death::Old Testament laws] > In the terms of the Prophecy of Elias, the Age of > the Law ended, and the Age of Grace began. Could you please give a biblical reference? Despite some digging, I can't find this prophecy in my bible. I have no reason to disbelieve what you said; I just want to read and understand the verses and their context for myself. There's a simpler explanation for why [modern] Christians aren't bound by the Levitical regulations. Almost all modern Christians aren't Jewish (according to the traditional Jewish definition of matrilineal descent). As related in chapter 15 of Acts, the early church declared that gentiles need only follow a severely abridged version of the Jewish Law in order to be accepted into the church. Acts 15:10-11 (Peter speaking): "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are." Acts 15:28-29 (a letter from the church elders and apostles to the gentile Christians in Antioch, Syria, and Cicilia): "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication: if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." Since Peter had Jesus' authorization to declare what is bound and loosed in heaven (Matthew 17:19), and he assented to this abridgment, that seems to be the last word on the matter. > But the change is not in the Law, but in us: we that were > slaves to sin are now free men in Christ. -- Daniel R. Levy UNIX(R) mail: att!ttbcad!levy, att!cbnewsc!levy AT&T Bell Laboratories 5555 West Touhy Avenue Any opinions expressed in the message above are Skokie, Illinois 60077 mine, and not necessarily AT&T's.