You are asking if I believe in the Word of God which became Flesh? Yes, Like Paul, I believe all that is written.
The Word which became flesh is Jesus, John 1:14.
A person who believes in Jesus and has received eternal life and forgiveness from Jesus, is saved - irrespective of what they believe about Leviticus.
No; that's not true.
Throughout this whole thread I've been trying to understand what people mean when they say "keeping God's word" - does that mean, for you, EVERY command in Leviticus that it is possible for you to keep?
Does living a good Christian life mean obeying OT laws which were given to a specific group of people at a certain time?
Is salvation dependant on keeping those laws?
My position is that I love the Bible; it is about God, was inspired by God and is true. Paul said that all Scripture is useful for teaching and training in righteousness.
Do Exodus and Leviticus teach me? Yes, they tell me that when God had rescued the Hebrews from Egypt, he led them to Sinai, gave them the 10 commandments and instructions on how to live as his holy people. The Lord, their rescuer, Saviour, made a covenant with those he had saved and the laws he gave were how they showed their love for him, and how they set themselves apart as God's people.
These laws, details of sacrifices, instructions on how the tabernacle was to be built, teaching about approaching a holy God at Sinai, are interesting. Do I believe them? I certainly believe all that happened and that's how it was. Do I apply, and live, them today? No.
Because Jesus has come, I believe in Jesus, have received Jesus and live in him - the Word made flesh who was tabernacled among us; the One who has fulfilled the sacrifices, was foretold by the prophets and who taught and showed us God's love, how he would save us and how we can live for him.
Jesus did not teach the laws in Leviticus. He didn't say "believe in me but obey everything that Moses taught" - he said "whoever listens to
my words.
So, yes, of course I believe the law and the prophets, I just don't live by everything that they taught. They pointed to Jesus; I believe in him.
I think this is a pit you have fallen into and I am trying to help you out.
Thank you, but I don't believe I am in a pit.
And if "coming out of it" means keeping all the commands in Leviticus; it's not going to happen. I have life, and freedom, through Christ.
Do I strive to be an obedient son now that Jesus shed His Blood for my past rebellion and disobedience, Absolutely.
Me too - obedient daughter, in my case.
But Jesus said "whoever listens to
my words", not "whoever goes back to Leviticus and keeps all the rules listed there".
Am I perfect? NO. I'll use Paul's words to describe the race that the Christ set before me.
Phil. 3:
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Why does Paul and those who he is teaching, press toward perfection? For me, it’s because my Savior, who purchased me, gave me the command.
Matt. 5:
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
My whole point is that we don't attain perfection, or even prove obedience to Christ, by keeping OT laws. Just because I don't believe that women are unclean at certain times of the month, and that we can go out and meet others during this time, does not mean that I don't believe in, or follow, God. Just because I don't put people to death if they don't keep the Sabbath, Exodus 31:15, does not mean I am not following Jesus' words and trying to live like him.
I was not saved by the law, I do not keep my salvation by following it.
Shall I choose to reject these Words along with Leviticus because some religious voice tells me to do so? I think not!!!
I'm not rejecting Leviticus; I'm saying that it does not save us, and nowhere are Gentiles told they need to keep it as they follow Jesus.
Can I follow this Jesus' instruction without God? I think not!!!
Can I follow this Jesus' instruction without God? I think not!!!
Where did Jesus say, "listen to my words, but keep all the commands in Leviticus as well"?
You obviously don’t understand Paul when he said the Law was Spiritual.
The law was given by God and it told the Hebrews how they could live as his Holy people; certainly. The law was about their spiritual lives and relationship with their Creator, sure.
I have been reconciled to God through Jesus; I am his child because I have his Spirit, not because I kept, or keep, the law.
Just as the law regarding oxen was Spiritual and made “for our sakes no doubt”, and the Word's of Jesus requiring that we "Must" eat His Flesh before we can enter eternal life is Spiritual, so also is the story of the Exodus.
The Exodus was when God rescued his people from slavery and death.
It was a foreshadowing of how God has rescued people from slavery to sin and death
Every man starts here, most never leave this servitude, but for those who have faith in the Christ of the Bible, there is Hope.
This "Exodus from sin" is the same Spiritual journey Abraham followed.
Gen. 12:
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
And Abraham believed in this God.
4.
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him
This same Lord became Flesh and dwelt among us and said the very same thing to us.
Mark 8:
34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Yes; I don't disagree with this.
The Exodus we all partake of and are "grafted into" is detailed in the Law and Prophets that you are so eager to omit.
I am not "easer to omit" them; not at all.
All I am saying is that we can be saved by, believe in and follow Christ without keeping all the laws in Leviticus, which weren't written for us anyway.
That's it; that's my whole argument. If you believe I am "omitting" the law and the prophets, you haven't understood what I am saying.
??
We don't know that Zechariah met Jesus, nor whether he recognised him as the Messiah.
If I remember correctly, you quoted from Isaiah just before speaking of Zechariah.
And some of the Pharisees believed in Jesus.
I suppose you may be right. I do assume Jesus is true, and that HE means what HE says, both as the Word of God, and the Flesh the Word of God became in the person of Jesus. I assumed that since HE quoted from Leviticus as the place where God wrote the 2nd greatest commandment, it was still a trustworthy source for instruction in righteousness.
Quoting a verse from Leviticus is not the same as saying "keep all the rules that are found in it."
I assumed when HE said the Law and the Prophets will be here till heaven and earth pass, that this would also include Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Again, not the same as saying "because the law has not vanished, you have to keep all the words of it."
Not everyone who says they are saved, are saved.
I don't say I am saved; the Bible does.
We are not bound by the Levitical Priesthood, the Covenant God made with Levi on Israel's behalf for the administration of God's Laws and the atonement of sins, that was "ADDED because of Transgressions".
So Exodus describes a Levitical priesthood but we are not bound by the Levitical priesthood which is described in the word of God?
But we have to keep the words of Leviticus, written in the word of God, because the law has not disappeared?
So in your religion, the Word of God that became Flesh created Laws only designated for Oxen, cloth, and facial hair of men with a certain DNA. Doesn't that seem a little odd to you?
I don't understand what you are saying, sorry.
I didn't say to believe Moses, the Jesus of the Bible did,
I believe Moses; I just don't believe that all the laws that God gave through him to a specific group of people, are to be applied by Gentile believers today - big difference.
Moses taught circumcision; Jesus and Paul didn't.
Bottom line:
If you believe EVERY word of God written in Leviticus HAS to be applied by us today, then yes; that does mean that you can't trim the end of your beard, you can't wear clothes of mixed fabrics, can't eat certain foods, have to be circumcised, have to put to death anyone who does not keep the Sabbath, have to stand up when in the presence of your elders, etc etc.
I believe in the words that Jesus spoke; he did not teach us to keep these laws.
