The whole Council of Scripture is useful. In one sense you are quite correct in that we are not under the law in the sense that we do not obey out of our hope for salvation in good behavior. We are saved by Grace however because the Law is still there. If there were no Law, we would need no grace.
I believe that it is scripturally clear that Jewish Believers are normatively instructed to be JEWISH, i.e. observant, Believers. That being said, before I understood this I believe grace would have covered me for the sausage, egg and cheese croissants I had for breakfast at Burger King on the way to work so many mornings.
OTOH, now that I know better I think I might be cut less slack, if I now thumbed my nose at the instructions given. Paul and James Conversation in Acts 21 is powerful even in English, but far more powerful if you realize that it was probably spoken in Hebrew, especially since they were speaking of matters of the Law.
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Act 21:24 Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave
their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but
that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.
In Hebrew "walking in order" is called Halacha, and is very common in discussions of how to act/behave in specific situations. "What is Halacha in this particular case? What is halakhically correct?"
That Paul "walks in order" is a big deal. That he keeps the law is something that he did... on an ongoing basis. It was NOT something he put on like a costume as part of a witnessing schtick to win fellow Jews. We have to have an Honest Paul or no Paul at all.
Act 21:25 As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written
and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from
things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.
Please note that the List here for Gentiles and in Acts 15 harkens back to the Law given to Noach in Genesis 9. Yes, you still have a dietary restriction... no blood.
And I agree with you that if anyone, Jew or Gentile, sez in a global way, that Gentiles need to follow the Law given to Moses, then . . . Game on!!!
Many of the other scriptures deal with the many parts of the body. I will touch on your last quote and a previous on.
Col 2:16 ¶ Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
days:
Col 2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body
is of Christ.
The KJV, as opposed to the NIV, translates this far better than most.
The NIV totally screw it up.
Col 2:17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
The tense in here is NOT Aorist, but it is a Present active participle. The word "were" is entirely uncalled for.
A better translation might be rendered "Which are a shadow of things that ARE COMING."
That has a very different feel to it that most of us are used to, but that is what the text says. What we are called to do are not remnants from a bygone era, they are part of what is coming and right now even on the way.
Finally, I'm gonna hit on a sore spot for some. The Book of Hebrews is highly problematic. I believe God speaks through his word and his word is authoritative. That being said, we need to be sure what we are reading is really God's word.
The traditional test for whether a book should be included in the Canon is that 1.) it has to have Apostolic Authority and, 2.) It has to have been seen as authoritative in the Early Church.
Hebrews fails on both counts. First, we don't have an Apostolic thumbprint on it. We don't know who wrote it, but there is good linguistic evidence that Paul absolutely did not write it, and we really don't know who did.
Second, of all the books that came and went in the various lists of accepted, or even disputed books, Hebrews is never there even on the disputed lists. It was not made part of the Canon until the Council of Carthage at the Dawn of the Fifth Century.
We can discuss this later, but this is why I'm not ready to be persuaded by any references to Hebrews and an Authoritative source.
There are lots of scriptures that talk about these very things, if you will kindly bear with the length of my reply here.
Gal 4:1-11
Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
1Co 13:10-11
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
2Co 3:7-14
But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?
For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.
For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it.
For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
Heb 8:13
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Rom 13:8-10
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Paul often kept various aspects of Law when it was expedient to do so, in order to win the Jews, not wanting to offend the Jews unnecessarily or cause them to stumble. He was as a Jew to win the Jews and as a Gentile to win the Gentiles. We also know from scripture that Peter also did not always live according to the Law. But nowhere in NT scripture are Jews COMMANDED to stop the practices of the Law……not by Jesus, Paul nor any other apostle. It is not a sin to simply practice the ordinances of the Law, and the Lord leaves it up to the growth and conscience of each Jew to do according to his/her own faith and growth…..because whatsoever is not of faith is sin. For a Jewish believer to cease practising some aspect of the Law against his/her own conscience would be sin. But if they come to a place where their conscience is clear on these things and they truly understand by faith that they are no longer bound to the Law, then they would be at liberty in the Lord to walk in that liberty. (Though at the same time, neither did Paul refrain from teaching the truth about how we are to look at the Law in light of the New Covenant, that the Law does not save souls).
1Co 9:20-21
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.
Gal 2:14
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Rom 14:3-7
Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him.
Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
Rom 14:22-23
Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
I can testify that the Lord by His Spirit has always kept me from thinking or telling Jewish believers that they MUST NOT practice the Law…..long before I understood these things I had a check in my spirit that kept me from doing that. And once I came to understand, I was so thankful that the Lord has kept me from sinning in that way and from causing any Jews to stumble.
(However, it is a sticking point if Jewish believers try to tell Gentile believers that they are obligated to keep the ordinances of the Law.)
Col 2:11
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
Col 2:14
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Col 2:16-17
So let no one judge (rule) you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.