The new priesthood after the order of Melchizedek in Jesus also means a “change in law”– Hebrews 7:12.
Hebrews is structured around several comparisons that demonstrate the superiority of the “word spoken in the son” over the past revelations “spoken in the prophets,” including Moses and the angels. The previous “words” were true but partial, promissory, and preparatory. But now, “upon the last of these days,” He has “spoken” with great finality in one who is a “Son.”
The receipt of the Spirit while in an uncircumcised state is irrefutable proof that Gentile Christians are accepted by God AS GENTILES – Galatians 3:1-4.
In Galatians, Paul addressed a growing danger. Certain “men from Jerusalem” claimed that Gentiles must keep the deeds of the Mosaic Law to “complete” their faith, or at least, some of them. They were “compelling Gentiles to Judaize” by adopting circumcision, calendrical observances, and possibly, the dietary restrictions from Leviticus.
According to Galatians, the jurisdiction of the Torah reached its termination point with the arrival of Jesus – The “seed” of Abraham.
In responding to claims that Gentiles must be circumcised, Paul appealed first to the common experience of the Spirit received by the Galatians. Did they receive the gift in response to a “hearing of faith” or “from the works of the Law?” Having begun in the Spirit, why did they now seek “to complete” their faith on the basis of “flesh,” in this case, by submitting to circumcision?
The new Messianic Age dawned in Jesus Christ, and therefore, calendrical rituals and other Levitical regulations belong to the old order.
In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul chided Christians for their desire “to return to bondage to the weak and beggarly rudiments” of the world, including calendrical observations. Since believers now live in the era of fulfillment, any resort to outmoded rituals is wholly inappropriate.
To pursue a Torah-observant lifestyle is to re-erect the old social barriers – Galatians 3:26-4:7.
The final paragraph of the third chapter of Galatians is pivotal to Paul’s larger argument, for it stresses the oneness of the people of God established by Jesus. In this new order, the old social divisions are inappropriate, especially now that the promised “seed of Abraham” has arrived. To now return to the regulations of the Law would erect the old social barriers.
Paul argued for tolerance within the church on food regulations and observing holy days because the “shadows” have found their fulfillment in Jesus – Romans 14:1-12.
The law of Moses specified what kinds of food the people of God could eat by distinguishing between that which was ritually “clean” and “unclean,” and the consumption of the latter was forbidden. A comprehensive description of the dietary regulations given to Israel is found in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Leviticus.
Disciples Global Network 