Tag Archives: schoolmaster

Why the Book of Leviticus?

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Establish A Nation God’s Way

It was God’s will to live with His people from the time of the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2:8, all the way to the Book of Revelation 21:

Leviticus 26:11-12: “And I will set my tabernacle among you; and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”

Revelation 21:3: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God.”

The Book of Leviticus is the account of God’s instructions to Moses on how to establish a nation under God.

But sadly, the original nation of Israel did not keep the order of the instructions given in the Book of Leviticus, but turned from their loving Creator to worship idols and commit all of the forbidden sins that brought destruction, disease, death, famine, pestilence, war, and all of the other consequences that were described in the Book of Leviticus. In their state of rebellion, God could not dwell with them. Their disobedience brought the promised consequences, as described by the Biblical books of their history and the prophets.

But still a Holy Nation Was Promised

But through it all, God was true to His promise that He, Himself, would send them a Savior, Who would save them from their sins and the consequences of their sins. This promise was fulfilled in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the fleshly, sinful nation refused Him and was finally destroyed in the destruction of 70 AD, God had raised up a new nation in Jesus, His Body, the Church, which, in Christ, fulfilled all of the requirements for a nation of people with which He could be pleased to dwell. In Christ, the law is written in our hearts and it gives us the intuitive, natural desire and motivation to fulfill the commandments of the law. The law is no longer grievous.

The Schoolmaster

The original specific laws and statutes and ordinances were necessary for law and order in the fleshly nation. These were designed to teach them:“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith, but after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”

The lessons to be learned from the “schoolmaster” are spelled out and made clear in the New Testament. For example, all of the Levitical ordinances of sacrifice are to teach us Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.,”

Galatians 2:19-20: “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

Did the Law End With Christ?

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Romans 10:4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”

Does this mean that Christ ended or stopped the Law? No. Let us look at the word end.
The Greek word here is #5056 in Strong’s Concordance. It means “to set out as a goal, a purpose, a point aimed at.” Christ is the goal and purpose of the Law.

Galatians 3:24-25 shows this purpose: “Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” The ‘schoolmaster’ has brought us to Christ, the goal, and purpose of the Law.

Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled,” Matthew 5:17-18.

The Old Covenant of the Law was with the Fleshly Israel, and was broken by them thereby making it obsolete.

Jeremiah 31:31: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Jeremiah 31:32: “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.”

The promise of the New Covenant was: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people,” Jeremiah 31:33, quoted in Hebrews 10:16 and in Hebrews 8:8-10.

The New Covenant was to exceed the Old Covenant, not to nullify it.

Whereas the Old Covenant was about external, fleshly actions and works, the New Covenant was to exceed it by also being internalized, a matter of the heart, a spiritual reality in motive, in thought and in intent. The born-again Spirit finds it a delight, not burdensome.

It is more serious to transgress the New Covenant than the Old: Hebrews 10:26-31:

“26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance [belongeth] unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. 31 [It is] a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” – Hebrews 10:26-31 KJV.

Hebrews 6:4 “For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.” – Hebrews 6:4-6 KJV.