You Best Represent: Testing at Meribah

How can one properly represent God? Well, there are several ways in the book of Numbers. The Israelites have been protecting the things of God, they’ve been holding fast the center, they were to lead a purified life in their marriages, their homes, and their business practices; they were to offer sacrifices and remember the Passover: all these things were used to properly represent God to the world. They were to be His people, a Holy Nation of Priests, and so they were to stand.

But here’s a story of another misrepresentation of God.

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Guestblogger: Xulon on Ethics, Law and the Sabbath

Recently, blogger Xulon, from Theologica posted this excellent series focusing on ethics, Law, and the question of the Sabbath. He gave me permission to share them here on the Bible Archive. This is the series page:

  1. Ethics Beyond Duty
  2. The Law of Moses Has Been Done Away With
  3. The Ten Commandments Are Done Away With The Law Of Moses
  4. The Sabbath in the New Testament

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The Sabbath in the New Testament (4 of 4)

Recently, blogger Xulon, from Theologica posted this excellent series focusing on ethics, Law, and the question of the Sabbath. This is post 4 of 4.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days —these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! (Colossians 2:16-17)

These verses contain one of two uses of the word Sabbath in the New Testament Epistles. The other is Hebrews 4:9 which says there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God (Besides this, the word is used 9 times in Acts and 49 times in the Gospels). Combined, these two verses teach us that the Sabbath Rest provided for the believer is the Gospel of Christ (or, if you wish, Christ himself). But they also teach that the keeping of the Sabbath was a shadow, now fulfilled.

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The Ten Commandments Are Done Away With The Law Of Moses (3 of 4)

Recently, blogger Xulon, from Theologica posted this excellent series focusing on ethics, Law, and the question of the Sabbath. This is post 3 of 4.

In my previous blog, I showed that the Bible reveals that the Law of Moses has been done away. A common criticism of this is that if you eliminate the Law of Moses, you have eliminated objective morality (For the topic of the need for “objective” morality, I also recommend this blog on Christian Ethics). This is often coupled with the charge of antinomianism (anti=against+nomos=law). This “weakness” is often remedied by dividing the Law into sections; the Ceremonies, which are fulfilled in Christ and not for the believer and the moral code to which, though Christ did keep them perfectly, the believer is still obligated. Key in this regard are the Ten Commandments. “Certainly”, they object, “you are not saying that the Ten Commandments are done away with? Are you saying that God now allows people to commit Adultery?” As mentioned in the previous post, the Law is a unified whole and cannot be divided like this but another part of the answer is found in 2 Corinthians: But if the ministry that produced death — carved in letters on stone tablets (2 Corinthians 3:7). What is to be noticed here is that the only part of the Law of Moses which was engraved on stone tablets was the Ten Commandments. This whole section which declares the Law of Moses to have been replaced by the Ministry of the Spirit has here a direct reference to the Ten Commandments.

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The Law of Moses Has Been Done Away With (2 of 4)

Recently, blogger Xulon, from Theologica posted this excellent series focusing on ethics, Law, and the question of the Sabbath. This is post 2 of 4.

The teaching of this blog was summed up by Dr Lightner: “The Law of Moses in its entirety has been done away with as a rule of life” (Robert Lightner, “Theological Perspectives on Theonomy”, Bibleotheca Sacra 143, P235) Further, being done away with, the Law of Moses is not a path to higher sanctification so that keeping any part of the Law makes you more spiritual, nor does it mean you are more closely imitating Jesus who lived his life “under the Law”. Done away means it is no longer God’s will for the believer. Choosing to do what God does not require does not mean that one is “really going all out for God”. Indeed, it could indicate that one is ignoring what God says and substituting the wisdom of men. This does not mean that one is forbidden to follow any part of the Law as a personal or cultural preference but it would be a preference (Covered by Romans 14) and not requirement. The Scriptures supporting this are:

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