Sermon Tone Analysis

THE SEPARATION OF ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH

 

/FULFILLMENT OF THE MOSAIC LAW/

/     /The Dispensation of the Hypostatic Union stands as a boundary mark between Israel and the Church.

Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law on one hand and set the precedent and Standard for the New Covenant Church Age /protocol /on the other.

(/A long established code and procedure prescribing complete obedience to authority and strict adherence to due order of precedence and precisely correct procedure/) This division is confirmed by numerous passages which state that the Mosaic Law does not define the New Covenant way of life.

(John 1:16-17; Rom 6:14; Rom 8:2-4; Gal 3:19-22; Col 2:14) At the Exodus God founded Israel as a Theocracy ruled Personally by the Second Person of the Trinity.

(1Sa 10:19) The whole thrust of the Jewish way of life was Spiritual.

Because God ruled Israel, every aspect of life in the nation had Spiritual significance, and the Mosaic Law did not distinguish between Spiritual and secular (Non Spiritual) issues.

Obedience to Divine establishment was part of the Spiritual life of Jewish believers, and observance of holy days and animal sacrifices was required of all citizens, including unbelievers.

(Although these rituals were fully meaningful to believers only) We distinguish the *freedom code,* the *Spiritual code,* and *the establishment code;** *as a categorical approach to communicating the wide scope of the Mosaic Law.

*But all aspects of the Law add up to one code for a unique racial and political entity; with a Spiritual origin, a Spiritual destiny; and a king Who IS God Himself.*

/The Law is an integrated whole./

(Matt 5:18; Gal 5:14) cf.

(Rom 7:14; Gal 5:22-23) The entire Mosaic Law is a particular expression of God’s eternal and Holy essence.

He gave the Law to a distinctly defined group of people.

(Lev 26:46; Rom 3:19; Rom 9:4) It was effective for a limited period of time (Gal 3:23-25) And it was designed for several clear purposes.

The Mosaic Law ruled life in God’s unique client nation, exposed man’s sinfulness, and demonstrated his need of a Savior, but the primary purpose of the Law was to anticipate the coming of Christ.

(Exo 12:27; (1Co 5:7) 

*     */Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill./

(Matt 5:17)  

       \\      The Law was far more than simply a rule of behavior.

Although superior to contemporary codes in its/ “moral” — obedience;/ the Law was not primarily ethical but Messianic.

(Relating to a future Messiah) Therein lies its true greatness.

Its Commands depicted the Person and work of Christ and protected the line of Christ until He would arrive in the flesh.

The centuries-old purpose of the Mosaic Law was achieved by the incarnate Jesus Christ.

Anticipation was replaced by Reality.

This perfect fulfillment is a tribute to the faithfulness of God.

Because all parts of the Law functioned together as one code, the Law has been abolished as a whole.

The entirety of the Law is no longer pertinent and no longer governs any people or nation.

(Matt 5:17-19; Rom 7:14; Rom 10:4;  Heb 8:13; Heb 10:9) The rule of the Mosaic Law has ended.

The Church is */“not under Law,/*/ but under grace.”/

(Rom 6:14) (*/Condemnation of the old sin nature's effort to be Holy,/* but favor, in fellowship (1Jn 1:9) using the Spiritual life) (Rom 8:3-4) 

 

/THE LAW OF CHRIST /

/     /The end of the Mosaic Law does not leave believers or unbelievers lawless.

(Rom 6:15; Rom 13:1-7) A new code of Divine Commands, which also expresses the essence of God, now defines the believer’s way of life.

Like the Law, this new code is also an integrated whole.

But God’s protocol plan for the Church has a different objective: to glorify the victorious Christ to the maximum.

And greater responsibility placed upon each believer to Think and apply Truth for himself in the privacy of his own priesthood.

Still, many Principles found in the Mosaic Law also appear in the protocol plan.

The reason is that both codes come from the same source, from God Himself.

The essence of God remains unchanged even as He makes dispensational changes in human history.

God was perfect before He gave the Law to Moses, perfect during the time of the Law, and perfect when He fulfilled and rescinded the Law in Christ.

In fact, the succession of dispensations reveals His changeless essence to man and angels.

God expressed His absolute Holiness to man in legal terms long before the Mosaic Law existed, and He continues to provide ethical norms and Spiritual instruction now that the Law has ceased to govern.

Indeed before the time in which the Mosaic Law was in effect in Israel, other expressions of Divine Law functioned among Jews and Gentiles to whom the Mosaic Law never applied.

(Gen 26:5; Job 1:1; Exo 19:5; Rom 2:14-16; (1Co 7:19)

     In the Church Age the operative Divine Law is not the Mosaic Law but /“the Law of Christ.”/

(1Co 9:20-21; Gal 6:2) This is also called/ “the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,”/ (Rom 8:2) which is called the protocol plan of God, or Thinking Truth in the Spiritual life.

Christ fulfilled the entire Mosaic Law in the power of the Holy Spirit in the prototype Spiritual life.

The New Covenant Church Age believer obeys the new /“Law of Christ”/ by following His example: filled with God the Holy Spirit in the operational Spiritual life.

(Rom 8:2-4) Because Christ fulfilled and abolished the Mosaic Law.

(Heb 8:13; Heb 10:9) Practices instituted for the nation of Israel are not included in the post-Salvation plan of God for the Church Age.

They do not contribute to the Christian way of life.

The Church, for example, does not offer animal sacrifices, observe holy days or the Sabbath, maintain the Levitical priesthood, worship in a sacred building, offer tithes, or have minute details of civic life prescribed by Spiritual Ordinances.

There is now a new, universal priesthood of all believers, (1Pe 2:9; Heb 7:12; Heb 8:1) and a greater emphasis on individual responsibility, (Gal 5:1)/ /and a separation of church and state.

(Rom 13:1-7; cf.

Matt 22:15-22)

 

/TRANSITION BETWEEN DIVINE ADMINISTRATIONS.

/

Three separate dispensations converge in the Age of the Hypostatic Union.

 

1.

/Christ fulfilled /the Old Testament Law, (Heb 10:9) and taught His current followers to live apart from legalism.

(The old sin nature's “moral” effort to be Holy) (Rom 8:8)

 2.

/He proclaimed /His ruling platform for the New Covenant kingdom.

(Matt 5:1-48)

 3.

/He unveiled /the plan of God for the Church.

(Matt 16:15-27; John 14:1; thru John 17:26)

/       /

     These closely placed Divine administrations — as well as the presence of Christ Himself — exhibit the grace and wisdom of* *God to an unparalleled depth of continuity and change.

The period of our Lord’s first advent, then, is an extraordinary presentation of God’s perfect essence.

Each dispensation fulfills its own purpose in the overall plan of God.

Although similarities exist, differences in Divine Commands distinguish Israel, the Incarnation, the Church, the Tribulation and the Millennium.

Divine policy differs significantly from the Law given through Moses to Israel, (Deut 4:13) to the New Covenant at the last supper.

(Luk 22:20) For example, the Sermon on the Mount represented a shift in Divine policy.

Again and again  Jesus declared, /“You have heard that it was said [In the Mosaic Law]. . .

but I say... /(Matt 5:21-48) He proclaimed the New Covenant kingdom of God to the Jews in terms of their Mosaic frame of reference, for He used the Law as the foundation or point of departure for explaining the way of life of His Personal rule in the soul of each believer in the New Covenant Spiritual kingdom.

(Rom 15:12; 1Co 3:16; Eph 1:22-23; (1Co 7:22) Christ also ministered to the current needs of His hearers.

Amplifying and clarifying the true meaning of the Law, He taught them how to live free from the legalistic degeneracy that was the norm in the nation.

Never was the Law intended to be a means of Salvation (Gal 3:24) or a breeding ground for self-righteousness.

(Matt 6:1-18) The Law revealed the necessity for grace and the source of that grace, Jesus Christ Himself.

After Christ was rejected by Israel, He announced yet a different Divine system, the Church Age.

(John 14:1) thru (John 17:1-26) During the Church Age, church and state are separate entities.

Divine Commands for the Spiritual kingdom of the Church Age believer, cannot be imposed upon the unbeliever.

Unlike the Mosaic Law which ruled believers and unbelievers in Israel.

In the Millennium the Spiritual and the civil will also come under one rule as Christ again reigns, not as God ruling over one nation but as the God-man over both Israel and the entire world.

Rather than institute another legal system that directly governs all people, Christ now controls history in a manner that gives individual Church Age believers tremendous opportunity and responsibility for having/ /invisible impact.

In the Upper Room Discourse (Luk 22:15-30) Jesus bequeathed to the Church this new system of dynamics by which He Himself had lived throughout His first advent.

/COMMON PRINCIPLES IN DIFFERENT CODES.

/

     The similarities between the Mosaic Law and Church Age protocol reveal God’s immutable consistency, but the differences reflect the magnitude of Christ’s achievement during His first advent.

The utterly highest quality of His saving work not only is a stated fact of Doctrine.

(Heb 2:3) but is also indicated by the dispensational changes that followed the victory of the Cross and resurrection (John 7:38-39) (The New Covenant Spiritual life) Astounding privileges belong to the /“new Spiritual species”/ of believers — the Church — who are chosen to glorify His victory forever.

In establishing the way of life for believers of the Church Age, God manifested His character in many individual Commands, some of which He had also included in the Mosaic Law.

For example, with the full unveiling of mystery Doctrine in the New Testament Epistles, every one of the Ten Commandments, except Sabbath observance, has also been given to the Church.

(Fulfilled by being in fellowship; Gal 5:22-23) Even with these similarities, Church Age protocol is not the Mosaic Law.

These are entirely different codes, just as the United States Constitution is not the same as England’s Magna Carta, even though they share certain Concepts.

Continuities between Israel and the Church exist because all Divine Law reflects the unchangeable Thinking of God, not because all or part of the Mosaic Law carries over into other dispensations.

Despite numerous continuities, the new policy for the Church Age is not the old Mosaic Law itself.

If Precepts found in the Mosaic Law pertain to the Church, they do so because they appear in the New Testament Epistles, which define the Christian way of life.

These common Principles belong to the Church because they are part of the Law of Christ, (His Thinking) /not /because they belong to the Mosaic Law.

(Condemnation of human thinking) (Rom 7:14; Rom 7:25) Adherence to Divine establishment had a different meaning under the Mosaic Law than it does under God’s plan for the Church Age.

Because Israel was God’s unique client nation, obedience to the establishment aspect of the Mosaic Law was an /integral part /of the Spiritual life of Jewish believers.

As part of the Law, Divine establishment not only preserved the line of the Messiah but also stabilized Jewish society so that over many centuries the Jews would retain the specific national functions that foreshadowed Christ.

In the Church Age these special purposes for Divine establishment does not exist.