This study was put together to illustrate that Jesus came to the Nation of Israel to prepare them for entrance and lead them into the kingdom of/from God/Heaven, the Daniel 2:44 kingdom where scripture states “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people.” As we will see, He was sent by the Father for a purpose, with words that the Father told Him to speak, and with a message to Israel while, calling them to repentance.
After God scattered Israel and Judah into Assyrian and Babylonian captivities, many eventually make their way back to Israel only to be conquered by the Romans and here they are, under Roman rule. Now, the time has come for God to send them the Messiah who would “rescue them from their enemies,” they could “live in safety,” they “would eat and lie down and no one would make them afraid,” and God would make a “new covenant” with them where He said, “I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts” as Jeremiah foretold and He told David, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” All of this would take place in the kingdom of/from Heaven that God told them about through the prophets Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah and some of the other prophets God sent to them. Although this study is not focused on “the kingdom” per se, it is important to know what kingdom Jesus came to establish, spoke of, and taught about, while He was on the Earth.
This “kingdom of/from Heaven” is a physical kingdom on the earth not a spiritual one, with Jesus sitting on the throne in Jerusalem for 1000 years as the “King of kings and Lord of lords” ruling with an “iron scepter” and all nations of the Earth subject to His righteous rule. The land of Israel will be divided up into the 12 tribes inheritance’s with The King having His portion. All of Israel’s covenants, promises, and expectations were to be fulfilled “on the Earth” not in Heaven where God’s throne is, as they are an Earthly people with Earthly covenants and Earthly promises. Survivors of the Tribulation will physically, in the flesh, enter the Kingdom of God as will those who are resurrected from the dead and judged for entrance when He brings it down from heaven and sets it up on the Earth.
The time has come and the kingdom is about to be born. John the Baptist is sent to them to, “… Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.” God sends the Messiah to His people Israel to teach them and prepare them for entrance and lead them into the kingdom. But there is something the people of Israel must do for entrance: repent and be judged, for most are not keeping God’s laws, commands, and decrees, which they must do for their righteousness (Deut 6:25) as only the righteous will enter the kingdom. Thus, the message given to them by John, Jesus and the 12: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Although far from being exhaustive, the following lists of scriptures will conclusively show the following points:
Prophecy of the Father sending Jesus to Israel
* Deut 18:14-19 v15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet (Jesus) like me (Moses) from your own brothers (Israel). You must listen to Him. For this is what you ask of the Lord at Horeb…” v17 The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers…”
* Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and recovery of sight for the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…” Ref Lk 4:18-19 and Matt 11:3-5 where this prophecy is being fulfilled by the miracles Jesus is doing and good news being preached to the poor.
* Mic 5:2 “… out of you (Judah) will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old,…” Jesus was from the line of Judah
* Acts 3:22-23 For Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people; you must listen to everything He tells you. Anyone who does not listen to Him will be completely cut off from among His people.” Peter referring to Deut 18:14-19. Read Acts 3:11-26 for fuller context.
Jesus was sent by the Father
* Matt 15:24 When a Canaanite woman ask Jesus to heal her daughter; He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Note: Jesus ministry, by his own words, was not sent to the Gentile Nations or Samaritans.
* Jn 1:11 “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him.” Who was “his own?” Israel.
* Jn 7:28-29, 33 Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own, but He who sent me is true… but I know Him because I am from Him and He sent me.” v33 Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I go to the one who sent me.”
* Jn 7:16 Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me.”
* Jn 8:42 Jesus said to them… “ for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own, but He sent me.”
* Jn 9:4 Jesus speaking “As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent me.”
When Jesus sends out the twelve in Matt 10:5-6 scripture says, These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He says later in v16, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” Note here: as God sends Jesus, He in turn, selects and sends out the 12 and gave them authority to represent Him (Jesus) being from the Father, and equips them with the message of the kingdom, and signs, wonders and miracles. Also read Lk 10:1-12 where Jesus sends out the 72 with the same authority and message. Special note: If Jesus had gone to or pursued the Gentiles, He would have sinned by disobeying the Father and would not have fulfilled the law nor would he have been the sacrifice God would have accepted for the sins of all Mankind. The Father sent him to Israel not to the Nations (Gentiles).
Jesus was sent for a purpose
* Gal 4:4 Paul speaking about Christ being under the law and His purpose. But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law… Who were those under law? Israel.
* Matt1:21 “She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins.” Who are His people? Israel.
* Matt 2:2 …and asked, “where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?”
* Lk 3:23 Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when He began His ministry. Ref Rom 15:8, cf Rom 15:15-16
* Matt 21:1-11 v4-5 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet (Zech): “Say to the daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Fulfillment of Zech 9:9.
* Matt 27:11 When Jesus was before Pilate scripture says, Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor ask Him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. Also Mk 15:2.
* Matt 2:6 “… for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” Also Mk 6:34.
* Matt 1:22; 2:15; 3:15; 8:17; 12:17; 13:34-35; 21:4; Jn 19:28. He came to fulfill prophecy/scripture.
* Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
* Matt 9:35-38 says, Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” Then in Jn 4:34-38, v34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” v35 “… open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life.”
What harvest is Jesus referring to? It seems overwhelmingly obvious that He is sending them to the Nation Israel since He tells them “Do not to go among the Gentiles.” The harvest of Israel for entrance into the Kingdom of God is plentiful and Jesus is sent by the Father with a legitimate offer to bring them into that Kingdom, but as we know, even though many Israelites did believe in Him, the leadership of Israel rejected Him and His offer and called for His death.
* Matt 10:34-39 “…I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, daughter against her mother…”
* Lk 12:49-53 v51 “Do you think I came to bring peace on Earth? No, I tell you, but division.”
* Mk 1:38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else- to the nearby villages- so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
* Mk 2:17 “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners;” Luke 5:32 to “call sinners to repentance”; Also Matt 9:13
* Lk 12:49 “I have come to bring fire (judgment) on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.”
* Lk 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”
* Jn 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me.”
* Jn 9:39 Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world…” Ref back to Lk 12:49
* Jn 10:10 “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
* Jn 12:27-28 “… No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father glorify your Name.”
* Jn 12:47 “For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.”
* 1Tim 1:15 “… Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…”
* Heb 2:14 “… so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death- that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”
* 1Jn 3:8 “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”
Jesus was sent with a message
* Mk 1:14-15 …Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” The “good news” of the “kingdom of God” being established, was being offered to Israel because the time had come.
* Matt 3:2 John the Baptist message: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Also Mk 1:4-7.
* Matt 4:17 Jesus’ message: “From that time on Jesus began to preach “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
* Matt 4:23 “Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom.”
* Matt 6:9 Jesus tells his disciples how they should pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is a reference to the Earthly kingdom of Dan 2:44.
* Lk 4:43 But He said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”
For further explanation about the Kingdom of Heaven/God please see that study in the Toolbox.
Jesus spoke the Words the Father gave Him to speak
* Deut 18:18-19 “I will put My Words in his mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. If anyone does not listen to My Words that the prophet speaks in My Name, I will call him to account.”
* Matt 17:5 On the mountain when Jesus was transfigured it says, While He was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” Also in Mk 9:7 and Lk 9:35.
* Jn 8:26-30 v26 Jesus speaking, “… But He who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from Him I tell the world.” v28 “… I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.”
* Jn 12:48-50 “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, But the Father who sent me
commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that His command leads to eternal life. So, whatever I say is just what the Father told me to say.” Ref Jn 1:1-14. “…and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” v14 The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son…
* Jn 3:34 “For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God; to Him God gives the Spirit without limit.”
* Jn 14:24 “These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
* Matt 10: 5-7 These 12 Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Don’t go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house Israel. As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near.” Note again, Jesus does not include the Gentiles or Samaritans in his ministry. Ref Matt 15:24.
* Matt 12:28 “But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”
* Matt 13:19 “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.”
* Matt 13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47, 52; 18:23; 20:1; 22:2; 25:1. “The kingdom of heaven is like…”
* Lk 18:15-30 Jesus teaches about entrance into the kingdom. Ref Matt 5:20 “…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Remember: Jesus never tells people or teaches that any Israelite will ever enter Heaven, where God’s throne is, but only instructs them about “the kingdom of Heaven/God,” the earthly, physical 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth.
How Jesus would be recognized by Israel as the Messiah
* Jn 4:48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you (Jews) see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
* Jn 10:24-30 The Jews gathered around him, saying,” How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe me. The miracles I do in my Fathers Name speak
for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep….” Note: Not all Jews will enter the kingdom. * Jn 14:11 Jesus speaking, “Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” * Matt 11:3-5 John ask Jesus a question, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” Ref Lk 4:18-19; fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-2. * Acts 2:22 Peter speaking, “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.” * 1Cor 1:22 Paul writes, “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom.” Statements by Jesus and Jews being under the Covenant of the Law of Moses This is but a small sampling of the scriptures that could have been noted, but there are more than enough to put the Bible student on the right track. Many more can easily be found in the Gospels with diligent study. * Lk 2:22 When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord) and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what was said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons.” * Matt 8:4 Then Jesus said to him, “See to it that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Also Mk 1:44, Lk 5:14 * Matt 15:3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” * Matt 19:16-21 “…Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?” “If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” * Matt 23:1-3 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples: “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. So, you must obey them and do everything they tell you.” He goes on: “But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” * Mk 7:8 Speaking to the Pharisees and teachers of the Law, Jesus said “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.” And He said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!” * Mk 10:2-3 “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus replies, “What did Moses command you?” * Lk 10:25-28 …” Teacher,” he ask, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” He (Jesus) replied… v28 “Do this and you will live.” What did He tell him to do? Obey the Law. * Lk 16:19-31 The rich man in Sheol/Hades asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his five brothers so they too won’t end up where he is. Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.” v31 “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” * Lk 17:11-14 Ten men with leprosy cry out to Jesus. “They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” When He saw them, He said, “Go show yourselves to the priests.” (the priests were part of the Levitical priesthood under the Law) And as they went they were cleansed.” * Lk 24:36-44 After Jesus resurrection He appears to the disciples and tells them in v44 “Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” He had to fulfill all prophecy. * Jn 5:45-47 “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses…If you believed Moses, you would believe me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say.” * Jn 7:19 “Has not Moses given you the Law? Yet not one of you keeps the Law”. * Jn 7:6-11 Jesus tells His brothers to go to the Feast of Tabernacles, but He was, “not yet going…for the right time has not yet come.” v10 “However, after His brothers had left for the Feast, He went also, not publicly, but in secret.” To fulfill all righteousness, He and His brothers had to go the feast in obedience to the Law. * Jn 9:16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for He does not keep the Sabbath.” * Matt 12:8 “For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” Jesus is rejected by His people-the Nation of Israel During Jesus’ ministry on Earth, He appoints apostles (one who is sent or a messenger) to help Him in His ministry, and to eventually carry on after He has ascended to the Father. Then, Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the donkey, to be the King, and is rejected by the leadership and many of the Jewish people. * Lk 19:40-44 Jesus is riding into Jerusalem on the donkey; As He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes.” v44 “…They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you (NIV) or the time of your visitation.” (KJV, ESV, ASV and others) * Matt 23:37-38 While teaching in the temple courts Jesus tells them; “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” * Jn 19:15 Here Pilate is speaking to the crowd of Jews about Jesus; But they shouted, “Take Him away! Take Him away! Crucify Him! Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priest answered. Finally, Pilate handed Him over to them to be crucified. In Lk 19:11-27 the parable of the ten minas; “A man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.” v14 “But the subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we don’t want this man to be our king.” Sounds a lot like Jesus coming to Israel doesn’t it? You read it, He was telling them about himself being rejected, as king, in parable form. Passages of the Body of Christ being under the New Covenant of Grace not the Covenant of Law As a result of being rejected by His people, Jesus is handed over to the Roman authorities to be crucified and goes to the cross to die for the sins of the Nation Israel and the sins of the entire world, but only after fulfilling the Law of Moses, fulfilling all righteousness, fulfilling all prophecy up to that point in time and accomplishing all that the Father sent Him to do and to say. He dies, was buried and was raised from the dead and He appeared to more than 500 people as eyewitness testimony and proof that He did rise from the dead. Then He returns to the right hand of the Father and a new program begins where, “we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code” according to Paul in Rom 7:6 and in Rom 11:25 scripture says, “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in,” and God now gathers a new group of people for a new purpose prior to pouring His wrath out on the entire unrepentant world in the “times of Jacob’s trouble,” or seven years of tribulation, which is still to come. In addition to the 12, He adds another apostle, Paul, in Acts ch 9, who Jesus gave direct revelation to and appointed him as the apostle to the Gentiles and “…now He (God) commands all people everywhere to repent,” Acts 17:30, not just Israel as we saw in the ministries of John and Jesus, but now all of Mankind is commanded to repent. In this age/time of God’s plan, after the cross, He institutes the New covenant of Grace, as the Covenant of Law was fulfilled and set aside, and a new gospel is now to be proclaimed, not only to Israel, but to all of Mankind: 1Cor 15:3-4 “ …that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures….” He now gathers a new group of “heavenly” people from all the nations of the world, and He says they are a “new creation,” that are, “neither Jew nor Gentile” and calls them the “Body of Christ.” He sends the Holy Spirit to indwell, permanently live within, all who would believe this new gospel of His Son’s shed blood on the cross and to seal them as a guarantee of their inheritance. They are “born again” of the heavenly Adam into the “…kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves…,” Col 1:13-14, by the Holy Spirit. We are placed “into Christ” where our “citizenship is in Heaven” and He has “seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” with the promise that, “we will be with the Lord forever.” “We are baptized by one Spirit (Holy Spirit) into one Body (Christ),” and all of this according to the Holy Spirit through Paul was, “…the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets…” Eph 3:2-6. Along with this new message (gospel) He gives a set of instructions, the Epistles, given to the Apostles, to teach this “new creation” how to live, grow and mature in the righteousness of Christ under Grace not the righteousness that comes from obedience to the Law of Moses. Compare Deut 6:25 to Rom 3:21-22, 10:4 to see the difference. * 2Cor 3:6-11 v6“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” * Heb 7:18-9:28 for full context; 8:13 By calling this covenant “new” He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. * Rom 6:14-15 “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under Law but under grace.” And v15 “…What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” * Rom 7:6 “But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the Law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not of the old way of the written code.” * Rom 10:1-4 v4 Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. * Rom 15:8 “For I tell you that Christ has become a minister/servant of the Jews on behalf of Gods Truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy…” Now compare to: Rom 15:15-16 “I have written you…because of the grace God gave me (Paul) to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.” * Col 2:13-17 v13-14 “He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” To further this statement, he says in v16 “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” All 4 of these things had to do with obedience to the Law of Moses. * 2Cor 3 7-17 Read all for context. v7 “Now if the ministry that brought death (the Law), which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses… fading as it was.” v14 “But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read… It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.” v15 “Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.” v16 “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” * Titus 2:11-14 v14 “…who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.” * James 2:8-10 If you really keep the Royal law found in scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right… v10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. * Read Galatians ch2-ch5 for full context of the following passages: * Gal 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the Law, Christ died for nothing. See Rom 3:19-24. * Gal 3:10-14 v10 All who rely on observing the Law are under a curse, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law. v11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the Law, because the righteous will live by faith. v12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them. Ref Lev 18:4-5. * Gal 3:21-25 v24 So the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the Law. * Gal 4:8-11 Paul calls the Law in v9 “weak and miserable principles” “Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? And by beginning to “observing special days and months and seasons and years!” Paul says in v11 “I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.” Why? Because they were going back to observing and being under the Law, one thing Paul strongly and consistently taught against. * Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. In reference to the Law of Moses. * Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under Law. Pretty clear isn’t it. Before the cross there was only one law from God, the Law of Moses given to Israel, as the Nations “… who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.” Rom 2:14. After the cross, the law having been fulfilled and set aside and the New Covenant was begun. Now Paul writes Timothy “…Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who rightly divides/correctly handles/cut straight (depending on translation) the Word of Truth.” 2Tim 2:15. Before the cross this statement would have had no meaning because any Israelite, even a child, could read the Law and understand, “You shall” and “You shall not” and there was no rightly dividing to do; Israel was to follow the laws, commands and decrees of the law God gave to Moses for their righteousness. But now this “new creation” is not under that Law, but under Grace where Jesus Christ is our righteousness, and we stand “in Him” and no law can be broken to lose the gift of salvation where we would have to be “unsealed” and “unborn again”. Therefore, as Paul said, we must “rightly divide” the covenants and the teachings therein and put each in its proper context so that we, as the Body of Christ, may grow and mature into who God wants us to be “in Christ,” not a Jew under the law of Moses. Please see the “In Christ” tool in the Toolbox for a more in-depth study. Grace be with you AToolboxForTheBodyofChrist.com All scripture quoted from NIV and ESV Bibles