Originally posted by mikewhitney
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Luke 3:7So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8“Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 9“Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10And the crowds were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?” 11And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.” 12And some tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” 14Some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.”
These are the fruit which when produced would result in Israel would escape wrath, not becoming extinct like Sodom and Gomorrah. We must remember that Elizabeth and Zacharias were found righteous in the eyes of the Law, they followed it perfectly, fully. In Scripture, perfect means complete, and even better explained, followed in all its aspects, minor as well as more important requirements, unlike the Pharisees who only followed those requirements that identified them as Jews, distinguishable from the other Nations.
However, after following John, Israel must follow Jesus, because Mt Sinai only protects Israel from wrath, till the Jerusalem from above comes amongst men:
Acts 19:4Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”
Luke 11:20But if I cast out devils by the finger of God, the Kingdom of God has come near to you.
They must drive out the slave woman, because the son of the bondswoman can never inherit what the son of the free woman can, the Kingdom of God:
John 8:33“We are Abraham’s descendants,” they answered. “We have never been slaves to anyone. How can You say we will be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
In the above, Jesus is saying that those who do not enter into the New Covenent with him are sinning, because as long as they are in the Old Covenant, they are not cleansed from sin, because the blood of bulls and goats are only a type, a foreshadowing of what His blood will do:
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We may return to the same conclusion that we reached before: the sacrifice of animals is inadequate to achieve final cleansing, nor can it cleanse anything more than the copies of heavenly things. Then who will bring the definitive sacrifice? A man must do it. A similar point is made indirectly in Num. 35:33-34: “Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.” When a man had shed blood, the man must die. But there is one exception, when the blood of the death of the high priest releases a manslaughterer to return home (Num. 35:25-28). The blood of the high priest has special value. In agreement with this principle, Zech. 3 uses all the symbolism of a defiled human high priest Joshua and then speaks mysteriously of the Branch in connection with which “I will remove the sin of this land in a single day” (Zech. 3:9).
The final atonement must be simultaneously like a sheep who dies and like the high priest who presents the sacrifice. This final high priest is described in Isa. 53 as the servant of the Lord. He presents his own body as a guilt offering (Isa. 53:10) and dies (Isa. 53:9). Like a sin offering where the body of the animal is carried outside the camp, he dies outside the camp (Heb. 13:11-14). Then he will “see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand” (Isa. 53:10). He will live again. As the high priest now living he goes through the rest of the steps in the sacrificial system. That is, he presents the blood of the sacrifice, his own blood (Heb. 9:12). The blood has already been poured out on the earth as he died, cleansing the ground itself.
https://frame-poythress.org/ebooks/t...-law-of-moses/
So its not surprising that Paul criticises those who would want to continue in the Old Covenant. It was a babysitter (pedagogos is substitute guardian, not tutor), till the real guardian came. It could protect, but could not give an inheritance, the real Rest, IN Christ. It’s no surprise that the writer of Hebrews, mirroring the words of Christ, exhorts all believer to enter the inheritance which was not available before, a rest that remained to be entered, because Joshua had not produced that Rest:
Hebrews 3:5Now Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,b testifying to what would be spoken later. 6But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmlyc to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.
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