Pastor John,
After last night’s meeting, I was thinking about God revealing the purpose for Moses’ tabernacle to you. Jerry and I were talking about if Paul would have taught the Gentiles about its heavenly shadows, or would he have stayed away from the law because the Gentiles didn’t need to be taught about the law. This has my head spinning because if the Spirit leads you into all truth, then it would lead you into understanding the law and why it was there…right?
Well, here is my thought (new to me) from my conversation with Jerry:
There was no Christianity then; it had not yet been formed. Paul had to be removed from Judaism. God revealed the truth to him to remove wrong ideas and thoughts he had taken in from his earlier religion. You had to be removed from Christianity’s wrong thoughts and ideas, and so, God revealed the truth to you about the tabernacle and the law.
Do you feel like God taught you this to remove all those wrong ideas or to know God better?
Paul did not have to remove Jewish traditions and understandings of the law from the Gentiles. They didn’t have those wrong ideas and thoughts. They didn’t follow or know the law. So would they have needed to learn about the law to learn of Gods heart? Would Paul have taught them the law to show them the heavenly shadows? Jerry said they had so much more power from the Spirit than we do that they may not have needed to learn of the law. I love seeing the heavenly shadows. I love the story. I love learning of my Father through all of this. Yet I had to come out of Christianity and God has to remove wrong thoughts and ideas. So, back to the question. Do you think God showed you the purpose for the tabernacle and the law to remove wrong ideas, or to teach you of God’s thoughts and heart?
Beth
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Hi Beth.
You two questions are one and the same, for whenever God shows us His heart, he removes from our heart the wrong ideas we all have stored up in there.
Whether or not Gentile believers knew the law before they heard the gospel, Paul would certainly have taught them about the law (and Israel’s history and prophets), from the perspective of the law being fulfilled in Christ, of course. And if those Gentiles really took in and understood Paul’s teaching, they were then inoculated from the poisonous doctrine of those who wanted them to add the law and its ceremonies to their faith.
Good questions! Thanks.
Pastor John