For an in-depth study on this issue, please visit The Scholars Corner.

A New Covenant in My Blood

Why was Jesus crucified on Passover and not Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement? 

The Passover Seder was a Covenant Meal where the head of each household presided. 
It was not a Temple Sacrifice done by a Priest. 

Jesus even told us that this Last Supper was a New Covenant in “my blood.”  As a covenant meal, it does not require a priest or professional clergy. That is why Acts 2:46 says, they continually broke bread in each other’s home.  

Why is this significant? Because all the Torah, the Law, was created AFTER the Passover, which means it was part of the Old Covenant, which Jesus replaced with his Body and Blood.

Three types of Law in the OT:  civil, ritual, and moral law. 

Civil Law: traffic rules, civil punishments for crimes, etc.

Ritual Law: priestly duties, temple sacrifices, kosher foods – all fulfilled in Jesus

Moral Law: reflects God’s character and never changes – laws against adultery, murder and for love and justice and true worship of God.

Contemporary Controversy: Keeping the Sabbath, Adventism, Legalism, Division in the Body of Christ. 

Come to ME, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Hebrew: Shabat, Sabbath). Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest (Hebrew: Shabat, Sabbath) for your souls. 

Matthew 11:28–29

Hebrews 4:8–11 ESV

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

What is that rest?  Rest in the completed work of Jesus and ceasing from our labors of trying to be justified in Christ through our works. By faith, we enter that rest. 

Jesus is our spiritual rest and our Sabbath. If we insist on an external observance of a singular day we are seeking to justify ourselves by works of the Law

Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27  It is important and for our benefit that we find our rest in Him. And it is right to find in that rest a place of worship and honor for God.

Also, Noah and Abraham were both considered righteous, but there was no Saturday worship noted, mentioned or required of them. They were before the Law of Moses.

 Beware of sowing division or controversy in the Body of Christ.  The scripture clearly says we are not to make a judgment over one another regarding the Sabbath: 

 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance (soma, body, reality) belongs to Christ.  Colossians 2:16–17

Romans 14:4–6 ESV

Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. 

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.

When Paul went before the Apostles in Jerusalem, he was not told to insist upon the Sabbath among the gentiles (or kosher food laws, or circumcision), but to walk in the covenant of Noah: 

Acts 15:28–29 ESV

For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

Indeed, it would have been hard to insist upon a Sabbath rest for Christians in a secular empire, where slaves and employees were required to work 7 days a week.  Such a setting would have made obedience to the Sabbath impossible.  It is for this reason that Christians would gather early in the morning or late at night, when they were free from their duties. 

Genesis 9:3–6 ESV

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

This is again why the Apostles did not insist on Torah Kosher food laws, but recognized that the gentiles were under the covenant God made with Noah.  

In Conclusion:  What I am saying is that since Jesus is the fulfillment of the ritual law and the moral law (in that he never sinned) his new covenant with us precedes the Law of Moses, with its regulations. 

Honoring God is a moral principle and never changes, but the day or days we worship (indeed it should be every day) should not be a cause of division or legalism in the Body of Christ. To fight over it is to sow death into the fellowship. 

Galatians 3:21–26 ESV

Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.