Wiping the Slate Clean

 

Although some would disagree,

let's say, for the sake of the argument, that what was nailed to the cross in Col 2:14 was the Law of Moses.

 

This did not "wipe the slate clean" of what can be done as "worship". Rather, it "wiped the slate clean" of what must be done as "worship".

 

Paul himself said,

Rom 3:31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

Paul was free to take a Nazirite vow, which involved shaving his head (Acts 18:18; 21:23-24), and waiting seven days at the end of his vow to make animal sacrifices (Acts 21:26-27; Num 6). He also paid an enormous amount of money to pay the expenses of four others to do likewise, in order to prove to all that he "walked according to the law" of Moses (Acts 21:23-24), just as did tens of thousands of other Jewish believers, with the approval of the elders of the very first church of Christ (Acts 21:18-21).

 

Paul did this keeping of the law of Moses, as a Christian, in good conscience, up to the end of the book of Acts (Acts 23:1), saying:

“Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until today.”

The idea that he taught that the law of Moses should be forsaken was a false rumor, in which there was "no truth":

Acts 21:21 They have been informed about you, that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to walk after the customs. ... Therefore do what we tell you. ... Then all will know that there is no truth in the things that they have been informed about you, but that you yourself also walk keeping the law.

Rather, what he taught was that there was no requirement any longer to keep the letter of the law of Moses, especially for Gentiles, but only the spirit, because Jesus kept it perfectly, and his perfect-keeping is given as a free gift to those of faith.

Rom 7:6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.

See also Rom 2:29 and 2 Cor 3:6.

 

But as Peter says, there are some things that are hard to understand in Paul's writings, and people still get the wrong idea, and still teach that false rumor in which there is no truth.

 

So what do I want you to get from this post?

 

There is nothing in the old ways of "worship" that are "forbidden". The free-will observance of the law aspect of the slate has not been wiped clean.

 

- You want to offer a free-will sacrifice of a lamb in thanksgiving to God? Go ahead. But don't make it a requirement.

 

- You want to take a day off from work on the seventh day of the week? You honor his blessing of that day. But don't make it a requirement.

 

- You want to tithe? Feel free to do so. But don't make it a requirement.

 

- You want to praise God with clapping and the sound of a harp and a shout of victorious zeal? Do so with all your heart. But don't make it a requirement.

 

- You want to take a Nazirite vow? You have just as much right to do so as did Paul. But don't make it a requirement.

 

Nailing the law of Moses to the cross does not mean that "acceptable worship" starts from a blank page, and only the things mentioned thereafter are authorized. Paul demonstrates this truth. Let's not continue the false rumor, in which there is no truth, that Paul taught against the "worship" previously established as acceptable. He did not teach that; neither should we.