Our blog will share 30 different Bible Contrasts that show distinctions that matter when studying God’s Word. It is important to understand this perspective or we may get confused.
We see a number of dissimilar wordings within God’s Word. Some have seen them as contradictions in the Bible. We prefer the term “contrasts.” The main reason for these differences is that God is setting forth two separate programs (intimated even in Genesis 1:1). The first deals with the earth and Israel. The other concerns the heavens and Christ’s Body Church. It was given to the Apostle Paul to lay out these differences. He is God’s “apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13).
So then we must recognize such Bible divisions if we’d truly understand God’s Word and be approved by Him (II Tim. 2:15). Then we must follow the last directives given by God through Paul as “the commandments of the Lord” for this present time (I Cor. 14:37).
Today is Part #7:
ORDINANCES REQUIRED: During past ages various religious ordinances were necessary to please God. The Lord told Moses to “speak unto the children of Israel…Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein” (Lev. 18:1-4). Such ordinances were for Israel and sojourning strangers “forever” (Num. 9:14; 15:15). Trouble came to God’s people when they had went away from His ordinances, and didn’t keep them (Mal. 3:7). John the Baptist’s parents “were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6).
ORDINANCES ABOLISHED: The Apostle Paul writes of Christ “having abolished…the law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph. 2:15), and of God “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (Col. 2:14). “The first covenant…service…stood only in…carnal ordinances, imposed… until the time of reformation” (Heb. 9:1,9,10). Since believers today are “dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world,” Paul asks, “why…are ye subject to ordinances” (Col. 2:20)?
For more information and understanding, we recommend doing the PMA “Understanding your Bible” 8 part lesson series available for free download at Free Bible Correspondence – Prison Mission Association
(These points come from Pastor David Adams, booklet, Bible Contrasts used by permission)