Luke Carbis

I just launched a new (third) blog. It’s called Lattr. As in, the opposite to Formr.

I’ve recently taken an interest in futures and the study of the future etc. So that’s what it is about. No predictions yet, just questions. Lots and lots of questions.

From the about page:

“Latter is a blog about the future of our world. Specifically, it looks at trends and forecasts in Politics, Economy, Society, Technology, Law and Ecology.”

So check it out, and leave a comment to make me happy. I’ll be even happier if you actually read it, or at least recommend it to people who would.

Thanks! Bye.

Lattr

I asked myself this question: Should we follow the law of the old testament? Or did Jesus break it when he died for our sins on the cross?

I’m going to talk about two important verses here. The first is Matthew 5:17.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

And Hebrews 7:11-19.

“11 If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come? One in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. 13 He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. 15 And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, 16 one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. 17 For it is declared:You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek’. 18 The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.”

It was Jesus role to abolish the Levitical priesthood by he himself (being from the order of Melchizedek), becoming the High Priest. He would become the High Priest by conquering death, and this would fulfill the Law. Also, when there is a change in priesthood, there must also be a change in law.

There is still one major major question unanswered, it’s to do with Matthew 5:19. Let’s take a look from verse 17.

“17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

This is what confused me. Doesn’t this say that we still need to keep the Law?

Let’s look at it one verse at a time, this time I’ll add a few untranslated words in there.

“17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (nomos) or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

The word ‘nomos’ is used throughout the entire bible, and references Mosaic Law, or Old Testament law. Here are a few places where ‘nomos’ is used for Law:

• John 1:17
• John 15:25
• John 8:5

And remember we read before that Jesus fulfills the Law by becoming the new High Priest through death, bringing in a new Law.

“18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law (nomos) until everything is accomplished.”

Jesus is telling us that until he has actually conquered death, the ‘nomos’ law is still valid. This is why he lead his life abiding perfectly to ‘nomos’ Law - he was a Jew, and he never sinned.

This is where it gets interesting.

“19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments (entole) and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands (entole) will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

‘Entole’ is a word for Law, or Commandments that is used in a very different way to ‘nomos’. It’s only used in regards to Jesus’ commandments, or new commandments (with one single exception in Luke 23:56). A few examples:

• John 15:10
• Matthew 19:17-19
• 1 John 5:3 (this is especially interesting, saying to keep HIS (entole) commandments

So Jesus is saying that we need to follow his commandments (in this passage he’s referring specifically to the commandments mentioned earlier, and the commandments he’s about to give in his sermon on the mount) - he?s not actually referring to the commandments of the old testament.

In fact, Jesus then goes on to give commandments to do with murder and idolatry, and even negate old testament commandments, like an eye for an eye, and hating your enemies.

What about Matthew 5:8? “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath”. Put in context, Jesus was saying that it didn’t matter that his disciples were breaking the sabbath. He said that the focus needs to be on mercy, not sacrifice, and also that even though his disciples (and David when he ate the consecrated bread) were innocent.

Does Jesus command us to keep the Sabbath? No, but Hebrews 4:9 appears to. On closer inspection, however, Hebrews is all about Jesus being of a higher order than Moses (Chapter 3:1-3), and it’s written to a church of Jewish believers who are still practising Judaism.

“9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”

Verse 9 and 10 are referring to the old covenant, verse 11 is referring to the new covenant. But when the word rest is mentioned, it’s not referring to rest on the Sabbath, it’s referring to rest in Christ.

In Christ, we have rest. He has freed us from the old covenant, which was a yoke too difficult to bear (Acts 15:10), and he has given us a new covenant, which is a yoke that is so much easier to bear that it is called a “rest” (Matthew 11:28-30).

When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they sent spies into Canaan to see the land that the Lord would be giving them. However, most of the Israelite spies were afraid of the Canaanites, and most of the Israelites believed the spies instead of God. God therefore declared that they, since they lacked faith and would not obey his order to invade Canaan, would not enter the promised land: “They shall never enter my rest” (Numbers 14:26-29; Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 3:11). Here, “rest” was a metaphor for the old covenant promise, the land of Canaan.

“Now we who have believed enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:3)

This verse is not telling us to keep the Sabbath. It is telling us that we need to enter God’s rest through Christ.

Saturday was let-down day. The only thing that happened all day was we got let down.

We were supposed to leave early in the morning to go out west, but we discovered the previous night that we didn’t have enough fuel money so we couldn’t. Let down #1.

Instead of going out west, we thought we’d go out for lunch. I knew of a great restaurant that I’d been dying to go to for a long while now, so I kept it a surprise as to where we were going, and took Talia there. We got to the front door and I was like “THIS IS IT!” and then “oh damn, it’s closed”. Let down #2.

We decided to try another restaurant because the specials on the board out the front were really well priced. We got inside, took a seat, had a look at the menu, then ordered the special, only to be told that the special was only for wednesday, thursday and friday. We left. Let down #3.

We were supposed to see Nonna that weekend, but couldn’t because we were supposed to go out west. Now that we were home, we could go see her over at my Mum’s place. Excitedly, we drove over to say hello, only to find out that she cancelled coming up because of car issues. Let down #4.

We wanted to invite Rachel and Aaron over to watch Godfather, or play Guitar Hero or something that night. They were busy having dinner elsewhere. Let down #5.

I don’t know how working families do it.

This morning I have spent all morning cleaning up (mostly Pepper’s little surprises), and paying bills. There’s washing up to be done, our lounge room is a mess, and our office is worse. Not to mention our bedroom floordrobe.

Talia is currently at school 3 days a week, and I’m at uni 2 days a week, school on 1, and usually at work on 1 (total:4). That means that although we’re both usually out of the house, we do have 3 days between us each to clean and tidy.

Of course, those 3 days are usually taken up with school and uni work. But I won’t to know how families with working Mums AND Dads keep their houses clean!?!?

All that for this point:

There is definately a full time job in being a house-wife or a house-husband.

Does anyone want to do our housework?

I know it’s been a while. I’m just not into blogging anymore. I’ll make this quick.

1. My wordpress account was hacked. Lost my categories, it screwed things up. I’m going to fix it up and start this all from scratch.

2. New design. I really like it, how about you?

3. I’m thinking about starting a new blog - Learning From Luke, for my portal tasks.

4. I’m going to redesign my home page, too.

5. I wonder if anybody will notice that I updated my blog.