FEAST DAYS and LEGALISMS - or GRACE?

This is one of those subjects which could be ignored and in fact is ignored by many preachers. However, I feel strongly in my heart that it must be met with a clear scriptural answer and therefore we shall address the matter accordingly. The reliance upon ceremonies and the keeping of feast days and ordinances serve only to lead a person into a false trust in those things as being part and parcel to salvation. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Word of God plainly states, "if you die with Christ and are a partaker of His death, removed from the ways of the world then why are you making yourself subject to ordinances?" (Colossians 2:20.) {means trusting something other than Christ and the Cross for your Salvation.} There simply is no salvation in rules, or regulations, or in the keeping of feast days! For one to believe otherwise is to believe that we can make our own way to Heaven by our own efforts, which is precisely what condemned the original Babylon. It was also this same type of legalism that corrupted the faith of the Galatians. Twice Paul said to the Galatians that anyone, even an angel from heaven, who proclaimed any other form of gospel than that which Paul had preached, (salvation through grace and the Cross alone) "let him be accursed." In other words if we preach any other gospel than that clearly revealed in the New Testament we place ourselves under the curse of God. Salvation by works, ceremonies, keeping of feast days etc only serves to misguide with a completely non-scriptural belief in security through "works." Righteousness and salvation are based entirely upon one’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Three times in Galatians Paul emphasizes that nobody is justified by observing the law. The death of Christ put to an end the Old Testament Feast Days, ritual sacrifices etc. The "feast days" were merely a shadow of things to come. The sacrificial death of Christ clearly put an end to those things when He became the Lamb of God and took away the sins of the world. Scripture openly declares these feast days :"nailed to the cross." Colossians 2:14 states "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." The feast days were ORDINANCES penned on paper by Moses himself. Unlike the Law of God written in STONE by God’s very own finger. Additionally, the ripping of the temple veil declares with a shout that these feast days were indeed no longer needed because they ended perfectly at the exact moment when Jesus Christ spoke from His very lips, "IT IS FINISHED." In other words at Calvary Jesus "finished" what He came to do for you and me. THE DEATH, BURIAL, AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST which has been fulfilled renders the Old Testament feast days and legalisms obsolete. The gospel of grace by faith is the one (and only) true gospel which is why Jesus died, so that we could receive eternal life without the stifling rules that no man could ever possibly live up to.

At its core legalism is idolatry because it takes away our faith in what Jesus has done for us on the cross. You cannot justify yourself before God, only God can justify you, and it was done on the cross. It is finished! In its totality to depend on, rely on, or trust in observance of Old Testament feast days and legalisms as being "necessary" is in every conceivable way wrong because doing so proclaims that Jesus' sacrifice, now a reality, was somehow ineffective. But Jesus Himself shifted the issue from strict obedience to the detailed laws of the Old Testament, to one’s heart attitude towards God and not the observance of ritual, custom and tradition. Jesus, in effect abolished the Mosaic system because of the fact that genuine holiness is a matter of the heart, not of legalisms and feast days. We know that even Christ Himself was outraged by legalism. Eight times Jesus cast woes upon the Scribes and Pharisees calling them hypocrites, blind guides, and fools because they had instituted a seemingly endless list of foolish "laws." For example, the following rules for the Sabbath were instituted:

•People were not permitted to pick a single stalk of grain and rub it in their hands to retrieve the kernels, as   Jesus did, because technically this was considered "harvesting."

•The distance that a person was permitted to travel on the Sabbath was 2,000 paces (about three quarters of a mile.) To travel any further was a sin.

•Because Jeremiah had preached against carrying "burdens" on the Sabbath, the Scribes decided to establish exactly what a burden was. They determined that it was equivalent to the weight of a dried fig. Since nails were heavier than dried figs it was considered a sin to wear shoes on the Sabbath that had been manufactured with nails.

•Walking on the grass was a sin because it was considered threshing.

•Dipping a radish in salt and letting it remain in the salt for any longer that an instant was also forbidden, since this constituted "pickling" - which, of course, was work.

It was precisely these foolish "legalisms" that Christ abolished and made of none effect by His atoning death upon the Cross.

Scripture clearly states that the law (legalism) makes faith void and as well voids Christ Jesus Himself and His promise of salvation through grace and the Cross (Romans 4:14). Legalisms, the misguided delusion that the observance of Old Testament feast days are necessary to ones salvation, these things completely cancel out all that Christ has done for us. Those things pointed to Christ and Paul said that after the finished work of Christ on the Cross we were no longer under a schoolmaster (the Law) because the Law was totally fulfilled in Christ. The Word of God declares "If ye be led of the Spirit ye are not under the law" (Galatians 5:18). We can not follow the Spirit and the Law at the same time, it is one or the other, but not both. God has shown that man is incapable of obtaining righteousness through law and legalism and feast days which do absolutely nothing to connect man with God on a personal level. Only by "grace" through the sacrificial death of Christ is the gap between man and God bridged. Jesus Himself said that no one can get to the Father except through Him. And so to insist that one must keep these things which are no longer in force is to preach "another gospel," a false gospel. Insisting upon adherence to such legalism and ritualism, after all that Christ has accomplished upon the cross on our behalf, is simply heathenism. The Bible further states that the person who places the dependency of salvation upon the law, abiding by the feast days, legalisms etc are cursed. (We can only be under law, or grace, it is one or the other.) Scripture declares "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law." The Bible also clearly states that "no man is justified by the law in the sight of God." As we have already seen, the Feast Days themselves were merely a shadow of things to come. They pointed to our future rest in Christ. We can come to grace only through the Cross. It is grace that delivered us from the inefficacy of the legalisms, animal sacrifices and feasts (those things do not cleanse, they do not pardon sin, they do not save a man’s soul. They were, and are, inadequate.) It is the total all-consuming efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice of Himself upon the Cross that saves a man (by Grace are ye saved through faith), not by feast days and legalisms. To lay dependence upon those things would mean that there is no permanence or personal nature to Christ’s sacrifice. It is by accepting the blood of Christ which He shed for us on the Cross that we are sanctified, not by the keeping of feast days and legalisms. The Bible states emphatically that "those things can never take away sin" nor do they play any part in the salvation of a man’s soul. The Apostle Paul also saw these things only as evidence of their complete insufficiency to take away sin and that the annual repetition of such showed that there was nothing in them but a feeble effort toward making atonement; it could be done effectually ONLY by offering up the body of Christ once for all; and once was sufficient, it need not ever be repeated.

That one time price which Christ paid upon the Cross was sufficient to forever pay for all our sin when we go to that Cross in true repentance and, by faith, receive Him into our heart as our personal Lord and Saviour. The truth of the Gospel as it regards this matter is this: Our salvation depends on and is based solely upon the finished work of  Christ upon the Cross and nothing else!



God bless you,

Mark Shutts