Rehearsels Over

The high sabbaths were 'rehearsels' only until JESUS came - because He is the real thing. 

Once the real, live Act was performed, rehearsing of course ceased. 

Jesus brought us everything which the sabbaths merely foreshadowed.

He brought the reality to us in the Person of Himself - and through what He accomplished for us by the cross. 

All things rehearsed were enacted fully to, for, in, by, and from Him.

In fact He is not merely the Act which the rehearsals had previewed - He's the Play itself!

Even though in our human experience there is still a 'not-yet' aspect to all that Jesus brought to us (such as the resurrection, judgment, end of the world and eternal kingdom which are still future, at His Second Coming) still there has come an 'already' aspect to all things - in and through Jesus.

(We shall be saved - we are saved, in Him;

The devil shall be judged - the prince of this world is judged already;

The hour is coming, and now is, when all who are in the graves shall hear His voice...

We shall be raised - we are raised with Him;

The Kingdom is reserved for us in heaven - we are seated together with Him in heavenly places in Christ;

The end is coming - yet Christ was crucified 'in the end of the world';

He will make all things new - yet if any man be in Christ he is a new creature;

Kingdom Now/Not Yet.)

Even though we look forward in hope, we are saved already in Jesus.

So we look forward, but with a sense of already having (in Jesus) - knowing it's already been accomplished - not like the weekly rehearsals of the Law.

In Christ - the New Covenant - Who came, and Who is now in us - unlike under the Law - we already have the substance of the shadow; the presence of the future; the Kingdom; the glory; eternal life.

Although we still hope, faith now is the substance of what we hope for. Not continually carrying-out the 'rehearsals' of the Law - but faith. Rehearsals look forward - faith has, even though faith still hopes because it doesn't yet see.

Rehearsals were not the real thing - but faith has the real thing, even though it waits in hope.

Jesus is the Firstfruits - a kind of realised eschatology - and us in Him and Him in us.

So the truly Messianic life is a whole new life - it needn't consist in carrying-out the shadows - because we already are blessed with all the spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus which the sabbaths could only foreshadow in an earthly ('rehearsal') type way.

We won't need to carry-out sabbaths in the future eternal state, because we will have entered into the realities - and on the inside we already have the reality now - in Jesus!