Law v Spiritual Reality

Some animals were recognised as unclean, before the Law, before the Flood.

Animal sacrifices also took place, before the Law, before the Flood. But animal sacrificing is not required now.

So just because something was categorised as unclean before the Law, wouldn't automatically mean it still is. Not necessarily. It would need further explanation.

But even if all animals are clean now, there was an underlying ethic which endures, and it's this:

That spiritually there was a distinction between holy and unholy. That's why we needed the cross.

Similarly, although animal sacrificing is no longer required, there is an ethic which has been eternally satisfied:

"Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins". That was an unbreakable ethic - but it has now been satisfied by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus.

So, certain underlying ethics endure, but the old structure which God commanded Israel through Moses, which was to illustrate those spiritual truths, that structure isn't relevant now.

The Feasts are a classic example. It's not possible to carry-out the Feasts the way Moses commanded.

And it wouldn't be relevant to even if we could, because Christ fulfilled the true, spiritual meaning of the Feasts.

And the outward observance of the Feasts was never the enduring ethic in itself - or else the Patriarchs before Moses should have instinctively observed the Feasts even without Moses' written Law - but they didn't.

They didn't, and yet, still they were commended for keeping God's commandments. Obviously then God had not commanded them to keep the Feasts, prior to Moses. Or else He couldn't have commended them for their obedience.

What does that tell us. That God did at some times change the structure around ethics, without changing Himself, without changing ethics themselves.

Moses' Law was a structure around Divine ethics - but the structure - Moses' Law - has discontinued as the required structure.

But the spiritual truths, morals, and ethics which the Law illustrated are now here, in a much more real way. Jesus Christ Himself. Salvation. The cross. Heart-righteousness. Holiness and love. The indwelling Spirit. Born again. Raised with Christ. The assurance of His Second Coming. All of that is received and expressed, without the structure of the Law, without the works of the Law. By means of faith, instead of by means of the Law.