"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." (Romans 8:1-13)
Note that verse above that says that "the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Can that be any clearer? The Spirit was given to us to enable us to fulfill "the righteousness of the law" or better said "the righteousness of the Torah." So why then have we not been taught to "do" the law or the Torah?
"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." (Romans 2:13) In other words, it is not enough to have read the Torah, the first five books of the Bible which contain God's law; we are only justified by "doing" what we have been told to do, even though modern-day Christianity tells us we don't have to "do" the law because it was replaced by grace. Here's the scripture they use to justify their teaching:
"For the law was given by Moses, [but] grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."(John 1:17) It is the little word "but" that makes this verse sound as though the law is at odds with or polar opposite of "grace and truth." But even in the King James version the word [but] is placed in brackets as shown here, indicating that [but] has been inferred by the translators, but it is not original to the Greek text. What a difference a little word can make! If you remove the [but] you have this:
"For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." They now complement each other, rather than being at odds with each other. Here is how Todd D. Bennett states it in his book, "The Law and Grace":
"While grace describes the free gift that gives us the opportunity to have life, the truth of the Torah shows us how to live that life. This is the essence of the work of the Messiah – both grace and Torah are spiritual and they both lead to life. The grace of YHWH put us on the path of life and the Torah is the path which leads to life. Just as in the beginning man and woman has access to the Tree of Life until they disobeyed the commandment of YHWH, so in the end Redeemed mankind – those who obey the commandments – will once again have access to the Tree of Life. 'Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the Tree of Life, and may enter through the gates into the city.' (Revelation 22:14)"
Now, I promised to tell you how Jesus has not yet fulfilled all the Torah as evidenced through the Feast Days as ascribed by God in the Torah. So here goes.
The Torah describes seven 'feasts of the Lord," all found in Leviticus 23, seven being the biblical number for perfection and completion. The seven feasts are God's "appointed times" – divine dates coinciding with divine events according to God's will. The first four feasts fall in the spring of the year, while the last three occur in the fall.
Spring Feasts were prophetic in their symbolism of what was to come through Jesus:
The Feast of Passover – Jesus became the Passover Lamb, the ultimate atonement for man's sin…for us…when he gave His life on the cross. "Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.' (1 Corinthians 5:7). This feast symbolizes the substitutionary death of Jesus, our Passover lamb, for us.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread – leaven is yeast. Yeast permeates the dough and causes it to ferment and expand and as it sours the dough, it causes a type of decomposition; much like sin does to us, ultimately leading to death if not repented of. Jesus, however, was without sin and thus became the 'unleavened bread' that the feast symbolizes – sustenance for us and without sin – as evidenced by the fact that his body did not decay in the grave, in fulfillment of this feast which follows immediately after Passover. Thus, Jesus' burial was prophetically symbolized through this feast and fulfilled by Jesus. "For You will not leave my soul in [the grave], nor will You allow Your Holy One [the Messiah] to see corruption [decay]." (Psalm 16:10)
The Feast of Firstfruits – This feast began only two days after the beginning of the Passover season. The people were to bring the first offerings of the barley harvest (the first grain ready to be harvested early each spring) as an offering to the Lord. The offering of barley was to be accompanied by an unblemished male lamb, a drink offering of wine, and a meal offering of the barley flour mixed with olive oil (i.e., unleavened bread). The first reaping of the harvest belonged to God; the "firstfruits" was the Lord's…much as Jesus was God's "reaping" or the "firstfruits" of the harvest of souls by the power of God. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep." (1 Corinthians 15:20) Thus, Jesus fulfilled this prophetic feast by His resurrection.
The Feast of Weeks ["Shavuot" is Hebrew for "Weeks"; aka "Pentecost" in the Greek language of the New Testament which means "fiftieth"] – This feast was celebrated on the fiftieth day from the Feast of Firstfruits. After His resurrection, Jesus was seen walking with His disciples and others during a period of 40 days, at which time He then bodily ascended into the heavens with all the disciples watching. And just before He ascended He instructed the disciples to go into Jerusalem and wait. And exactly 10 more days passed, when, on the 50th day known as Pentecost, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus, Jesus fulfilled this last of the spring feasts by His sending of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, to indwell man.
As you can see, the fulfillment of the prophecy of the springs feasts occurred at the proper "appointed times" corresponding with the respective spring feast. We should expect the fall feasts to fall within the same "appointed times" even though "no man knows the day or the hour."
That leaves only the Fall Feasts to be fulfilled still:
The Feast of Trumpets – "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) "The great day of the Lord is near…That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet…" (Zeph. 1:14-16)
The Day of Atonement [Yom Kippur] – "I will return again to My place til they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly see Me." (Hosea 5:15) This Feast prophetically speaks to the nation of Israel specifically, looking to the day when the nation with one heart will say, "Come, and let us return to the Lord."(Hosea 6:1)
The Feast of Tabernacles [Sukkot; aka The Feast of Ingathering] – The fulfillment of this feast by the Lord will be accompanied by great joy as it will be held in the presence of the Lord. "My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. The nations also will know that I, the Lord, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore." (Ezek. 37:27-28; Rev. 21:3)
There is SO much more to the prophecy and fulfillment of these feasts than I have been able to summarize so briefly here. Much of what I described about the feasts came from the book by Kevin Howard and Marvin Rosenthal titled "the Feasts of the Lord." I encourage you to purchase this book, if you can, and learn so much more! The book will tell you the months during which the fall feasts occur so that you can be a proper watchman looking for the Lord's soon return!
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