Sacrificial system & Justification by faith alone

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Scott Bushey

Puritanboard Commissioner
Luthers rejection of Rome's work oriented system brought about reform in Christs church in regards to understanding justification by faith alone and how men are rightly saved by faith in Christ solely.

Was the OT sacrificial system at odds with justification by faith alone? In other words, could an elect man hold to justification by faith alone and still offer sacrifices for the atonement of sins rightly, seeing Christ as the ultimate atonement and the system as another? Is this not a contradiction?

As well, in speaking of Luther, his rejecting the mass and things like indulgences for forgiveness of sins, did this not assault that which the OT saint held to in regards to the sacrificial system?

[Edited on 4-2-2006 by Scott Bushey]
 
You cannot abstract the OT sacrificial system from its prospective character. Nor can you take another (man-made) sacrificial system--whether pre- or post-crucifixion, including Rome's abomination of the mass that follows after the finished work of Christ--and grant it the same status as the OT system.

The OT system does not stand in contradiction to justification by faith, because Abraham and all his seed are justified by faith, and the promise came 430 years before the law. The ritual of the ceremonial system was meant to point to Christ and to teach the people to look beyond it to him. The Romish system of today returns the people to the bondage of obscurity. It does not teach the glory of Christ by obscuring him behind the veil of ceremony.
 
Originally posted by Contra_Mundum
You cannot abstract the OT sacrificial system from its prospective character. Nor can you take another (man-made) sacrificial system--whether pre- or post-crucifixion, including Rome's abomination of the mass that follows after the finished work of Christ--and grant it the same status as the OT system.

The OT system does not stand in contradiction to justification by faith, because Abraham and all his seed are justified by faith, and the promise came 430 years before the law. The ritual of the ceremonial system was meant to point to Christ and to teach the people to look beyond it to him. The Romish system of today returns the people to the bondage of obscurity. It does not teach the glory of Christ by obscuring him behind the veil of ceremony.

Bruce,
If I was today to bring a bull for sacrifice to a priest, would that not assault my understanding of justification by faith alone?
 
Isn't part of the glory of the gospel that it removes all those elements of the OT worship that were once imposed upon God's people?
 
Originally posted by Scott Bushey
Originally posted by Contra_Mundum
You cannot abstract the OT sacrificial system from its prospective character. Nor can you take another (man-made) sacrificial system--whether pre- or post-crucifixion, including Rome's abomination of the mass that follows after the finished work of Christ--and grant it the same status as the OT system.

The OT system does not stand in contradiction to justification by faith, because Abraham and all his seed are justified by faith, and the promise came 430 years before the law. The ritual of the ceremonial system was meant to point to Christ and to teach the people to look beyond it to him. The Romish system of today returns the people to the bondage of obscurity. It does not teach the glory of Christ by obscuring him behind the veil of ceremony.

Bruce,
If I was today to bring a bull for sacrifice to a priest, would that not assault my understanding of justification by faith alone?
Of course it would, today, and the reason why is that it would not "point" to anything, it would cover up the reality!

But you cannot say the same thing on the other side of the cross, prior to the Incarnation. Then, whatever ceremonies and earthly "glory" was found in the sacrificial system were looking ahead to the Messiah in hope. Therefore, the same sacrifice then was not an obfuscation, but a revelation, and it was a revelation because God appointed it--it wasn't a man-made creation of willworship.
 
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