Judaism—or, a Foreshadowing

In the Old Testament the law had only a foreshadowing of Christ. Now Christ has come, and God forbids our occupation in those things which are less than Christ. To be so occupied is to present something to God other than Christ Himself: "Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Col. 2:17. The natural man prefers the things of Judaism and the flesh, but the Lord tells us that the new and the old cannot be mixed up together, as they so often are: "And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith, The old is better." Luke 5:37-39.
Whatever, then, is brought forward out of Judaism into Christianity is mixing the old with the new. Man in the flesh has been condemned in the cross. To bring in Judaistic things is to resurrect the old man and to set aside the cross. Judaism in any form is an affront to Christ, who suffered, bled, and died upon Calvary's cross. It is a dishonor to God, and He cannot accept it. "The flesh is flesh." John 3:6.
Any effort "at all" to present Christ to God in the energy of the flesh He calls "abomination" and "iniquity": "And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity." Lev. 7:18. Christ is what the true worshiper presents to God-and especially, Christ crucified. He does so in the power of the Spirit. Our hearts, unstable as they are, may become distracted in the very midst of so worshiping. The distraction may be merely the wanderings of the mind or externally induced. Then the heart's impulse is generated by the flesh, rather than by the Spirit. Any further effort to maintain worship is carnal. He may be praising God in audible prayer or in song or quietly in meditation. To simply carry on thus without judging the departure answers, I believe, to what is called "abomination" and "iniquity" in this passage. Carnal devices can only produce carnal worship. They are themselves distractions.
D. Graham