The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant, which contained the “Law of commandments contained in ordinances” (Eph.2:15) and He fulfilled every point of those commandments and ordinances, and abolished the Old Covenant to give way to the New; and in the New Covenant the elect are complete in Christ. In the NC the believers are the temple of God, there are no more rituals or ordinances, or the Law. How come churches still continue in bondage to the flesh teaching rituals like baptism or Lord’s supper, when these are not part of the New Covenant?
The Apostle Paul spoke to the Hebrews of his time. The Judaizers were the archenemies of Paul (and of Christ, of course). We need to keep this in mind when we read the book of Hebrews. Paul feared for his life ever since he knew Christ. The council of Jerusalem excluded the gentiles from the necessity of following the law of Moses (Acts 15). The Jews, on the other hand, wanted the gentiles to continue practicing the law. That was contrary to what Christ taught His disciples during the last Passover.
The Passover was a memorial. We read this in Exodus 12:14 and many references in the Old Testament. The Hebrews had to keep this feast every year to remember their exit from Egypt, which was a picture of the deliverance from sin and death that Christ came to accomplish for His people (for the Jews first and then for the Gentiles). At the last Passover, Christ said to His disciples, “do this in remembrance of Me”. In other words, He was teaching them – don’t celebrate the Passover as you did before, thinking about Egypt; now, I have accomplished true deliverance from the bondage of sin and death. I have truly made you free. Now, remember me and what I have done for you. This was only for the Hebrews, who still had to be under the law as long as the temple was standing. But, that temple was destroyed, and God did not leave a trace of it. Now, we are the temple. That’s the reason why there are no rituals in the New Covenant.
We need to read the Bible step by step, like you will do any other book, except that this is the Word of the Living God, and we better believe and trust what He says. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant are very different in form and essence. The Old Covenant consisted of all the types and shadows God gave the Hebrews to reveal Himself to them, and to them only. The New Covenant is the fulfillment of every type and shadow that pointed to Christ’s work, and that Christ accomplished completely. There is no need for more types and shadows. Christ is all in all. The work (Christ’s work; God’s work) was fulfilled, accomplished, and perfectly completed by the only One who was able and was appointed to fulfill it: the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not institute new rituals or shadows because there was no need for them anymore. He opened the door for His children to go to the Throne of Grace boldly, and He did all these for His children, once for all.
If we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, we have constant communion with Christ. We don’t need a ceremony to remind us of anything. We worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth. Ceremonies were part of the Old Covenant, including the Passover. Christ did not come to institute new ceremonies, He came to fulfill the old ones, that we (his children) could be in perfect communion with Him, forever.
I know (I was there once) that it is very difficult to break away from two-thousand-year-old traditions, but that is the only way we can come to know the truth of the Bible. Read the book of Hebrews with an opened mind. Empty yourself of all your presuppositions and let the Bible guide you in your research. The Hebrews became enemies of Christ. They wanted to destroy anyone who would speak in the name of Christ, as Paul. So, we need to listen to what Paul is telling them. Christ celebrated the last Passover with His disciples, not to inaugurate a new ritual but to fulfill the promise of the Old Covenant, and to take the eyes of the Hebrews from the deliverance from Egypt to the deliverance from sin and death that Christ accomplished on behalf of His people. It was to the Hebrews only that these rituals were given to perform until the time of reformation. After Christ finished His work, and after the destruction of the Jewish temple, there was no more need for rituals of any kind.
The disciples were all Hebrews. They still were obligated to keep the traditions imposed on them in the Old Covenant. The Passover was one of them; as Christ celebrated the last Passover (of which He became the Lamb), and said, “Do this in remembrance of me”, He was focusing the eyes of His disciples on the perfect atonement He was effecting and that was the Feast that they were going to continue celebrating forever. After the resurrection, the Hebrews (because they are Hebrews and the temple is still standing) continued celebrating the Passover to give a testimony to the Hebrews, but they did it with the memory of Christ’s atonement and not Egypt. Once the temple was destroyed, there was no need for them to celebrate any more rituals.
The old covenant had types and shadows that Christ fulfilled completely. He also inaugurated the New Covenant which has no more shadows for Christ is its reality once for all. The early church was essentially composed of Hebrews. Christ came to the Hebrews, first. The Law was given to the Hebrews in the Old Covenant. That’s what God explained to them in the book to the Hebrews. The events in the book of Acts show the transition the Jewish believers went through as they passed from the system of the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. The churches were attacked by the Judaizers, who wanted the Gentile believers to continue observing the Law of Moses, including the Corinthians.
There are many texts proofs in the Scriptures telling that we (believers in the New Covenant) do not submit to ordinances, rudiments of the world, shadows, or types of any kind. We worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Christ said it, and it is the Truth. By the end of the first century, so called “church fathers” had already departed from the truth. They practiced baptism of regeneration, which is contrary to the Scriptures. Mat. 28 and Mark 16 can never be interpreted as water baptism, because that is contrary to the teaching of the New Covenant and the whole of Scripture.
The Lord Jesus Christ never instituted baptism or Lord’s supper. We need to read the book of Corinthians from the beginning and see that the church was going through a hard time. Believers were being enticed by “men crept in unawares” who considered “the grace of God as a means of gain” who wanted the believers to follow the Law of Moses. Corinthians 11 cannot be isolated from chapters 9 and 10 and taken out of context. God explains what the Table of the Lord really was, and how it was necessary for them to understand that the communion of the body of Christ was a spiritual reality in Christ. “Christ is our Passover,” said Paul, and also “Christ didn’t send us to baptize”. There is only one baptism (Eph 4:5), the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and God is the only one who can perform it. Even when Christ and the apostles were living, they faced much opposition from the ones who wanted to change the message of Christ into a gospel of works. That’s what the churches have practiced for almost 2,000 years, a gospel of works, and a denial of the Grace of God. If it is of works, it is not Grace, and a gospel of works is accursed.