The food restrictions placed on the Israelites in the Old Testament in passages like Leviticus 11, were given by God in order to mark them out as His people. It was a way of making them distinctive from all the nations around them. They were to be set apart, or holy, in this way. When Jesus came, he fulfilled the law, and brought about a new way of becoming holy. We are no longer holy by keeping the law, by rather we are made holy by having faith in Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit.

“14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 ‘This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.’” Hebrews 10:14-15

Jesus revealed this truth in a visual demonstration to the apostle Peter in Acts 10-11. He showed him that the food laws no longer applied to God’s people, and that the Gentiles (who did not keep the food laws and were thus despised and shut out by Israel) could now be welcomed in. The Jewish Christians found this hard to accept initially (Acts 11:2-3), but came to realise that God had only meant the food laws to be a temporary measure, which no longer applies. God has therefore made all food acceptable for His people to eat (although they don’t have to eat all the food!).