Results 1 - 3 of 3
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Raven, do you want ALL the Law? | Bible general Archive 1 | Reformer Joe | 46241 | ||
With all due respect, you just repeated what you wrote before without commenting at all on the things I brought up in my last post on the subject. I agree that most of the Mosaic Covenant has never been applicable to me, as a Gentile believer. However, as you state here, if I love perfectly, I will do the things found in the Ten Commandments, and fulfill them in spirit as well as in the letter. So that is the problem I have with people saying that the moral aspects of the Law of Moses are null and void. No one can show me how to please God without referring to something stated in the moral code given to Moses. Everything you stated in this post and in your previous one about what it is to follow "the law of Christ" are also things explicitly stated in the Law of Moses. The best way to look at it is that the moral law of God, his righteous demands of His creation, precede and transcend the Mosaic Covenant. They are included there, but they were never limited to one specific group of people at one specific time and place. Adam sinned because he broke God's law. Abraham, when he sinned, was breaking God's law. Gentiles today, when they sin, are breaking God's law. None of them were part of the specific covenant God made with the people of Israel, but God's moral law, reflected in aspects of the Law of Moses, are binding on everyone at all times as a standard of righteousness, even though they were never a path to justification for anyone (including the Israelites). --Joe! |
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2 | Raven, do you want ALL the Law? | Bible general Archive 1 | ChristLifer2001 | 46265 | ||
Joe, You wrote: "The best way to look at it is that the moral law of God, his righteous demands of His creation, precede and transcend the Mosaic Covenant." This is exactly right, my friend. So even if someone could PERFECTLY keep the Mosaic Law, they would not accurately reflect EVERYTHING in God's character. But Who does? Who is our faith in? When Adam was created, he was created to look to God alone as his source for life and everything he needed. He was in an intimate relationship with His creator and, I don't believe, ever once looked at himself or his performance until the fall. Upon eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, his eyes we opened and he forfeited relationship in favor of performance. Suddenly, from his perspective, a relationship with God was no longer based upon faith and love - it was based upon performance - what he did and did not do. His focus shifted from his Creator to meet all his needs to relying upon himself to meet all his needs - love, acceptance, peace, joy, etc. His relationship became performance-based instead of faith based. Without God as his resource, man strove to re-establish the relationship with God through achievement. He was so convinced that he could do this if he just tried hard enough that God gave the Law (Mosaic) to show man the kind of perfection that was required in order to be acceptable by God. But, instead of being honest and admitting that they couldn't do it, the Jews exclaimed, "Oh, yeah, everything that the Lord has commanded, WE WILL DO!" How long did that last? The Pharisees thought that life was found in the Law. Jesus said that they searched the scriptures thinking that the Law would give them life but they wouldn't come to Him for it. They thought that they could be saved and sanctified by keeping the Law. There were so angry at being told that man could never attain God's standard in himself, that they ended up crucifying our Lord. They thought that because they kept the "externals" they were as righteous as God. This is why James says that if you believe that you can be made righteous by the Law, you have to keep ALL the Law - 99.44 percent just won't do. See part 2, please. ChristLifer2001 |
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3 | Raven, do you want ALL the Law? | Bible general Archive 1 | ChristLifer2001 | 46267 | ||
So what is the purpose of the Law? To show sin exceedingly sinful so that manking would turn to Christ. Paul says that the Law is indeed holy, righteous, and good. Why? Because it reflects God's morality. James says that it is a mirror that reflects just how sinful mankind really is. But man, full of do-it-yourself religion and performance-based acceptance, grabbed the Law and said, "I can do THAT! I'll clean myself with it." When you look in a mirror and see yourself with all your imperfections, do you grab the mirror off the wall to clean yourself? Of course not, the mirror can do nothing to clean you up, it just shows you reality. The Law is the same. Paul says that it was a schoolmaster (a discplinarian) to lead us to Christ so that we would be made right, not by keeping the Law, but by faith in Jesus alone. So the Law was given to drive man back to God as his source for righteousness, holiness, sanctification, love, etc. When we acknowledge that all these things are found in Christ and receive them in receiving Christ, we call it "grace." It is a gift. The confusion arises when Christians would claim that Christ is indeed our righteousness, our life, our holiness, our sanctification, then return to the Law as our standard. Christ is our standard and He fulfills it in and through us. The just (righteous) shall live (walk, perform) by faith, not the Law. In Christ, we can once again look to God alone as our source for everything we need for life and godliness - 2 Pet 1:3. The problem with much of modern Christianity is that we think that grace is an EVENT, not a life-style. We think we received grace at salvation and not WE maintain our righteous standing before God. But grace is just as much a process as an event. That is why Paul urges us to grow in grace (never Law) and "as you have received the Lord - by faith through grace - so walk in Him. This is why Paul as the Galatians, "You foolish people! You were justified and born again by faith in Christ! Are you trying to be sanctified by the flesh (trying to keep the Law)?" They were being told by the Judaizers that salvation by grace through faith in Christ was fine, but that now they needed to go back to the Law to find out how to live, how to be "sanctified." God has a better way, walking by faith in Christ fully expecting Him to live out God's righteous requirements in us each day: Romans 8: 3- "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh (self-performance), God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh (self-performance) but according to the Spirit." Hope this helps, brother. You may not agree with me. That's okay. But I hope you understand my viewpoint better. ChristLifer2001 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on (6) the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, (7) the things of the Spirit. |
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