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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Law and Gospel | Gal 3:21 | Beja | 223268 | ||
(this will be in multiple posts as replies) Are the Law and Gospel contrary to each other? Many would suggest that if we are saved by grace through faith, and by means of the gospel, then therefore we must be utterly done with the law. It is either Law or Gospel/Faith. The two are contrary to one another. If we are under grace, or if we are under the Gospel, then we are completely through with the Law. Is this true? Are they contrary to each other? Gal 3:21,22 Is the Law then contrary to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law had been given which was able to impart life, then righteousness would indeed have been based on law. But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. The “promises” of the gospel stated here are clearly a reference to the “Gospel.” We can affirm this based on Galatians 3:8. Which clearly state that through the promises to Abraham, God was declaring the gospel. So then, according to Paul the gospel and the Law are not contrary to each other. But we must pay careful attention to why they are not. And the answer is, because the Law was not given to impart life. If it had been, then righteousness would have been through the law, but it was not, and therefore righteousness does not come through the law. But rather the Scripture containing the Law, had instead the explicit purpose of shutting up every person under sin. And it shut them up under sin SO THAT the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. So we see that the intentions of the Law were not to impart life and result in two possible paths towards right standing with God, rather it was to convict all of sin and press them towards the promises of the gospel in which are found the one and only means of life and righteousness. What do we mean by the term Law? When we speak of the Law in this discussion, we do not refer to every cultural practice of national Israel. Things such as dietary restrictions, ceremonies, yearly festivals or civil laws are not in view in this discussion. These are all picture foreshadowing Christ. Col 2:16, 17 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Rather, what we have in mind is the system of morality as depicted chiefly in the Ten Commandments. So then, the moral law of the old testament is not to be understood as contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the reason it is not to be understood as contrary, is that it is not offering itself as an alternative means to salvation, but rather a means of instructing and convicting us of our own sin and driving us to Christ. Once we stand under Grace, united to Christ by Faith, must we continue to live out the moral laws of the Old Testament? We can not treat this question fairly unless we divide it into two more clearly stated question. Question # 1: Must we follow the Old Testament Commands in order to receive justification? Question #2: Do the moral instructions of the Old Testament remain the expected conduct of believers? These are two totally different questions. And if we refuse to ask them as separate questions, we will continue to rush into error, and we will continue to struggle to understand scripture. Let question 1 be dealt with first. Must we follow the Old Testament Commands in order to receive justification? The answer to that is a firm no. Gal 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. This is, of course, only one of many verses that can be quoted to affirm this. Question 2, “do the moral instructions of the Old Testament remain the expected conduct of believers?”, must be treated as a different question. One can not conclude that simply because something is not the means of justification that God does not in fact desire a believer to do it. I affirm, that the gospel implicitly instructs believers to follow righteousness as described in the moral laws of the Old Testament. |
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2 | Law and Gospel | Gal 3:21 | Beja | 223269 | ||
(THIS IS PART 2, MAKE SURE YOU READ PART 1 FIRST) 1. There is an instruction of morality implicit to the gospel. 1Ti 1:8-11 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully ,realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. Lets examine this passage carefully. First, we see that Paul is specifically discussing the Law. Second, he says it is to restrain a variety of sins. Third, Paul states that these sins are contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious gospel. The law is used to restrain sins that are contrary to the gospel. Inherent to the gospel is a system of morality. This should not surprise us. The gospel is not merely about the means of salvation. The gospel also includes declaring the need for salvation. Inherent to the gospel message is that we are all sinners facing a coming day of judgment. And that we all stand guilty. We are guilty because we have gone against the Law of God. So inherent in the gospel message is the understanding that the moral Law of God, which is expressed in the Old Testament, is in fact something we should not transgress. We see this clearly because the Lawful use of the Law is to restrain sins that are contrary to the gospel. In other words, the sins that the Law restrains, are also sins that the gospel condemns. Lets see evidence of this from another passage. Eph 4:17-24 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Lets simplify this passage. Paul says: 1.) Do not continue to walk as the gentiles. 2.) You did not learn Christ this way. 3.) If you have been taught Christ, you were taught to put off the old self and put on the new. This is a powerful statement by Paul. It clearly states that there is an expectation of morality implicit in somebody learning Christ. Because the gospel is not only a means of salvation, it is also a statement of condemnation of all transgression against the Laws of God. Furthermore, the gospel is a call to repentance from transgressing the laws of God. What the Law forbids, the gospel condemns. To try and suggest that you can receive salvation and yet walk happily in the sin of the Gentiles is according to Paul “not to have learned Christ.” If you have learned Christ, you were also taught to put off such old sin and walk in a renewed life. Paul continues in this passage giving practical examples of putting off the old man and putting off the new. So let me summarize what we have found. The Gospel contains an implicit condemnation of sin, and instruction in morality. The notion of morality which the gospel forwards, is the morality of the Old Testament Law. 1.) What the law forbids, is what the Gospel itself condemns. 2.) The Law is not contrary to the Gospel. 3.) The moral Law of the Old Testament is still the expected morality of the New Testament. 4.) While the Law is not nor every will be a means to salvation, it is and will remain a means of instruction as to what is sin and what is righteousness. |
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3 | Law and Gospel | Gal 3:21 | Beja | 223271 | ||
I do regret that none of the underlines, bold letters or italics carried over from microsoft word. They had helped very much to let a reader visually organize all of that. Oh well. In Christ, Beja |
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eklektos | ||
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Beja | ||
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Beja | ||
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Beja |