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NASB | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. [Heb 11:3] |
Subject: Sin is Defined as Breaking God's Law |
Bible Note: Concerning the following verse, are you saying that it refers to the Old Law or the New? You quote: "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed," James 1:25. AND "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty, verse" James 2:12 AND "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city, Revelation 22:14." These are names for the New Covenant or Testament through Christ blood. You err in not making a distinction between the Old Law and the New Law. The Old was done away with and the New established (Heb. 8:6,7,13; 9:15-17). The Old Law was hostile to us because it pointed out sin but couldn't justify (Heb 10:4). The cross of Christ took it out of the way. "Behold he takes away the first to establish the second" (Heb 10:9). The Second was establish at the death of the Testator, Jesus (Heb 9:15-17). He did this at the cross, through the offering of His body (Col 2:14; Eph 2:15). The passages you refer to also relate to the "law of the Spirit" that Paul mentions in Romans 8:1ff. These all refer to the New Covenant. In contrast, the Old Law of Moses was done away with because it was inferior. Yes, it was "holy, righteous and good", but it served it's purpose. But what it could not do was justify. As Paul says, it could not make holy, it could not "weak as it was through the flesh." The Law required perfection. The James 2:10 passage and Galatians 5:3 show why we don't want to turn back to the Old Law. I know some try to justify following part of the Law and discarding the other; but there is no justification for doing only part of the Law. We are freed from the Law written on tablets of stones: "2 Cor 3:7 But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it." What Law is he talking about? Paul is even more specific in the Roman letter. "Rom 7:5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." To answer the last question people usually have when the 10 Commandments are shown to be done away with, "No, that doesn't mean you can murder, commit adultery, or worship idols." The New Testament in Christ covers such things. The references to the "law of the Spirit", "law of liberty", and "the perfect law" DO NOT refer to the Mosaic Law: they are the Law of Christ established at the Cross. The fundamental principle for salvation still remains: by grace through faith. But the Old Law was not perfect (Heb.8:7), so God established the New. Good day. Disciplerami |