Subject: Why ask Why? Why ask Where? |
Bible Note: Hey kalos ... What I see is that the law (written) is a stumbling block. The law (Torah or otherwise) creates a list of dos and don'ts that most (all actually, except Jesus) people can't live up to. There are two specific purposes I see for the existence of a written law. 1) Instruction. It is to teach the loveless how to love. Thus Jesus' concluding statement to the Sermon on the Mount: "Therefore (i.e. to sum it all up), do to others as you would have them do to you (i.e. love your neighbor as yourself), for this is the law and the prophets." He later says that all the law the prophets are dependent upon the two great commandments (love God, love your neighbor) for their existence. (Master, what is the greatest commandment ...) He concludes his ministry by giving us a final commandment; one that is new. Love one another as he loved us. By this will all men know that we are his disciples. Paul says that the goal of their instruction is love from a pure heart, clear conscience, and sincere faith (or conviction). Paul says that any commandment we have, whether do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery ... "or if there be any other commandment," it is summed up by this: namely, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no ill to your neighbor, so love is the fulfilling of the law. John says that if we love our brother, we walk in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in us. To put it all together: Love your neighbor as yourself is what the law and the prophets mean; all the law and the prophets depend upon love for their existence; love fulfills the law; the Apostles' instruction was with the goal of love in mind; if we love, there is no reason for us to stumble. Thus, if we love, which fulfills the OT Law, adheres to the commandment of Christ, meets the full expectations of the Apostles' teachings, and prevents us from stumbling since we walk in the light, we do well, having fulfilled the Royal Law by the scripture "love your neighbor as yourself." Now, as we know, all scripture is profitable for correction, doctrine, reproof, etc. This goes back to the first aspect of this item. It is profitable for teaching the loveless how to love. Those that understand real love will not kill someone else, steal from them, sleep with their wife, or even do something so small as to call them names (Rakka ... thou fool). This is simply not the attitude of love. 2) We need the law to die. Jesus had to die in order to fulfill the law. If you recall Elisha when he was being killed, he cursed everyone. When Jesus was being killed, he forgave them; love to the utmost extreme. He fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick, comforted the hurting, gave to the poor ... He was meek, mild, humble ... willing to teach, eager to do good, did not seek his own gain, was without pride ... All of these things are qualities of love. It really had nothing to do with the written law. He did it that way because love was the point. Because of the written law, he had to suffer all things in order to live up to the fullest standard of the law, which was love. The law is death. If there had been a law that could have made righteous, then righteousness would have come by the law. Because righteousness did NOT come by the law, it must be concluded that no such law existed that could have made us righteous. We have to trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Our own righteousness is dirt, and nothing we can do will ever measure up, because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Because of all this ... because the law is death to us, we had to die, just like Christ had to die. In baptism, we go down in imitation of his death, and we come up in the newness of life. As the written law was nailed to the cross with Christ, so too as we nail our old man to the cross, the old man that was subject to the law died. Now, raised up in the newness of life, we are dead to the law, and hence, dead to sin. The law identifies sin. Therefore, as quoted in a previous post, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all those that believe. If we put ourselves back under the law, sin is suddenly reidentified, revived within us, and we die spiritually. Without a written law, there is no identification of sin. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. Theo-Minor Continued .... |