Subject: Are we Under Mosiac Law? or Jesus Law? |
Bible Note: Biblicalman, I find it interesting what some will say that we are under, while trying to deny that, in one sense, we are under the law. Let me qualify and say that with regards to a covenant determining our life and death and eternal destiny, those who are in Christ are NOT under the law. But with regards to what is right and wrong and what we still ought to do and not do, not for any reward, but because it is right and wrong, we are still under the law. Now I hear some say either one or two things. 1. We are to love God with all our heart soul and mind and our neighbor as ourselves. However, did Christ Himself not tell us that on these two commandments hinge all the law and the prophets? All other thins in scripture are fulfilled and simply situational applications of these two commands! How then can we say we are not to follow the law, but we are to follow these two commands? To suggest this is to create a false distinction between these and the rest of the law. We can not obey what you are calling the law of Christ, without obeying the entire law. Did transgress against any point of the Old Testament moral law, is to in some way transgress against loving God or loving our neighbor. 2. Some will say the only command we are under now is the command to love. Ironically they will often state these verses to defend their view. Rom 13:9 For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Rom 13:10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. However, if we think through this verse we will see something we didn't expect. If all the law is summed up in the statement to love your neighbor, then what we MEAN when we command to love your neighbor must therefore implicitely include all the law. When we tell somebody to love their neighbor we mean by that: Do not steal from them, but rather seek their good; do not bear false witness against them but speak the truth; do not covet their belongings, but rejoice in their prosperity; etc. Because in the one statement, "love your neighbor" all the law is summed up and contained. We can not on one hand say that all the commands of the law are summed up in this one thing, then on the other say this one thing does not imply all the commands. Let me recap lest people missunderstand my position. We are not under the law in terms of a covenant. But the moral law remains the Christian definition of right and wrong, and we are to follow it. Not as if it is the means of our attaining eternal life, but because it is right. In Christ, Beja |