Soyeong
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- Mar 10, 2015
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That's right (Hebrews 12:1).
But note that on Jesus Christ's Cross, for both Jews and Gentiles (John 11:51-52), of all times, the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law was completely and forever abolished (Ephesians 2:15-16, Colossians 2:14-17; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18), disannulled (Hebrews 7:18), rendered obsolete (Hebrews 8:13, Galatians 3:2-25, Galatians 4:21 to 5:8), taken away and replaced (Hebrews 10:9) by the better hope (Hebrews 7:19), the better covenant (Hebrews 7:22, Hebrews 8:6-12), the second covenant (Hebrews 8:7, Hebrews 10:9), of Jesus' New Covenant law (Galatians 6:2, John 1:17, Matthew 26:28, Hebrews 12:24, Hebrews 9:15), so that the law was changed (Hebrews 7:12).
God's Law instructs us how to live according to His attributes, His holiness, righteousness, goodness (Romans 7:12), justice, mercy, faithfulness (Matthew 23:23), and other fruits of the Spirit (Exodus 34:6-7), so God's Law can not be annulled without God's attributes first being annulled.
In Ephesians 2:10, it says that we are new creations in Christ for the purpose of doing good works, so it wouldn't make any sense to say just a few verses later that Christ did away with his instructions for how to do good works, but rather this is referring to man-made laws such mentioned in Acts 10:28 that forbade Jews from visiting or associating with Gentiles.
In regard to Colossians 2:14-17, crosses were never used as a means of disposing of outdated laws, but rather what was written on crosses were the charges against the person being crucified (Matthew 27:37). This fits perfectly with the concept of our sins or charges against us being nailed to his cross and with him dying in our place to pay the penalty for our sins, but does not at all fit with doing away with God's righteous standard.
In regard to 2 Corinthians 3, the Bible is up front that the Law is a ministry life and blessing for obedience and a ministry of death and cursing for disobedience, so choose life (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). The fact that the Law brings death for disobedience is hardly a good reason to disobey it. Now that we have been free from the curse of the Law of living in disobedience to it, we are now free to enjoy the life and the blessings of living in obedience to it.
In regard to Hebrew 7:18, it is speaking about a singular commandment (Numbers 3:10), not about God's righteousness being disannulled.
In regard to Hebrews 8:13 God's righteousness is eternal (Psalms 119:142), so the way to live according to God's righteousness is likewise eternal (Psalms 119:160), which means that it existed from the beginning independently of any covenant, so there is a distinction between a set of instructions for how to reflect God's righteousness to the world and a covenant agreement to abide by those instructions. A covenant can come and go, but God's righteous standard is eternal and will always remain the same, which means that anyone regardless of which covenant are under, if any, who wants to find out how to practice righteousness can do so by reading the Mosaic Law, and as part of the New Covenant, we are still told to practice righteousness (1 John 3:10, 2 Timothy 3:16-17).
In regard to Galatians, the problem was that people were teaching that Gentiles needed to obey man-made works of law in order to become saved, so it is important not to take something that was only against obeying man as being against obeying God.
In regard to Hebrews 8:6-12, it says that the New Covenant has a superior mediator and is based on better promises, but it does not say that it is based on superior laws mainly because that would involve following a superior God with superior attributes.
In regard to the Law of Christ, Jesus taught obedience to the Mosaic Law by word and by example, so I see no reason think that that the Law of Christ is anything other than what he taught by word and by example. If the Law of God, the Law of Christ, and the Law of the Spirit do not all refer to the same thing, then the Father, Son, and Spirit are in disagreement with each other about which laws should be followed. Rather, Jesus said that his teachings were not his own, but that of the Father (John 7:16), so he didn't teach anything other than the Mosaic Law.
In regard to Hebrews 7:12, it is speaking about a transition of the the priesthood, so a transition of the administration of the Law would have also been necessary. It is not speaking about a change in God's eternal righteousness or the in the eternal way to reflect it.
All Christians, whether Jews or Gentles, of all times, are delivered from the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law and shouldn't keep it (Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6-18, Galatians 2:11-21) or have any desire to keep it (Galatians 4:21 to 5:8, Galatians 3:2-25). Christians keep the spirit of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Romans 7:6) by loving others (Galatians 5:14, Romans 13:8-10), by doing to others as they would have others do to them (Matthew 7:12).
In Romans 7:21-25, Paul said that he delighted in obeying God's Law and that he served it with his mind, but directly contrasted that with the law of sin that held him captive and that he served with his flesh. In Romans 7:6, it specifies that we were set free from a law that held us captive, so it is fairly straightforward to figure out which of the two laws he was talking about us being delivered from.
In regard to Galatians 2:11-21, you are again mixing up what is said about man-made works of law with God's Law, and are mistakenly taking what was said against obeying man as being against obeying the God that were serve. In Acts 10:28, it refers to a man-made law which is not found anywhere in the Mosaic Law that forbade Jews from visiting or associating with Gentiles. It was this man-made law that Peter was obeying in Galatians 2:11-21 when he stopped visiting or associating with the Gentiles. By doing so, he was giving credibility to those who were teaching that Gentiles had to obey their man-made works of law in order to become saved, which is why Paul immediately reiterated that we are not saved by works of law, but by faith.
Jesus summarized the Law as being God's instructions for how to love Him and our neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40) and said that all of the other commands hang on the greatest two, so they are all examples or the explanation for how to correctly obey the greatest two commands. If we correctly understand the spiritual principle of love and we have faith in God to guide us in how to rightly live, then it will lead us to do things that are examples of that principle in accordance with God's Law.
The New Covenant is a new law (Hebrews 7:12,18-19, Hebrews 10:1-23), consisting of Jesus Christ's New Covenant/New Testament commandments (John 14:15), such as those He gave in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:19 to 7:29) and in the epistles of the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 14:37). These commandments exceed in righteousness the abolished letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Matthew 5:20-48). So there's no reason any Christian should ever want to go back under the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law (Galatians 3:2 to 5:26). It was just a temporary schoolmaster (Galatians 3:24-25), a temporary shadow (Colossians 2:16-17), which God set up because of sins long after He'd set up the original promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, and long before He brought that promise to fulfillment in Jesus' New Covenant (Galatians 3:16-29, Matthew 26:28).
John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
Again, there is no room to make any distinction between what Jesus and the Father taught.
Everything that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount was in regard to how to correctly obey the Mosaic Law. Whenever Jesus quoted Scripture, he proceeded it by saying "it is written", but when he was quoting from what the people had heard being taught about the law, he preceded it by saying "you have heard that it was said". In Matthew 5, Jesus was not sinning in violation of Deuteronomy 4:2 by making changes to the Law, but rather he was correcting what was incorrectly being taught about the Law. For example:
Matthew 5:18 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
While the Law certainly commands us to love our neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), it does not command us to hate our enemies, which was what was being incorrectly taught about it.
The distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law is reflected in modern discussions about law enforcement, and is not in regard to whether or not we should obey the law, but in regard to the manner in which it is obeyed: exactly how it is written or with regard to the intent behind the law. The goal of the Law of a relationship with Christ for everyone who has faith (Romans 10:4), so obeying the law without focusing in growing in a relationship with Christ based on faith (Matthew 23:23) and love (John 14:15) is completely missing the whole point, which is why Israel failed to obtain righteousness (Romans 9:32-Romans 10:10) and why Paul considered it to be rubbish (Philippians 3:8).
The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law is the Hagar to the New Covenant's Sarah (Galatians 4:21-25). So those people, whether Jews or Gentiles, who try to keep the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law are like Ishmael, Abraham's son by a bondmaid (Galatians 4:22), who was cast out (Galatians 4:30), while those people, whether Jews or Gentiles, who keep the New Covenant are like Isaac (Galatians 4:28), Abraham's son by a freewoman (Galatians 4:22,31), who became his heir (Galatians 4:30b).
This is talking about the Abrahamic Covenant, not the Mosaic one.
The letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law, including the letter of the 10 commandments, written and engraven in stones (2 Corinthians 3:7, Deuteronomy 4:13, Deuteronomy 27:8) was the ministration of death and condemnation (2 Corinthians 3:7,9). For example, see Leviticus 20:10, Exodus 31:14, and Numbers 15:32-36; and contrast these with the New Covenant's John 8:4-11 and Matthew 12:1-8.
The New Covenant involves God writing His law on our hearts instead of on stone, so the difference is the medium on which it is written, not the content.
But a mistaken spirit of Pharisaism can still sometimes deceive even Christians into thinking they must keep the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law in order to be saved (Acts 15:1,5) or in order to become perfect (Galatians 3:2 to 5:26). This is a false, cursed gospel (Galatians 1:6-9). For if any Christians are keeping any part of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law thinking they must do so in order to be saved, or in order to become perfect, then Jesus Christ will profit them nothing. They have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:2-8).
In Matthew 15:2-3, Jesus was asked why his disciples broke the traditions of the elders and he responded by asking them why they broke the command of God for the sake of their tradition. He went on to say that for the sake of their tradition they made void the Word of God (Matthew 15:6), that they worshiped God in vain because they were teaching as doctrine the commands of men (Matthew 15:8-9), and that they were hypocrites for setting aside the commands of God in order to establish their own traditions (Mark 7:6-9), so the issue was the the Pharisees were teaching man-made works of law instead of God's Law. For example, in Acts 15:1, they were wanting all Gentiles to become circumcised in order to become saved, but this is not a requirement found anywhere in God's Law, so by rejecting this man-made requirement the Jerusalem Council was upholding God's Law. While God certainly did require Jews to become circumcised, not even they were required to become circumcised for the purpose of becoming saved.
So teaching that we need to obey man-made works of law in order to become saved is a counterfeit gospel. However, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent from our sins for the Kingdom of God is at hand, and the Mosaic Law was given to reveal what our sins are that we need to repent of, so repentance from our disobedience to the Mosaic Law is an integral part of his Gospel message and a Gospel message that does not involve repentance from what God has revealed to be sin is also a counterfeit gospel. In Romans 15:18-19, Paul's Gospel message involved bringing the Gentiles to full obedience in word and in deed, so he was on the same page as Jesus.
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