Never did I say that the OT law should be disobeyed and never did I say that Paul's words were greater than Jesus'. Yes I do understand where you're coming from in that I only specifically quoted Paul and that I didn't put emphasis on the topic of obeying the law, in other words obeying God.
You said, "The whole 6 chapters explains clearly that Jesus came to free us from the law" so I apologize if I misunderstood you, but it sure sounds to me like you were interpreting Paul as speaking against obeying God's Law, and it seems to be very inconsistent with what you just said in your reply, so I hope you see why I misunderstood you. If God commanded His followers to do something and Paul said that Christ freed from having to obey what God commanded, then Paul would be speaking against obeying God, so people who refrained from following what God commanded because of what Paul said would be giving Paul more authority than God.
Let me clarify what my argument is. Christianity is solely based on Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Without Christ everything is meaningless. I hope you agree with this point because if you do not, there's no point in discussing anything else. Assuming that you agree, I agree with your words,
I agree.
Once again, I did not say that you can follow Jesus by rejecting the Law. You are branching off of what I DID NOT say and assuming that I am not aware of your arguments just because I did not mention it. I only said that the greater emphasis should be placed on Jesus rather than the works of the Law because you DO NOT receive salvation through your works but only through faith in Jesus Christ. You have to understand that even in the Old Testament, whether you were a jew or a gentile, the ONLY way to go to heaven is your faith that one day a savior would come to reconcile the broken relationship between God and mankind. Which is why present day Jews still await for a savior while we, Christians, don't.
In Romans 3:27, Paul contrasted a law that was of works with a law that was of faith, so works of law are of works, while he said that our faith upholds God's Law (Romans 3:31), so they are not the same thing. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith is one of the weightier matters of the Law, so again God's Law is of faith. However, I will completely agree that we are not saved through our obedience to either God's Law or works of law, but only through faith in Christ, though the same faith that saves us also requires our obedience to God's Law.
It is my mistake that I didn't really mention the importance of obeying the Law. In Matthew 3:17 it says, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Just like you said, we cannot ignore obeying the Law because Jesus did not necessarily take away the requirement of obeying God's laws. However, what I was trying to get across is that we can try to follow all the OT laws but we will quickly realize that we cannot follow them perfectly due to our sinful nature at our core. So let's just assume that we can go to heaven through your works. Then no one, and I mean NO ONE could go to heaven because no one is perfect. On the other hand, I do believe, while some might disagree, that your faith in Christ alone can get you to heaven.
So you originally said that Christ came to free us from the law, but now you are saying that Jesus did not necessarily take away the requirement of obeying God's laws, so to me that sounds like you are contradicting your earlier position. I agree that we can't follow God's Law perfectly, but perfection was never the expectation. The Law itself comes with instructions for what to do when we sin and repentance would be pointless because it would already be too late for perfection, yet every single prophet up to and including Jesus came with the message of repentance. Again, in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and Romans 10:4-10, God said that what he commanded was not too difficult for us, which would not be true if it were pass/fail based on perfection, but rather keeping the law is about continuing to practice repentance when we sin. So no one can go to heaven by obeying the Law primarily because it was never given for that goal in the first place.
In Romans 9:30-10:10, the reason why Israel failed to obtain righteousness was precisely because they had that fundamental misunderstanding of the goal of the Law. They had a zeal for God, but it was not based on knowledge because they did not understand that the righteousness of God comes only through faith in Messiah, so they pursued the Law as through righteousness were by works in an effort to establish their own instead of pursuing the Law as though righteousness were by faith, for a relationship with Christ is the goal of the Law for righteousness for everyone who has faith. In Philippians 3:8, Paul had been outwardly keeping the Law, but without having a focus on growing in his relationship with Christ, so he had been completely missing the whole point and counted it all as rubbish.
One example being the criminal that was next to Jesus during the Crucifixion who repented at the moment of His death and believed that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of the living God. Notice He only believed but didn't really do anything for the Kingdom. Jesus then told him that the criminal will be with him in paradise (Luke 23:39-43) and until this day we know about this criminal because of his "last minute conversion."
Faith is always associated with the willingness to follow God's instructions, such as with every example of saving faith listed in Hebrews 11, so someone can at least be willing to follow God's instructions even if they are physically prevented.
I do put emphasis on following God's laws given to us because a Christian's ultimate goal is not to go to heaven but to glorify God. God sent His one and only Son so that God can once again get all the glory just as in the Garden of Eden. If your goal is to just end up in heaven your reward in heaven will differ from the reward another Christian receives for truly following Jesus through obeying God's laws. At the end of the day though, the bridge that connects us to God is not the law but Jesus Christ. If your obedience to the Law does not stem from your faith in Christ then you are not a follower of Christ but a follower of the Law. That is the only reason why I placed more emphasis on your faith in Jesus Christ.
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus said to let our light shine before others, that they may see our good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven, so doing good works in obedience to the Law has always been about glorifying God and about growing in a relationship with Him based on faith and love.
I only said that Christ died for no purpose if we put our trust in the Law to make us righteous because Christ came to free us from all lawlessness, like you said. I was just confused on your argument saying that I said that Paul's words are above Jesus' words. I believe that your argument is completely flawed. I did not cite any other source than the Bible. I want to make sure you understand that NONE of books in the Bible contradict one another nor is one above another. The Bible is the literal word of God and if you disagree with me on that than I will go the lengths to question what religion you are. If you ONLY believe Jesus' words or even place greater value on words over another solely because of the speaker who says them, then you are saying that you only believe portions of the Bible and that's just absurd. Every word in the Bible is written through a conviction from God meaning that it is from God. Therefore, Paul's words are not any LESS important than Jesus' words.
Again, saying Christ came to free us from Lawlessness is the opposite of saying he came to free us from the Law, but it now appears that we are on the same page about a number of issues, so I happy about that. I also agree that everything in the Bible is the Word of God and everything in it is true, but the problem is that many people interpret Paul as speaking against obeying God's Law, which would mean that God spoke against obeying Paul (Deuteronomy 4:2, 13:4-5), so they either need to correct their interpretation of Paul or decide who has the higher authority, and which one to follow.
The main question I was trying to answer is this: "Is a Christian really subject to the OT law?". I said that you are NOT subject to the OT law but your faith in Christ should COMPEL you to obey them. Notice how I put faith in Christ before you obey the law. Think about it like this, your faith will get you to heaven but you obedience to the law will decide your reward in heaven. Logically, you cannot have your reward in heaven if you don't get to heaven. In conclusion, obedience to the law without faith, is meaningless.
Faith > Law.
I completely agree that our faith in Christ should compel us to obey OT Law, so that is what faith looks like, though I'm not sure why you said that we are not subject to God's Law when we are God's servants. In Romans 1:8, it spoke about their faith being reported all over the world and how else do you report someone's faith if not by speaking about the actions that their faith led them to take? That's certainly how Hebrews 11 reported people's faith. In Romans 2:26, the way to tell that a Gentile has a circumcised heart is by looking at their obedience to the Law, which is the same way to tell for a Jew (Deuteronomy 30:6).