I hope this doesn't mean that a 'hidden sin' is ok. I don't really expect you think so, as more than humans are witnessing our lives, not to mention that in the end everything will be exposed, but....
Anyhow, yes, I agree concerning sin as a testimony concerning God, putting it more like this --that sin is claiming that our own Creator is irrelevant and a liar. And it is off topic, perhaps, but this is the one thing that bruised Christ's heel, yet he has planned it that way for the sake of his own Glory and praise, and for his plan for the Elect --the Bride of Christ.
Indeed, I was not suggesting that hidden sin is ok. Any time that we do something that expresses God's nature, we are showing who God is regardless of whether anyone is watching, and when we claim to be His follower while acting against His nature, then we are misrepresenting who He is. For example, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, so when we keep the Sabbath holy, we are testifying about who he is, but when we break the Sabbath, we are bearing false witness against him.
I asked: Also, is compliance to the law the same as obedience to Christ?
And you answered:
My reason for asking, is because of the difference between mere compliance, as a work by the flesh, and the kind of thing God wants --the walk by faith. Do you see no difference? One who has not Christ yet following the law, is not obeying, but merely complying.
However, I agree completely with the notion that Christ obeyed as human, not so easily as some suppose, and thus, ironically, proved he was God. Like someone else on here has said, he in fact did everything he did here as human, by the same power that drives the Elect.
Sorry, I missed the nuance of your question and I would agree that compliance to the law is not the same as obedience to Christ. The goal of the Mosaic Law is to teach us how to experientially know Christ through living in a way that expresses or testifies about his nature, but people can obey the law while missing its goal. In Romans 9:30-10:4, the Israelites had a zeal for God, but it was not based on knowledge, so they failed to attain righteousness because they pursued the law as though righteousness were by works in an effort to establish their own instead of pursuing the law as through righteousness were by faith in Christ, for Christ is the goal of the law for righteousness for everyone who has faith. In John 5:39-40, Jesus said that they search the Scriptures because they think that in them they will find eternal life, and they testify about him, yet they refuse to come to him that they might have life. In Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that if we want to enter eternal life, then obey the commandments, so eternal life can be found in the Scriptures and the Pharisees were correct to search for it there, but they needed to recognize that the goal of the law is to teach us how to experientially know Christ and to come enter into a relationship for eternal life. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that tithing was something that they ought to be doing while not neglecting the weightier matters of the law of justice, mercy, and faithfulness, so they were obeying the law while missing that the goal of the law is to teach us how to express those aspects of Christ's nature, which is the way to experientially know him. In Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who were workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so again they were obeying the law while missing its goal of knowing Christ. In Philippians 3:8, Paul had been in the same boat where he had been keeping the law, but without having a focus on knowing Christ, so he had been missing the whole goal of the law and counted it all as rubbish.
Finally, I note, you have mentioned that even Christ did not obey the commands that were irrelevant to his case, such as happens by the fact that he was not female. I am not sure, then, where you draw the lines for what is relevant to those who are not Jews, or do you think we must all live like Jews as far as all the requirements for, for example, cleanliness --must a Christian female abide by the laws of cleanliness, etc? Is circumcision of males abiding by the law?
God ways are the ways that He acts or expresses His nature, and there are many verses that describe the Mosaic Law as being instructions for how to walk in God's ways, such as Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Isaiah 2:2-3, Joshua 22:5, Psalms 103:7, and many others, so the reason that God gave the law was not to teach the nations about who the Jews are, but in order to equip the Jews to be a light and a blessing to the world through testifying about who God is. In Deuteronomy 4:5-8, the intended reaction of the nations seeing Israel's obedience to the Mosaic Law was to marvel at how great and wise God is, so in other words, the law was given as a tool to evangelize Gentiles. If the Mosaic Law teaches how to testify about God's nature and we should live in a way that testifies about God's nature, then we should seek to obey the Mosaic to Law to the greatest extent that we can.
For example, in 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to have a holy conduct for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to have a holy conduct, such as refraining from eating unclean animals (Leviticus 11:44-45), so following those laws is testifying about God's holiness. However, laws that are in regard to temple practice should only be followed when there is a temple in which to practice them. Paul only spoke against circumcision for the wrong reasons, so he should not be mistaken as speaking against obeying God as if he had the authority to countermand God.
