Who is Under the Law?

DamianWarS said:

there is legal code of the old covenant that we do not keep in the new. not because of our intentions to the legal code but because Jesus fulfills them in a way that the legal code has become obsolete. Christ magnifies law but that doesn't mean it's legal code is still upon us. merely pointing out that the law can be followed sincerely is avoiding engaging the topic critically.

the sacrafice did not cease in the temple after Christ's death, but the legal code did, making the ritual of sacrafice obsolete. if it was continued with good intentions doesn't change this, it also doesn't make it evil. in Acts 21 Paul is making a missional choice for peace and promote unity in Christ. this was a "to the Jew I become a Jew" act of humility. Paul's motivation is "for the sake of the gospel" not for the sake of the law.

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In Deuteronomy 30, it forms the basis for the New Covenant by prophesying about a time when the Israelites would return from exile, God would circumcise their hearts, and they would return to obedience to the Torah, which is what Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26-27 are in regard to, so the New Covenant still involves following the same legal code.

In Matthew 5:17-19, Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law in contrast with saying that he came not to abolish it and he warned against relaxing the least part of it, so you should not interpret fulfilling the law as meaning the same thing as abolishing the legal code or as relaxing the least part of it. Rather, "to fulfill the law" means "to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be" (NAS Greek Lexicon: pleroo), so after Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law in Matthew 5:17-19, he then proceeded to fulfill it throughout the rest of the chapter by correcting what the people had heard being said and by teaching how to correctly obey it as it was originally intended. According to Galatians 5:14, anyone who has loved their neighbor has fulfilled the entire law, so again it refers to correctly obeying it as it should be, moreover, it refers to something that countless people have done and should continue to do in perpetuity, not to something unique that only Jesus did or to making it obsolete. Likewise, in Galatians 6:2, bearing one another's burdens fulfills the Law of Christ, yet you do not consistently interpret that is making it obsolete.

Christ magnifying the law is the opposite of making it legal code to be no longer upon us.

All of God's righteous laws are eternal (Psalms 119:160), so none of them ceased with Christ's death. Again, one thing can only make another thing obsolete to the extent that it has cumulative functionality. In Acts 21:20-24, Paul's goal was to disprove false rumors that he had been teaching against obeying the Law of God and to show that he continue to live in obedience to it, not to deceive others into thinking that he continue to live in obedience to it while he actually did not.