Yes, the Gospel affirms freedom from lawkeeping.
okay, do you mind elaborating on what "freedom from lawkeeping" looks like? If the law says, "Do not steal," are we free to now steal? If not, then what exactly does freedom from keeping the law of "Don't steal" look like?
As Galatians 2:21 says, "I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain". The Gentiles never received the law, and they were estranged apart from God during the tenure of the law, of whom Ephesians 2:12 describes them this way: "at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world". Galatians 3:10-14 shows how redemption from the law opened the way for the Gentiles to share in the promise to Abraham that was given 430 years before the law existed.
you know, Victor, I find it a little surprising that you place so much weight on
some Biblical texts when I just read in the link on homosexuality, this comment of yours: (correction. this was a comment of BFA's, my apologies to Victor)
"... it has expanded my horizons to discuss God in an environment where there is little value in appealing to Biblical authority. "
If there is little value in appealing to Biblical authority, then why do you want to discuss Galatians as authoritatively as you do? (so now my comments apply only to what follows, not the remarks above, directed to BFA's comment)
In any event, if you are going to quote texts that appear to do away with lawkeeping, what do you do with other texts that appear to say the opposite? Texts such as:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Matthew 5:17
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:18
And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. Luke 16:17
(For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Romans 2:10
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law [is] the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Romans 3:28
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Romans 3:31
What shall we say then? [Is] the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Romans 7:7
Wherefore the law [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Romans 7:12
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.1 John 3:4
If, as you say, the covenant is the 10C, and that lawkeeping has been done away with, what do you do with the above texts?
Simplified answer: As a Gentile, I could not be saved if God didn't end the first covenant of the law and provide a new covenant based on His promises.
note your own words here, "covenant
OF the law." If the covenant is
OF the law, then the covenant is not itself the law. It is an agreement made
ABOUT or
OF the law. You are conflating the two, the law and the agreement about the law, and in not understanding what that conflation
can mean, you are arriving at an incorrect conclusion.
God's redemption amounts to life itself, and a promise to share in eternal life that those unredeemed from the law will not share in, as Galatians 4:30 states "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman", and that bondwoman was defined in Galatians 4:26 as the covenant from Sinai, the ten commandments.
the law has a promise or agreement wrapped up in it, and that covenant or agreement is the same covenant given to Abraham (indeed given back in the garden of Eden) and given anew at Sinai and maintained on down through history. God has always promised to keep His law within us. The old covenant from Sinai is the agreement that the Israelites made regarding the law. They promised (or covenanted) that "All that the Lord says, we will do."
That promise is the bondwoman and her son. Not the law.
Originally Posted by
Laodicean
And freedom from what exactly?
yes! we are free from the condemnation that comes through law breaking, not free from keeping the law itself. Jesus is well able to give us victory over sin (lawbreaking), thus we are no longer under its condemnation.
Look at it this way. You jump off a cliff and the law of gravity takes over. You are under the condemnation of sure death or injury when you break the law of gravity. But what if, while falling, your cry for help is answered by the swift intervention of a helicopter that plucks you into the air before you can hit the ground. Then you are no longer under the condemnation of the law of gravity (death) because you have avoided hitting bottom. It is as good as if you had kept the law of gravity and never jumped, as far as the results are concerned. You had victory over the consequences of breaking that law, not due to your own efforts, but to the intervention of someone more capable than you. The law of gravity, meanwhile, has not been done away with. You simply have experienced victory over it by the intervention of another.
After all, God has concluded that there isn't anyone engaged in lawkeeping, and those making a claim that they are aren't fooling God. His unmerited grace is the only solution to certain condemnation, and acceptance of His righteousness in lieu of my failed attempts of righteousness with thanksgiving is the only sane response to His gift.
Don't kid yourself. There are no lawkeepers. There is God's adoption as His sons and daughters, and there are those He doesn't know.
So, again, do you believe that you can freely kill your brother while covered with Christ's righteousness?
Matthew 17:24-26
24 When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?”
25 He said, “Yes.”
And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”
26 Peter said to Him, “From strangers.”
Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free".
This lesson Jesus taught to Peter isn't about taxes. It is about who the law has jurisdiction over, and the Lawgiver Who created the law is always superior to the law He created, and hence enjoys a natural sovereignty over His law.
Does that law apply to the servants, or to the King's adopted children?
Galatians 4:31 answers that question simply:
So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
I don't think the lesson was about taxes, either, but neither was it about not having to keep God's moral law. It was about render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's. It was about how to relate to earthly governments. Peter forgot that Jesus' kingdom was above that of Caesar's and thus He did not have to pay taxes, but nevertheless Jesus gave Peter an example of how to relate to earthly authorities. If you read beyond the verses you quoted, Jesus says: "
Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee."
So I don't think that this example you gave is supportive of your contention that we are free from lawkeeping.
Remember that the bondwoman refers to the covenant from Sinai, the ten commandments.
and remember again, that there is another way to interpret "bondwoman." Your interpretation is not necessarily the correct one. "Bondwoman" is the promise of the flesh to keep God's law. An impossibility.
That is what we have freedom from.
We have freedom from trying to keep the law on our own. We are free from salvation by our own works. Wonderful news. The Gospel!.
And here I would like to quote from the much maligned EGW:
"As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa. We must preach Christ in the law, and there will be sap and nourishment in the preaching that will be as food to the famishing flock of God. (1888 Materials, p. 560)
or
"let the law take care of itself. We have been at work on the law until we get as dry as the hills of Gilboa ... Let us trust in the merits of Jesus." (1888 Materials, p. 557)
Enough then about lawkeeping, which turns us into legalistic, judgmental, sour-faced people, and turn towards the sunshine of our Friend and Saviour -- Jesus Christ.