Well, I agree that they are fixated too much on a law, but it's a law of their own devising, and that's the problem. We all live according to a law of some kind even if it's just "do what thou wilt". The question is not whether we live according to a law, the question is do we live according to God's law or man's?
I would agree that we are to live by the commandments that God gave to us, but they aren't actually codified as a law that conveys penalties for infractions, as the covenant mediated by Moses did.
I read that verse in context, and I know that this was in Jerusalem on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when Jews from the world over would be converging on the city. It sounds to me that the Pharisees are talking about those Jews who believed in Jesus.
As I re-read the passage, I tend to agree that you may well be right.
In essence, would you agree that the Pharisees lumped the believers in Messiah with the Gentiles, who also did not know the law and were strangers to the covenant?
My reading raises that question in my mind.
The common misconception is that the Old Covenant is the Law. The Old Covenant is God's promise to the nation of Israel that if they stayed faithful to his Law, the would prosper, and if they rebelled against his Law, they would come to ruin.
It isn't a misconception - the old covenant that was made at Sinai
was the core of their law, the ten commandments.
Exodus 34:27-28
27: And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words
I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
28: And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And He wrote upon the tables the words of the
covenant, the ten commandments.
Deuteronomy 4:12-13
12: And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
13: And he declared unto you his
covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.
The verses following this attribute the responsibilty that Moses expressed in
Deuteronomy 4:40:
Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the LORD thy God giveth thee, for ever.
Moses spoke these words just before introducing the ten commandments in Deuteronomy 5. The entire covenant initiated at Sinai became known as the law of Moses, or generically "Moses".
This covenant was never complied with, as God concluded all of the recipients disobedient in
Romans 11:32:
28 Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. 30 For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
31 even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy.
32 For
God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
It isn't a promise to Israel at Sinai that our salvation is dependent on; rather, it is to Abraham that the promise was given to, and that 430 years before the covenant (law) was given at Sinai. As
Galatians 3:16-18 explains this:
16: Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
17: And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
18: For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
The mentioning of the 'covenant' above is referring to Abraham, long before Moses received the ten commandments. This was when Abraham received circumcision as well as the promise that through him the nations would be blessed.
As for the passage in Ephesians, it is talking about how Christ through His death on the cross made peace between Israel and the Gentiles, ending the enmity between them over the Law, specifically from the Gentiles disobedience to the Law. The Law no longer divides Israel and the Gentiles. Why? Hint: The mission of Paul's ministry is to call the Gentiles to repentance.
Repentence from what?
The Gentiles never received the law mediated by Moses.
The Gentiles could not be "disobedient" to a law that had no jurisdiction over them, and this covenant relationship they lacked was the exact reason that
Ephesians 2 explains that they had no hope.
Romans 2:11-14 affirms this:
11: For there is no respect of persons with God.
12: For
as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
13: (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
14: For when
the Gentiles,
which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves...
They may have complied with the motions of right and wrong, but those motions never gave them a relationship with God. It wasn't until the wall of partition was removed they were able to enter into a relationship with God - through the Blood of Jesus, and not the Mosaic covenant.
Ephesians 2:11-16
11: Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12: That at that time ye 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:
13: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
14: For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
15:
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
16: And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
The enemy of the Gentiles was that law that only the circumcised had. It is that law that kept them strangers from the promises made to Abraham.
Victor
Please forgive me, one who knows not what he doth post from time to time.
