Is it possible to love according the new commandment, but without the Law?

[Gottservant]

Hi there,

So by the Law we have a shadow of the Grace to come (letters, paraphrase) but by the Grace that supercedes the Law, we are commanded to love one another - as Jesus does, in principle without destroying the Law (as He said "Do not think I cam to destroy the Law").

The problem is that in sin, I cannot love apart from the Law, for my flesh loves the Law that it can be broken; whereas with a brother beyond the Law, I have someone that will keep me from stumbling, but I keep that brother according to the Law, because I do not want to lose the shadow of the Law that I am attached to.

So when I have not loved my brother, the love of Jesus is not in me, for I have chosen to focus on the works of the Law, but have not destroyed the works of the Devil - as for which the Lord was sent forth. In other words, I am bound in Jesus to love both my brother and the Lord together, that the shadow of the Law be for One and not not for the other, but as One or the other can see I have been unable to love them any other way. So then, I love the Law less, and have made a way for the Lord or my brother to have the Law instead of me - but I have not done away with the Law (in doing so).

So the claim is "it is possible to love without the Law being for everyone, but not without the Law being for someone" that is "just not necessarily for the Law that is my brother's and my brother's alone". In other words I cease to examine the Law, for the sake of my brother, but the Law is still there, should he wish to examine it on my behalf. O that I could love freely, but that I suppose will be for a Day in Heaven, in which our souls meet, once and for all.

God, bless you!

 

[crossnote]

You have been freed from sin-Rom 6.
You have died to the law Rom 7
As a Christian, the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart Rom 5:5.
Go and love one another.

 

[Gottservant]

Yes I don't know what it is about the Law that worries me...

...but when I worry about the Law, I am not loving my brother.

Thankyou, brother, for keeping scripture near to my view.

 

[Soyeong]

Hi there,

So by the Law we have a shadow of the Grace to come (letters, paraphrase) but by the Grace that supercedes the Law, we are commanded to love one another - as Jesus does, in principle without destroying the Law (as He said "Do not think I cam to destroy the Law").

The problem is that in sin, I cannot love apart from the Law, for my flesh loves the Law that it can be broken; whereas with a brother beyond the Law, I have someone that will keep me from stumbling, but I keep that brother according to the Law, because I do not want to lose the shadow of the Law that I am attached to.

So when I have not loved my brother, the love of Jesus is not in me, for I have chosen to focus on the works of the Law, but have not destroyed the works of the Devil - as for which the Lord was sent forth. In other words, I am bound in Jesus to love both my brother and the Lord together, that the shadow of the Law be for One and not not for the other, but as One or the other can see I have been unable to love them any other way. So then, I love the Law less, and have made a way for the Lord or my brother to have the Law instead of me - but I have not done away with the Law (in doing so).

So the claim is "it is possible to love without the Law being for everyone, but not without the Law being for someone" that is "just not necessarily for the Law that is my brother's and my brother's alone". In other words I cease to examine the Law, for the sake of my brother, but the Law is still there, should he wish to examine it on my behalf. O that I could love freely, but that I suppose will be for a Day in Heaven, in which our souls meet, once and for all.

God, bless you!

According to Psalms 119:29, David wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His Law, so the Law is not a shadow of grace and God's graciousness does not supersede His righteousness, but rather god is gracious to us by teaching us to obey His Law. According to Titus 2:11-14, our salvation is described as being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to renounce doing what is ungodly, which is essentially what God's Law was given to instruct us how to do. According to Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience that faith requires. According to 2 Peter 3:17-18, growing in grace is contrasted with being taken away with the error of Lawless men. According to John 1:16-17, grace was added upon grace, so the grace of Christ was added upon the grace of the Law. According to Jude 1:4, the ungodly pervert God's grace into license for immorality. According to Strong's, "grace" is defined as "the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life" and when God's will is reflected in our lives, it takes the form of obedience to His Law (Psalm 40:8), so grace is the power of God to overcome Lawlessness in our lives and it is by grace that God teaches us to walk in His ways in accordance with His Law.

In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus summarized the Law as being about how to love God and our neighbor, so God's Law is His instructions for how he wants us to love. Jesus expressed his love for the Father and for his neighbor through his actions and what that looked like was complete obedience to the Mosaic Law, so that is how we are to love as he loved and what it will look like when we are in Christ and meeting our obligation to walk in the same way he walked (1 John 2:6). We can't love apart from living in accordance with the Law because it is God's instructions for how to love. David said repeatedly throughout the Psalms that he loved the Law and delighted in obeying in, and Paul also delighted in obeying it (Romans 7:12), so that is the correct view of the Law. For example, do you you agree with Psalms 1:1-2 that blessed is the man who delights in the Law of the Lord and mediates on it day and night?

 

[Gottservant]

Thankyou so much, for your reply.

Hebrews 10:1 clearly states "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

However, the weight of your words was greater than the law alone, and I hope you permit me to say that you wrote with "grace" - that I think is what answered my question: viz, it is not possible to love in the new commandment, neither apart from the Law or apart from Grace.

I suppose if we do this consistently, we will be well loved of the Bride of Christ!

 

[fhansen]

Hi there,

So by the Law we have a shadow of the Grace to come (letters, paraphrase) but by the Grace that supercedes the Law, we are commanded to love one another - as Jesus does, in principle without destroying the Law (as He said "Do not think I cam to destroy the Law").

The problem is that in sin, I cannot love apart from the Law, for my flesh loves the Law that it can be broken; whereas with a brother beyond the Law, I have someone that will keep me from stumbling, but I keep that brother according to the Law, because I do not want to lose the shadow of the Law that I am attached to.

So when I have not loved my brother, the love of Jesus is not in me, for I have chosen to focus on the works of the Law, but have not destroyed the works of the Devil - as for which the Lord was sent forth. In other words, I am bound in Jesus to love both my brother and the Lord together, that the shadow of the Law be for One and not not for the other, but as One or the other can see I have been unable to love them any other way. So then, I love the Law less, and have made a way for the Lord or my brother to have the Law instead of me - but I have not done away with the Law (in doing so).

So the claim is "it is possible to love without the Law being for everyone, but not without the Law being for someone" that is "just not necessarily for the Law that is my brother's and my brother's alone". In other words I cease to examine the Law, for the sake of my brother, but the Law is still there, should he wish to examine it on my behalf. O that I could love freely, but that I suppose will be for a Day in Heaven, in which our souls meet, once and for all.

God, bless you!

We don't love because of the Law that tells us we must love because we can't; its impossible. The Greatest Commandments are the only commands that cannot be faked or obeyed for the wrong reasons. Think about it, if I really do fulfill those commandments, if I really do love as I should, then I've arrived; there's no better or greater place to be. But it's a tall order, and one that is only possible to begin with by grace, by fellowship with God IOW ('Apart from Whom I can do nothing' John 15:5), a relationship or communion which is entered into by faith. Thats the essence of the New Covenant. Thats how God justifies us.

 

[fhansen]

Yes I don't know what it is about the Law that worries me...

...but when I worry about the Law, I am not loving my brother.

Thankyou, brother, for keeping scripture near to my view.

The law, being a teacher, continues to be good for one purpose, to help keep us cognizant of our not loving well, to help show where we're not being Christian, to show us where we sin. The law was never bad; it's holy, spiritual, and good, in fact, but it cannot justify us; it can only show us what justice "looks like". So to be under the law is "bad", so to speak, because it's unproductive, not actually producing the justice or righteousness in us that it points to. Only God can do that, only grace can do that, only love can fulfill the law IOW. So the Law, indeirectly, helps tell us that we need God. Man needs communion with God first of all, not obedience of His laws first of all. Adam broke that communion with his first sin, opening the door to lawlessness.

 

[1213]

Is it possible to love according the new commandment, but without the Law?

Bible says:

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not give false testimony," "You shall not covet," [TR adds "You shall not give false testimony,"] and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love doesn't harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law.
Romans 13:8-10

 

[bcbsr]

Hi there,

So by the Law we have a shadow of the Grace to come (letters, paraphrase) but by the Grace that supercedes the Law, we are commanded to love one another - as Jesus does, in principle without destroying the Law (as He said "Do not think I cam to destroy the Law").

The problem is that in sin, I cannot love apart from the Law, for my flesh loves the Law that it can be broken; whereas with a brother beyond the Law, I have someone that will keep me from stumbling, but I keep that brother according to the Law, because I do not want to lose the shadow of the Law that I am attached to.

So when I have not loved my brother, the love of Jesus is not in me, for I have chosen to focus on the works of the Law, but have not destroyed the works of the Devil - as for which the Lord was sent forth. In other words, I am bound in Jesus to love both my brother and the Lord together, that the shadow of the Law be for One and not not for the other, but as One or the other can see I have been unable to love them any other way. So then, I love the Law less, and have made a way for the Lord or my brother to have the Law instead of me - but I have not done away with the Law (in doing so).

So the claim is "it is possible to love without the Law being for everyone, but not without the Law being for someone" that is "just not necessarily for the Law that is my brother's and my brother's alone". In other words I cease to examine the Law, for the sake of my brother, but the Law is still there, should he wish to examine it on my behalf. O that I could love freely, but that I suppose will be for a Day in Heaven, in which our souls meet, once and for all.

God, bless you!

Not quite sure what you're getting at, but perhaps this may help. Love is an attitude. If our attitude is wrong, then it is not love. "There is no fear in love" 1John 4:18 And love "is not self-seeking" 1Cor 13:5 But if you're trying to attain a righteous standing with God through compliance to the law, you're under a curse and you're not capable of loving.

Gal 3:10-12 All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." (Lev 18:5)

And if you look at Paul's reference to Lev 18:5 what follows it is a list of laws that's he's referring to, almost all moral laws, and including to "love your neighbor as youself" Lev 19:18 Yet you cannot love if you're doing so out of fear of condemnation. And thus one cannot love if they're relying upon the law as the means to justification.

However, even though when one come to faith in Christ he abandons the law as a means to justification ("the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor." Gal 3:24,25) yet the Law is still useful in finding practical ways in which to show love. i.e. "When you build a new house, then you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring guilt of bloodshed on your household if anyone falls from it." De 22:8

 

[Soyeong]

Thankyou so much, for your reply.

Hebrews 10:1 clearly states "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."

However, the weight of your words was greater than the law alone, and I hope you permit me to say that you wrote with "grace" - that I think is what answered my question: viz, it is not possible to love in the new commandment, neither apart from the Law or apart from Grace.

I suppose if we do this consistently, we will be well loved of the Bride of Christ!

You're welcome.

God's Law is full of important foreshadows that teach us about God and His plan of redemption. The light of Christ brings full substance to these foreshadows so that we can fully see what God was teaching us through them, which make them all the more important to continue to observe in remembrance of Christ. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul spoke in regard to how Passover foreshadowed Christ by drawing the connection of him being our Passover Lamb, however, instead of concluding that we no longer need to bother keeping Passover, he concluded that we should therefore continue to keep it.

In John 5:46, Jesus said that Moses wrote about him. In Luke 24:27, Jesus began with Moses and the Prophets interpreting to them all of the things in Scripture concerning himself. In Romans 10:4, Jesus is the goal of the Law for righteousness for everyone who has faith. In Hebrews 10:7, the volume of the scroll of written about Jesus. So everything in the OT points toward Jesus because he validated everything in it. Everything in it teaches us about Jesus, how to walk as he walked, and how to thereby grow in a relationship with him. The Law is perfect (Psalm 19:7), however it does not make us perfect, but rather it is God who perfects us and obedience to the Law is what that perfection looks like as we are being made to be more like Christ, who lived in perfect obedience to the Law.

 

[Gottservant]

Thanks guys, for great replies.

I think most of you are coming from the heart, with your answers - but I am more concerned with getting the whole process worked out in my head. So I am wondering, where you say "we can't live by the law" and "love is the primary thing" and "follow Jesus", where is the shadow of the Law in all these things - the shadow of the good things to come?

I think what I am slowly learning, is that the law is different for every believer - the shadowing of the Law itself, is as consistently different as believers are. So while I cannot love without the Law, neither can I bear the Law in great proportion - not because I do not want to obey it, but because it is so extensive, I may never or not endure to the end of it.

(I will stop there for a moment, to make sure I am not over-reaching my boundaries)