Morality and Matthew 5

[Albion]

I was just saying that this is the customary explanation given by theologians and churches. That does not make it the right answer or the only answer, but it deserves consideration. I would, however, note that Jesus was not known for adhering faithfully to the letter of the Mosaic law. This which would cast doubt on the interpretation you are inclined towards. The incident about the picking of corn near the roadway comes to mind.

 

[Athée]

As with all subjects to be considered, the meaning and intention of the teacher becomes clearer as you consider the whole of what they taught pertaining to that subject. For instance, Jesus said much about the law within the context of His teaching pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
For example, Jesus taught that His kingdom is not one in which the enemies of the King are to be subdued by physical force. John 18:36
The main reason for this is because Jesus is not interested in subjects that are loyal to Him by mere show, but in those which are so from the heart. Luke 17:21; Matthew 15:8-9.
Therefore, to penalize or execute someone for not following Him would contradict and grossly undermine this spiritual nature of Jesus' Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God is certainly at battle. But it is not one in which she takes up stones, or swords, or guns. Jesus isn't interested in feigned loyalty induced by such things. For that kind of warfare would do little to yeild the spoils which He seeks. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

Luke 22

Jesus said of you dont have a sword to sell your cloak and go buy one...

 

[Athée]

If something is moral, then it is moral regard of whether or not anyone agrees that it is moral. Without a standard or morality that exits outside of human opinion, there is nothing that I can appeal to in order to establish that those actions are moral. Without that standard, at most I could try to persuade you that the things prescribed in the Bible are things that you should prefer, but I could only do that by showing that it is in accordance with other things that you prefer, and I could not establish that you ought to prefer something other than what you prefer. Furthermore, you have no way to establish that God ought to act in the way that you prefer, so it would be rather fruitless for anyone to attempt to do what you asked.

Even if I were to grant you ypur argument on morality and accept that I can have no basis for moral insight or judgement, it still doesn't answer the question of how you see the morality of the items I listed. How does the death penalty for disobedient youth and Sabbath breakers strike you? How about for homosexuals and adulterers?

 

[Soyeong]

Even if I were to grant you ypur argument on morality and accept that I can have no basis for moral insight or judgement, it still doesn't answer the question of how you see the morality of the items I listed. How does the death penalty for disobedient youth and Sabbath breakers strike you? How about for homosexuals and adulterers?

Morality is based on God's character. If God were to command something that I didn't prefer, then that wouldn't call the morality of the command into question because morality has nothing to do with my personal preferences and God is not morally obligated to only command things that I prefer.

 

[ToBeLoved]

Morality is based on God's character. If God were to command something that I didn't prefer, then that wouldn't call the morality of the command into question because morality has nothing to do with my personal preferences and God is not morally obligated to only command things that I prefer.

Great answer!

 

[hedrick]

Reading your response it seems like you are a tension in the text between this section of Matthew 5 and some of the other thoughts of Jesus On the law, or at least his action that should be informed by his interpretation of the law. Is that correct?

Not really. I think Jesus mostly looked at the principles behind the Law. He's pretty consistent in that. As such he's mostly interested in the 10 commandments, since those were understood as the basis, though at times he even simplified it further, to loving God and neighbor.

 

[Uber Genius]

That's the OT, and Jesus came to fulfill the law, meaning we don't need to follow it anymore.
1a. I was not terribly convinced because in the passage Jesus says the exact opposite.

Firstly, it is refreshing to see someone trying to engage arguments and premises in an intellectually honest fashion out here.

You are asking questions that require significant knowledge about hermeneutics and exegesis (as all ancient literature requires) in order for us to understand what the original audience would have understood.

The background of author and audience is needed. Then the context of the passage (Jesus is responding to his interlocutors regarding the relation of the law and its ability to make one holy). The short version is that the written law doesn't capture the true nature of same. Namely, the law requires perfection in thought, word, and deed.

Now imagine you were a Pharasee who thought you were holy already due to how well you had kept the law. Now you realize you have had false beliefs about your standing before God, and you had just been represented to the other audience members as a false teacher (Pharasees taught one could be holy by following their 100s of rules that went above and beyond the 618 OT laws). That is all washed away in Jesus final summation, [SIC] if you want to get to heaven by way of keeping the law then, "Be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect."

The law is summed up by love God and love your neighbor and so any act that doesn't fit with their understanding of those two summary commands must be in contradiction of the law and so not apply today.
2a. This is unconvincing because Jesus says to obey all the specific commands of the law.

Here we have yet another interpretive issue. "Interpret scripture in light of progressive revelation." Jesus ministers and teaches during the Old Covenant. After he rises and ascends the HS fills beleivers on the day of Pentecost. That inaugerates the New covenant. The law has been fulfilled. Paul in Galatians 3 describes the Law as a tutor to lead us to Christ. The law demonstrates that we can't be holy. We can't meet God's requirements. Although this seems like horrible news God has provided an unimaginable gift through the sacrificial death of Jesus so that we can be reconciled by asking Jesus to be Lord of our life (Romans 10).

Back to your inference, Jesus is NOT giving us the full story in the NT.

He say to his disciples in John 16:12ff:

"I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. 13However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come."

So we must look at the writings by those same Apostles for the rest of the story of the New Covenant. One with significantly different goals in mind than the Old Covenant.

Paul makes clear that "through the works of the law no flesh is justified before God." Not even in the Old Testament (Romans 4).

So shockingly the Law was never meant to justify men before God anywhere in scripture!!!!

Now that is not what many, albeit well-meaning people, would lead you to believe about what the Bible says.

If God does intend for one people group to follow the law until heaven and earth pass away, no matter who it is, He would be commanding the killing of spiritualists, sanctioning some form of slavery, the stoning to death of a few groups of people etc. Even if this doesn't apply to the majority of the world today, how is this moral?

Galatians 3 calls Christians who decide to follow the law, foolish, bewitched, and ignorant. These are not superlatives.

Some immature Christians equivocate keeping the law with obedience to God, but the two concepts are not similar given a cursory examination of scripture.

The Law is weak (Romans 8) it was not used to justify Abraham, any Old Covenant people or any New Covenant people. Why would it suddenly play a differing role after over nearly 3500 years?

 

[Athée]

Morality is based on God's character. If God were to command something that I didn't prefer, then that wouldn't call the morality of the command into question because morality has nothing to do with my personal preferences and God is not morally obligated to only command things that I prefer.

Once again I don't see an answer to my question. What is it about the question that leads to these non responses? Are you ever going to answer or have you done so in a way I missed perhaps?

 

[Serving Zion]

Once again I don't see an answer to my question. What is it about the question that leads to these non responses?

Hi there @Athée, I am sorry that it seems to be frustrating you, but do be patient because our minds are in rather different places - usually it does take time to bring a mind to a place of understanding (much more when writing over distance). Be assured that we do genuinely seek the meeting of minds!

It has been a few weeks since we were pursuing this cause together, and through time in absence of communion, momentum and gradual advances in understanding are easily lost. If you wouldn't mind letting me know what your thoughts have become after receiving post #76, then it might be that a definitive answer could be formed quickly from there.

Nice to see you with us again, hopefully we can tidy this up easily so that you can keep progressing

 

[Soyeong]

Once again I don't see an answer to my question. What is it about the question that leads to these non responses? Are you ever going to answer or have you done so in a way I missed perhaps?

You question is like asking me to explain the length of something without any standard of measurement. How can I explain to you that something is moral without being able to appeal to a moral standard by which to judge whether something is moral? It is pointless to try to answer your question without a framework in which to answer it, so I have no intention of trying to answer it, but can only try to explain to you what is wrong with your question.

 

[John 1720]

Hi Christians,

It's your friendly neighbourhood atheist again. Awhile ago I posted a thread about Matthew 5 and how Jesus seemed to be commanding that we should all be following the OT laws. Not as a salvific imperative but rather simply out of obedience to His command.

Hi, I tried to skim through all the posts and saw answers from Christians I believe to be sound but I thought I'd throw in my perspective on exegeting this topic as well. Hopefully you may gain another perspective of Christian insight. I hope the Christian community here may agree, add or subtract as the Spirit leads.

I got some great responses that resolved into a few main lines of discussion.

1. That's the OT, and Jesus came to fulfill the law, meaning we don't need to follow it anymore.
1a. I was not terribly convinced because in the passage Jesus says the exact opposite.

​

I would not exactly agree with this but do agree in part that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses and that He fulfilled it to perfection. However we who have surrendered to Christ have been born from above, which means born again by the Spirit of God. If we have not been born of the Spirit we are not His. So we are not the children of God by what we have done but by what Christ has done enabling us to become the temple or dwelling place of Christ in us. Our real identity is found in Christ who began a good work in us. He abides in us by the Holy Spirit. Analogies easily fail but I think the example of a human embryo may suffice. It is human from conception. There is no doubt what is there will grow into a human being. We may not have arms and legs or eyes right away but we are destined to become the full package. They will develop over time until the full 9 months brings about our birth.
In spiritual terms there is a sanctifying work and process that God has begun in us and He is faithful to complete us in the love of His Son to be like Christ our Lord.​

Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.​

The Christian therefore believes God will continue to grow them, teach them, empower them, and provide purpose for every good work of God cooperatively. The Christian should naturally (in the Spirit) find themselves on mission with God fulfilling the will of the Father.
Phl 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
If we are not doing the good Will of the Father then we need to ask ourselves if we are truly in the Spirit and following the Holy Spirit in obedience. We seek not to grieve the Holy Spirit by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Luk 6:46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?
The New Man
Ephesians 4:
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Do Not Grieve the Spirit
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Do you see the impact the Holy Spirit can have on the Christian? It is a blessed union of faith, hope and love that bonds us as followers and disciples of Christ.
This was promised from OT times:
Joel 2:28-29 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Luk 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” - Jesus on the gift of the Holy Spirit given freely to those who ask​

Rom 8:14-16 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Which is why after believing we know God in a new way - we have now tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord and know Him intimately and not from afar. We are His and He is ours - it is a union of deep love not an intellectual exercise.​

So what of the law?
Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 31:34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

So, no we are no longer under the Law but we belong to Christ who fulfilled the Law and are His.
Romans 6
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
​

This is a Spiritual teaching that can be hard to explain but I pray I made it as clear as I could.

​

2. The law is summed up by love God and love your neighbor and so any act that doesn't fit with their understanding of those two summary commands must be in contradiction of the law and so not apply today.
2a. This is unconvincing because Jesus says to obey all the specific commands of the law.

What commandment do you see that cannot be summed up by the first two? If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself all the others are sourced from these two.
​

3. Jesus was talking to a Jewish audience and meant it for them not for the gentile.
3a. This was much more compelling and gave me a lot to think about. It will also serve as the starting point for my main question in this thread.

Yes, it all started with Israel to be sure. They will be both the first and the last according to Scripture. But we should jump to unscriptural conclusions either. While Except most of us here are Gentile Christians we should not lose sight that we have been grafted into the tree of promise (originally to Abraham) by Way of Jesus.
Rom 11:15 For if their being cast away (Israel) is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Israel will come to know Christ - this is prophetic since life from the dead happens at the end of the age)​

Rom 11:16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. (Again Paul is speaking about Israel and the original promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, (meaning Israel that did not accept their Christ)being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them,

(meaning the Gentile Church) ​

and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not boast against the branches.

(Don't be anti Semetic)​

But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

We belong to the same promise made to Abraham - and share his heritage as all nations (ethne) of the earth do in the manifest blessings made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that were fulfilled in Jesus the promised Messiah or Christ.
Gen 12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Gen 13:16 “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
Gen 15:5 Then He brought him (Abraham) outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Gen 22:17 “blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

​

Our new question:

If God does intend for one people group to follow the law until heaven and earth pass away, no matter who it is, He would be commanding the killing of spiritualists, sanctioning some form of slavery, the stoning to death of a few groups of people etc. Even if this doesn't apply to the majority of the world today, how is this moral?

Looking forward to your thoughts as always.

Peace

Athée

No, He wouldn't. This is the age of mercy my friend and that mercy extends to the ends of the earth until the Gospel is completed.
Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Mat 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Mar 13:10 “And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, :20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Jesus made a way for all men to become the children of God

John 17:15-23
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (the testimony of the Apostles) 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

I hope I have answered your questions and been helpful to your inquiry into the Christian faith. As a Christian I believe the will of God is seen by His love for all peoples and so I believe every Christian should be engaged in the Great Commission. We, the Church, have been at it (not alone) for lo He is with us to the end, for 1985 years. We are close but we will have written the Gospel in every language by 2025 and maybe by 2030, the end of the 2nd millennium, we will have brought the Gospel to every people group or ethne as Jesus said would happen. The rise in translations and missionaries engaged in the final press to all the peoples of earth has been exponential as this video shows us.

May the Lord Bless, Pat

 

[Athée]

Hi, I tried to skim through all the posts and saw answers from Christians I believe to be sound but I thought I'd throw in my perspective on exegeting this topic as well. Hopefully you may gain another perspective of Christian insight. I hope the Christian community here may agree, add or subtract as the Spirit leads.

I would not exactly agree with this but do agree in part that Christ is the fulfillment of the Law of Moses and that He fulfilled it to perfection. However we who have surrendered to Christ have been born from above, which means born again by the Spirit of God. If we have not been born of the Spirit we are not His. So we are not the children of God by what we have done but by what Christ has done enabling us to become the temple or dwelling place of Christ in us. Our real identity is found in Christ who began a good work in us. He abides in us by the Holy Spirit. Analogies easily fail but I think the example of a human embryo may suffice. It is human from conception. There is no doubt what is there will grow into a human being. We may not have arms and legs or eyes right away but we are destined to become the full package. They will develop over time until the full 9 months brings about our birth.
In spiritual terms there is a sanctifying work and process that God has begun in us and He is faithful to complete us in the love of His Son to be like Christ our Lord.​

Rom 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.​

The Christian therefore believes God will continue to grow them, teach them, empower them, and provide purpose for every good work of God cooperatively. The Christian should naturally (in the Spirit) find themselves on mission with God fulfilling the will of the Father.
Phl 2:13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.
If we are not doing the good Will of the Father then we need to ask ourselves if we are truly in the Spirit and following the Holy Spirit in obedience. We seek not to grieve the Holy Spirit by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption.
Luk 6:46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?
The New Man
Ephesians 4:
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Do Not Grieve the Spirit
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Do you see the impact the Holy Spirit can have on the Christian? It is a blessed union of faith, hope and love that bonds us as followers and disciples of Christ.
This was promised from OT times:
Joel 2:28-29 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams, Your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Luk 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” - Jesus on the gift of the Holy Spirit given freely to those who ask​

Rom 8:14-16 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Which is why after believing we know God in a new way - we have now tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord and know Him intimately and not from afar. We are His and He is ours - it is a union of deep love not an intellectual exercise.​

So what of the law?
Jer 31:33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jer 31:34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

So, no we are no longer under the Law but we belong to Christ who fulfilled the Law and are His.
Romans 6
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
​

This is a Spiritual teaching that can be hard to explain but I pray I made it as clear as I could.

​

What commandment do you see that cannot be summed up by the first two? If you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself all the others are sourced from these two.
​

Yes, it all started with Israel to be sure. They will be both the first and the last according to Scripture. But we should jump to unscriptural conclusions either. While Except most of us here are Gentile Christians we should not lose sight that we have been grafted into the tree of promise (originally to Abraham) by Way of Jesus.
Rom 11:15 For if their being cast away (Israel) is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Israel will come to know Christ - this is prophetic since life from the dead happens at the end of the age)​

Rom 11:16 For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. (Again Paul is speaking about Israel and the original promise given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)
Rom 11:17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, (meaning Israel that did not accept their Christ)being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them,

(meaning the Gentile Church) ​

and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
Rom 11:18 do not boast against the branches.

(Don't be anti Semetic)​

But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

We belong to the same promise made to Abraham - and share his heritage as all nations (ethne) of the earth do in the manifest blessings made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that were fulfilled in Jesus the promised Messiah or Christ.
Gen 12:2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
Gen 13:16 “And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
Gen 15:5 Then He brought him (Abraham) outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
Gen 22:17 “blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.

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No, He wouldn't. This is the age of mercy my friend and that mercy extends to the ends of the earth until the Gospel is completed.
Acts 17:24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
Mat 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Mar 13:10 “And the gospel must first be preached to all the nations.
Mat 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, :20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Jesus made a way for all men to become the children of God

John 17:15-23
I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
Jesus Prays for All Believers
20 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; (the testimony of the Apostles) 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

I hope I have answered your questions and been helpful to your inquiry into the Christian faith. As a Christian I believe the will of God is seen by His love for all peoples and so I believe every Christian should be engaged in the Great Commission. We, the Church, have been at it (not alone) for lo He is with us to the end, for 1985 years. We are close but we will have written the Gospel in every language by 2025 and maybe by 2030, the end of the 2nd millennium, we will have brought the Gospel to every people group or ethne as Jesus said would happen. The rise in translations and missionaries engaged in the final press to all the peoples of earth has been exponential as this video shows us.

May the Lord Bless, Pat

Wow that was a big post. Lots of excellent ideas in there. Hopefully I will find the time for a more full reply soon.

Peace