Wow! My head is spinning. What do you think you get from redefining law to not mean the law? And why not try to understand what is written instead of turning it into something else?
For I through the law
died to the law that I might live to God. (
Ga 2:19)
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become
dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. (
Ro 7:4)
But now we have been
delivered from the law,
having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (
Ro 7:6)
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. 11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. (
Ro 7:7–12)
By not seeing the function of the law to bring about death, it is impossible to see the resurrection from the dead that being in Christ brings
Paul concluded Romans 7 by saying:
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
So I did not redefine the law to not mean law or suggest that we should turn what was written into something else, but rather I pointed out that Paul spoke about the Law of God in contrast with the law of sin, so whenever Paul refers to a law, then it should be worth investigating whether he was referring to the Law of God, the law of sin, or one of the other categories of law that he spoke about. For example, in Romans 7:5, Paul spoke about a law that stirs up sinful passions in order to bear fruit unto to death. Does it make sense to you to interpret that as referring to the Law of God as if Paul delighted in stirring up sinful passions in order to best fruit unto death? Or does that match better with Paul's description of the law of sin? Does it make sense to think that there is something innate about the law to love our neighbor as ourselves that stirs up sinful passions in order to bear fruit unto death or does that law teach us how to bear fruit for God?
In Romans 7:12-13, Paul said that the Law of God is good and that it was not that which is good that brought death to him, but sin in reference to the law of sin, yet you trying to use his words to say that it was that which is good that brought death to him,
.
The phrase "works of the law" does relate to the "Law of God".
Galatians 3:10-12 proves it.
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.” (
Ga 3:10–12)
According to Deuteronomy 27-28, relying on the Book of the Law is the way to be blessed while not relying on it is the way to be cursed, so Galatians 3:10 should not be interpreted as Paul equating from Deuteronomy 27-28 in order to support a point that is arguing against it by saying that relying on it is the way to be cursed and not relying on it is the way to not be cursed. Rather, the way to be curse is by not relying on the Book of the Law, so those who rely on works of the law instead thereby come under that curse.
In Galatians 3:10-12, Paul connected a quote from Habakkuk 2:4 that the righteous shall live by faith with a quote from Leviticus 18:5 that the one who obeys the Law of God will live by it, so the righteous who are living by faith are the same as those who are living in obedience to the Law of God. Moreover, the context the rest of the chapter of Habakkuk 2 contrasts the righteous who are living by faith with those who are not living in obedience to the Mosaic Law, and in Isaiah 51:7, the righteous are those on whose heart is the Mosaic Law, so the righteous living by faith does not refer to a manner of living that is not in obedience to it. Again, God is trustworthy, therefore His law is also trustworthy (Psalms 19:7), so the way to trust God is by obediently trusting in His instructions, it is contradictory to think that we should trust God, but not His instructions, and to say interpret Galatians 3:10-12 as saying that God's instructions are untrustworthy/not of faith is to deny the trustworthiness/faithfulness of God.
The law is good, but it is only good if it is used lawfully (
1 Ti 1:8). But those who are of the works of the law use the law unlawfully. They think rightness with God is through obedience to God's laws. They don't see the curse of the law which condemns everyone who does not obey it completely. And they don't see righteousness through faith as being different in nature to righteousness through obedience to the law.
Why does it make sense to you to think that rightness with God comes through refusing to obey His instructions rather than through obeying them? Again, it is contradictory to think that we should have faith in God, but not in His instructions, but rather relying on God's instructions is the way to have faith in Him, and it is by that faith that we are made righteous. In Deuteronomy 11:26-32, the difference between coming under God's blessing or his curse is about choosing which mount to climb, about choosing whether we are going to serve God by obeying His commands or whether we are going to chase after other gods by turning aside from His commands.
Thinking and acting as though obedience to God's laws gains or maintains a right relationship with Him.
God gave the Israelites instructions for how to have a right relationship with Him, so why does it make sense to you to think that the way to have a right relationship with Him is not by following those instructions?
No, God does not orient Himself to the law in order to keep Himself from sinning. He is without sin and He is incapable of sinning.
I didn't claim that He did.
But we are not without sin and we need a Savior. Without the law, we would not have known sin, nor would we have known we needed a Savior. Yes, God was gracious in laying down the law to teach us these things, so that knowing them we may turn to Christ and find forgivness for our sins. So the ministry of death was a good thing.
Our salvation is from sin and God's law is how we know what sin is, so living in obedience to it through faith in Christ is the content of his gift of saving us from not living in obedience to it.
If mimicking Jesus is the pathway to eternal life, then saved people are only those who give blind sight, who make the lame walk, who cause the deaf to hear, who rais the dead to life, who turn water into wine, who walk on water, who bear the sins of all maknind, who cannot be held by death, and who are without sin. But Jesus did not say this was the way to eternal life. He said we would live because of Him.
In 1 Peter 2:21-22, we are to follow Christ's example of refraining from sin, which is speaking about obeying the Mosaic Law, not about doing miracles. In Luke 10:25-28 and Matthew 19:17, Jesus said that the way to inherit eternal life is by being God's commandments, and in Hebrews 5:9, he has become a source of eternal life for those who obey him. Jesus is God's word made flesh, so obeying God's word is not a different way to eternal life than because of him.
Legalism is a work of the flesh. See Gal 3:3 and Gal 5:20.
In Romans 8:4-7, Paul contrasted those who walk in the Spirit with those who have minds set on the flesh who are enemies of God who refuse to submit to the Mosaic Law, and in Galatians 5:19-21, everything listed as works of the flesh that are against the Spirit are also against the Mosaic Law, so obeying it is not a work in the flesh.
Legalism turns walking in the Spirit into another form of obedience to the law.
In Acts 5:32, the Spirit has been given to those who obey God. In John 16:13, the Spirit has the role of leading us in truth, in Ezekiel 36:26-27, the Spirit has the role of leading us to obey the Mosaic Law, and in Psalms 119:142, the Mosaic Law is truth. In John 16:8, the Spirit has the role of convicting us of sin, and in Romans 3:20, it is by the Mosaic Law that we have knowledge of sin. In Romans 2:25-29, the way to recognize that a Gentile has a circumcised heart is by observing their obedience to the Mosaic Law and circumcision of the heart is a matter of the Spirit, which is in contrasted with Acts 7:51-53, where those who have uncircumcised hearts resist the Spirit and do not obey the Mosaic Law.
The freedom we have in Christ is two-fold. First, there is no condemnation for the sins of the flesh (Ro 8:1). Second, we are made new creatures in Christ wherein the new man is "truly righteous and holy" (Eph 4:24). That is why we can say that our bodies are dead because of sin, but our spirits are alive because of righteousness (Ro 8:10). Ignoring the sins of the flesh are forgiven and ignoring that our righteousness is in the new man are halmarks of legalism.
In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so the freedom that we have in Christ is the freeform from lawlessness in order to be free to become zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law. In 1 John 2:6, those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walked, so verses like Romans 8:1 that refer to those who are in Christ are only referring to those who walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law. In Ephesians 2:10, we are new creations in Christ to do good works, so again it is only referring to those who are doing good works in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
Here is a simple graphic that explains much...
Death <---- Law <---- You ----> Jesus ----> Life
In Romans 10:5-8, it references Deuteronomy 30:11-20 as the word of faith that we proclaim in regard to saying that the Mosaic Law is not too difficult for us to obey that obedience to it brings life and a blessing while disobedience brings death and a curse. In Deuteronomy 32:46-47, the Mosaic Law is our very life. In Proverbs 3:18, it is a Tree of Life for all who take hold of it. In Revelation 22:14, those who obeyed God's commandments are given the right to eat from the Tree of Life. In Romans 2:6-7, those who persist in doing good will be given eternal life. In Romans 6:19-23, we are no longer to present ourselves as slaves to impurity, lawlessness, and sin, but are now to present ourselves as slaves to God and to righteousness leading to sanctification, and the goal of sanctification is eternal life in Christ, which is the gift of God, so living in obedience to the Mosaic Law is the content of God's gift of eternal life in Christ. It is contradictory to think that God leads us to life while also thinking that He gives instructions that lead to death.
