So in the case of this fellow I know who keeps the OT laws (who is not a Jew) my response to him would be, "We are not under the Law, but under Grace." (NC) ?
I agree that we are not under the law, but under grace, but I think it is very important to correctly understand which law he was saying that we are not under. In Romans 7:21-25, Paul said that he delighted in obeying God's Law and that he served it with his mind, but contrast it with the law of sin that held him captive that he served with his flesh. This is a summary of what he said previously, so it the law of sin that come about to increase trespasses (5:20), to stir up sinful passions to bear fruit unto death (7:5), that held him captive (7:6), that gave sin its power (7:8), that seized the opportunity through the commandment to deceive him and slay him (7:12), and that caused him not to do the good that he wanted to do (7:13-20), while God's Law is not sin, but reveals what sin is (7:7), is holy, righteous, and good (7:12), is the good that Paul did not blame for bringing death to him (7:13), and is the good that he wanted to do (7:13-20).
Romans 6:14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
This verse specifies that the law that we are not under is one where sin had dominion over us, which perfectly fits Paul's description of the law of sin, but does not at all fit his description of God's holy, righteous, and good Law. If sin no longer has dominion over us because we are not under God's Law, then God's Law is sin, but Paul said that God's Law is not sin, but reveals what sin is. Sin is defined as the transgression of God's Law (1 John 3:4), so all of the surrounding context also supports obeying God's Law, by say we should not let sin reign in our body and make us obey its passions (6:12), that we should not present bodies as instruments of sin, but as instruments of righteousness (6:13), that we are not free to sin (6:15), that we are to present ourselves as obedient slaves of God (6:16), that we are no longer slaves of sin, but have been set free from sin to become slaves of righteousness (6:17-18), and that we are no longer to present ourselves as slaves of impurity and Lawlessness leading to more Lawlessness, but to present ourselves as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification. There is absolutely nothing in these verses that indicates that we have been set free from following God's instructions for how to do what is righteous and avoid sin. In Psalms 119:29, David asked God to be gracious to him by teaching him to obey His Law, so if we are under grace, then we are under God's Law. This is also confirmed in Titus 2:11-14, which describes our salvation as being trained by grace to do things that all all in accordance with what the Law was given to instruct.
Sorry, I know this is slightly off course but I never had a biblical response to him when he tells me about how he keeps the Sabbath and can't eat pepperoni on his pizza.
Christ set a perfect example of how to walk in obedience to the Law, and as his followers, we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22), to walk in the same way that he walked (1 John 2:3-6), and to be imitators of him (1 Corinthians 11:1), so we should follow his example of keeping the Sabbath and refraining from eating unclean animals by grace through faith. In 1 Peter 1:13-16, it quoted Leviticus to say we are to have a holy conduct not in order to act like Jews, but because God is holy, so following God's instructions in Leviticus for how to have a holy conduct, such as Leviticus 11:44-45 in refraining from eating unclean animals, is about acting in accordance with the holiness of our God. It should also be relatively straightforward that the way to have a holy conduct involves getting joy and the privilege of keeping God's holy days.
If he is not a Jew, why does he keep OT laws? It does cause him hardships because he has to sacrifice many things in this modern city we live in. He has to call off work for two weeks for the Feast and keeps can't work on Saturday for instance. He won't even cut the lawn on a Saturday.
Thanks folks!
The OT says many times that the Law is about walking in God ways (Deuteronomy 10:12-13), so obedience is not about acting like Jew, but about reflecting God's eternal attributes to the world: holiness, righteousness, goodness (Romans 7:12), justice, mercy, faithfulness (Matthew 23:23), love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control (Exodus 34:6-7, Galatians 5:22-23). While the Law was given to the Jews, it was never meant only for the Jews, but rather the Jews were given the role of being a light to the nations, drawing them to God, teaching about Him, how to serve Him, and walk in His ways in accordance with His Law (Isaiah 2:2-3, Isaiah 49:6, Deuteronomy 4:5-8). God said what He commanded was for our own good, so it's not about causing hardships, but about delighting in our God. God said that he wants us to call His Sabbath a delight (Isaiah 58:13-14), and David said repeatedly through the Psalms that he delighted in obeying God's Law, that he meditated on it day and night, that he loved it, that those who obey will be blessed, that he wanted God to show his grace to him by teaching him to obey it, that he walked about in liberty because he sought to obey, etc., and Paul also said he delighted in obeying it (Romans 7:22), so he was the same page as David. I read the extremely positive praise that David had for God's Law, realized that the extremely negative view that I had been taught was incompatible, and that I needed to conform my understanding to Scripture.
