God's law, or command, to Adam was not to eat the fruit from the tree. Adam did and sinned.
The first sin came into the world because Adam disobeyed God's word.
Even though we aren't told that the Lord gave subsequent people his laws, or commands, there was much sin.
Sin was in the world long before Moses received the law on Mt Sinai.
I agree that sin was in the world before the Mosaic Law was given (Romans 5:13), so the actions that are sinful aren't derived from the Mosaic Law, but rather the Law revealed what has always been and will always be sinful. For example, it has always been and will always be sinful to hate our brother (Genesis 4:7) no matter how many covenants God makes, so any instructions that God has ever given for how refrain from sin will always be valid no matter which covenant we are under.
God's Law was given to teach us how to distinguish between good and evil, so I think it is likely that Adam and Eve gained full knowledge of it when they ate of the tree of good and evil.
Salvation is through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross; the blood of the new covenant - not good deeds.
I agree, nevertheless, it is also true that Titus 2:11-14 describes our salvation from living in disobedience to God as being trained by grace to live in obedience to Him. Furthermore, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from living in disobedience to God and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for living in obedience to Him. So being trained by grace to obey God is not something done to earn our salvation, but rather it is what our salvation from living in disobedience to God looks like.
Jesus was a Jew, and said that he had come to fulfill the Jewish law.
He did not command Gentile followers to keep it. He told his disciples to teach others everything HE had taught them, not teach them to believe in me and keep the Jewish law.
Jesus rarely interacted with Gentiles, that argument from silence doesn't work. Jesus taught his disciples to obey the Mosaic Law both by word and by example, so that would certainly be part of the Great Commission, so it doesn't make any sense for Gentiles to want to become his follower, but not want to follow what he taught his followers to obey by word and by example. Gentiles are told not to sin and sin is defined as the transgression of the Law, so straightforwardly that means that Gentiles should obey the Law.
"To fulfill the Law" means "to cause God's will (as made known in the Law) to be obeyed as it should be" (NAS Greek Lexicon pleroo 2c3). After Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law in Matthew 5, this is precisely what he then proceeded to do six times throughout the rest of the chapter by teaching how to correctly understand and obey it. In Galatians 5:14, loving your neighbor fulfills the entire law, so it refers to obeying the Law as it should be obeyed, and refers to something countless people have done, not to something unique to Christ. Likewise, Galatians 6:2 says that bearing one another's burdens fulfills the Law of Christ, so you should interpret it in the same way as fulfilling the Law and the Prophets, namely obeying it as it should be, not as doing away with it. In Romans 15:18-19, it says that Paul fulfilled the Gospel, which again referred to causing Gentiles to become fully obedient to it in word and in deed, not to doing away with it.
We are.
That doesn't mean that male Christians have to be circumcised, that we have to abstain from certain foods, wear clothes made from only one fibre etc etc.
If you exempt yourself from following things that Jesus taught by example, then you are not following what he taught by example. In 1 Peter 1:13-16, we are told to have a holy conduct for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to have a holy conduct, such as Leviticus 11:44-45.
Jesus did not command us to follow the law that he followed. He said, "a NEW commandment I give to you; love one another". He said that the 10 commandments could be summed up in two; love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.
All of the 613 commandments in the OT and 1,050 commandments in the NT can be put into one or both of the categories of being God's instructions for how to love Him or for how to love our neighbor, so the command to love does not replace the other commandments, but rather it is the essence of them. In other words, Christ's obedience to the greatest two commandments looked exactly like complete his obedience to the Mosaic Law, so that is how we are to love as he loved.
Did he teach that we had to keep the Sabbath? He healed on the Sabbath, criticised those who complained, said that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath and declared that he was Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus was sinless, so he set a perfect example of how to walk in obedience to the Mosaic Law, including setting an example for us to follow of keeping it throughout his ministry and teaching how to keep through his interactions with the Pharisees. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so it was made for our benefit, not for our detriment, so it was never intended to be used as an excuse to avoid helping someone who needed medical attention, which is why Jesus ruled that it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. If Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and if he is your Lord, then you should keep the Sabbath.
Well I'm not under Jewish law because I am not Jewish, it was not given to me or my ancestors. I follow and belong to the One who has fulfilled that law, gave us a new commandment and brought in God's New Covenant, as well as his kingdom.
It's not Jewish law; it's God's Law. There are many verses that describe the Mosaic Law as being instructions for how to walk in God's ways, such as Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Isaiah 2:2-3, Joshua 22:5, Psalms 103:7, and many others, so the Law was not given as instructions for how to live as a Jew, but rather it was given as instructions to God's followers for how to express His character traits, such as holiness, righteousness, goodness, justice, mercy, faithfulness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. When we have a character trait, then we will express it through our actions, so when God gives us His righteousness and declares us to be righteous, He is also declaring us to be someone who expresses His righteousness through our actions in accordance with His instructions for how to do that found in His Law. Jesus expressed the character traits of the Father through His actions and what that looked like was complete obedience to the Mosaic Law, and our sanctification is about being made to be like him, to have and to express the same character traits and to be restored to God's image. You don't have to become a Jew in order to follow the Jewish Messiah, but you do need to follow what he taught by word and by example.
If Gentiles have never be obligated to obey God's Law, then Gentiles have never needed Christ to give himself to redeem them from all Lawlessness. However, Gentiles are obligated to refrain from sin and sin is the transgression of God's Law, so Gentiles are obligated to obey it. There were more than just Jews at the foot of Sinai.
You think it is a sin to worship God on the first day of the week; the day when he raised his Son from the dead?
I think not.
We can, and should, worship God EVERY day and keep EVERY day holy.
God wants us to worship him in Spirit and in truth, to praise him, trust him, put him first and pray to him. We can do this every, and any, day; it's not sinful to do it on a Sunday.
The Israelites had daily prayers and offerings, so I agree that it is good to worship God on every day. However, it is sinful to set aside God's command to keep the Sabbath holy in order to establish your own tradition of worshiping in Sunday. Something that is holy is set apart by God for a specific purpose and in order for something to be set apart there needs to be something else that it is set apart from, so if every day is holy, then no day is holy. If you treat the Sabbath in the same way as you treat every other day, then you are not treating it as holy and what is holy to God should be treated as holy by us. If we did on every day what God wants us to do on the Sabbath, then we would do no work, but God also wants us to work. You can't worship God in spirit and in truth by disobeying His command to keep the Sabbath holy. You can't trust God when you think that you know better than Him how He wants to be worshiped.
So he commanded Hebrew people who had just been brought out of exile in Egypt to remember that miracle - keep feasts, build tabernacles, eat unleavened bread - IN the temple. But they can't do that any more; their temple hasn't been rebuilt.
He commanded them to offer animals as sacrifices for their sins - as far as I know they don't do that any more.
If even the descendants of the people who received God's law can't keep it, how can we?
When the Israelites were in exile in Babylon, the condition for their return was to repent and to return to obedience to God's Law, which required them to have access to a temple that they didn't have access to while they were in exile, so God honored it when they did the things that they could do to the best of their ability. For example, they still kept saying the temple prayers.
Deuteronomy is OLD Testament; OLD Covenant.
Jesus brought in and sealed the NEW Covenant.
What/where is the temple today? WE are the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19.
Who/where are the priests who offer sacrifices? Jesus is our great high priest, Hebrews 7:23-28.
What is the sacrifice that takes away our sins? Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29.
What is the situation that we were rescued from? Jesus has set us free from sin, slavery to sin and eternal death. He is greater than Moses, Hebrews 3, and if we follow him, he gives us eternal life, heavenly manna, life-giving water and will lead us to the Promised Land.
What has he told us to do to remember his death and sacrifice? Break bread and drink wine. He is our Passover Lamb and he has told us to celebrate his death and sacrifice.
While it is true that we are under the New Covenant and not the Mosaic Covenant, were are nevertheless still under the same God with the same ways and therefore the same instructions for how to walk in His ways. For example, if the way to act in accordance with God's righteousness changed when the New Covenant was made, then God's righteousness would not be eternal, so while the Mosaic Covenant has become obsolete, Gd's eternal righteousness and eternal instructions for how to act in accordance with His righteousness did not become obsolete along with it. As such, any instructions that God has given for how to practice righteousness will always be valid not matter which covenant we are under, but as part of the New Covenant we are told that those who do not follow those instructions are not children of God (1 John 3:10).
Jesus' new commandment was that we should love one another as he loved us.
The command to love our neighbor can be found in Leviticus 19:18, so he was not sinning in violation of Deuteronomy 4:2 by adding a brand new commandment, but what is new about it is the quality of the example by which we are to love our neighbor, and indeed the Greek word used refers to newness with respect to quality rather than with respect to time:
3501 /néos ("new on the scene") suggests something "new in
time" – in contrast to its near-synonym (
2537 /kainós, "new in
quality").
We should love ourselves as Jesus loves us, so he was fulfilling Leviticus 19:18 by teaching how to correctly understand and obey it.