Jesus and the Law [Archive]

CharByte

02-03-2007, 05:24 PM

Hi,
I want to ask this question, but am sorry if it comes out kind of bizarre:confused:
I have had so many light bulb moments this year and have been trying to sort something out all week.
So here goes.
Coming out of very conservative Evangelicalism, I was taught about the Old Testament, the New Testament, New Covenant and old Covenant
but we never heard about the Law and what that meant.
So I just happened to think about Jesus this week. He was born under the Law, he was raised under the Law, his ministry was under the law..Is that right? So was he resurrected out of the law? And into what?
Is that even a logical question:eek:
Then, I wondered if all the books in the New Testament were written under the law? If fulfillment didn't come in until what some say was 70AD then where are all the books written after the Law?
Oh my gosh, I hope this isn't to confusing:confused: Maybe I am just trying to figure something out and can't put my finger on it.
Thanks for any input.
Nancy:rolleyes:
Hi Nancy,

I would like to attempt to answer question if possible...I am new here, please bear with me, but I do suggest that you seek the scriptures too.....the wording of explanation has helped me tremendously and I hope this will help you:

The most systematic analysis of the Christian's relationship to the law is found in the epistles to Roman from Apostle Paul. The first several chapters deal with our guilt before God's law. The provision of complete justification for the believer is through the finished work of Christ. All that the law demands for acceptance with God has been perfectly satisfied by our Substitution: "we are identified with Him in His full payment for sin", so that as far as the law's penalty is concerned, we legally "died with Christ" -- Romans 6:8. In Christ, we have received the full penalty of the law, because He endured its curse in our place. No longer are we "under law" and its condemnation; rather, we have been placed "under grace" as our means of Justification. For this reason, sin cannot have dominion over us -- Romans 6:14. The believer has been freed from his slavery to sin, and is now enslaved to righteousness -- Romans 6:17. But since righteousness is defined in terms of God's law, this means that the believer now fulfills the righteous requirements of the law -- Romans 8:4. He does not live according to sinful principles, but according to the Spirit. And how do we know what the Spirit wants us to do? Simply by referring to the law which He authored. "The law is Spiritual" -- Romans 7:14, which doesn't mean that the law is other -- wordly or non-physical, but that it is from the Spirit. The law is "holy, just and good" -- Romans 7:12, it is our continuing standard of right living in every area.

Some hold that the Christian is not motivated by considerations of law, but by love instead. This is to place an unbiblical distinction between law and love, a distinction opposed by the Apostles. "Love", said Paul, "is the fulfillment of the law" -- Romans 13:10. "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments," John wrote -- 1 John 5:3. The standard of love is nothing other than the law of God. If we are disobedient to the law of god, we do not ove; coversely, if we do not love, we are breaking the law, which commands love. If, in the name of "love for the poor," I transgress God's law by supporing legal plunder of my rich neighbor to find a poverty program, I am not really loving, regardless of my profession for love is always concerned to fulfill the law of God.

In Galatians, Paul was not objecting to the law itself, but to a perversion of the law. He wrote in opposition to ceremonialism -- the teaching that the observance of Old Testament ceremonies was still binding on believers, and in fact, necessary for salvation. He chided the Galatians for observing ceremonial "days and months and seasons and years", Galatians 4:10 and for being circumcised in the attempt "to be justified by law", Galatians 5:2-4.

It is most significant that when the Apostles speak of our freedom from certain Old Testament regulations, they cite only ceremonial laws --- such as sacrifices, the priesthood, circumcision and feasts, which pictorially repesent the mediatorial work of Christ until He came.

For example: no New Testament text condemns the practice of restitution and in fact, Jesus pronounced Zaccheus to e saved after he had demonstrated his willingness to obey this detail of the law. No New Testament text can be used to support unlawful practices of homsexuality, usury, or debasement of currency. These are all aspects of God's abiding moral law, and not one word of Scripture alters their force.

I hope this gets you started...remember, Abraham and David, Abraham's faith and he still obey God's law...King David, when he was King, the principles of priesthood from Moses was still active and lawful but yet King David lived when he would meet God face to face in the Holy of Holies. Why didn't King David die? Why did God allow this to happen? Because anyone who was not a Levi high priest and followed the procedures would surely die...why did allow such a thing. King David ruled 40 years like that ... what made him different from Saul...why did God allow this....?

Please contact me if you want to talk...

Sister in Jesus,
Char