A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION - Are we to keep THE LAW under the New Covenant of Grace? The LAW came through MOSES, but GRACE & TRUTH came through JESUS CHRIST. JESUS put an end to the LAW by fulfilling it perfectly... what no man could do, JESUS did. Paul said,I WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN SIN EXCEPT FOR THE LAW Our death with Jesus sets us FREE from THE LAW. 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. a. You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ: In Romans 6:3-8, Paul carefully explained that we died with Jesus and we also rose with Him, although Paul there only spoke of our death to sin. Now he explains that we also died to the law. i. Some might think, Yes, we were saved by grace, but we must live by law to please God. Here Paul makes it plain that believers are dead to the law as far as it represents a principle of living or a place of right standing before God. ii. Believers are through with the law. It is not for them an option as a way of salvation. They do not seek to be right with God by obeying some form of law, as the adherents of almost all religions have done. Mt. 5:17-19: What is Jesus’ intent when He states, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” The Law Keepers interpretation is that the law is still necessary. In the greater context of His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is contrasting his correct interpretation of the law with the Pharisees’ wrong interpretation. ThePharisaic traditions destroyed the law because they reinterpreted the law, not presenting it in the way Moses had intended. As long as Jesus was alive He had to keep the law the way it was written by Moses. And Jesus did exactly that, this is one of the reasons why the Pharisees could not accuse him of sin. The Sermon on the Mount is used to prove one is still under the law by those who live under it, but Jesus is only explaining the true intent of the law in contrast to what the Pharisees taught. By Jesus’ perfect obedience He fulfilled all the laws requirements. Consequently he was able to take upon himself the penalty and the curse of the law on the cross. With his dying he rendered it inoperative for the believer (Rom.10:4-5; Heb. 8:13). To say one is going to keep the Old Testament law because of requirement is to ignore the work that Christ did in our stead, and rejecting the New Testament covenant. The meaning of the word “fulfill”: What it does not mean is to continue or reinforce. Matthew consistently used the word fulfill in a specific manner - once something is fulfilled (completely, not in type) there is not a future fulfillment to look for. He quotes Isa.7:14 for the fulfillment of the virgin birth. Where the Messiah was to be born (Mic. 5:2); there is no awaiting for this to reoccur in the future. This is how the word fulfill is used. To fulfill something means to bring it to a completion (Gr. teleos). It is used consistently this way throughout Matthew’s gospel (Mt. 2:17, 23; 12:17; 13:13, 35; 27:9, 35). Following are a few examples: Mt. 2:15: “and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Mt. 8:17: “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Mt. 21:4-5: All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Mt. 26:56: “But all this was done that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” All the Scriptures that Matthew writes about being fulfilled means a completion of something that was prophesied or written and Jesus fulfilled it, bringing it to its end, having it come to pass. Paul who was a law keeper writes, Rom. 10:4: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” By trusting in Christ’s work the law is fulfilled for us. Christ is the end of the law; the Greek word used is telos which means termination or goal. Once Jesus died and rose again, the believer was to abide by the law of Christ (not Moses). Commands were either given directly by Jesus (Acts 1:2) or through the apostles after the resurrection in the epistles. The law was replaced; all the Old Testament types and shadows were replaced by the light, the one who gave us them. Christ did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, to bring it to its natural conclusion and completion. It is non-operative for a believer, it is put aside. Heb 8:12-13 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. In that He says, A new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. obsolete – Gr. palaioo from 3820; to make (passively, become) worn out, or declare obsolete Hebrews 8:13 Perfect active indicative of palaiooo (NT:3774), an old verb from palaios (NT:3772) (in contrast with kainos (NT:2502), fresh, new), to treat as old and out of date. The conclusion is to the point. The author is explaining that the Old Testament system of law under Moses was about to vanish before the NEW COVENANT OF GRACE replaced it.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 11:23:01 +0000
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