Not under the law

[Guest Colossians]

Scripture is clear: "ye are not under the law".

This "under" speaks of jurisdiction. Paul tells us here that, just as one living in America is not under the law of Argentina, so we who are in Christ are not under the law of the OT (the ten commandments).

Paul seconds this in Galations: "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster", meaning again that the law loses its jurisdiction over those in Christ.

The law is not eternal, but was made for the creature not in Christ, thus: "the law was not made for a righteous man". It was given as a schoomaster to bring us to Christ. Once this has occurred, its utility is expired.

It will continue to exist only as long as non-believers exist.

The legalist, being he who seeks to follow the law, has his eyes on morality rather than Christ. This is a performance-oriented religion. Bondage.

He won't tell you, but underpinning it all is fear: he is not assured of Christ's love for him, so he seeks to bolster his eternal security by following commandments, which he thinks he will be able to point to as evidence of worthiness at judgement day.

Ironically, he is in fact in disobedience to God, for he continues to disobey the first commandment..."thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". This is born out in the fusion of the following 2 verses:

"[(Keeping)] the law is not of faith" Gal 3:12

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" Rom 14:23

There is only one thing a true believer can do:

Nothing.

It has all been done before. At the cross.

"For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His". Heb 4:10

Edited November 30, 2004 by Colossians

[gypc]

1 John 5:3This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

To him belongs eternal praise.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,

but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Philippians 2:12Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence--continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

Mat 7:21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

[Yahsway]

Amen gypc!!

Grace is not an license to sin. Grace is Gods unmerited favor. Something we do not deserve.

But Gods 10 commandments are forever! We do not keep them for salvation. We keep them out of love for Him that saved us by His grace.

Yeshuas work maybe finished on the stake but our work as believers is not finished. He that endureth untill the end shall be saved.

I know that I am saved by His grace thru faith. Abraham found grace by his faith.

Yeshua is that goal by which we all need to obtain. He is the "end of the law" the final goal, he has accomplished that which I could not. But Gods law is forever. It will stand forever. It is good. It is not bondage. It is the way that Yeshua walked.

It is the way I walk. I love His laws.

[tsth]

Dear Colossians,

If there is a man filled with anger who is locked up in prison for murder, and there is another who has no anger against his brother and the desire to murder is not in him, then which one is free?

The law still exists, but only one of the above is under it, and held captive and bound, but the law is still there for one to go under. It is a matter of the heart, not of the existance of the law. Only the heart committed to Christ will not harbor those things that will put him under the "bondage" of the law.

But do not think that the law is gone or irrelevant to any man. We are still to be mindful of it, just not bound by it.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest Colossians]

But Gods 10 commandments are forever!

They disappear when heaven and earth disappear, as Jesus implied. ("Until heaven and earth pass away, not one....").

For the believer this has already occurred in the spirit: "He hath made us to sit in heavenly places", with the result: "there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before".

We do not keep them for salvation. We keep them out of love for Him that saved us by His grace.

False dichotomy.

To love God is to be saved, and to be saved is to love God.

Therefore to be released from the requirement to keep the law to be saved, is to be released from the requirement to keep the law to love God.

[Guest Colossians]

We are still to be mindful of it, just not bound by it.

Spiritual adultery: looking back to a previous spouse. The sin of Lot's wife.

"ye also are become dead to the law that ye might be married to another"

[tsth]

Romans 3:31

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

establish

to make firm, fix establish

to cause a person or a thing to keep his or its place

to stand, be kept intact (of family, a kingdom), to escape in safety

to establish a thing, cause it to stand 1b

to uphold or sustain the authority or force of anything

Strongs #2476 i&sthmi

The Law is still there Colossians. It is still valid. Only to one man it is bondage and imprisonment, to another it is not.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest Colossians]

He is the "end of the law" the final goal,

No. He is the end, the terminus. Just like the bible says.

he has accomplished that which I could not.

Christ never looked at the law; only at His Father.

That is why He didn't keep the Sabbath.

And that is why He said: "it saith in YOUR law", and not "it saith in OUR law".

But Gods law is forever.

Not at all. It is only for the unrighteous. And it will cease to exist when heaven and earth pass away.

[tsth]

The law is still valid and has purpose Colossians. If you tell others that it is not, you are misguiding them.

1 Timothy 1:8 But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, 9 knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 10 for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.

It will bring one back to "sound" doctrine, if there is something contrary to it.

Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

In His Love,

Suzanne

[Guest Colossians]

Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

An often misunderstood verse (as though Paul suddenly forgot what he had written a few verses earlier).

Our coming to Christ through faith establishes the law (validates its utility as schoolmaster). This is because faith says nothing to negate the correctness of the law (we were guilty).

So the law carries through to its full prosecution and crucifixion of us, and in so doing is established.

The paradox is that such establishement necessarily entails its loss of jurisdiction over us, for once we are crucified with Him, the law can no longer find us:

we are considered as non-living persons.