Posted on 10/22/2016 12:22:02 AM PDT by metmom
“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4).
The law can no longer punish those who have died with Christ.
It’s an axiomatic truth that laws don’t apply to dead people. No policeman would issue a ticket to a drunk driver who was killed in an accident. Nor was Lee Harvey Oswald tried for killing President Kennedy, since he himself was killed by Jack Ruby. In Romans 7:2-3 Paul uses marriage to illustrate that truth: “For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then if, while her husband is living, she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man.” Paul’s point is simple: death ends a marriage because the laws regarding marriage don’t apply to the dead.
The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. Since believers have died with Christ (Rom. 6:3-7), the law can no longer condemn them; it no longer has authority over them. Paul’s use of a passive verb (“were made to die”) indicates that believers don’t make themselves dead to the law; they were made dead to the law through a divine act.
The only provision for paying the penalty the law demands is the Lord Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. To the Corinthians Paul wrote, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). The apostle repeated that truth in Galatians 2:19-20: “For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”
Suggestions for Prayer
Thank God that you are no longer under the law’s condemnation (Rom. 8:1).
For Further Study
Read Romans 3:20; 7:12; Galatians 3:24-25. Since the law can’t save anyone, what is its purpose?
A ‘believer’ will NOT commit murder, period. And so long as any are still in a flesh body, a demonstration of belief is to keep the Ten Commandments. Do not think so, well, it is plainly Written at the end of the book who will be saved and who will NOT be saved. Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that DO His commandments, that they may have ‘right’ to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
The ‘law’ nailed to the Cross was the ‘blood’ ordinances and sacrifices. Christ became the final perfect ‘blood’ sacrifice.
Grace is unmerited favor, meaning it does NOT come from the law. At the time of Paul’s writings all manner of rituals were required... and called the ‘law’. Paul had to repeatedly teach the milk drinkers basic Christianity and even had a few things to say about those who could not ‘see’ beyond the ‘are you saved’ lingo.
This is what Paul says.....
Romans 6:1-4What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:12-18 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Romans 6:19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Romans 7:1-6 Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
we are NOT under the law. We have died to it in Christ Jesus and have been given a new nature, being new creatures in Christ.
We have the fruit of the Spirit that develops in our lives and that righteousness is imparted from God, not a result of obeying the law.
We end up keeping the law because it's now our nature to do so.
The Law is for those who do not have the Holy Spirit in them, that they may see the errors in the way they are living. The "wages of sin" IS death. Grace is the power the righteous receive from the act of living righteously, not because they claim to have 'faith', something totally misrepresented/understood today.
For those counting on throwing themselfs at the "mercy of the court", in the end, Luke 12:58 comes to mind:
"When you are on the way to court with your accuser, try to settle the matter before you get there. Otherwise, your accuser may drag you before the judge, who will hand you over to an officer, who will throw you into prison."
And James 2:17:
...faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.
That last verse pretty much describes where Christian Churches are headed today, and as a result, the coming downfall of western civilization.
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
No one is really righteous who treats others with contempt. To love one another is the highest of commandments.
And the verse you quoted is a great one.
Many are easily confused by the complex writings of Paul, and many who have been studying scripture for a along time, are as well.
It helps to measure meatier scriptures, such as Paul's, against the plain text teachings of the Messiah, like the following:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
May God bless you for your many good works here on FR.
אהבה + אהבה
= יהוה
13 + 13 = 26
Love + Love = YHVH
2(love) = YHVH
To love = God
:)
Those who pick out passages to use as proof texts for their beliefs make a mistake when they ignore the passage's context like what was said before and/or after, as well as to whom it is addressed and the specific words that are used.
This passage, for example, which you insist has Jesus telling a man he can be saved if he "keeps Torah" misses some major points. First of all, this happened after Jesus had given a parable about the Pharisee (one who prided himself on his Torah keeping) and a publican going to the temple to pray:
Here you had a self-righteous, self-exalted religious person who DID all that the Law commanded, yet he did NOT walk away justified while the sinner, who WAS humble and confessed his sinfulness, did go away justified. Then Jesus and his disciple have a man walk up to them asking how HE could inherit eternal life. He addressed Jesus as "good teacher" and Jesus, though He WAS perfectly righteous, asked the man why he called him good since ONLY God is good. Wait, you're probably thinking, people CAN be good, right? So what did Jesus mean? He was talking about sinlessness. NO one is sinless - truly GOOD - BUT God and Jesus because he IS God. This man was a ruler, a Politician, and rich, and he was like the Pharisee of the previous parable, because he claimed he had always kept the law perfectly since he was a kid - but was that true? Doesn't Scripture tells that ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? So, Jesus answered him - because He knew the man's heart - you lack one thing (you who insist you are perfect) "go sell all you have and give it to the poor and then you shall have treasure in heaven". I'd like you to notice that Jesus NEVER said "you shall inherit eternal life" but "you shall have treasure in heaven". That is a distinction.
The truth is that no person can keep the law perfectly and be justified of his own works and efforts. That is why Jesus came to die in our place. If we want to inherit eternal life, we must first admit we NEED grace and mercy because we are sinners. Even IF someone could keep the letter of the law, Jesus taught that there is a SPIRIT of the law behind just keeping the outward law. This young man walked away unjustified in the same way the Pharisee did - they wouldn't humble themselves and admit they were sinners. If you cannot do that, you won't ever see your need for a redeemer, a savior, and you won't accept the gift of God which is eternal life in Jesus Christ.
Like I already said, we SHOULD be living holy lives when we follow Jesus. He has given us the power to do that through the indwelling Holy Spirit. When we live such lives, when we help others, when we do good unto others, we will have rewards in heaven. Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (Luke 12:34).
Finally, the man goes away sorrowful because he was very wealthy and he wasn't willing to do what he needed to do.
That is the rest of the story, LadyL. We inherit eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. We live as children of Almighty God in holiness and obedience - not to BE saved, but because we ARE saved. Inheriting eternal life of ourselves is impossible but, with God, all things are possible.
Of course the teaching of the Christian faith should include how we live in holiness and obedience, showing by our lives the faith we have. We love Him, Scripture says, because He first loved us. That's what the book of James addresses. It is what Paul taught for example in his epistles to the Corinthians:
What people should be careful of, though, is going to the other extreme where our works stop being an evidence of a changed heart and a new birth through faith, and go into making our works and deeds necessary to meriting eternal life. Paul dealt with that heresy repeatedly. We see him addressing it throughout his writings. He had to deal constantly with those called the Judaizers, who insisted Gentiles must be converted to Judaism and be subject to the Law of Moses in order to be saved. We read again and again where Paul admonishes believers to not be taken in by that error. For example, he said:
Salvation is the gift of God that we receive by faith. HE sees our hearts and we cannot fool Him by words we may say. Genuine faith WILL show in the life of the Holy Spirit indwelt child of God. Will we sometimes stray, mess up, commit sin? Yes, we are STILL in the flesh. But there is a difference now - there is a repentance, a sorrow when we sin against God, we feel shame over the wrongs in our life and we strive to live for God's glory. That's how we know the Spirit of God is working in us. I love what the following has to say about born again children of God:
For your many good works, revelations, and insights you've shared with us Ezekiel, may the Almighty bless you as well. ;)
I couldn't agree more with the above. It reminds me of the following verse in 1 Peter:
...above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”
If we just kept that one commandment, we would change the world.
Boatbums...one thing I’ve learned over the years is not to engage with those who take a platform so as to sermonize or preach. I am sure you are a wonderful person and live a righteous life. I hope you are kind and generous to your neighbor. With that I will say...may you be blessed. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
LadyL...one thing I have learned over the years here at Free Republic on the Religion Forum is to not expect that efforts to explain the reasons for the hope that is within me to those who ask when they only want to hear sound bites and clichés...but I STILL try because I know they are not the only ones reading the thread. Thank you for the opportunity to glorify Christ with the truth of the gospel.
I can guarantee you are not even knowledgeable of the Gospel that Yahshua preached or that was preached to Abraham...keep studying. You are preaching the gospel the church preaches not the one that Yahshua preached or that was told to Abraham.
No, you cannot guarantee any such thing. All you can do is presume I lack knowledge because I don't happen to agree with the accursed gospel you preach. I can, and HAVE, shown you the truth of the gospel from the sacred Scriptures but I cannot change your heart from the pride you seem to feel for the works you do to merit salvation - only the Holy Spirit does that. You, and those who hold the same beliefs, are fallen from grace because you think you can be justified by the keeping of the law. Scripture says Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith (Gal. 3:6 as well as many others).
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions, though.
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
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