New Covenant Ways – BT4b:  Christians are to have absolutely nothing to do with the Old Testament Law

 

 

Please follow the BLOG Etiquette to stay on topic and pass the moderator’s check.  Bold, underlined text below = future links to the BLOG pages.

 

Paul makes it clear that Christians should have absolutely nothing to do with the old covenant or Law – we are to be freed from its yoke of slavery:  “The Law of the Spirit of zoe genuine-life has set you free [from slavery] in Christ Jesus from the [OT] Law of sin and death, for God has done what the Law [of commandments], asthenes beggarly-poor-weak-feeble-impotent by the flesh, was adunatos absolutely-powerless-to-do” (a) and “everyone who has trusting-relying-faith is freed from everything from which you absolutely in fact could not powerfully-be-enabled to be freed [from slavery] from by the Law of Moses” (b), which Paul argues is everything!  Paul continues: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom [from slavery]” (c) and warns of “those (d) who have slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us back into slavery” (e).  Even Peter says, “Live as people who are free . . . but living as bond-servants (f) of God” (g). <Notes> a) Romans 8:2-3, b) Acts 13:39, c) 2 Corinthians 3:17, d) false brothers, teachers of the Law, e) Galatians 2:4, f) freed slaves who chose to still serve their masters, g) 1 Peter 2:16.

 

Christians are to no longer be under the Law, for “Whatever the Law says it speaks to those who are under the Law” (a), and “All who are out-of/from the works/doings of the Law are under a curse” (b), and “Now BEFORE trusting-relying-faith came, we were held captive under the Law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming trusting-relying-faith would be revealed. So then the Law was our [minor-children] school-escort guardian (c) UNTIL Christ came that we would be made/declared righteous by trusting-relying-faith. But NOW that trusting-relying-faith has come, we are absolutely in fact no longer under a supervisor-guardian (c), for in Christ Jesus you are ALL [mature] sons of God through trusting-relying-faith” (d).  This is similar to “under epitropos household-guardians and/coupled oikonomos household-managers UNTIL the date set by his father” for their inheritance as mature son. <Notes> a) Romans 2:12; Jews – 1 Corinthians 9:20, b) Galatians 3:10, c) paidagogos: servants hired by the upper class to take their little boys to/from school UNTIL the age of manhood. Cf. ‘the 10,000 supervisor-guardians’ 1 Corinthians 4:15, d) Galatians 3:23-26.

 

The works of the Law are called “dead-lifeless works” and Jewish-Christians should have “repented/turned-from them” (a) and had their “consciences purified/cleansed from them to serve the living God” (b), but the context shows that Jewish teachers of the Law have convinced them to return to these commandments of the Law. However, Paul says Christians “are absolutely not under Law but under unconditional-loving-favor-of-grace” (c), so that “if you are led (d) by the Spirit, [then] you are not under the Law” (e). <Notes> a) Hebrews 6:1, b) Hebrews 9:14, c) Romans 6:14-15, d) guided, directed, conducted, carried, driven, impelled, e) Galatians 5:18.

 

Why would Christians want to become slaves again of the OT Law, which is only at best biblical gnosis info-knowledge about God and His will that “puffed up the heads” of the Pharisees and scribes per 1 Corinthians 8:1?  That’s exactly Paul’s question of Jewish-Christians in Galatians 4:9, “But now that you have come to experientially, relationally ginosko know God, or rather to be experientially, relationally ginosko known by God, how can you turn back again to the asthenes weak-worthless-beggarly-poor and/coupled ptochos destitute stoicheion elementary or rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamental principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?”

 

In context, Paul’s not just talking about Gentile rules-based religion or just about Jewish “Traditions of the Elders” or Oral Torah commandments, but including the entire old covenant Law they were “once slaves of” (a) which he says is still “of this world,” and he further warns, “For freedom Christ has set us free [from slavery] – stand firm therefore, and/coupled absolutely do not submit again to a yoke (b) of slavery” (c).  You’re either tied to Moses, the traditions of men or of their religions, or tied to Jesus, but not to both! <Notes> a) Galatians 2:4, 4:1, 7, 22-25, 30-31, 5:1, b) instructional harness for training animals, which if it doesn’t fit right can be a burden, c) Galatians 5:1.

 

Yes, the scriptures were their ‘yoke or harness’ of learning about God and His will, but it it was a “yoke of slavery!”  In Colossians 2:20-23, Paul says: “If with Christ you died to the stoicheion rudimentary ‘abc’ fundamentals of this world, why, as if you were still alive in this world, do you submit to [its] regulations – ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ kata down-from/according-to human precepts and/also [human] teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom . . . but they are of absolutely-in-fact-no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”

 

Again these “food and drink, festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths” (a) are all laid out in the OT Law of commandments, albeit expanded on by the Jewish Oral Law (b), but these are simply “skia shadows (c) of things to come” (d) or “copies and shadows of the heavenly things” (e) or “good things to come” (f), mere “types of what was to come” (g) and simply “symbolic” (h) to “correspond to” (i) other realities (j). <Notes> a) Colossians 2:16, b) Traditions of the Elders, c) skia: shade cast backward from an object, d) Colossians 2:17, e) Hebrews 8:5, f) Hebrews 10:1, g) Romans 5:14, h) Hebrews 9:9; Revelation 11:8, i) antitupos: antitype – the counterpart or figure that happens afterwards that shows a prior event to be a type, j) 1 Peter 3:20-21; Galatians 4:25.

 

However, Christians who now have “the true form of those realities” (a) by trusting-relying-faith, that is, “the substance/reality that belongs in Christ” (b), were to leave the OT “shadows, copies, types, symbols, and corresponding figures” behind, “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of [rules about] eating and drinking but of righteousness and/coupled peace and/coupled joy by the means of the Holy Spirit” (c). Why are so many Christians and churches, who should be “[mature] sons and heirs of the kingdom” still reveling in the copies, shadows, types, and corresponding symbols or figures meant for “children that are still no different than slaves” (d)? <Notes> a) Hebrews 10:1, b) Colossians 2:17, c) Romans 14:17, d) Galatians 4:1.

 

Again, Christians are to make a clean break from the OT Law: “Now that we are released/freed from (a) the Law, having died to that which held us captive, we now ongoingly serve/minister by the means of the completely-different-in-kind New Way (b) of the Spirit, and/coupled absolutely in fact no longer by the means of the palaios ‘old, antiquated, worn-out, useless’ way of the gramma writing” (c). When will we really believe this? <Notes> a) katargeo: ‘thrown down to be inactive and useless,’ terminated, destroyed, voided, annulled, and thus released from – also used of the Law in Ephesians 2:15, b) kainotes from kainos: Walking in Newness of zoe genuine-life, Romans 6:4, c) Romans 7:6.

 

Jesus came to “proclaim liberty to the captives” (a), not just “slavery to sin because we practice sin” (b) or when we “obey sin” (c) – for certainly “no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s sperma Seed lives in him, so he cannot keep on sinning” (d) – but Jesus came to also free us from “the Law [that] held us captive” (e), that was “holding [us] captive under the Law, imprisoned UNTIL the coming trusting-relying-faith would be revealed” (f). It’s crazy so much of the modern Church is so eager to start following OT traditions again!  Absolutely crazy!  <Notes> a) Luke 4:18, b) John 8:34, c) Romans 6:16-20, 7:23, d) 1 John 3:9, e) Romans 7:6, f) Galatians 3:23.

 

Reflection:

 

 

As Christian musicians, why are we having anything to do with the Law of commandments for righteousness that enslaved the Jewish people?  It kept us powerless because of the weakness of sinful flesh.  The works/doing of the Law were dead or lifeless anyway – they didn’t produce any life but actually killed us.  A completely-different-in-kind NEW Law of the Spirit as set us free, and our only part is trusting-relying-faith.  This is how we now serve God, not by following gramma writings, but by being led by the Spirit.  Christians shouldn’t be spoken to by the Law because we aren’t under it or its curse.  The entire OT imprisoned the Jews as slave-children until they were mature enough to receive the inheritance of Christ.  The Law was like every other religion – abc fundamentals or rules & regulations that promise life but deliver death, promise self-control but actually fuel sin.  The entire OT was just “shadows, copies, types, symbols, and figures” of NT realities in Christ.  Why are Christians going backward in time?  We were to have nothing to do with 97.4% of the OT which is Law-based – see Logos Word of God – BT5a.  The Spirit’s guidance replaced guidance of biblical writings.  Christ living in us by His Spirit is how we are taught and obey now.

 

Prayer:

 

 

Lord, give us understanding of the radical difference between covenants and how often we are called to leave the old one behind and having nothing more to do with 97.4% of the OT that is Law-based.  In fact, we are supposed to be leaving gramma writings behind entirely because our yoke/harness is to Christ, our One Teacher His Holy Spirit, and this is how we are to now learn – directly!

 

 

 

 

 

Spiritual Education, Christians not to do any part of Old Testament or Covenant Law, Christians to be freed from the yoke or slavery or prison of Old Testament Law, Christians are no longer under the Old Testament Law or curse or household-guards of it, Christians are to repent from dead works of the Law, Christians are to be purified from works f the Law, Christians are under the opposite of Law that is Grace, Judaism is like all other world religions with its weak poor destitute ABC writings about God, gnosis head-knowledge vs ginosko relationship knowledge of God, do & don’t do commandments are to teach children by rote, the Holy Spirit is the teacher for sons of God for the New Covenant, Christians are to run from the Old Testament Law’s slavery that explodes sinfulness, Old Testament Law promises holiness but explodes sin