Thursday, January 13, 2011

On Law, Jesus, and Paul

"Ohhh, ok, my mistake. I have been trying for many years to have it explained to me. If you understand it, please explain it to me. I would appreciate it very much.

Oh, and I should have posted this in my last reply and I didn't. I don't like to say things without showing the verses. I apologize for not posting it before but this should explain why I said you are going against what the bible says:

In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus stated: '17 Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the [way of] the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. 18For, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.'

However, Paul, who claimed to be a disciple of Jesus, systematically cancelled the laws. In his letter to the Romans, chapter 7:6, he stated, "But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code but in the new life of the
Spirit."

This was a question raised to me back when I first started debating on my own on various websites. I felt the call in my life to start defending the faith back in 2005-06ish. After I recently tried looking up my blog site with just using 'prisonerofjoy' I found this particular forum I had once been on. The question is clear. The person who had raised the question saw some sort of tension or contradiction between the two parts. To be clear they saw Matthew 5 as a contradiction with the verses from Romans 7. The question is simple does Paul cancel out the Law? My response would be No. Another important question before I get into the reason why is is there a contradiction in these verses? I would say No, again. The Romans 7 verse is speaking of soteriological. While the Matthew 5 verse is speaking of the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. In other words Christ is the promise Messiah. Furthermore Christ is the one who being God was able to fulfill the Law. For God cannot sin, even so Christ is also Man, thereby able to live and die perfectly on behalf of Totally Depraved Men who are by nature dead in their sins. What this means is that if Christ was not God and simply human then on some strange account that he obeyed God's commands perfectly He would not have been able to impute righteousness to those who Trust in Him Nor would he be able to die on behalf of those thus diverging God's Wrath which was righteously set on Man. But He would just be fulfilling what God had commanded for Himself.
Onto Romans 7:6 What Paul is speaking of here is that the Law for sinful man could not save anyone however. The Law was only meant to show us our Inability to obey God. Paul says, that "having died to that which held us captive" meaning that the Law only condemns. Paul will later on say that the Law is good. So Paul is not against the Law. But how did we die? well in the next part of the verse it says that we (Those in Christ) serve in the new way of the Spirit. In Romans 8 Paul discusses that it is only by the Spirit can one walk according to the Spirit and so Please God. We are not saved by works but by grace through faith... for the purpose of good works (Ephesians 2:8..10) for God's glory (Ephesians 2:7). It is only through the Spirit that we may worship God (John 4:23-24, Philippians 3:1-3).
So now if I have not answered it already. Does Paul cancel out the Law? Certianly not. in Romans 6 Paul speaks of Christians being corporately part of Christ through Christ's Death. Just as Christ died to sin and was buried and was raised for the glory of God the Father. So Redeemed men and women in Christ have died to the bondage of sin and so are raised so that they ought to and will live for the glory of God the Father. But Paul later on will ask the question if it is by grace then are we to sin so that grace may abound? The answer is no. Because Grace enables us to live in accordance to God's standards not that we are justified by the Law for no one can be justified by the law.

Editors note: I will probably look over a commentary later to make sure I have not misapplied something. But I think over all it is good.

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