The question many wonder in the back of their minds (I think) is how does the Law effect or apply to us today? Do we follow a limited version of the Law? Does it all apply and we are missing something? Is it all gone because of what Jesus did on the cross? The answer is more complex than a yes or no which we always prefer LOL.
My first idea I was taught indirectly through others teaching was: There is the Law and there is the Gospel. Separate and different. Pointing to Jesus, but ultimately no good. The law is bad because it only shows us our sin without any chance for Salvation and the Gospel is good because it shows us the road to salvation in Jesus. Martin Luther taught this very clearly and you see it through out his writing with little difference except for what a friend and philosopher added to his discourse. Does this add up to all the writings of Paul or the the others in the New Testament? Or to what Jesus said?
Paul says,
Romans 7:6-7
For we have been released from the law by dying to what enslaved us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit, not under the old writings.What should we say, then? Is the law sinful? Of course not! In fact, I wouldn't have become aware of sin if it had not been for the law. I wouldn't have known what it means to covet if the law had not said, "You must not covet."
Paul very clearly points put that the Law itself is not sinful, yet sin in us uses the law to then draw us to desires opposite of Gods truth.
Recently, I have studied Calvin at a glance and as a contemporary of this reformation movement, he had a slightly different take on this subject. He saw the law and the gospel as interconnected and pointing in the same direction to salvation through Jesus as fulfillment of the law, but I had to ask is there more to Gods story? Is it simply that God laid down the Law and then responded with Jesus to his own Law? Is it simply that we now carry the promise of salvation through Jesus apart but yet still guided by the Law? What is the promise and where did it come from?
Paul says,
Galatians 3:16-18
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. It doesn't say "descendants," referring to many, but "your descendant," referring to one person, who is the Messiah. This is what I mean: The law that came 430 years later did not cancel the covenant that God ratified previously. The promise was never nullified. For if the inheritance comes about through the law, it no longer comes about through the promise. But it was through a promise that God so graciously gave it to Abraham.
Paul is showing us a bigger picture. Not just of the nation of Israel or of us as believers in Jesus, but that God had a plan from the beginning not set of course by a speed bump by the devil in the Garden. Instead, from the beginning there was the promise and covenant with mankind.
Paul say,
Galatians 3:7-9
You see, then, that those who have faith are Abraham's real descendants. Because the Scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the gentiles by faith, it announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand when it said, "Through you all nations will be blessed." Therefore, those who believe are blessed together with Abraham, the one who believed.
So if the promise we receive is apart from the law because of the covenant we are apart of through the promise given to Abraham, what do we then see in this idea of the Law? Is it for us fully, in part, or not at all?
Paul says,
Galatians 3:23-25
Now before faith came about, we were held in custody and confined under the law in preparation for the faith that was to be revealed. And so the law was our guardian until the Messiah came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come about, we are no longer under a guardian.
We are no longer held by the Law as guardian held in custody as slave, but now shown the truth of the Law which is Love.
Jesus say,Matthew 22:36-40
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"
Jesus said to him,"'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: 'You must love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments."
Paul says,Galatians 5:6
For in union with the Messiah Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. What matters is faith expressed through love.
We call no longer held to a Law unable to save us, or a Law pointing us to Jesus only for salvation, but in seeing the promise we are apart of, we are called by this Law, no longer external but now in us, to love those around us to see the Kingdom Of God here on earth.
Next blog: Civil, Sacrificial, and Moral Law? Where did they go and are they still at work in the world and us?
- Posted in the moment
