Seventeen Points on why the believer is not under the Law.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Point 6. The Present Purpose of the Mosaic Law in the Church-age. Israel (Mosaic Law) -
Hypostatic union -
Church-age.

During the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Mosaic Law on the one hand, and through life in the PPOG, established the precedence for the Church-age on the other hand.

MAT 5:17 Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.

The Mosaic Law is a particular expression of God’s eternal and Holy character, Exo 19.

While the Law regulated the life of the Jews in the dispensation of Israel, its primary purpose was to anticipate the First Advent of Christ.

Point 7. Dr. Charles E. Feinberg’s Seventeen Points on Why the Believer is Not Under the Law.

a. If the believer is under the Law, it makes Christ a minister or partner with sin, GAL 2:17. Does that make Christ a minister (a party and contributor) to our sin?

JAM 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one {point,} he has become guilty of all.

b. The believer has died to the Law, GAL 2:19.
So I quit being a “law man” so that I could be “God’s man.”
c. A believer has received all the benefits of the Holy Spirit through faith, GAL 3:1-5. They no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in their lives.

Was it from observing a law of rituals or from a message of faith?
Was it by working your heads off to please God or was it by responding to God’s Message to you?

Having begun your new life spiritually with the Holy Spirit, are you now reaching perfection by dependence on the flesh? If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it or make it any better than God did?

Does the God who lavishly provides you with His own presence, His Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does He do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust Him to do them in you?

d. The Law Brings Nothing but Condemnation, GAL 3:10-14.

All who depend on the Law [who are seeking to be justified by obedience to the Law of rituals] are under a curse and doomed to disappointment and destruction.

Cursed (devoted to destruction, doomed to eternal punishment), be everyone who does not continue to abide (live and remain) by all the precepts and commands written in the Book of the Law and to practice them, DEU 27:26.

The man in right standing with God [the just, the righteous] shall live by and out of faith and he who through and by faith is declared righteous and in right standing with God shall live, HAB 2:4.

The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him.

The Law does not rest on faith, does not require faith, has nothing to do with faith, for the Bible says, He who does them [the things prescribed by the Law] shall live by them [not by faith], LEV 18:5.

Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping.

Christ purchased our freedom, redeeming us from the curse or doom of the Law and its condemnation by Himself becoming a curse for us.
Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified), DEU 21:23. TLJC redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into Himself.

That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the Cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse.

We are all able to receive God’s life, His Spirit, in and with us by believing, just the way Abraham received it.

e. God’s promised blessings to Abraham, of which Abrahamic root all believers partake of, (Rom 11), precede or came before the giving of the Law, therefore, the law cannot be a prior claim, GAL 3:15-17.

And to your Seed (your Descendant, your Heir), obviously referring to one individual, Who is [none other than] Christ (the Messiah), GEN 13:15; 17:8.

Observe that Scripture, in the careful language of a legal document, does not say “to descendants,” referring to everybody in general, but “to your descendant” (the noun is singular), referring to Christ.

The Law, which began 430 years after the covenant [concerning the coming Messiah], does not and cannot annul the covenant previously established (ratified) by God, so as to abolish the promise and make it void, EXO 12:40.

f. The Law has no power to give life or to sustain life, GAL 3:21.
For if a Law had been given which could give spiritual life, then righteousness and right standing with God would certainly have come by Law.

The Law was given to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by on our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete His promise.

g. The Law is intended only for the immature, while positionally, believers are full-grown sons, GAL 3:23-4:7.

Before the faith or doctrine came, the truth that set us free, we were perpetually guarded under the Law, kept in custody in preparation for the faith that was destined to be revealed, unveiled, or disclosed.

The Law was like those Greek tutors, with which the Galatians were familiar with, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.

As many of you as were baptized into Christ, into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah, you have put on or clothed yourselves with Christ.

It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe, Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise.

If you are in Him Who is Abraham’s Seed, then you are Abraham’s offspring and spiritual heirs according to promise.

As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave, though legally he owns the entire inheritance.

God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to the regulations of the Law, born under the conditions of the Law so that He might redeem those who had been kidnapped by the law.

You are no longer a slave bond-servant but a son; and if a son, then it follows that you are an heir by the aid of God, through Christ.

h. The Law is a bondage to the believer, GAL 4:9.