Featured The gospel according to Paul

First point: "God created the Law for man to live by"

Romans 5:20 "The law entered in so that transgression might increase"

God gave the law so that men could see the impossibility of saving himself and stand just by faith alone. See Gal 3:19-25 & Romans 3:9-31

Point two: "God has no govern over Him"

The foundation of God's government is His law. His law is an expression of His agape love.

The Bible states that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Paul tell us that "love is the fulfillment of the law" Rom 13:10. The Greek word of our English word love is "agape". Therefore "God is agape". And "agape is the fulfillment of the law". God, therefore, is in harmony with His law. If not then why did Christ come to fulfill the law? (see Matt 5:17)

If God's law is meaningless to Him then why didn't He simply snap His fingers and say to all of us, "you are forgiven"? Instead Christ as God came and assumed our fallen, corporate life and for over thirty years lived a perfect life in obedience to it. And on the cross the justice of the law was satisfied because your old, fallen life from Adam died when He was crucified.

God is not above His own law. He is its Author.

 

Yes, and He did this by assuming our fallen life from Adam and living a perfect life of obedience to God's law. This fulfills the positive demands of the law, which is "obey & live".

But, since the humanity He assumed at the incarnation was our fallen life, indwelt by our bent-to-self, our life had to die. Hence "you died to the law in the body of Christ". Therefore the justice of the law was fulfilled.

Well, that's your opinion. Paul states that you were "justified unto life" when Christ died (Rom 5:18). Paul tells me you were "saved by grace", not faith. See Eph 2:5

The Biblical way to look at this is you were already saved by God "in Christ", but you hadn't accepted this truth.

You accepted your salvation "in Christ", but in Christ's holy history you already were saved by grace in Him.

Right, Adam did, but he failed. Because of his failure you were born in sin. You were born a sinner. God's law demands your death. How can God save you and be true to His own law that justly condemns you to death? By doing away with the law? IF so, Christ died for nothing.

I agree that Christ as God didn't need to keep the law, but Christ as the Son of Man did if He were to redeem the fallen race. That's why we have a gospel to preach....

Well, there are number of ways to look at this issue.

1. God doesn't kill. This one takes a lot of explaining...
2. God doesn't murder, but He kills. Murder is against the law, not killing.

I tend to go with # 1, but # 2 also has some merit. This really needs to be another topic, but it doesn't prove that God can do as He desires. Here's evidence that God is in harmony with His own law:

James states that "God cannot be tempted by evil". Therefore God cannot sin. What is sin? According to the NT it is "the transgression of the law" 1 John 3:4.

David was born a sinner: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Ps 51:5 You too must have be born a sinner! If not, when did you become a sinner, when you sinned outwardly? That means if you would have died before you committed sin you wouldn't have needed a Savior. Doesn't that sound a bit self-righteous?

 

And God has spared you too, a sinner under the curse of the law. How? By answering the legal demands of the law "in Christ Jesus". That's the gospel - the good news for sinners.

 

"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:32

By this Jesus didn't mean some are righteous. Clearly, "There is none righteous, no, not one" Rom 3:10 And even the believer has sinned (past tense) and in the present, continuous tense "falls short of the glory of God" (i.e., His agape love). Rom 3:23

So Jesus came to call sinners to repentance, not the self-righteous. The self-righteous think they don't need Christ....

The gospel is good new for sinners, but not the self-righteous. Everyone who is lost will be lost because they viewed themselves as good people.

 

What the sinner is receiving is something that has already been accomplished in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ. The gospel is a completed work finalized at the cross. It's more than provisional.

 

I previously said:

You said:

The new birth is not the gospel. The new birth is experiencing Christ or "the fruits of the gospel". If the fruits is what saves then you are presenting a subtle form of legalism.

 

The gospel has already justified all men unto life. So please do not tell me the gospel is meaningless until accepted. E.G., infants who die before the age of accountability are saved "in Christ" through grace. In fact anyone who cannot exercise faith towards Christ are in a saved condition.

For the rest of us who have reached the age of accountability a decision is required for or against "the truth as it is in Christ". For those who persist in rejecting the good news and harden their hearts they will remain under law and under the curse, which is the 2nd death.