Featured Christians and the Law

Right. It is informative and instructive, but not binding.(note: I unintentionally changed Yeshua1 quote while posting. I've tried to edit it back to original. Not sure what the final post will look like)

 

The sacrifies and feasts and festivals and all of those rules/regulations were for the time before the messiah, as God called out Israel unto Himself, and rooted in them His laws and rules under the OC. Jesus fulfilled all that the festivals/feasts and sacrifices poited towards, so just left to heed the Moral code of God.

 

It shows us how to live, but we need to submit to the Holy Spirit and be filled with him in order to obey God even after saved!

 

Wow, as of this moment, half believe moral laws are binding on Christians.

I hope folks just don't understand what "binding" means.

 

I agree.

 

what many seem to overlook is that while the new nature in us when reborn now desires to serve and please God, we do not have the power needded to do that, as that is why God placed His Spirit within us!

 

Paul often prays for God to give us grace. This is "enabling grace" not salvific grace.

 

Yes, and the amazing truth is that we have all the grace ever needed, but we neglect it so often!

 

The actual Day isn't, but the application and principle behind it is!

 

No, Israel was really under thew Sat sabbath obligation, and I was addressing it to us now being under the NC...

 

Absolutely. But only the Decalogue came from the very finger of God. The ceremonial law is fulfilled in Christ; the judicial law was also set aside by Christ (see above).

Yep.

Yep. Not all the bits and pieces that were added to it in the ceremonial law, but as it stands in the Decalogue. The Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28). He gives us information as to how it should be kept, but I don't see where He abdicates His Lordship.

 

For several years after I called myself a 'Reformed Baptist' I had problems with the 1689 Confession XX:5.
'The moral law ever binds to obedience everyone, justified people as well as others [Romans 13:8-10; James 2:8-10] and not only out of regard for the matter contained in it, but also out of respect for the authority of the God the Creator who gave the law [James 2:10-11]. Nor does Christ in the Gospel dissolve the law in any way, but He considerably strengthens our obligation to obey it [Matthew 5:17-19; Romans 3:31].'

I felt that if I was bound to obey the law, I was in bondage to it. I therefore preferred the 1644/46 Confession.

What changed my mind was Romans 6:15-18. 'What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. But God be thanked, that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered; and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.'

So if I have been set free from sin, I am therefore a slave [or 'bondservant'] of righteousness. I am bound to obey God's righteous moral law, not in order to be set free from sin, but because I am set free from sin. Three times, Paul introduces himself as a 'bondservant' of the Lord Jesus (Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1). The Greek is doulos, 'slave,' just as it is in Romans 6 above.

The position of the Christian is analogous to that of the freed slave in Exodus 21:1-6. We have been set free from sin, but we desire to serve our new Master. Therefore David writes, 'Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears you have opened [or 'bored through,' 'pierced']. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart"' (Psalm 40:6-8). Therefore we are willing slaves of our new Master forever (Exodus 21:6).

 

Deuteronomy 5:22. 'These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness with a loud voice. And He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.'

I am not saying that the rest of the law did not come with God's full authority, but it is clear from that verse that God set the Decalogue apart from the other laws.

 

Brothers....

" Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
2 to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, [but] gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, [and] hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
8 [This is] a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.
9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain." ( Titus 3:1-9 )


May God bless you.

 

Yeah! Only half. That's worrying.
I hope folks just don't understand what "binding" means.[/QUOTE]
See my post #56, but tell me, which of God's commandments are you eager to break? Do you find them 'grievous' (1 John 5:3)?

 

I'm having trouble quoting so I apologize.

I believe that morality is fixed. It's a constant. It's everlasting. The law of Moses was focused on a variety of things. One of course was the moral conduct of the people. Others were the religious ceremonies of the faith of the nation. Some involved the legal code of the nation. In our society, the legal and religious codes are separate. In those days Israel was a theocracy so no separation.

I believe we can discern what is moral and what is legal/ceremonial but ultimately as christians we are bound by the guidance of the Holy Spirit within us. So I see the law as guidance on morality. Nothing is binding per se beyond the leading of the Holy Spirit.