This message is of course for everyone and anyone can try to help me understand as they see fit, but I am replying to specific people and the things brought up in their posts.
Van,
1) You said faith is the end of the works of the Law.
I said it is the end of the works of the law for righteousness, please see the context as well as the actual sentence as below, but I do see how you may have not realized the connection between righteousness and the first part of my sentence, perhaps it is a run on sentence, I do not know.
1. We are Not Under the Law
1.b Faith is the end of the works of the law, or any works at all, for righteousness,
Also I said I was disheartened by the lack of agreement, so again the subject in that sentence being "lack of agreement", I do not see how the lack of agreement leads me to the light? Would not everyone having the right answer lead me to the light, since it is unclear with so many different ideas.
So the thread title asks about if we are to be under a moral law. The threads contents are seen to be looking at how righteousness by faith, and a life of good works interconnect. I do not see this thread, these topics, or these verses, as obscure, vague, or ambiguous. In all honesty, if there is a better way for me to convey my thoughts I would like to learn it. I can be wordy, perhaps I should have quoted or referred to specifically where Galatians where Paul told them to live by faith, but I did notice a typo from my phone in my message, I am not that used to phone autocorrect and have made a number of errors in my postings here that I need to do a better job of either correcting or not making to begin with.
As for you wanting me to specify what I meant in my reference to Galatians, what I had in mind is Galatians 4:9-31 and I guess all of Galatians 5, where Paul seems to be addressing them following some rules and he is concerned because the way I understand it, they are to walk in the Spirit, or follow the Spirit's guiding, not rules/laws, because our righteousness is of faith.
Martin Marprelate,
Thank you for sharing that. In part 6 I think when it is referring to the law there it means perhaps more or all of the Old Testament? as it seems like it may relate to some things outside of just the 10 Commandments?
For part 7, and I think perhaps this confused me in the Dr. Charles Stanley audio that was shared earlier in the thread, as it and part 7 seem to be saying we are enabled through Christ to live free from sin, but I do not understand this such as in relation to Romans 7, where we acknowledge in our minds that the law is good, but we end up sinning even though we dont want to?
I wonder how some people know so much, like whoever wrote this had a great understanding, and when we read the Old Testament, I don't think I would understand much of anything in relation to the Messiah, the Christ if it wasn't pointed out to me, but they seemed to have a much better understanding than I do, even without the New Testament, like understanding that Enoch's translation spoke of there being eternal life with God.
I am wondering in regards to this, what then Paul feels the Galatians were using as rules over them in Galatians 4 and 5, since he very seriously warns them not to be trying to keep rules in whatever way they were. Paul speaks of the bondwoman and the free and specifically refers to Agar as Mount Sinai, am I wrong or is that not where the 10 Commandments were given? This seems important for me to get right. A quick internet search shows that the 10 Commandments were given on mount Sinai... so what were the Galatians doing, or how did Paul know they were doing it in a wrong way, if we are still to follow the 10 Commandments as a guide of life, which I think again that we are not really talking about a difference of actions, but a difference of internal understanding, as I believe the teaching is that someone following the Spirit of God would do actions very similar to one who is following the 10 Commandments, so it may not look differently outwardly, but could be a serious difference inwardly. If it is just an inward difference, I don't know, I mean I don't know what the Galatians were doing and I suppose the fact that it does not tell us is proof that we need not know, but it just seems like if we look to the bondwoman, how are we then under the free? This concept is very important I think for Christianity, but for me as well with my OCD, I want to get this right because I think my OCD is a very more rules bound thing and I am not sure that that is the right way.
Van,
Thank you for expanding on your previous point. For me, I suppose, I have gotten by so far on just trying to understand it, for especially the New Testament, I don't see much of anything in it for only some particular culture or time, I feel like it is for all of us. It seems like various parts of the New Testament are dismissed these days as for being only for that people or at that time, and I am not yet in complete agreement with that, for example when it says that I would dishonor God if I prayed or prophesied with my head covered 1 Corinthians 11:4, I think this was not true just for Corinthians just at that time, I believe that this is true for me today, here in America. Certainly aspects of the Old Testament where things were for Israel at that time I can understand that point better, but I don't know, I just read it and hope the Spirit teaches me what I should get out of it. Perhaps I need to do greater study into how I do this, but I am not sure I would benefit from rules on how to read it or what not, I have a type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and am so caught up in how to do things right that trying to add rules to how I read the Bible might do more harm than good, I am not sure... Is there a free guide on the internet you recommend that would maybe more fully explain what you are suggesting?
I am really glad to be here and to have people around who really do want to help me grow and understand the truth
