Quote:
Originally Posted by bearbear
Thanks for taking the time to read and respond Humble Bricklayer. I agree with you that we follow the law of Christ in the new covenant not at a carnal level but at a spiritual level (which I also tried to convey in the first post). You make some good points on avoiding the language of "carrying over the moral commandments". Perhaps I should have added "at a spiritual level" to make it clear. I agree we do not follow any of the law of Moses at a human / carnal level but only the law of Christ through the Holy Spirit who lives in us after we are born again which is made possible by Jesus' death on the cross as payment for the penalty of our sin which fulfilled the law. It seems like you would also agree though that we still need to follow Jesus' commands to love God and love neighbor and turn away from the sins mentioned in verses like Galatians 5:19-21 (through the Holy Spirit that lives in us and not at a carnal level)?.
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Hi bearbear,
Thanks for your feedback. I see that you're glued to your guns. That's not such a bad thing. "No man after drinking old wine desires new, for he says that the old is better" (Luke 5:39).
So, you say that you agree with me. Are you sure that you agree with me?
Because, actually I did not say that -and I quote- "we follow the law of Christ in the new covenant not at a carnal level but at a spiritual level". And yes, I know that you tried to convey this thought in your first post (which I read very carefully), but I emphatically DISAGREED with it.
Perhaps, you might like to revisit my post and re-read it a little more circumspectly. I went to great length, I think, to explain my position.
In a nutshell...
The Law of Moses is indivisible and irreducible.
What is the meaning and significance of this?
The significance is that though the Law of Moses reportedly contains up to 613 separate laws -of which the injunctions to 'love God with all your heart' and to 'love thy neighbor' are an integral part- in reality, it is ONE law (and here I'm not referring to the great commandment upon which all the others hang).
Why is the Law of Moses, with all his laws, really ONE law? Or more to the point, what is that ONE law?
The answer to that question is simply:
Observe, obey, and keep ALL 613 laws that are written in the Law that you are commanded to observe, obey, and keep. Do not disobey, do not fail to keep, even one little jot, one tiny tittle...for even a second.
Do this...and you shall have fulfilled the Law.
Don't just obey the Ten Commandments. Don't only keep a hundred laws. Don't only keep two hundred laws. Don't stop at three hundred or four hundred. Don't even stop at 612 and leave one undone. If, according as it is written, I should love God with all my heart and all my soul, and yet on one summer day plough my field with an ox and a donkey yoked together, then I am no better than a thief or a murderer. My love for God -under this regime- counts for absolutely nothing!
No. Follow all 613 injunctions...all the time!
That is the divine standard.
And then...you shall LIVE (this is crucial)
What is the point I'm trying to drive home here?
It's this...
You cannot wrench the two greatest commandments in the LAW and break them free from the other 611 laws (even if you intend to keep them by the power of the Holy Spirit). You can call these commandments "moral" or you can call them "spiritual" (and they are that, I don't disagree), but they are still bound together in a single package called the LAW. And if you're going to extract them from out of the Old Testament and bring them into the New, then you must of necessity bring along with them the remaining 611...and then you shall find yourself in the same dilemma that the Galatians fell into over the similar issue of circumcision. They were in danger of "falling from grace" and becoming "debtors to do the whole law" (Gal 5: 3-4).
...because the LAW is indivisible and irreducible.
And that is why the Lord Jesus speaks of a NEW commandment. It is NEW. And NEW means it is not, and never has been, OLD. If he were only re-introducing an old commandment written in the Old Testament, it would hardly be NEW. He gave us a NEW COMMANDMENT.
In illustration...
If I promised to buy you a brand NEW latest-model Range Rover and then presented you with a used and refurbished model from 1986 instead, it may still be a Range Rover -absolutely, but it certainly is NOT the car I promised you.
I leave you with the words of the Lord...
"No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise he will tear the new garment, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old" (Luke 5: 36)
"And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish" (Luke 5: 37)
"But NEW wine must be put into NEW bottles; and both are preserved" (vv. 38)
God's blessings.