Shalom co-laborers in Messiah! Today we will “wrestle” with
a broad teaching that has infiltrated the Body of Messiah that Grace has come
and the Law i.e. Torah has been “done away with.”
Recently, Pastor Fair gave a wonderful example for us to understand
the foolishness of the blanketed statement, “I am not under the law.” Here is
the example:
Go out and sit in your car. Get the key ready and then say,
“I am not under the law.” It is foolish; isn’t it? The same; when we’re driving
and see a red light what do we do? We stop. Why because this “law” is written
on our hearts and minds. The aim of the New Covenant is to write God’s Holy
laws on our heart and mind. Even as Messiah answered what is the greatest
command in Mark 12:28-34.
Here are the texts for today’s teaching and a link for the
broadcast…Blessings!
Texts:
1.
Luke 1:1-4 (KJV)
2.
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (ESV)
3.
Romans 7:1 (KJV)
4.
Romans 7:6 (KJV)
5.
Reference made to 2 Peter
3:16
a.
2Pe 3:15-18
(15) And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul
also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
(16) As also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be
understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction.
(17) Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being
led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
(18) But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. To him be glory both now and for
ever. Amen.
6.
Matthew 5:17 (KJV)
a.
“Think not
that I am come — that I came.
to destroy the law, or the prophets — that is, “the authority and principles of the Old Testament.” (On the
phrase, see Mat_7:12; Mat_22:40; Luk_16:16;
Act_13:15). This general way of taking
the phrase is much better than understanding “the law” and “the prophets”
separately, and inquiring, as many good critics do, in what sense our Lord
could be supposed to meditate the subversion of each…
I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil — Not to subvert, abrogate, or annul, but
to establish the law and the prophets - to unfold them, to embody them in
living form, and to enshrine them in the reverence, affection, and character of
men, am I come.”[1]
b.
I came not
to destroy, but to fulfil (ouk ēlthon katalusai alla plērōsai). The verb “destroy” means
to “loosen down” as of a house or tent (2Co_5:1).
Fulfil is to fill full. This Jesus did to the ceremonial law which pointed to
him and the moral law he kept. “He came to fill the law, to reveal the
full depth of meaning that it was intended to hold” (McNeile).[2]
c.
Think not
- Do not imagine, fear, hope, that I am come - Like your teachers, to destroy
the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy - The moral law, but to
fulfil - To establish, illustrate, and explain its highest meaning, both
by my life and doctrine.[3]
d.
Let none
suppose that Christ allows his people to trifle with any commands of God's holy
law. No sinner partakes of Christ's justifying
righteousness, till he repents of his evil deeds. The mercy revealed in the
gospel leads the believer to still deeper self-abhorrence. The law is the
Christian's rule of duty, and he delights therein. If a man, pretending
to be Christ's disciple, encourages himself in any allowed disobedience to the
holy law of God, or teaches others to do the same, whatever his station or
reputation among men may be, he can be no true disciple. Christ's
righteousness, imputed to us by faith alone, is needed by every one that enters
the kingdom of grace or of glory; but the new creation of the heart to
holiness, produces a thorough change in a man's temper and conduct.[4]
e.
Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but (g) to fulfil.
Christ did not come to bring
any new way of righteousness and salvation into the world, but indeed to fulfil
that which was shadowed by the figures of the Law, by delivering men through
grace from the curse of the Law: and moreover to teach the true use of
obedience which the Law appointed, and to engrave in our hearts the power for
obedience. That the prophecies may be accomplished.[5]
The
commentary quotes could go for several more pages. However, I believe that we
has established the fact that according to Romans 3:31, “Do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
Returning
to Romans 7:22-25, Paul writes, “For I delight (take joy in) the law of God
after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind (remember this phrase), and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin (is God’s Holy Law the law of sin?) which is in my members. (Paul is
declaring that unless Messiah returns he must also fulfil the law and die.) O
wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I
thank God through Jesus Christ or Lord. SO THEN WITH THE MIND I MYSELF SERVE
THE LAW OF GOD; but with the flesh the law of sin.”~Commentary in brackets ()
are from this writer.
The Law
could not bring us to the goal of Salvation. Christ did this for us. This is
why Paul also wrote in Romans 8: 3-4, “For what the law could not do, in that
it was weak through the flesh (our flesh), God sending His own Son IN THE
LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH (yet not born with the curse of the Adamic sin
nature), and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. (Note He did not condemn the
law in the flesh) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled IN US,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Again Paul
wrote in Romans 10:4, “For Christ is the end (the definite point or goal…the
point aimed at…immediate, ultimate or prophetic purpose) of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
We will
allow you time to meditate on what the Word of God says…knowing this…The law or
Torah in its very definition means instruction…even as Paul wrote to Timothy
that the Torah is profitable for doctrine (teaching), for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness.”
2 Timothy
3:16
For His
Glory…
Larry
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