Ok again- I have no idea why you keep speaking as if I think Jesus sinned. I have never suggested such a thing.
According to Deuteronomy 4:2, it is a sin to add to or subtract from the Law of God, so if someone takes the position that Jesus expanded it, then they are also taking the position that he sinned, but if someone takes the position that Jesus never sinned, then they are also taking the position that he never expanded the Law of God.
I agree that Love fulfills the law. That is consistently taught. His laws are written on our hearts.
But by saying we should obey the rest of the Mosaic law - what are you saying?
Love fulfills the Law of Moses because the goal of everything in it is to teach us how to love. For example, if someone loves God and their neighbor, then they won't commit murder, adultery, idolatry, theft, kidnapping, rape, favoritism, and so forth for the rest of the Law of Moses. The way to love God is by embodying His character traits, such as the way to love justice is by being a doer of justice, the way to love holiness is by being a doer of God's instructions for how to be holy as He is holy, and so forth. In other words, the goal of everything that God has commanded in the Law of Moses is to teach us how to love different aspects of His character traits, which is why the Bible repeatedly states in both the OT and the NT that the way to love God is by obeying His commandments.
Do you suggest that we must keep all of the OT festivals which were a shadow?
God's festivals are important foreshadows of what is to come and we should live in a way that testifies about the truth of what is to come by following Christ's example of celebrating them rather than a way that bears false witness against what is to come.
Many twist Paul to one extreme or the other. you seem to be "the other".
So if you would like to just spit it all out and say what you mean I would prefer that. If you feel that we are to go backwards and are under the law literally then that is not Christianity. If you understand that by loving God and neighbor we are fulfilling the law- we agree. To take us back to the shadow is not what God wants.
In Matthew 4:15-23, Christ began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and the Law of Moses was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel of the Kingdom/Grace, which Paul also taught based on the Law of Moses (Acts 14:21-22, 20:24-25, 28:23). Christ also set a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Law of Moses and as his followers we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22), that those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way that he walked (1 John 2:6), and to be initiators of Paul as he is of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). So both Christ and Paul spent their ministries teaching their followers to obey the Law of Moses by word and by example and Christianity is about following what they taught, not about refusing to follow what they taught. In Titus 2:14, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so the way to believe in what Jesus accomplished through his ministry and through the cross is by repenting and becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Law of Moses (Acts 21:20) while the way to reject everything that he accomplished would be by going backwards to being under the lawlessness that he gave himself to redeem us from.
The law served multiple purposes. It was a means of revealing God's holiness and the sinfulness of humanity. Paul wrote ,
"Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin." Ro 3:20
If you agree that it is by the Law of Moses that we have knowledge of what sin is and that we should refrain from doing what God has revealed to be sin, then you should agree that we should obey it.
The law also functioned as a tutor to lead people to Christ,
"So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Gal 3:24
In Exodus 33:13, Moses wanted God to be gracious to him by teaching him to walk in His way that he and Israel might know Him, and in Matthew 7:23, Jesus said that he would tell those who are workers of lawlessness to depart from him because he never knew them, so the goal of the Law of Moses is to graciously teach us how to know God and Jesus, which is His gift of eternal life (John 17:3). So God's Word leads people to God's Word made flesh because he is the embodiment of it and because it was given in order to teach us how to know him, but the reason why it leads us to him was not so that we can be set free to become doers of what it reveals to be wickedness. In Acts 3:25-26, Christ was sent as the promised seed to bless us by turning us from our wickedness.
Jesus emphasized the spirit of the law, focusing on love and internal righteousness rather than mere external compliance.
In Exodus 20:6, God wanted His children to love Him and obey His commandments, so obedience to God has always been a matter of the heart.
Paul explains that believers are not under the law but under grace Ro 6:14. This doesn't nullify the moral commands.
Instead, the law is written on the hearts of believers through the Spirit, enabling them to live in accord with God's will.
Hebrews 8:10
The position that the New Covenant involves God putting the Law of God in our minds and writing it on our hearts is the opposite of the position that we are not under it. In Romans 5-8, Paul spoke about the Law of God as being the good that he wanted to do in contrast with the law of sin causing him not to do the good that he wanted to do. In Romans 6:14, Paul described the law that we are not under as being a law where sin had dominion over us, which does not describe the law that is the good that Paul wanted to do, but rather that is the role of the law of sin. In Romans 6:15, being under grace does not mean that we are permitted to sin, and in Romans 7:7, the Law of God is not sinful but how we know what sin is, so as followers of God we are still under the Law of God. The position that we are not under the Law of God is the position that its moral commands have been nullified and that we are free to live immorally.
Someone having a circumcised heart only refers to them being a doer of the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 10:12-16) while someone having an uncircumcised heart only refers to them not being a doer of it (Jeremiah 9:25). In Romans 2:25-29, the way to recognize that a Gentile has a circumcised heart is by observing their obedience to the Law of Moses and circumcision of the heart is a matter of the Spirit, which is in contrast with Acts 7:51-53, where those who have uncircumcised hearts resist the Spirit and do not obey the Law of Moses.
There is a difference between these two statements:
1.) You shall not commit murder.
2.) This person has been found guilty of committing murder.
The first is an example of a law that is for our own good while the second is an example of a handwritten ordinance that was against someone that was nailed to their cross in order to announce why they were being crucified. In Matthew 27:37, they nailed a handwritten ordinance to Christ's cross that announced the charge that was against him, which fits perfectly with the concept the list of the charges that were against us being nailed to Christ's cross and with him dying in our place to pay the penalty of our sins, but has nothing to do with nailing any laws to the cross so that we can be free to become doers of what they revealed to be sin. In Titus 2:14, it does not say that Jesus gave himself to free us from the Law of God but in order to free us from all lawlessness.
Colossians 2:16 leaves room for two scenario:
1.) The Colossians were not celebrating God's feasts, they were being judged by Jews because they were not doing that, and Paul was encouraging them not to allow anyone to judge them for not celebrating them.
1.) The Colossians were celebrating God's feasts, they were being judged by pagans because they were doing that, and Paul was encouraging them not to allow anyone to judge them for celebrating them.
In Colossians 2:15-23, Paul described the people who were judging the Colossians as promoting human traditions and precepts, self-made religion, asceticism, and severity to the body, which means that they were being judged by pagans and that the second scenario was the case. Those promoting asceticism and severity to the body would be judging people for celebrating feasts, not for refraining from doing that. By Paul saying that God's feasts are foreshadows of what is to come, he was emphasizing the importance of not allowing anyone to prevent them from obeying what God has commanded.
