Outmoded Law

[Netchaplain]

In Galatians Paul makes it clear that the churches of Galatia were in imminent danger of adding Judaism to Christianity in such a way as to destroy the nature of Christianity itself. Nor was theirs the only age in which liability to do so has existed, and has had to be watched against.​

The law is a testing of human nature, to reveal whether or not it can produce righteousness for God, and it must be is a perfect rule of righteousness for that nature in all it owes to God and to a man’s neighbor. So that it claims subjection, and that man should fulfill its requirements under penalty moreover of judgment. The authority of God, the subjection of man in his present state as a child of Adam are all involved in this legal system.

But man, conscious he ought to fulfill it, his own conscience telling him it is right, and not suspecting his own weakness and the depth of his ruin, and seeing that keeping it would be righteousness to him before God, readily takes it up as the way of having that righteousness, and enjoying divine favor, of being right when judgment comes. When awakened, observance of its outward claims satisfies the natural conscience; if understood spiritually, it leads to the discovery of that law of sin in our members which hinders all success in the endeavor and struggle.

But God having established the law, it was a very difficult and delicate thing to show that, as a system, it was passed away (Heb 8:7;10:9), not because it was not in its right place, and useful for its own intended purpose, but to make way for the principle of grace purposed and promised long before the law was established (Gal 3:17); and that by the discovery that it was death and condemnation to be under it, the mind of the flesh (the nature the law dealt with) was not subject to it, and could not be (Rom 8:7), and that we escape its curse as under it, not by the destruction of its authority, but by dying as so under it, and that by the body of Christ in Whom we then found ourselves in a new life beyond its condemnation.

The Cross makes all things clear. But the credit of the flesh (that is, of himself) is dear to the natural man, until he had discovered that in him (that is, in his flesh) there was no good thing, he was to give up a rule he knew to be right, in the humbling confession that he was such a sinner that it could be only his condemnation, the law of sin so strong in his members, himself so disposed to evil, that the law, weak through the flesh, could only condemn him.

Judaising teachers, proud of their own conceit, zealous of the law as the credit of their nation, could not bear to have a set aside as necessary for the way of righteousness and life with God; And the ministry which judged the flesh in Jew and gentile alike and freed the latter from all subjection to the Jewish system, was intolerable to them. Man always clings to the law, specially alleging God’s claims and holiness, till he experientially finds (in the discovery of the true character of the flesh) his true condition, that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse” (Gal 3:10).

—J N Darby





MJS excerpt

“Great will be the day when you come to realize that the sole reason for the existence of your Bible, your soul and your spirit is to glorify—and share—the Lord Jesus Christ.

“The moment we begin to rest our peace on anything in ourselves, we lose it. And this is why so many saints have not settled peace. Nothing can be lasting that is not built on God alone. How can you have settled peace? Only by having it in God’s way. By not resting on anything, even the Spirit’s work within, but on what the Lord Jesus has done entirely outside you. Then you will know peace—conscious unworthiness, but yet peace.

“In the Lord Jesus alone, God finds that in which He can rest concerning us, and so it is with His saints. The more you see the extent and nature of the evil that is within, as well as without, the more you will find that what the Lord Jesus is and did, is the only ground at all on which you can rest.

“Alas! The freedom which the Gospel brings may be used to take things easy, and, more or less, retain or gain in the world; but where this is the case, it is seldom a soul possesses any large measure of spiritual enjoyment, and it is never accompanied by solid peace. The soul becomes thus unsettled and uncertain. These oscillations may go on for a certain time, until God carries on the work more deeply in the heart.”
None But The Hungry Heart

-Unknown

 

[Soyeong]

In Galatians Paul makes it clear that the churches of Galatia were in imminent danger of adding Judaism to Christianity in such a way as to destroy the nature of Christianity itself. Nor was theirs the only age in which liability to do so has existed, and has had to be watched against.​

Some people treat Christianity as if Christ has come to start his own religion, but he came as the Jewish Messiah of Judaism in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and he spent this ministry teaching his followers how to practice Judaism by setting a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Torah. In Acts 21:20, they were rejoicing that tens of thousands of Jews were coming to faith in Jesus who were all zealous for the Torah, which is in accordance with Titus 2:14, where 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 Jews coming to faith in Jesus were not ceasing to practice Judaism but were becoming zealous for it. This means that there was a period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and the inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10 that is estimated to be around 7-15 years during which all Christians were Torah observant Jews and that Christianity at its origin was the form of Judaism that recognized Jesus as the Messiah. In Acts 24:14, Paul testified that according to The Way, which they call a sect, he continued to worship the God of their fathers, believing everything laid down by the Torah and written in the Prophets, and the religion of which The Way is a sect is Judaism, so there is no sense in thinking that Paul's problem in Galatians was with those who were adding Judaism to Christianity in such as way as to destroy the nature of Christianity itself, rather his problem was with those who were wanting to require Gentiles to obey works of the law in order to become justified.

The law is a testing of human nature, to reveal whether or not it can produce righteousness for God, and it must be is a perfect rule of righteousness for that nature in all it owes to God and to a man’s neighbor. So that it claims subjection, and that man should fulfill its requirements under penalty moreover of judgment. The authority of God, the subjection of man in his present state as a child of Adam are all involved in this legal system.

The Torah was never given as a way of earning our righteousness even as the result of having perfect obedience to it, so that has always been a fundamental misunderstanding of the goal of the Torah. Rather, the Torah was given to describe the behavior of someone who is righteous as it describes the example that Christ set for us to follow, so it was what we get to obey by being given the gift of the righteousness of God through faith.

But man, conscious he ought to fulfill it, his own conscience telling him it is right, and not suspecting his own weakness and the depth of his ruin, and seeing that keeping it would be righteousness to him before God, readily takes it up as the way of having that righteousness, and enjoying divine favor, of being right when judgment comes. When awakened, observance of its outward claims satisfies the natural conscience; if understood spiritually, it leads to the discovery of that law of sin in our members which hinders all success in the endeavor and struggle.

According to Galatians 5:14, anyone who has loved their neighbor has fulfilled the entire law, so it refers to something that countless people have done and should continue to do in perpetuity. We need to be set free from the law of sin in order to be free to obey the Law of God.

But God having established the law, it was a very difficult and delicate thing to show that, as a system, it was passed away (Heb 8:7;10:9), not because it was not in its right place, and useful for its own intended purpose, but to make way for the principle of grace purposed and promised long before the law was established (Gal 3:17); and that by the discovery that it was death and condemnation to be under it, the mind of the flesh (the nature the law dealt with) was not subject to it, and could not be (Rom 8:7), and that we escape its curse as under it, not by the destruction of its authority, but by dying as so under it, and that by the body of Christ in Whom we then found ourselves in a new life beyond its condemnation.

In Hebrews 8:7-10, it does not say that the fault that God found was the Mosaic Covenant was with the Torah but with the people for not continuing in their covenant, which is why the New Covenant involves God putting the Torah in our minds and writing it on our hearts.

In Psalm 119:29-30, he wanted to put false ways far from him, for God to be gracious to him b teaching him to obey the Torah, and he chose the way of faith by setting it before him, so this has always been the one d only way of salvation by grace through faith. The promise was made to Abraham and brought about because he walked in God's way in obedience to the Torah, he taught his children and those of his household to do that in accordance with spreading the Gospel that was made known to him in advance in accordance with the promise (Galatians 3:8), and because they did that in obedience to the Torah (Genesis 18:19, Genesis 26:4-5, Deuteronomy 30:16).

Christ set a sinless example for us to follow of how to walk in obedience to the Torah and those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way that he walked (1 John 2:6), which means that verses that refer to those who are in Christ are only referring to those who are following his example of walking in obedience to the Torah, such as Romans 8:1, which says that there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. In Romans 8:4-7, Paul contrasted those who walk in the Spirit with those who have mind set on the flesh who are enemies of God who refuse to submit to the Torah.

We need to die to being under the law of sin in order to be free to obey the Torah, not the other way around.

The Cross makes all things clear.

In Titus 214, Jesus gave himself to redeem us from 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 he accomplished through the cross is by becoming zealous for doing good works in obedience to the Torah (Acts 21:20) while the way to react everything he accomplished would be by returning to the lawlessness that he gave himself to redeem us from.

Judaising teachers, proud of their own conceit,

Christ spent his ministry teaching his followers to obey the Torah by word and by example, so if that is what makes someone a Judaizer, then he is the chief Judaizer, however, Paul's problem with the Judaizers was not that they were teaching Gentiles how to follow what Christ taught but that they were wanting to require Gentiles to obey works of the law in order to become justified. Christ was much more zealous for the Torah than the Judaizers were. The way of righteousness and life before God is not by setting aside the Torah, but just the opposite. The fact that cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything in the Torah means that we should continue to do everything in the Torah.

“Great will be the day when you come to realize that the sole reason for the existence of your Bible, your soul and your spirit is to glorify—and share—the Lord Jesus Christ.

The way to glorify and share God's Word made flesh is not by arguing against following his example of God's Word, but just the opposite. In Matthew 11:28-30, he was inviting people to come to him for rest and to learn from him, not inviting people to come to him for rest instead of learning from his example. Moreover, by Jesus saying that we would find rest for our souls, he was referencing Jeremiah 6:16-19, where the Torah is described as the good way where we will find rest for our souls, but they did not want to walk in it or pay attention. The Torah is God's way (1 Kings 2:1-3), so let us walk in it and pay attention.